Five pull-up challenges
1. The one-minute challenge…
Every day has 1440 minutes. Why not devote one of those 1440 minutes to something worthwhile, something impressive and memorable, such as our first pull-up challenge? Here are five pull-up challenges, and this is the easiest. As the name suggests, try to do as many pull-ups as you can in one minute, using an overhand grip. Feel free to take breaks, let go of the bar or talk on the phone, but the clock keeps running, and each rep only counts if your chin clears the bar.
Both willpower and your approach to pacing your pull-ups matter in this challenge. You cannot avoid lactic acid buildup altogether, but your strategy should aim to keep it to a minimum, because as soon as it starts to build up, you will start to “burn out.”
Do your reps in short, quick sets—like sprints—and stop each set before lactic acid starts to build up. This should keep you fresh for at least the first 50 seconds. With 10 seconds left, forget about pacing and finish with as many consecutive reps as you can. Aim for at least 25 reps; managing 30+ pull-ups in one minute is already impressive.
2. Five pull-up challenges: the five-minute test
When I told my business partner Chris about this challenge, he thought I was crazy. Why would anyone do pull-ups for 5 minutes straight? Yet his doubts actually helped inspire my plans.
To start with, you could aim to do at least 1 pull-up every 15 seconds for 5 minutes. If you plan to charge straight in with sets of 10, remember that you only have 5 minutes, and after those first ten reps, you have to get your hands back on the bar and start pulling again. This is where strategy comes in.
As is often the case in training, this challenge calls for setting a goal and working backward to plan your strategy. Say you are aiming for 40 pull-ups on your first attempt: divide up the total time and work out how much time you can allow for each pull-up. Of course, you do not have to stick to sets of one.
When putting my plan together, I worked out that doing one pull-up every 5 seconds would give me a total of 60 pull-ups in 5 minutes. Unfortunately, things often do not go to plan in practice. Despite having a strategy, I managed 45 pull-ups in 5 minutes. Completing 60 pull-ups in 5 minutes would be an impressive goal for this challenge. So, if you want to reach those 60 pull-ups, you need to do at least 1 rep every 4 seconds.
The challenges from the article.
… I will keep testing myself
3. How many pull-ups can you do in five sets…
This challenge really is that simple. The more, the better. Do five sets of pull-ups and count how many reps you manage across all five sets. Time is not the priority here. Rest for 2 – 3 minutes between sets. My current total is 60 pull-ups across five sets. My sets were: 17x, 13x, 12x, 9x, 9x. I am not claiming that this is a particularly impressive result. It simply gives you a benchmark. The strategy is up to you, too. You can take every set to failure, starting with the first, but you do not have to. Sometimes, leaving reps in reserve can give you a higher total.
4. 100 reps…
The next challenge is to complete 100 pull-ups—obviously, not all in a row. There are two possible goals to aim for here. The first is to complete those 100 reps in as few sets as possible; the second is to complete them as quickly as possible. You can also combine the two goals: how quickly, and in how many sets, can you complete 100 pull-ups? I have not specifically set out to do a hundred pull-ups myself. I think I will give it a try, but as a reference, I have done 10 x 10 bodyweight pull-ups, and that took me 30 minutes. So, 100 pull-ups in 30 minutes.
5. “Happy Hour”…
I have actually already discussed this challenge in one of my articles ([url=http://www.fitness.ee/artikkel/1356/wwwhullpeastee]www.hullpeast.ee[/url]). Set aside 60 minutes and spend that hour doing nothing but pull-ups. See how many you can accumulate. Your total rep count is the priority here, but you can also keep track of how many sets you complete in those 60 minutes. Since the number of sets is the priority, you do not need to take them to failure. In fact, if you want to make it through those 60 minutes in reasonably good shape, I would advise against going to failure. All the more so because, soon after the first twenty or so minutes, your sets will be close to failure anyway. My current record is 205 pull-ups in 60 minutes. I did 45 sets in total. I have also done pull-ups for 30 minutes straight, without following the 10 x 10 format, and managed 104 reps across 19 sets.
Of course, I should add that, at least in my challenges, we are talking about proper pull-ups with an overhand grip and the strongest possible mind-muscle connection with your lats. Jerking and wriggling do not count. Otherwise, you might as well put a runner and a race walker on the starting line of a 10 km race and see who finishes first!
Good luck!
Author: Janar Rückenberg
Source: Turg.Fitness.ee
Come and train! ArtGym
