I’ve been working on them a lot lately for some reason. Just curious. Please include age and gender.
When I was 19 and training for the military physical fitness test in Canada, I could do 22…now I doubt if I can even pull off 8-10…M42.
Continuous pull ups or are we allowed to rest by hanging on the bars?
when I was 20-21ish around 25-28. I’m 25 now and might be able to get 10 on a good day. If you dont use it you lose it, which is why I am getting a new pull up bar this weekend since I have been without one the past few years.
The official “rules” in my opinion are continuous, maybe 3 seconds of rest in between towards the end, but basically continuous. Also, returning to a dead-arm hang in between.
The pull-up test is one of the fitness tests I conduct as a PE teacher. It’s amazing the variety of ways people try to cheat!
Age: 27
Reg Style: 8
Curl Style: 12
I was doing alot more than that this time last year, but time out of the pool has really hurt my lats.
Hi
When I was fit and swimming a lot I could do 4 sets of 15 easy, now in my old age and lack of swimming I can only manage 3x6… I will work on it over the next month and I know I should get 3x10… these are with pronated grip
Good to see you meant slow, strict form with complete lock out at the bottom, no kicking.
The way some guys count push ups, dips and pull ups reminds me of guys bench pressing with arched back/bounce off the chest/no full arm extension.
Pull-ups? As in plural? You mean some people can do more than one?
I’m 29. I rarely try to max out a set but the last time I tried (a month ago?) I did 25. I can probably do more now.
Training for quantity pullups is more about synptic facilitation than muscle.
In reply to:
The official “rules” in my opinion are continuous, maybe 3 seconds of rest in between towards the end, but basically continuous. Also, returning to a dead-arm hang in between.
The pull-up test is one of the fitness tests I conduct as a PE teacher. It’s amazing the variety of ways people try to cheat!
Prepare to call me a lier, but last year on my 47th birthday, I did 50 pull-ups with wraps. On each one I went all the way down and all the way up, but I do get in a rhythm and have a rocking motion. For anyone who wants to call my bluff, I’m available in the Tampa Bay area to do close to that number on any day of the week.
What kills me are these “rules” other than you go all the way down and all the way up. Once you have some “judge” determining whether you paused long enough at the bottem (or too long), you introduce subjectivity. That’s what I like about running. We line-up to race a mile, and the first one across the line is the winner. You don’t get to complain that my strides are too long or I lean too far forward and it shouldn’t count.
When people try to diminish how many pull-up I can do by wining that I rock or swing, I respond by saying “fine, you rock as much as you like and let’s see how many you can do.” Usually shuts them up.
As it turns out, the other day I did 9, with no more than a 3 second rest in between. And the 9th one I finished with a 30 second negative descent. I knew on the way up that I would really have to sacrifice good form to do any more.
I am 36 (37 in March), Male, and I weigh 190 pounds.
This didn’t seem like something I should be proud of at the time. So I am committing myself to doing more. I was pleased that 30 minutes later I was able to pound out another 8 the same way. 30 minutes after that I did 5 more. I was done after that though.
Bernie
Wow, how often are people judging your pull-ups? I’m pretty sure the last time anyone judged my pull-ups was in 8th grade, or about 13 years ago.
ME TOO!!..
I can usually go for a good 30-45min with my wife on top, I usually grab her hips and pull and push at the same time, but after a while my abs start ot burn, then I slow it down, so I can recover enough to go another 30 or so min.
Oh! wait? are you talking about something else?
Just kidding lol…well not really?
But I can do about 5-6 …but then again I’m 49 5’10’’ and weigh 240lbs…
I think it’s time to lose some weight, if I’m ever going to finish IMLP in a decent time. 
You didn’t mention your age or weight or how many you can do??
…I did 50 pull-ups with wraps…
Sorry man, but unless you are using your own hands to hang onto the bar, then those 50 count for zero…you’re only as stong as your weakest link and for most people its the hands and forearms that can’t hang on long enough.
Using wraps of any sort is not functional strength, because what you are saying is that you cannot apply that stength to the real world without outside assistance!
Dev
I’ve been working on them a lot lately for some reason. Just curious. Please include age and gender.
Pull ups or chin ups?
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I can probably do 12 or so. Right now I do 3 sets, 10 reps, 8, 6. On the first set when I do my 10th, my form is starting to break down. I decided to not swim this winter so hopefully pullups will develop some functional strength for when I start swimming again in April.
Male, 27, 135 lbs
I think most are talking chin-ups, but to me they are about the same. I can do maybe 1 more chin-up than pull-up
Hey, the pullups will barely help swimming unless your race is the 50m. We’re talking about 30-60 second burst of pullups vs a 20-60 min triathlon swim…if you want to swim faster, you better swim…go ahead and supplement swimming with the pullups for general muscular conditioning to withstand all the swim training, but don’t for a moment be under any illusion that you’ll have appreciable swim gains at anything beyond 100m all out
I’m sure you can also do an impressive number without the wraps.
I use wraps for deadlifts - not because they generally accepted as ok for olympic lifts - but because it is, for me, a back excercise, not a hand excercise.