As usual the charts from when I do the following workouts can be found on the charts page of the blog.
This is the most controversial element of my training. Does it help climbing, is it a waste of time? Who knows. I find it a fun distraction that has no danger of popping an A2 pulley. Its taken me years to get a solid one arm pull up(OAP), but I never spend more than 15 minutes 2 or 3 days a week on them. Also my methods have evolved to what seems to be a much more efficient system then I originally used.
Weighted Pull-ups
I've used weighted pull-ups in the past but now I don't do any pull-up(apart from front lever pull ups and muscle ups) with 2 arms. These could be important for someone who doesn't have the necessary strength to perform a OAP without significant assistance. Each of the following workouts could easily be scaled to use weighted 2 arm pull-ups instead of OAP's.
Tools
Unless you are incredibly strong you are going to need a system for assisted one arm pull-ups. I use the following pulley system.
Here is Ben with the pulley system in action.
Obviously you need something to do the pull ups like a bar or a hangboard.
Pyramids
I got the basic idea for these from the beastmaker website, though doing pyramids for an exercise is not all that original. This workout consists of 9 sets separated by a 2 minute rest. The sets have the following structure:
Now you need to decide your "base weight". Originally I just picked the amount fairly randomly and let the amount of assistance drop as I got stronger. Now I've noticed that I do the first and last set with ~7 pounds less resistance than my one rep max. For example if your one rep max is a OAP with 3 additional pounds then -4 pounds is a good base weight.
Its worth noting that -10 pounds means 10 pounds in the pulley system but +3 pounds is a one armer with 3 pounds in the free hand. I usually increase resistance(1 pound at a time) in this workout when I am able to finish the last set strong.
Pyramids Plus
This is a version of the above workout tailored to building the ability to perform multiple repetitions of one arm pull ups. There are 5 sets separated by 3 minute rests with the following structure
Pull up on Holds
This is only mainly useful for climbers. If you are not a climber I'll offer a suggestion for the 3rd workout.
I pick 5 different holds on my hangboard. For the beastmaker 2000 I currently pick the mouth jug, the big edges, the middle edge, the big 2 finger pocket, and the 15 degree sloper. For each hold I'll do 2 singles with as little assistance as possible, resting as much as needed between sets.
Maximum Singles
If your not a climber/do not have a hangboard a good workout to balance against the other two is as follows. Perform 10 single OAP's where the assistance is as follows for each set
This is the most controversial element of my training. Does it help climbing, is it a waste of time? Who knows. I find it a fun distraction that has no danger of popping an A2 pulley. Its taken me years to get a solid one arm pull up(OAP), but I never spend more than 15 minutes 2 or 3 days a week on them. Also my methods have evolved to what seems to be a much more efficient system then I originally used.
Weighted Pull-ups
I've used weighted pull-ups in the past but now I don't do any pull-up(apart from front lever pull ups and muscle ups) with 2 arms. These could be important for someone who doesn't have the necessary strength to perform a OAP without significant assistance. Each of the following workouts could easily be scaled to use weighted 2 arm pull-ups instead of OAP's.
Tools
Unless you are incredibly strong you are going to need a system for assisted one arm pull-ups. I use the following pulley system.
Obviously you need something to do the pull ups like a bar or a hangboard.
Pyramids
I got the basic idea for these from the beastmaker website, though doing pyramids for an exercise is not all that original. This workout consists of 9 sets separated by a 2 minute rest. The sets have the following structure:
- reps: 1, weight: base
- reps: 2, weight: base-5
- reps: 3, weight: base-10
- reps: 4, weight: base-15
- reps: 5, weight: base-20
- reps: 4, weight: base-15
- reps: 3, weight: base-10
- reps: 2, weight: base-5
- reps: 1, weight: base
Now you need to decide your "base weight". Originally I just picked the amount fairly randomly and let the amount of assistance drop as I got stronger. Now I've noticed that I do the first and last set with ~7 pounds less resistance than my one rep max. For example if your one rep max is a OAP with 3 additional pounds then -4 pounds is a good base weight.
Its worth noting that -10 pounds means 10 pounds in the pulley system but +3 pounds is a one armer with 3 pounds in the free hand. I usually increase resistance(1 pound at a time) in this workout when I am able to finish the last set strong.
Pyramids Plus
This is a version of the above workout tailored to building the ability to perform multiple repetitions of one arm pull ups. There are 5 sets separated by 3 minute rests with the following structure
- reps:2, weight: base
- reps:4, weight: base-10
- reps:6, weight: base-20
- reps:4, weight: base-10
- reps:2, weight: base-20
The base weight used here is 3 pounds less than the weight used for the 2 rep set in the "pyramid" workout.
Pull up on Holds
This is only mainly useful for climbers. If you are not a climber I'll offer a suggestion for the 3rd workout.
I pick 5 different holds on my hangboard. For the beastmaker 2000 I currently pick the mouth jug, the big edges, the middle edge, the big 2 finger pocket, and the 15 degree sloper. For each hold I'll do 2 singles with as little assistance as possible, resting as much as needed between sets.
Maximum Singles
If your not a climber/do not have a hangboard a good workout to balance against the other two is as follows. Perform 10 single OAP's where the assistance is as follows for each set
- one rep max -4
- one rep max-4
- one rep max-2
- one rep max-2
- one rep max
- one rep max
- one rep max-2
- one rep max-2
- one rep max-4
- one rep max-4
Training Week
I perform each of these workouts once a week. This gives me a hard day(pyramids plus), a medium day(pyramids), and an easy day(pull ups on holds). Every so often I test myself: