After 1.5 years of NROLW and NROL, I still can't come close to a chin-up. I think they don't come up often enough. I ordered stretch bands from Iron Woody yesterday. I'm going to start trying to do them at least once every week.
Hey Nancy,
I hear what you're saying and I really can't offer any advice except that if you're goal is to do a chin-up (as mine is to do one, just ONE proper freaking pull-up!) then the only thing that I can suggest is practice.
So while I know that Lou's book says that stage six will get us to doing pull-ups, I think for some us, such as myself, we might have to diverge and practice them on our own in between lifting days.
What I do is every time I go to the gym for my cardio days I bust out a couple of pull-ups and chin-ups, something like 2x5 of each - and I do this at least 2x a week. Note, I still can't do a proper pull-up - what I do I so eloquently call "halvsies". So I'll do a little "kip" to get up on the bar and then when I come down I don't fully extend my arms, they stay at about 90 degrees (or I'll never get back up) and then I'll pull back up. In about 2 months I've gone from 0 to 5, and I'm still pushing. Plus I still do negatives, which I think are indeed quite helpful. And I'm hoping that stage 6 will get me to the full-on pull up.
I think its a brilliant idea that you got the bands - the assisted machine, while I'm sure is helpful, doesn't teach you/your body the actual dynamics of doing a pullup/chinup.
Instead of doing the pull-up workout on non-lifting days, I would just start off the lifting day with 3 sets of pull-ups or whatever number you decided to do. I really believe you have to do them with some cosistency to get better at them even if you're doing other back/lat exercises. I'm going back to negatives myself, but instead of the 3 sets of 1, I'll start with 3 sets of three until I reach about 7 with 40-50lbs or so. After that I should be able to go back to 3sets of 3 full pull-ups(I hope)
__________________ Sade-
If you're not living life on the edge, you're taking up too much space! Move it, move it.
I always suggest ladders or some kind of cluster-rep scheme if you can knock out at least one rep. So do 1,2,3, oh 3 reps is hard so back to 1, 2, now 2 reps is hard, 1,1,1
Or if you can just do one rep, then do a workout of 6-8 single reps.
If you can't do one, then you should focus on doing negatives along with strengthening the lats/upper back and the biceps/forearms/grip. Get yourself up to the top position then lower under control, maybe for sets of 1-3 reps, then follow up with pulldowns or rows and maybe even a few sets of hammer curls.
I know that these exercises aren't "functional" or whatever but if you have a weak point somewhere in the chain it's not going to hurt you to strengthen them. Continuing to struggle away with your body weight when you can't knock out a single rep obviously isn't helping you along.
In any case whichever you choose it needs to be done twice a week, minimum.
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If you can't do one, then you should focus on doing negatives along with strengthening the lats/upper back and the biceps/forearms/grip. Get yourself up to the top position then lower under control, maybe for sets of 1-3 reps, then follow up with pulldowns or rows and maybe even a few sets of hammer curls. .
Seated rows, bent over rows or does it matter? Today I did 3sets of 3rep negatives w/10lbs and 20second descend then finished off with a set of seated rows-10reps/75# Is this a good way to progress?
__________________ Sade-
If you're not living life on the edge, you're taking up too much space! Move it, move it.
Chin up bands
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