Advise on how to increase your pullups to + 10 + 20?

When we are talking about pullups, we need to be very clear about what counts as a pullup. It is a dead-hang, meaning completely extended arms and then pulling yourself up so that the chin goes above the bar, and then back into the starting dead-hang position. Nothing else counts.

A little background about myself: I used to be very good at chin ups and close grip pull ups as we used to compete as kids everyday after school in the subway on our way back home. I then remembered my transition efforts to the wide grip pull ups, which I failed very badly. I remember thinking to myself, this cannot be true. So off I went, bought a pullup bar in college and started working out after practice in my room, repping 10 sets a night, slowly building it up from 1 hard fought rep to sets of 10 reps.

So what is my advice? Here are my 5 recommendations from someone who can rep at least 20 dead hang pullups. I guess at this point I can consider myself somewhat of a pullup expert, and best belief that now that I have reached my goal, I want more and I will achieve more..

1st Advise: Have a goal! First analyze what you can do and then write down or think about a long term goal. Then from there, build up small goals. Think about the effort that you need to get there. What do you need to eat to get there? How many times do you need to train to get there? What do you need to give up to get there? What are your weaknesses? Is your grip too weak to hold on to the bar? Are you legs constantly swinging instead of staying in place? Could it be that your upper back is your weaknesses?

2nd Advise: Take a pragmatic and systematic approach. You can only do 1 rep at a time. That’s perfectly fine. Do 20 sets of 1 rep and I really do not care about how much break you need in between. Find out how much break in between days you need to improve, then stick with it. In no time, you will see big improvements.

3rd Advise: Leave some exercises out of your workout routine, especially the ones you are already good at. If you already bench press 225 lbs, yet cannot pull yourself up, even if your life depends on it, you need to develop a more singular mindset. Meaning, focus on improving your pull ups before your bench. Start your workout with pull Ups instead of finishing with it. Make it your priority.

4th Advise: Add extra weight. If you can do 3x10 reps, congratulations, you can most likely, do more pullups than 90% of the human population. Do not stop there ! You might be very light in body weight, so challenge yourself and add some extra weight to your body, whether in a rucksack, through weights around your waist or having your daughter or son hanging at your legs. There are plenty of ways to make the pullup a little more challenging.

5th Advise: Keep your routine going for a while, and then switch it up. Add some pyramids workouts to your routine, for example 10-9-8 and so for. If you are still good to go, go back up. But the important thing to remember, get better at one routine, before changing it again. Record your progress, so that you never forget where you came from and realize how far you can still go. There are no limits.