This is where I get to talk about my favorite subject: strapping on a load of weight to a belt and doing pull ups. It’s also the last article in my 5-part series about pull ups and chins. The previous articles were:
- Introducing pull ups and chins - why they are a good idea and how to do them
- What to do if your shoulder hurts doing pull ups – it may not be the end of the world
- Pull up variants – pronated grip, supinated grip, neutral grip, wide grip, narrow grip and elbow flexor pull ups
- How to do more pull ups – how to do more than one pull up
So why would I want to add weight to my pull ups?
If you want to progress your pull ups, then adding reps will only really work for strength until you have got up to 5 or 6 reps. After that, you’re training strength endurance. If you want to get stronger (and ultimately bigger too) then you’ll need to make the exercise harder and adding weight is by far the easiest way to do this.
You can do it by starting gymnastic progressions towards the front lever instead but this is a long and arduous road with little in the way of positive feedback to keep you motivated.
OK, I’m sold. So how do I add weight pull ups?
You can either add weight to your pull ups in various ways:
- Adding weight plates to a dipping belt
- Adding weight plates to a climbing harness using a sling and carabiner
- Holding a dumbbell on your feet (only for the brave)
I have found that a climbing harness works well as you can distribute the load around the belt and this prevents the weight from changing your centre of gravity too much. I have found that anything over 2/3 bodyweight in one place starts to tip me forwards or backwards. Once I get above this weight, I start to add plates to the back of the harness to balance myself out.
So what programme should I follow?
Whatever programme you follow, make sure you change it up every 2 months (or sooner if you stop progressing). Having said that, I always try to give a programme at least 4 weeks to show some benefit before I switch.
Eventually, you’ll find the sweet spot of a number of weeks that allows you to progress without stagnating. I find that for a completely new programme, I can go 2 months and still progress. For a programme that’s only slightly different from my previous one, I can only really go 4 weeks.
Here’s a good example programme:
This is a good starting programme and is useful for getting plenty of frequent practice in. Note that it’s not an advanced programme, though: I stopped doing these a long time ago because I wasn’t recovering between workouts. I think I got to about 50% bodyweight (37.5kg) before this happened…
You do 3 workouts per week and alternate between workout A and workout B.
Workout A
- Weighted pull up – 3 sets of 5 reps
- Upper body push (your choice) – 3 sets of 5 reps
- Some sort of deadlift or clean (your choice) – 3 sets of 5 reps (or whatever you like)
- Ab work
Workout B
- Weighted chin up – 3 sets of 5 reps
- Upper body push (your choice) – 3 sets of 5 reps
- Some sort of squat (your choice) – 3 sets of 5 reps (or whatever you like)
- Ab work
So will I get linear progression?
Some of the time. You’re aiming for it but you won’t get it every time. My workout logs show that I was always able to move up by about 1.25kg (2.5lbs) at least every other workout on the weighted pull ups and chins. Sometimes, particularly when starting a new programme, I was able to move up every time.
So do I need to GOMAD?
No. Drinking loads of milk or taking in vast amounts of calories in other ways will actually harm your progress. This is not Starting Strength. It is not a weight gaining routine. Just make sure you get plenty of good quality protein, vegetables and some fruit. Drink lots of water. Sleep as much as your better half will let you.
While this programme may look superficially like a weight gaining routine, it really isn’t. On weight gaining routines, you’re looking to add serious muscle and fat and if you do this your weighted pull ups and chins will suffer terribly. On this programme, you’ll need to eat enough to recover properly but not so much that you get huge.
How do I approach the squats and deadlifts then?
It should go without saying that you’re not trying to bury yourself on the squats and deadlifts. Be sensible. Find a few exercises you like and focus on quality over quantity. One legged variants are your friends here.
If you can do pistols, you will get a lot of benefit from following a similar type of gradual progression with these. Similarly, one leg deadlifts will follow the same incremental pattern.
What happens when this stops working?
Once this stops working, change the sets and reps up. I would almost always work my way towards more sets and fewer reps over time. You can try:
- 4 sets of 4 reps; then
- 5 sets of 3 reps; then
- 6 sets of 2 reps; then
- 8 sets of singles
What kind of progress will I see?
If you:
- started with 3 sets of 5 reps
- added 1.25kg every other time
- went all the way through the above set/rep schemes
- for 8 weeks on each scheme (with a deload week every fourth week)
Then after 10 months you would have put about 30kg (65lbs) on your weighted pull up. This is a conservative estimate. I think it’s more likely to be around the 40kg (90lbs) mark, which will put you in a pretty small group of people.
What’s next?
Once I got to half bodyweight, I switched to a standard 4-day per week upper-lower split, with 2 upper body days and 2 lower body days. I did one lot of chins per week and one lot of pull ups.
I used this template with similar set and rep schemes to get to a double bodyweight chin. You can drop me an email if you want any more details on this.
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