Pull Ups PR Test

Prior to this test I hadn't practised doing any more than 5 pull ups at a time. However, I would do them quite frequently, maybe a few 3-5 times a day, and occationally add weight.

This method of training is named GTG (grease the groove) and is explored in the book "The Naked Warrior" by Pavel Tsatsouline.

In a nutshell the guidelines for GTG are:

-Keep sets at 5 or less reps
-Don't train to failure. Stop 1 or 2 reps before muscle fatigue
-Do as many sets throughout the day as possible without being fatigued
-Focus on quality reps not quantity

"Do as much work as possible while as fresh as possible"

The idea is that you are training a skill, so the more often you do it the easier it will become.. Provided you don't train to muscle failure.

According to the book, when you do a rep while your muscle is fatigued you are exerting the same amount of mental effort as a fresh rep but you are producing less force and as a result you are teaching your body to become weaker.

So this was just an experiment for me. It seemed to work out okay.

Category:

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• ups
• GTG
• Naked
• warrior
• pavel
• tsatsouline
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[lllogical]

haha you got strong fingers dude. i was just wondering what does pavel mean when using the armpit muscles?

[bongobear43]

@lllogical Thanks haha.. I believe he is refering to the latissimus dorsi muslces or the lats. You can feel them tense if you sink your shoulders down in a pulling motion.. 

[davidmerle79]

so would you go a do as many sets as you could 3-5 times a day? or just hit one set at like 8am then next time you get a chance hit another set?

[bongobear43]

@davidmerle79 The idea is to do several sets per day spread throughout the day. You can take an oraganized approach and plan out what time you will do each set, for example 8am 11am 2am 5am etc.. Or do a looser approach and do them whenever you feel like it. They both have their merits I think.

[WhoDaresWins1189]

Trust me when i say this, i do pullups to failure every single day, minimum 20 reps and It works alot better than doing 5 reps all throughout the day, just do 1 set to failure each day and you will be able to do an extra rep the next day ect. ect.. this works for me, hope it works for someoneelse too

[ticosexy22]

Wait 2 seconds up and 1 down for max strenght ;)

[chiconspiracy]

@TheSleepingMoth

Yet it seems to work. The Russians and Eastern Europeans who have dominated the hell out of Olympic lifting go by that philosophy.

[TheSleepingMoth]

I do not understand the idea that if you do a rep when your muscle is fatigue you are teaching it to be weaker. If that was the case (steroids aside) all natural athletes including me who lift weights would be benching 135lbs when I can at least bench 405lbs for a rep (nothing special).

[TheVelocinator]

Excellent video. I shared it on my blog. Simple concept. Great description. Perfect form, and a bit 'o humor!

[toby099]

wow strong hands

[bongobear43]

@warriorfire8103 I'm glad to hear it worked for you.

[warriorfire8103]

@bongobear43 Glad to see it worked for you too. I used to do my pull ups in one setting but I was going NO where. so I decided to test doing as many sets as I could over a day on my pull up days. Worked great