Pull ups for Mass

bsypher

New member
I have removed Lat pull down from my routine and have added pull ups and I have seen some decent size regarding width. Has anyone had any results doing less reps with weighted pull ups? Example, I was doing 3 sets of 10 @ body weight. Now I am at about 30 total reps with 25 lbs, typically 8/8/8/6

Any experience with high rep pull ups VS low rep with weight?
 
I'm still in the low rep body weight reps, performing pullups, but of I've read countless times how adding weight, decreasing reps to your pullups will increase mass.
 
yeah Resolve, I actually did that today. I did about 3-4 rep sets until I fell off the bar. I have a feeling this is going to hurt manana
 
bsypher said:
I have removed Lat pull down from my routine and have added pull ups and I have seen some decent size regarding width. Has anyone had any results doing less reps with weighted pull ups? Example, I was doing 3 sets of 10 @ body weight. Now I am at about 30 total reps with 25 lbs, typically 8/8/8/6

Any experience with high rep pull ups VS low rep with weight?
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It was when I started doing pull-ups (and BB bent over rows) that I really started seeing development and width in my back. Personally, didn't matter whether I was doing pull-ups at bodyweight or with added weight, or whether my reps were high or low, I still gained mass regardless - it's always good to alternate between the two (as well as grip re supinated, pronated, neutral), though, and I used to do this, since I did pull-ups twice a week.

~Team APPNUT
 
Resolve said:
Yup. Weighted pull-ups and chins are awesome. I'll even go as low as sets of three with a lot of weight and my lats and arms have thanked me much.
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Weighted pull-ups are my anti-drug. There is nothing better. :bigok:
 
Weighted pullups are one of my favorite exercises.

I would just do both. Every so often just go in and do 15-16 reps. Sometimes you might even want to put a one minute time limit on it and do as many repetitions as possible inside of one minute. I alternate personally between each session.

I do a one minute rep test on Thursdays for chin-ups and weighted pull-ups on Monday.
 
kingk0ng said:
Weighted pullups are one of my favorite exercises.

I would just do both. Every so often just go in and do 15-16 reps. Sometimes you might even want to put a one minute time limit on it and do as many repetitions as possible inside of one minute. I alternate personally between each session.

I do a one minute rep test on Thursdays for chin-ups and weighted pull-ups on Monday.
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I've actually been doing something similar - I do 70 pull-ups total, and attempt to get them done in fewer sets and less rest each week. Then on a different day I do weighted chins.
 
I as well swapped out lat pulls for pull ups. My back has made leaps and bounds since. The key is to really elongate the muscles and get that full stretch.
 
Resolve said:
I've actually been doing something similar - I do 70 pull-ups total, and attempt to get them done in fewer sets and less rest each week. Then on a different day I do weighted chins.
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I did that last year - aimed for a total of 100-120 reps or the maximum number of reps I could do for 10 sets. Fun :)
 
I did a 10X10 of one day for chinups. Talk about a back pump. :)

Usually I just put a one or two minute timer on my stopwatch and hit about 40 total pullups or so, just depends on what I done previously and whether I'm going for one or two minutes.
 
Resolve said:
I've actually been doing something similar - I do 70 pull-ups total, and attempt to get them done in fewer sets and less rest each week. Then on a different day I do weighted chins.
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When it comes to pull-ups I like doing something like this. Switching it up often so that some days I'm doing them without weight and doing more total reps and sometimes doing them weighted.

I have noticed that for me, if I'm doing more than 15 pull-ups in one set, I may as well add more weight or I won't really see any change in my progress. So if I'm doing sets of high reps, I'm only really getting better at doing pull-ups (endurance wise) rather than working on building any mass. It's like doing pushups almost... The more you do, the better you get at doing them, but that's about it.

So if I were wanting to do say, 50 total reps over multiple sets, I get better results doing something like sets of 10 with shorter break periods versus doing as many as I can and doing less reps over the course of several sets.

With weighted pull-ups I get the best results using a weight that will allow 6-8 full range repititions. Occasionally I'll add a lot of weight and do something more like 3-4 full reps.

After you're doing working your back, try adding some weight and just hanging from the bar. Great stretch! Some people add a crap ton of weight doing this but I've tried it and I don't really see much of a point unless you just want to get good at hanging from a bar with a bunch of weight hanging from your waist. You could argue it develops forearm strength but there are more efficient ways to that even.
 
What is the best way to get better at pull ups you think?? I do them every couple days and can't seem to get past 6 in a set very easily
 
Violator4200 said:
What is the best way to get better at pull ups you think?? I do them every couple days and can't seem to get past 6 in a set very easily
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Just do them. START your session with pull-ups. Set yourself a target number of sets and rep number for each set. If you can do six reps, then aim for 8-12 reps. Once you cannot do them anymore, start doing NEGATIVES for the remaining reps in the set. Give yourself a bit longer recovery period than usual between sets, or alternate set them with a Chest exercise. Do this twice a week, with a day at least between them. Doing that helped me a great deal when I first started doing pull-ups - In 2008 I started out at being able to barely do three reps for a set, and worked my way up to what I can do now, which is multiple sets of up to 25-30 reps per set (see my logs for more details).

~Rosie~
The Primordial Woman
 
Violator4200 said:
Just to be clear when you say do Negatives, do you mean the coming down motion?? Just don't pull up? I will try that
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Yes, that's what I mean. What Ryan said:
Rodja said:
Basically, jump up to the top of the ROM and go as slowly as possible on the way down.
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~Rosie~
The Primordial Woman
 
Out of curiousity....

Do you all kinda lean forward so the bar is behind your head, or sorta lean back so the bar ends up closer to the chest?
 
waynaferd said:
Out of curiousity....

Do you all kinda lean forward so the bar is behind your head, or sorta lean back so the bar ends up closer to the chest?
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For pull-ups? I go straight up and down. Having the bar behind your head would be doing Behind-The-Neck Pull-Ups - they are harder than "regular" pull-ups.
 
waynaferd said:
Out of curiousity....

Do you all kinda lean forward so the bar is behind your head, or sorta lean back so the bar ends up closer to the chest?
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Closer to the chest with my scapula adducted. The lats cannot contract unless you adduct your scapula and arch your chest. I aim to hit about my clavicle if I were to draw a line straight down.
 
Rodja said:
Closer to the chest with my scapula adducted. The lats cannot contract unless you adduct your scapula and arch your chest. I aim to hit about my clavicle if I were to draw a line straight down.
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yup! anything behind the neck is a no no for me. your just askin to get hurt.
 
I picked this one up from arnold.

Have a pre set number when you walk in the gym (50,200,ect). Do pullups in between sets / exercises until you reach that number. It's done wonders for me.

Don't for get about dips either!
 
I start my back days off with heavy weighted pullups, ramping up from 25 lbs to 100. I usually warmup with bodyweight pullups, a set of 10-12, do 6 reps with 25, and then 3 reps from then on.

Reason I do this is for activation purposes... get something real heavy first so my nervous system is prepped to go heavier on my higher rep work.
 
IMO pull ups is definitely the best exercise for to make your back wider. For long time it has been my only exercise for back width... I have few pictures from the days I decided to stop doing cable pulldowns, bodyweight pull ups etc and instead of those I started doing some heavy weighted pull ups frequently (3 times a week).. My BW increased 15-20lbs between these two pics and my pull up max weight increased from 70-80lbs to 120-130lbs :) It's 5 months between these pics.. I think I have some training videos from these days too..

October 25th (14 months of training, 130-135lbs (started at 109lbs)):
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March 29th (19 months of training, 150-155lbs):
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The funny part is that my back has continued growing ever since.. And strength increases still quite fast.
 
usually for pullups if I do them I do them weighted and add weight each set and then the last set I take the weight off and burnout. Recently I have been doing weighted rack chins and just in the last month I have developed some width
 
What about Reps for Pullups? I normally go for about 30 total. Sets would look something like:
25lbs weighted 8/5/5/3/2/2/ remainder unweighted
 
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