Hey guys. I've gotten a little lazy at the gym and im going to try to do more pullups now. When i was 17 i was in really good shape, pretty strong and skinny, so i was able to do 30+ pullups back then.

i was about 6'1 160 pounds. Now i am 20, 6'2 and 170-175 pounds.

I am still in pretty good shape, but ive focused on other things at the gym so now i can only do around 15 pullups which isnt bad i know, but pullups used to be my things that i could beat everyone at so i want to get back up to around 30 again, or at least be able to do 20+ consistantly. Are there any other gym rats out there trying to get stronger in anything specific?

I just tried to do a pull up just to see what it was like. May have strained something. Expect to hear from my solicitor.

I've been trying to keep myself in shape for track season so I've been doing a bit of working out. I'm 16 and about 5'11 and 145-150lbs and can get in the 20-25 range with underhand and about 15-20 overhand. I've also been working on push-ups a lot, I can get about 40 of those.

31-40.

I don't actually weigh anything though.

As I understand it there are two broad types of muscles. Slow twitch muscles and fast twitch muscles.

The slow twitch muscles are good at working with oxygen and allow you to work constantly for long periods of times, those are the kinds of muscles you'd want as a long distance runner.

The fast twitch muscles are good at using use anaerobic metabolism to give you the power to do bigger feats of strength than the slow twitch muscles but you fatigue faster.

If you are like the majority of those who hit the gym you've probably been trying to do fast and hard exercises in some sort of a self trial to prove your strength to yourself as you work out rather than picking up that 1KG dumbbell working it for long periods of time. Nothing wrong with that however you would be training your fast twitch muscles by working yourself hard for short periods of times and they are the sort of muscles that grow big and heavy. So my guess is that if you used to be able to do a lot of pull-ups but are no longer able to it is because of an increase in weight and fast twitch muscles rather than slow twitch muscles.

I myself don't work out much (if any at all...) yet I can do more pull-ups than a friend of mine who is all huge and muscular and could easily take 3 or more of me combined on in an arm-wrestling match. I also have more running stamina and in general in activities where slow twitch muscles matter I in my sloppy shape tend to outperform him but in activities where fast twitch muscles are better I don't stand a chance in no way or manner at all.

So I guess if pull-ups are your things you better try to keep your weight down and focus on training your stamina over your strength.

Edit: Please note that any and all information I have is at least 2 years old from my first semester of college and is drawn from even older textbooks and with a lot of time having passed since I studied this I may not remember everything so surely. Take anything I write with a grain of salt in it.

See what happens when you leave the kitchen? :nono:

(Please don't kill me)

Jeez - I feel weak when compared to you guys I can do 3 at max. Always had a weaker upper body, but I can run for miles without any problems

I tried to hang off of the utensil rack. See what you get for giving me ideas?!

Last time I tried I could do 6. Back when I worked out I could do 15-20.

I can usually do 8-10. I'm the opposite of Tubi, I can lift, and do sit-ups, and some pull-ups but don't you DARE ask my ass to run some laps.

Are we talking forward-hand or back-hand grips here? (Technically, if your palms are facing inwards then it's called "chin-ups", but some people confuse the two.)

Anyway, my personal workout is more endurance based so I can do about 15 pullups (palms facing outwards), but they're really slow. I'll check how many I can do at a regular speed next time I go to the gym and report back here, but I doubt it's going to even hit 20. I can do 50 pushups and bench about 50 Kg though!

As for self-improvement, it's a constant grind for me. I started a couple years ago when I was 20Kg overweight (losing that, I now weigh roughly 140, and am 5 '8- 5 '9), and now I'm fairly fit, though would like a bit more chest bulk and overall definition. Speaking of which, anyone know exercises for the former?

Benching.

I don't know if I like the sound of this gym malarky at all. I think I should go and lie down for a bit.

I do plenty of those, heavy weights, slow reps, the works, but it's not doing anything for me. :shrug:

You should lift fast; it recruits larger amounts of muscle fibers and motor neurons, allowing you to lift more weight, allowing you to get stronger, and you know, lift MORE weight.

Also, dear lord OP, more than 30 pullups? That's insane! 20 is a big benchmark for even very many fit people. I've been hitting serious about lifting for about the past year and a half and I can do 5 in one set, ha!

Anyway, any of you here squat? If so, how much?

I don't know...I don't really do them often but right now probably 5-10 I think, which svcks I know

EDIT: "0" has the most votes?! :blink:

Thanks for that. I'll start doing reps faster.

As for squats, I just tried it now and I could manage 50 before getting tired. I might have managed 5 more if pressed, and there was an incredibly attractive lady in the vicinity. :whistling:

Even when I was in pretty damn good shape, I could not do a pullup! I could lift more than most, other than the football team, but I just could not do a pullup. I could do 60 pushups, but hardly any pull ups! Damn my screwed up left shoulder!

Hey no problem. As far as the squats go, I actually meant like how much weight could you do http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/squat3.jpg. I've never gone for max reps of bodyweight squats like that though; 50 sounds tiring! If I hadn't just eaten, I might give it a shot and post my results. Perhaps later.

Are you doing flat only, or incline-flat-decline?
Strictly bar, or are you mixing it with dumbbells?

If you do plenty of those, you just may be doing too much. You may want to give your body a break from the heavy weights for a couple of weeks... if you feel you are "losing it", it would be basically on in your head , but you can do push-ups just to keep that pumped-up feeling. Then when you hit it again, give yourself some more time between chest days, and don't do the same exercises week after week. Do something like one day is incline-flat with bar, the next week is decline with dumbbells, the next week is incline-flat with dumbbells, and so on. Whatever it is, just don';t do the same thing week after week.

As for the OP, I am old now , but back in the day, the best I ever did, was 4 one-handeds... now, I may be able to do one chin up, and that would be with a LOT of body English

My upper body strength svcks, if i can get to ten im lucky, but I am slowly building that number up.

I can do about 14 pull ups. It would not take long for me to train up to much more though; I'm a skinny guy with a high metabolism.

Weaksauce.

I could probably do 15 or so right now no problem. But like others I weigh practically nothing.

Throw me into the 'I can do quite a few but only because I weigh nothing' category.

Nice guys. Yeah from what i have experienced the guys who can do more legs (squats, leg press) and who can bench more seem to do less pullups even though they are in good shape.

i've been neglecting my legs too much i try to go on a hill run once or twice a week but then thats all i do. I used to squat 225 for 8-10 reps but theres no way i can even get close to that now!

also i bench 135 for 10 reps but thats about at good as i can get. maybe 155 if i work at it more for a week but im unable to get a huge chest.

I am going to the gym tomorrow and im going to do pullups untill i literally cant get my chin over the bar anymore then ill post what i got on here.



A little tip for working out that works for me is to focus more on your form and worry less about the weight you are lifting. Getting the full motion in curling a 15 pound dumbell works much better then swinging your back as you lift and only allowing your to go halfway down before lifting again with a 30 pound weight.

When im trying to improve on pullups i usually hang with straight arms for a second and then pull up, then hang straight arm for another second then go again. i usually get about 8 with this method but its a good workout and it makes regular pullups easier.

Im not going to lie tho when i try to get my max reps of pullups i dont go ALL the way down to straight arm, but i usually get down pretty deep, maybe halfway between a 90 degree angle and the full straight arm.