[tomtom]

Hey up,
I've decided that one of my unofficial aims of 2014 is to do a one armer (or more than two if possible!). To that ends, I've rigged up a rope, pulley and bag full of weights under/next to my beastmaker. It all works fine - though I had to spirit away a couple of MrsTT's 2l bottles of coke to make up the weights

I know very little about training, reps, how to increase strength etc.. apart from bits I've skimmed here...

I weigh 77kg and can do two creaky one arm reps with 20kg of assistance. So I've found my limit (or close to it). (ie I can pull 57kg with each arm)..

I have some questions for the UKB training collective - which really all boil down to what should I do next?

Of course this involves gradually reducing the weight of the assist until I can do them without weight.. but how quickly - by how much? How many reps should I be able to do on each arm before knocking off some weight etc..? How often is it sensible to do this (I'm not trying any more than every other day..)? How quickly should I expect the assist weight to decrease? I suspect much of this is down to how my body responds to training etc.. (so dont expect any fixed rule).

I'm not looking for some super route endurance one armer endurance skill here - just boulder problem style one shot strength..

Thanks in advance,
Tom

[Boredboy]

Hi Tom,

I set a similar goal a year ago of doing a one arm, one pad edge pull up- still a little bit off this but you could follow a basic strength program:

This would be to work out your 1 rep max and then do alternate weeks of between 3 and 6 repetitions with varying assistance but would be based on doing a 1 second up and down pull up- similar to the idea of a building then consolidating work out that chris wp suggests on his fingerboard routine.

I'd prob also consider doing some one arm work to 'tune in' briefly before a boulder session like Malcolm Smith suggests.
 
Some guidelines below from a good article on strength training.

Calculating 1RM

According to the US National Strength and Conditioning Association, the theoretical distribution of repetitions against a percentage of 1RM, your maximum lift, is distributed as follows, using the bench press example:
•100 % of 1RM -- 160 pounds -- 1 repetition
•85% of 1RM -- 136 pounds -- 6 repetitions
•67% of 1RM -- 107 pounds -- 12 repetitions
•65% of 1RM -- 104 pounds -- 15 repetitions
•60% of 1RM -- 96 pounds -- warmup reps

(Based on: Baechle and Earle, NSCA’s Essentials of Personal Training, 371, 2004.)

This means that you should be able to do 1 lift at your personal best, 6 lifts at 85 percent of your personal best and 15 lifts at 65 percent of your 1RM personal best – and with proportional percentages for any lift in between, and probably below.

Don’t consider this an absolute reference; it’s only a guide and a basis from which to choose appropriate weights for working out. You can see how you can estimate your personal best or 1RM from your 12 RM -- multiply 107 by 100 divided by 67.

[Nibile]

Last Summer I got in good one arming shape with gym work. Shoulders and biceps are very important.
More specifically I used contrast training, paused sets, and front lever pulls, once or twice a week.
I think there was a couple of topics here.

[Jim]

simple way to do one armers

• do more pull ups
• do negative one armers as slow as possible

[jwi]

simple way to do one armers

• do more pull ups
• do negative one armers as slow as possible

My method was even simpler:

• do more pull ups

[mrjonathanr]

It's been a long while since but my method was perhaps even more interesting.

Fail to redpoint Bored Of The Lies (7b+), pinging off repeatedly at the top. Mooch over to the Tor and one arm the start jug of Weedkiller Traverse. 

Moral?

[Stubbs]

The start jug of weedkiller is just above waist height isn't it? You must have scrunched up into a ball!

[miso soup]

People that can do one armers:  How many normal pull-ups can you do?

[John Gillott]

Careful with the negatives  - bit of an injury risk I think, though they are effective.

[iwasmexican]

i find campussing juggy down the wall really helps too, trying not to pull up and snatch between holds but move as much as possible on one arm, even if that means you have to flick your legs and/or body behind it to get the momentum

[tomtom]

Thanks for the comments... some of my thoughts..

Do more pull ups: Won't this just make me better at doing two armed pull ups? ie I end up working the endurance but not the power?

Negative one armers: done this before - painful.. keen to avoid!

I've also had slightly wonky elbows in the past, so keen to avoid reps - but work on the power (low reps, high weight)... Interestingly not a murmur from my elbows so far compared to normal pull up training (that I've done) - maybe the different geomettry/bod alignment with assisted one armers is better for them???

I tried weighted normal (two armed) pull ups - but wearing either a harness or backback (or both) with weights in made my back feel like it had been put on a rack!

[shark]

I've also had slightly wonky elbows in the past, so keen to avoid reps - but work on the power (low reps, high weight)... Interestingly not a murmur from my elbows so far compared to normal pull up training (that I've done) - maybe the different geomettry/bod alignment with assisted one armers is better for them???

I tried weighted normal (two armed) pull ups - but wearing either a harness or backback (or both) with weights in made my back feel like it had been put on a rack!

Side-on one armers are much easier but pull ups are front-on if done off a bar or edge but it is good to be strong at both for climbing. 

Weighted pull ups are great - don't use a backback but ideally hang equal weights off the top loop of the harness and off the back - sometimes I add lighter weights in my pockets.

Other variations on pull ups to work with are:
- French pullups (count to 3-5 at hanging,90degs, full lock, 90deg etc)
- Travelling pullups - moving side to side touching chin on each hand
- Power pulls - pull up as fast as possible and lower slowly
- Offset pull ups - can be rigged up a variety of ways

Throw in some core exercises like attempted front levers, knee raises etc while you are at it.

[2 Tru]

This site is good for progression steps: http://www.beastskills.com/one-arm-chin-up-pull-up/

Recently I've got a lot closer to 1 armers and this seems to correlate with an increased amount of weight lifting. Does a 1 armer (done side on) use the bicep a lot more and engage the lats less?

I'm currently 4kg + the resistance of the rope looped over the pull-up bar away from doing a 1 armer. Anyone know how I can squeeze out that last little bit of strength?

[ghisino]

not being a specialist in any way (my best result is some sort of "almost one armer") i've noticed a rough correlation with bodyweight (i'm closer to a proper one arm when 1-2 kg lighter than usual).

so if you want to cheat...

[jwi]

Thanks for the comments... some of my thoughts..

Do more pull ups: Won't this just make me better at doing two armed pull ups? i.e. I end up working the endurance but not the power?

No. Read too many training articles written by people who understood half of a text book in physiology, and you would think that it is all very complicated and that strength can't be trained with a high rep/high volume scheme…

If you get dodgy elbows from doing tons of pull-ups (even when starting slightly above regulation depth and finishing before the chin fully clears the bar), then I guess you will have to do some of that over-complicated stuff people recommend.

Negative one armers: done this before - painful.. keen to avoid!

Def. no negatives if you have dodgy elbows.

(I'm crap at one-armers though. PB is "one-and-a half" (couldn't clear the bar on rep 2). I can only do them when I have no access to a climbing gym and is forced to do some pull-ups training.)

[xelaxela]

The way I got my one armer was to first get 20 two arm pull-ups in one go without much problem at least twice a week.

I found that most of the strength I needed was stabalising and in my shoulders so I also trained doing only the shoulder pull bit of the one arm pull up as this is where I found it took the most effort.

I then started doing 2 sets of 10 offset pull-ups gradually widening the gap between the hight of your hands.

about a month to six weeks in I tried and sucessfully managed a one armer. I continued this training for 3 months and in the end I could do 2-3 on my right arm and 2 on my left.

[Jim]

do you want to be trying to do 1 armers if you have dodgy elbows???
Also training on a bachar ladder helps, again not good for elbows.
A large diameter bar also makes doing 1 armers easier

[tomtom]

do you want to be trying to do 1 armers if you have dodgy elbows???
Also training on a bachar ladder helps, again not good for elbows.
A large diameter bar also makes doing 1 armers easier

They're not dodgy Jim, but can easily become dodgy if that makes sense..

[Stubbs]

Tom I have to say I think that trying to do high intensity maximal 1 rep max style exercises is more likely to lead to bad elbows that doing reps. Similar to the above, if I were you I'd be looking to find a weight i could complete 4-6 reps with, training at this weight and then reducing the weight to keep in this range of reps.

[chris05]

Tom I have to say I think that trying to do high intensity maximal 1 rep max style exercises is more likely to lead to bad elbows that doing reps. Similar to the above, if I were you I'd be looking to find a weight i could complete 4-6 reps with, training at this weight and then reducing the weight to keep in this range of reps.

I have to say i have found the opposite (n=1). Never had any problems attempting one armers but high reps seem to lead to problems/niggles.

[tomtom]

Tom I have to say I think that trying to do high intensity maximal 1 rep max style exercises is more likely to lead to bad elbows that doing reps. Similar to the above, if I were you I'd be looking to find a weight i could complete 4-6 reps with, training at this weight and then reducing the weight to keep in this range of reps.

Most of my past elbow dodgyness has come from reps of pull ups (ie doing sets of 10 or more) - as well as on smaller holds..

That said, I take your advice above - 1 rep max is maybe a little too far and I need to be able to do at least 2 or 3.. Yesterday was 4-5 sets of two reps - with a 4-5 min break between.

Its interesting, I've been pissing about with this  for the last couple of weeks and muscles in arms and shoulders feel used (good - as in an achy muscles being developed way) and [crosses fingers] not a sausage from my elbows - not even a mini pre twinge.. [/uncrosses fingers]. If I get an elbow twinge I'll probably can it - but I've not been this interested in training for 20 odd years...

Edit - just seen Chris' post.. interesting..

[rodma]

I found that if you can lock off at various angles already then just doing the same with a weight belt on led to instant magic one armer.

I progressed from negatives to locks to negatives and locks with a belt pretty quickly,  but I was only 20 at the time

I too have only really suffered with bad elbows from high volume.

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk

[lagerstarfish]

Tom,

you do realise that doing multiple one armers will involve negative ones in between the up stages?

good reason to stop at one

[tomtom]

Tom,

you do realise that doing multiple one armers will involve negative ones in between the up stages?

good reason to stop at one

Yes - didnt explain myself well.. my reps of two involve go up - then plumet down then start again from bottom - so the negative is not really happening!

[lagerstarfish]

so using the "bounce" at the bottom of the plummet to initiate the second rep?

sweet