Topic: Pull up/Upper strenth training help.

[Gorella]

Long:
Hello, I recently started parkour and have worked my way to the wall run, Once I run up the wall and put my hands over the rail/top It seems like I have no traction and therefor can not pull my self up to the level of the rail. Could someone post some tips for training Pull Ups? Also, I believe it is called "The Cat" in which I am trying to do.

Short:
In a short description, I do not have enough upper body strength to pull up from a wall run, What exercises can I do to improve upper strength drastically. Ex: Push up, Dip, ect.

[Bao]

Work on various static holds. Hold the cat position at all angles for five seconds, then ten, then twenty and so on. Arms straight, arms bent, a little to the side, etc. Pull-ups will help as well, if you can't do pull-ups, static holds apply to this exercise as well. If you're looking for general upper body strength, the top three exercises I recommend would be push-ups, pull-ups, and dips.

[Gorella]

Thanks, previously I was doing little exercise sets where I would do 20 dips, 50 push ups, 20 crunch's, and then to finish it off I would hold my self up on my pull up bar not trying to fall or rise. Also, if I had gotten tired between exercises I would go and vault the picnic bench a couple times or just jog for a bit to let my arms rest.

[Bao]

That sounds most excellent but you have to remember to mix up your exercises. Basically, you try to confuse your muscles so that you're not reaching a plateau and you're constantly peaking. The best way to do that would to just do variations. Perhaps you'll do twenty chair dips, fifty diamond push-ups, and then twenty seconds of six inches. The next time, go for twenty dips on a parallel bar, fifty slow push-ups, and then twenty flutter kicks.

[Gorella]

Well, I have been doing those exercises for probably 3 months or so now and they seem to be helping overall a great amount. The only problem I seem to be having is doing actual pull ups, I can do dips and push ups with not using any stamina at all but when I get to a pull up I can lift my self perhaps an inch off my start and then my arms start to quake, it might be due to my weight as well. Not entirely sure.

[Chris Salvato]

...fifty slow push-ups...

Don't do concentrics (positives) slowly.  You always want to do the positive portion of the movement as quickly as possible.  Muscles get stronger at speeds that you train them.  If you train muscles to be slow they will be slow.  If you train them to be fast they will be fast and slow....kind of strange but true.

Well, I have been doing those exercises for probably 3 months or so now and they seem to be helping overall a great amount. The only problem I seem to be having is doing actual pull ups, I can do dips and push ups with not using any stamina at all but when I get to a pull up I can lift my self perhaps an inch off my start and then my arms start to quake, it might be due to my weight as well. Not entirely sure.

Do negatives....get yourself to the top of the bar standing on something, grip on tight, put your chin to the bar and lift your legs off the box GRADUALLY.  when you can hold yourself up at the top then you should take your legs fully off the box and lower yourself down as slowly as possible.

[Gorella]

Thanks, but one final question. Would you recommend doing pull ups on a stone wall or on a bar mounted to the wall.

[Alec Furtado]

Someone I know does something he calls tic-tics which is basically raising a little bit quickly and stopping, then going up again. Basically it's a series of short jerks. I'd imagine he made them up himself. Do you see any positive/negative things about that? The "jerks" don't seem very intense to the arms and aren't done very rapidly. He might choose to do "5-tic" pullups where you go up and stop 5 separate times on the pullup.

[Chris Salvato]

Thanks, but one final question. Would you recommend doing pull ups on a stone wall or on a bar mounted to the wall.

Bar would train more muscles since the wall provides some help with the load...but if all you have is a wall then HAVE AT IT!!

[David Glass]

This is kind of a funny story, because I began a whole pull-up obsession because of this same problem about a year ago (and it continues to day)

Same thing started with me, I couldn't do a decent wall climb for the life of me, so I began doing pull-ups and I'm now doing them weighted.

The irony comes in the fact that I had not done wall climbs in a long time and my buddies always thought my wall climb would be so much better than theirs because of all the pull-up work I've been doing. One day we hit the wall and they were standing around in suspense to see how well it had gotten.

After trying theirs, it was my turn, I want up and then I did something I had never done before, I kicked away, went into a cat position, and then sort of helped myself up by walking it up.

Moral of the story: It's really really awesome to be strong, but strength won't replace good technique

[VahnCruz]

try Pavel's 'grease the groove' technique good stuff it really works google it!

[Chris Salvato]

try Pavel's 'grease the groove' technique good stuff it really works google it!

Grease the Groove is outlined in Steve's "How to Construct..." thread.

http://www.americanparkour.com/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,159/topic,9469.0/

Direct Link to the GTG section (list point #2): http://eshlow.blogspot.com/#VII

[Dan Frank]

Someone I know does something he calls tic-tics which is basically raising a little bit quickly and stopping, then going up again. Basically it's a series of short jerks. I'd imagine he made them up himself. Do you see any positive/negative things about that? The "jerks" don't seem very intense to the arms and aren't done very rapidly. He might choose to do "5-tic" pullups where you go up and stop 5 separate times on the pullup.

Is he doing the in the same position over and over again or is he going through full ROM with the movement? If it's not full ROM, it's useless. If it is, I can't imagine that it would have any applicability because when you're doing a climb up, for example, you don't do a short jerking motion, it's actually quite a large ROM.

[Gorella]

Ok, I will try all of these tips. Thanks again guys. Also, For general weight loss should I jog or ride a bike?

[Dan Frank]

Ok, I will try all of these tips. Thanks again guys. Also, For general weight loss should I jog or ride a bike?

There are a lot of things to consider when you're deciding which one to do (that said, you can do still both).
Which one you enjoy more, which one you're better conditioned for (i.e. if you have bad knees, stay away from jogging until your legs are stronger).

If you really want to lose fat, you should check out HIIT (high intensity interval training). (If someone can please provide a link, I can't find a good one.)

[Steven Low]

Ok, I will try all of these tips. Thanks again guys. Also, For general weight loss should I jog or ride a bike?

Weight loss is mostly diet.

[Dan Frank]

Ok, I will try all of these tips. Thanks again guys. Also, For general weight loss should I jog or ride a bike?

Weight loss is mostly diet.

A healthy diet is fairly easy to figure out and execute. A weight loss diet is near-freakin' impossible, or there probably wouldn't be so many obese people in America. The diet alone, without a strong focus on fat-burning and muscle-building exercises, isn't going to do it for him. His metabolism will kick in when tries to cut down on his eating, and he'll be left like all the other people who tried to do the same thing: no slimmer than before, and feeling crappy from the lowered intake. He has to make sure that he is burning everything he takes in and more.
I wouldn't say that weight loss is mostly diet, and although it is variable depending on what your diet is like before you make amends, I would say that it's about half the battle.

[Preston M]

If you really want to lose fat, you should check out HIIT (high intensity interval training). (If someone can please provide a link, I can't find a good one.)

http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/fitness_articles.asp?id=621

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensity_interval_training

Here's a couple.

[Steven Low]

Ok, I will try all of these tips. Thanks again guys. Also, For general weight loss should I jog or ride a bike?

Weight loss is mostly diet.

A healthy diet is fairly easy to figure out and execute. A weight loss diet is near-freakin' impossible, or there probably wouldn't be so many obese people in America. The diet alone, without a strong focus on fat-burning and muscle-building exercises, isn't going to do it for him. His metabolism will kick in when tries to cut down on his eating, and he'll be left like all the other people who tried to do the same thing: no slimmer than before, and feeling crappy from the lowered intake. He has to make sure that he is burning everything he takes in and more.
I wouldn't say that weight loss is mostly diet, and although it is variable depending on what your diet is like before you make amends, I would say that it's about half the battle.

Absolutely wrong.

Exercise, of course, makes it easier. But ANYONE can lose weight with a good diet regardless of the obesity in America.

One simple rule if you're obese or even moderately overweight... and you can lose weight. Feeling crappy is normal as you get off the "addictive" carbs.

http://lifespotlight.com/health/2008/06/04/nutrition-101-the-one-rule-to-remember/

[Matt Hudson]

Basically, you try to confuse your muscles so that you're not reaching a plateau and you're constantly peaking.

Confuse your muscles? really? your muscles relax, and contract, that's what they do. you can't confuse them by doing different exercises. What you can do is increase the intensity, by doing more weight, or more reps. nuff said.