(First off, no, that’s not a photo of me. Photo by mentatdgt from Pexels.)

So, some people are probably tired of hearing about my continual inability to do even one pull-up. Trust me, I’m more tired of talking about it. 😉

But I think I’ve finally hit upon the formula that works (at least for me) so I wanted to share it.

Short version, do more sets.

Really, I should have realized this sooner, because the basic formula for weight lifting is:

Training Volume = Sets x Reps x Weight

Now, I am aware that there is plenty of debate about the best ways to play with those numbers. But I’m just sharing my experience and what works best for me. 🙂

First of all, I can’t do much weight, so there’s not a lot of wiggle room there. 😉 So that leaves sets/reps.

And actually, even as I’ve gotten stronger and been able to pull more weight, it works better for me to do less weight (to a point) more times.
(This article by Nerd Fitness is my favourite article about getting that first pull-up, and I’ve read a *bunch*. They recommend doing 3 sets/day, 3 times/week. That’s where I started, but I’ve found that I make faster progress doing more sets/day, especially when I’m not able to do very many reps (sometimes I progressed faster than I really should have). The main problem with this method is most of us have to go to work, and we probably don’t have the opportunity to do these exercises several times during our work day. On days when you’re home (or maybe you work from home!) it’s relatively easy to just do a few extra sets (assuming you have a pull-up bar), since each set only takes a couple of minutes. (If you don’t have a pull-up bar at home, I recommend getting one! My husband & I got one from Amazon several years ago and I think it was less than $30. This one, but unfortunately it’s not currently available.))

I’ve been following the guidelines in that article, but also making it my own to a certain extent. I’ve been doing a mix (off-and-on) of assisted pull-ups (with resistance bands) and negatives. (See this post for more info.)

My two main takeaways from that article by Nerd Fitness have been:
1. keep doing your current routine until you can do 5-8 reps/set
2. negatives should NOT be “all out”. Holding them for 3 seconds is good. (As I was getting stronger, my negatives were getting slower and slower, but I was never able to do *more* of them in a set. This seems REALLY obvious now, but I didn’t realize it until I reread that article.)

I have reread (or at least skimmed through) that article *several* times through this adventure, and I frequently notice things that I hadn’t picked up before.

It’s also great to mix things up. When you stop seeing progress, switch from assisted pull-ups to negatives, or vice versa.

Okay, that’s all the advice I have for now! I hope you are seeing progress towards whatever fitness goals you’re currently working towards. And again, if you’d like some extra support, please contact me!