[tomtom]

I was chatting to RobL last week about these - basically doing pull ups but as fast as possible - and thinking it might help my usually languid style tried a few last night.

Aside from normal warming up caveats are there any issues/downsides/things to consider with this? It seemed to work my arms quite a bit (I could only rep 3 - with a 5-10 sec rest between) and felt like it was certainly working parts of my arms that didnt feel like they'd been worked for a while...

and can I have a medal too?

[petejh]

Yes you can have a medal, everyone's a winner for taking part, no winners here.

Thoughts - To target 'explosiveness' (power) perhaps try adding 5Kg or however much weight it takes so that you can only do 2 reps. Rest a long time (3-5 mins) in-between reps of 2 and aim to do 4 - 6 sets of 2 reps.

[Sasquatch]

A friend of mine swears by chained pullups.  This is where you have a set of chains attached to you that lay on the ground.  As you pull up you start to add weight lifting the chains.  The chains should all be completely off the ground at the top of the pullup.  So the higher you are, the more weight you've added.  The idea is to train the explosive beginning part of the pull so that you have enough momentum to continue with the added weight.

A variation on the "explosive idea"

[Paul B]

A friend of mine swears by chained pullups.

the same idea as doing complex lifts but with therabands attached to the bars and then kettlebells?

I can remember a few people (Andy Earl?) suggesting a set of these before a session some time ago, I'd swear there was a particular term for it that I'd seen used in gymnastics too but currently it escapes me. Sorry, that isn't too helpful.

I've found doing pull ups this way a little awkward with timings especially if you clear the bar (or get it to your chest).

[Sasquatch]

the same idea as doing complex lifts but with therabands attached to the bars and then kettlebells?

I can remember a few people (Andy Earl?) suggesting a set of these before a session some time ago, I'd swear there was a particular term for it that I'd seen used in gymnastics too but currently it escapes me. Sorry, that isn't too helpful.

I've found doing pull ups this way a little awkward with timings especially if you clear the bar (or get it to your chest).

I've never done them as I haven't had easy access to chains and lack of motivation. 

If I'm in that training mode, I usually do sets of 3-4 muscle ups instead as it really forces me to explode high enough and keep working the triceps through the final push.   

[a dense loner]

TomTom u can't have a medal. I dont follow, u wrote it like u did 3 pull ups n had 15 secs rest between sets? Is this correct? If so that's as much use as fuck all

[Stubbs]

Tom I think these will be great for you if you concentrate on the fast movement bit.  As above I would rest for longer (Rob is resting for a minute in between sets), I'd be aiming to do 3-5 per set and 10 sets.

[duncan]

Speed of muscle contraction is one of the hardest things to train. It's also quite risky, so pay particular emphasis on warm-up and finish well before your performance starts to deteriorate.

Strength training can increase speed a little in untrained individuals, but since you have been training strength for some time (ie bouldering in a fairly static fashion) I would focus on speed of pull-up at present, as Stubbs suggests, rather than increasing load.

Training speed may have benefits for strength.

[jwi]

Nice. In the second study the protocol was not really that fast. 140°/s is not explosive in climbing terms.

[tomtom]

Tom I think these will be great for you if you concentrate on the fast movement bit.  As above I would rest for longer (Rob is resting for a minute in between sets), I'd be aiming to do 3-5 per set and 10 sets.

Yes - thats kind of what I meant (but didnt say ) its not so much the power, more the fast movement I'm just not used to doing. Theres stuff I could probably do if my dynamic movement was better...

Chains - wow, that sounds like a gruesome system!! I suspect I'm about 6 months off that!

Dense - I figured I deserved at least three medals, but thought I'd be modest and only ask for one