It is too hard for me to do. You see making the pullup a hip dominant exercise like it were a kettlebell swing or an olympic snatch is much to difficult for me to do. I just simply wouldn’t have control over the momentum it generates when I have a 53lb kettlebell either hanging on a chain from my waste or from my foot. At that point it becomes a like the human equivalent of a crane with a wrecking ball attached and that is bad news for everybody.

For me pullups were intended to be a strength and endurance exercise rather then for conditioning. In hardstyle we have better tools for the job. For many pullups become a strength endurance exercise. “How many can you do?” is a question that used to be more common then “How much can you bench?”. If I had it my way (and I never do) more people would be doing pullups. When I was a high school wrestler I was the guy who had to taxi some of the younger guys home. Like a taxi they had to pay me…with pullups.

Since we try to keep our reps low and our sets high while remaining fresh and since I don’t normally get tired during pullups till right around rep 27 I have to add weight to keep the exercise useful. My goal being strength this is the appropriate way of doing things. If I had to go for endurance I would have to learn to kip. My personal best is 35 non kipping so endurance is no longer a goal of mine hence no reason for me to learn to kip.

So how can you improve your pullups? Well first as with any training program you have to figure out where you are, and where you want to go. There would be no point in trying for high reps when you can’t even do a single rep with bodyweight alone. So if you can’t do a single rep you could give yourself a bit of a jump to get some momentum working on your side. Try to yank yourself up and make sure you are fresh each time you do that. Once you are able to do a single dead hang pullup practice it often. A simple way to do this is to get one of those doorway pullup bars and do a single rep whenever you walk through that doorway. Just make sure you are always fresh when you do it. Give that a week or 2 and take a couple days off and try to see how many you can get. When you are able to get between 5 and 8 give those Russian ladders a try. If you are on the Enter the Kettlebell Rite of Passage program do the pull up option and follow Pavel’s directions (as you should).

Ladders and reverse ladders are a great way of getting a lot of quality pullups under your belt. Don’t listen to the people who read out of the typical fitness magazine when they say to do lat pull downs, bicep curls and straight arm pulldowns (would you believe I actually had to look that up just now? That is how long its been since I have used that exercise). Which do you think would be better for pullups; to try to isolate the muscles separately and engage them in movement patterns unrelated to pullups or to practice doing a lot of pullups while staying fresh the entire time? Musicians and athletes do that and you could learn a bit from their wisdom.

If you want to be able to do a lot of pullups try doing higher rep ladders. Say rungs that include the numbers 5, 10 and 15 if you are able to do 20 or more. If your goal is to do 16 and you can do 10 then 2, 4, 6 and 8 would be a better choice. You want to be strong add weight and keep the reps low.

Pullup power is upon you, kipping or otherwise. You are a big kid now.

Eric Moss RKC over and out