Maintaining that 20.........

[E6286]

Okay, so now that I am headed to 191 in Jan. how can I maintain my 20 pullups without burning myself out over the next 4 months? The Armstrong program says to do 50 reps a day (I am guessing in sets of 10 or so) 5 days a week but I figured I would ask on here. I searched, and found plenty on adding pullups, but nothing really on maintaining. Any thoughts?

 

[SMARTI]

Do Them Every Other Day. Just Maintain, However, Push The Comfort Zone Once In A While.

 

[E6286]

Do like 5 sets of 10 every other day or what?

 

[MikeG]

Do like 5 sets of 10 every other day or what?

It will of course vary from person to person, but I do exactly what you described above (I vary up the routine a bit, but always make sure I hit at least 50) and I've been able to maintain 20 pullups for the past 4-5 months. And for reference, I started out doing 9...so it would seem that 50 every other day is keeping me up to par just fine. I don't feel overtrained in the slightest either.

 

[Midshipmanjosh]

Honestly its going to vary greatly person to person and its all mental. I have slacked big time since completing ocs this summer, but i can still go out to the pullup bar and hit my 20 even though i hardly do pull ups any more (maybe once a week)...

Thats really not good advice...but once you hit and pass the 20 mark...i have found it pretty easy to stay at the max.

 

[kmac]

Josh, doing tons of pull-ups may be mental assuming you have the prerequisite muscle conditioning and energy to do it. Just my thoughts. Of course you Marines are all just buff and always in shape.

 

[ip568]

Guy in my class set the record at that time. Did 45 and had to stop because his hands started to bleed (not enough chalk).

 

[Midshipmanjosh]

kmac, yeah your right and what i forgot to say was my previous post applied to candidate who have already reached 20 ...

 

[markvanes]

Do you guys do all these pullups at home, or what? That's a lot of pullups to go to the gym every day to do.

 

[flygirlA47474]

Maybe...you should install a pull-up bar in your place in a doorway if you can. My buddy who is also going to OCC-191 just jumps on it randomly and pumps out ten pull-ups whenever he walks through the doorway. And maybe, just my .02 cents, you could try to up your pull-ups to like 21 or 22 because I have heard of some crazy pull-up counting at ocs. Good luck and if you want to get a hold of my friend to talk about ocs then I can give you his email.

Semper Fi BLUE SKIES!!

 

[E6286]

That would be great FlyingAir. PM me his Email and contact info.

 

[motiv8r]

Roger that on the crazy pull up counting. On my inventory at Seniors I did eight, then went up for the next one and the instructor counted "one". General rule, if you don't hear them count it out loud, it doesn't count. Get used to doing them so that your chin cleans the bar by at least an inch or so.

Also, a really good drill is to do a wide grip dead hang at the end of your pull up sets. Basically get your hands in a wide grip, pull up, and hold yourself there as long as you can without using your chin. Fight it the whole way down, even if there's only a tiny bit of flex left in your arms. Once you hit the bottom try to bang out as many pullups as you can. It will probably be 3 at most. This drill helped me increase my pullups considerably.

Also, bear in mind that if you haven't been doing pullups, no matter your body type, you will probably be able to do more reps at first with your palms facing towards you and your hands together. However, as you progress, you will probably find that you can do a lot more using a wide grip with your palms facing away from you, if you train properly. I'm too lazy to try to explain the physiology of this but anecdotal evidence suggests this is true for about 95% of the Marines I know.

 

[E6286]

I can already do 20. I am basically trying to maintain or add a few more in there..... Thanks for all the tips.

 

[GTodd]

I max out @ 22 and do pull ups 3x's a week. One day max, one day a latter starting @ 1 and going to 8 and back down to 1 and one day starting @ 8 and going to 1 and pack up to 8.