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Thats good to hear. It is really good to actually find someone who has been in the same situation as me Everyone else gives the impression that they are superhuman

Yeah mate lol, a lot of people on here though have been training for ages so that might be why. Four is pretty rubbish especially as far as PRMC standard is required so just got to work at it harder.

I wouldnt mind climbing ropes if I could just to see what its like, doubt that it's available to many people though Stokey. Do you climb them?

Cheers,
Dave

Yes, I climb a rope which I rigged together my self (in the field behind my house) there’s a large 'ish' tree, with thick enough branches too hold my body weight.

I chucked a 2" rope over the highest branch (took a few attempts with a sturdy knot in one end), threaded the un-knotted end though the knot and there you have it a decent high rope to climb, not expensive or hard to make if you have the right kind of tree + buy a decent rope.

I really would check the tree and rope out first as you don't want to be falling off them, make sure the wood is not rotting, the rope is strong and durable and the knot is well tied.

Great Lat and grip exercise. Got the idea from Ross Training

Stokey

P.S. If anyone's wondering what in god's name I’m doing on the tinter net at this time of night it because I slept from 6 ish till 10 today and am sitting here full of energy

Nice one Stokey, simple but effective.

Where did you pick up 2" rope? A ship's chandlers?

T_T

I couldn't tell you right now, my old man picked it up for me (he's good with things like that )... I'll find out for you in the morning

Stokey

With regards to training your lats (needed the most for your pullups) you really have to concentrate on working them and not just going through the motions.

If you go to a gym get on the lat pull down machine and put a weight on you can just about do 8-10 reps with. Now when you do the reps, make sure you are sitting directly beneath the bar, pull down slowly focusing on getting your lats to do the work. This is hard to do as a beginner but you'll know it's working when you get to about the 5/6 rep and you can fell them straining. You want to be aiming to pull the bar down in a straight line and try to get the bar to finish at the top of your stomach. This is over extending the natural movement you will do on a pullup as you normally just get your chin over the bar, but my pulling the lat bar further down it will help on getting you over the bar when doing a pullup. By far the hardest bit on a pullup (I find) is the last part when you try to get your chin over the bar, this is because your lats are too weak.

One thing I've been trying the past week is one handed pullups. Now before you think I'm superhuman, I'm not, I can do about 5-7 pullups on any given day. What I've found that really helps for me is to grip the pullup bar in the middle with one hand, grab my wrist with the other hand and then try to pull myself up. I can only get about half way up but I really feel my lats working, if you did a few negative versions of these (please be careful) I think these would help tremendously. Again make sure you do them slowly, trying to resist gravity on the way down so to speak.

Oh and finally, another thing you can try to help with your pullups is to use weightlifiting lifting straps (see the link below). You would basically put your hands through these straps and then wrap the remaing part around the bar and then grip the bar. These help because you don't have to rely on the strength of your grip and can focus on working your lats.

http://www.ukfitnesssupplies.co.uk/mall ... G704/55800

Hope it helps (sorry for the long post), but make sure you give it time. Pullups are one of the hardest things to train and get good at.

I think grip strength would be nearly as important as the strength of your back etc. I'd hazard a guess that the majority of people can max out their pull ups, seriously not be able to do one more, but still be able to grip the bar for a little bit longer. To reverse that would make no sense. And hanging with your bodyweight through your wrists once you can't grip anymore. To me, not the greatest of ideas.

jammin87 wrote:I think grip strength would be nearly as important as the strength of your back etc. I'd hazard a guess that the majority of people can max out their pull ups, seriously not be able to do one more, but still be able to grip the bar for a little bit longer. To reverse that would make no sense. And hanging with your bodyweight through your wrists once you can't grip anymore. To me, not the greatest of ideas.

That's a fair point, I'll try and explain my reasoning.

The reason I mentioned about using the straps is because a lot of the time when you're struggling with the pullups and running out of energy, going for that last rep you'll grip the bar even harder (subconciously) so sap what little energy you have left. By using the wraps you are still gripping the bar, but you'll find that you don't need to grip as hard the weight is supported in part by your wrists. This is why these wraps are used when doing heavy shrugs (look at powerlifters) of over 100kg. Guys I train with all use wraps and we all do heavy shrugs and pullups with wraps as it aids in the training, most of these guys can do 4 x 10 pullups with 20-30kg hanging off them! (not me though )

Again in my opinion, if you're strengthening your back by doing that, then by your reasoning it is possible that you'd be able to do more pull ups than you actually manage, because you can't hold on, having lost/not gained strength in your grip. Part of hanging from a bar and pulling yourself up on it is the hanging from it. To do them without this component...well.
Personally, I do not like using the wraps, in general, although I can see the benefits. For deadlifts and shrugs etc I prefer to be able to hold the weight I'm working with, and let my grip progress with the training. Also, who'd want to miss out on half the skin on your hands falling off!? Great way to pass boredom.

Right, asked me old man about the rope he says he got it from the local builder merchant’s , knows a bloke who works there and they use the rope for allsorts down there. Tying materials etc up I guess. I also dug the article out that gave me the idea …

http://www.rosstraining.com/articles/ropeclimbing.html

Also noticed some rope suppliers in the article also for anyone interested in getting some.

Stokey

On the subject of Pull Ups... I got this article off a USAF Spec Ops website. Thought it might be of some interest:

http://www.specialtactics.com/pullsforcombat.pdf

I went into Argos and asked could I buy a pull Up bar to fix to my door. They didnt know what I was talking about.

Does anyone here have a link or a product number they could give me so I can go back in and get one?

Steve14 wrote:I went into Argos and asked could I buy a pull Up bar to fix to my door. They didnt know what I was talking about.

Does anyone here have a link or a product number they could give me so I can go back in and get one?

Isn't it in their catalogue?

I got mine at Lidl, so I can't help with the product number.

Edit: Found it!

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/p ... sories.htm

I had one of those - although mine was placed a bit higher up on the door so I could leave it up - I can imagine that fella clothes-lining himself every time he answers the door Must get a bit wearisome.

I do the same Sully and because I'm a short arse it doesn't really bother me but my dad (6ft3) gets clothes-lined everytime . Next time I'll probably get chased round the house with it.

You can get 2 inch manila ropes from ebay. If you lack the back strength to do pull ups, do bent over rows with a nice large amount of weight for 3-5 reps for power.