rate pullups

[thewickedtruth]

How do you think pullups stand up against lat pulldowns or similar exercises? They felt ridiculously easy but also got really hard really fast. I've never even tried a pullup with any sort of seriousness since highschool.  I liked them but wanted to know how they rated in regards to being a good back developer.

I weight 244...or did yesterday when I weighed in at the gym. What's a good number of pullups?!  I figured if you could get 20 in a row that would be sick!

What do you guys think about pullups....

[slaveboy1980]

pullups and chinups are great. probably better than pulldowns............... .if you do controlled movements. dont have to be super slow..but you need to have controll.

dont be afraid to add weight when you can do 15-20  with bw

[triple_pickle]

pull-ups are great, i always start my back workout with them & do them weighted

chin-ups are easier so they are the last biceps exercise & i use only my bodyweight, short breaks between the sets just to get the biceps fried

[WOOO]

pull ups are a great way to warm up on back day as long as you keep your reps strict, plus they are a great grip builder

tip for newbies: you can spot youself using an incline bench turned around backwards so you can rest your insteps on the part of the bench where your head would normally be

[Yev33]

Pull ups/chin ups/closegrip chins are far better than pulldowns for overall back development especially if you can do them weighted. But that doesn't mean that pull downs are useless either. I do both, if I do wide grip pull ups I will also do V-handle pulldowns in the same workout for example. If I do pullups/chins with one grip I will do pulldowns with a different one. But if I was pressed for time and had to choose one I would definetly go with pullups/chins.

[webcake]

Haven't really done pullups before. I remember when i 1st started training i could only manage like 2 or 3 bodyweight pullups. Might give them a try on back day.

[WOOO]

Haven't really done pullups before. I remember when i 1st started training i could only manage like 2 or 3 bodyweight pullups. Might give them a try on back day.

just do 3 sets of as many as you can... they also give you a great stretch

[Bluto]

well i think everyone agrees on their greatness here

try negative only too. good stuff

[CalvinH]

I pretty much always do pullups in my back workout.
My gym has a bunch of different grips for pullups so its cool to change it up.





It's a shame I suck at em

[Deicide]

I have been doing pull downs for 30 years and I started doing pull ups and chins 2 years ago.  Really made my lats pop like never before.  Start out with 50 reps with body weight (5 sets of 10 or 4 sets of 15 etc.).  It is a much better exercise than pull downs.  You will agree after you have been doing then a short while.

50 reps? I smell bullshit here...

[slaveboy1980]

50 reps? I smell bullshit here...

he said 5x10 =50

which is far from unrealistic
actually should be a piece of cake if you have worked out for a couple of years.

[MidniteRambo]

Rated highly- no progress on lats until I installed a pullup bar in my home gym and things started happening.

My current pullup routine

Warmup Set (partials, getting the blood flowing) as many as I can do

Sets 2-5: 8-9 reps X 60lbs, then supersetted with weightless pullups 8-10 reps, then "hanging" for a ten count

This is a "movement" exercize, so complete extension is crucial and don't use body motion to cheat.  Nice secondary benefits to the biceps as well.

[Bluto]

most people i see doing it at the gym are either guys that are leight weight (martial art/dance type guys) who obviously find it very easy but then it doesnt do shit for them as it's not challenging

or

people who use a lot of momentum, kinda jumping them up etc and not strict. theyre just cheating their own process...

then there's a guy that does em with one arm, he's a rock climber 

[coltrane]

you guys think a hammer grip is just as good?    the normal grip for me tends to hurt my forearm..(something is pulled)

[thewickedtruth]

you guys think a hammer grip is just as good?    the normal grip for me tends to hurt my forearm..(something is pulled)

Dude I loved the hammer grip when I tried it. Really pumped my biceps up!

[coltrane]

well thats what i DON't like about it....the amount of bicep work........its blows cause most pulling motions cause pain in my forearm...especially widegrip pull ups...

the hammer doesn't seem to bother it as much...

[kimo]

according to the experts pullups and chin ups are far superior than pulldowns .however iwas never good at them because imet many chin bar that were rolling .if you have agood chin up bar use them