Topic: Exercises for building arm strength

[akanepk1022]

I'm a 14 year old girl who has just started parkour and I really need to build arm strength.  I'm much stronger than most girls my age (that I know) but I can only do one pull-up.  Is that normal?  Anyway, if you know any good exercises post em

[Cameron Scott]

I'm sure others will jump in with much better info, but just starting with the basics seems to be working well for me.

Push ups
Pull ups
Dips
Quadrupedal Movement (QM)

I've read on other posts that for strength training you want to add weight until you can only do 3-5 reps (if that was in a different context I'm sure someone will correct me).  So if you can only do one then the pull up is probably going to still be a great way for you to build strength.

What does that mean for a workout?  Well, I would suggest doing three reps of one pull up each.  If you still want more you could do negative pull-ups afterwards to further push your muscles, but if you're too tired to maintain good form then take it easy so that you don't hurt yourself.  Listen to your body always.

There are some great stickies on building your workout program that I haven't made it all the way through yet so you should probably also read those as they have great information.

EDIT: Recent posts on training to failure have educated me on the pros and cons of it, with the general conclusion that in parkour training to failure is not beneficial.  Instead of scaling back the exercise as you get tired (as I suggested above) you shouldn't push too hard unless you plan to rest for multiple days.  Glad to have learned this tidbit!

[Chris Salvato]

Is it possible for you to do 1 pullup throughout the day...like every hour or two?

[James Bazil Bianco]

Inclined pull-ups can help you work up to more pull-ups, an explanation of the exercise can be found here,

http://www.thecardioblog.com/2007/07/31/exercise-of-the-week-incline-pull-up/

As for whether its normal to be able to do only one consider this, I have taught 2 good friends the basics of parkour and when they started neither could do a single pull-up so i would say you are good shape for starting out.

And as others have said try doing 1 at a time multiple times a day.

[Shae Perkins]

Is it possible for you to do 1 pullup throughout the day...like every hour or two?

I second that. Synaptic facilitation, or "greasing the groove", is a great way to train in my opinion.

Check this out if you're interested- http://humanmachine.wordpress.com/2007/06/22/grease-the-groove-for-strength/

[Steve Low]

Is it possible for you to do 1 pullup throughout the day...like every hour or two?

This.

Then once you can do 3-4 do 2 every hour. And so on.