Getting 20 Pull Ups

[Failuredrill]

Ever since I first joined the Marine Corps I searched high and low for all the latest and greatest pull up programs. After trying hundreds of different ones, I found what worked best for me and for my Marines when I was in. I had guys that could not get over the hump get their 20 pull ups in no time. It also works well for beginners who can barely even do a couple. I've been working with a poolee who started out only doing 6 shoddy pull ups, and now he is at 13 with perfect form, after about a month of work. Now the methods that I use do tend to go against the grain of what you normally see. In particular, training to failure. The only time I will ever do a set to failure is every couple of months to see where I am at, that is it. I credit all of this to Nathaniel Morrison. He is an Air Force PJ and has some invaluable fitness knowledge that pertains to actual real life military operations. I would highly recommend anyone to check out his "Military Fitness: A Manual of Special Physical Training", it is an excellent book covering all aspects of combat fitness.

Back to the pull ups. It is a play on the one minute volume method. Why do a few max sets, risking injury, and pumping out shoddy reps when you can do 10x as much without training to failure? In 30 minutes you can crank out anywhere from 60 - 150+ pull ups (obviously depending on your fitness level), where as if you did max sets you wouldn't even come close to those numbers and you would be hurting. All you need is a pull up bar and watch/stopwatch.

Before I lay out the simple program I want to make sure that people realize pull ups are all about the proper technique. It might seem like there really isn't a much to them, but there is. You need to make every rep count, concentrating on perfect form (no kipping, bicycling, using all your momentum) good old fashioned picture perfect Marine Corps dead hang pulls (and chins). First, when mounting the bar start with your palms facing away and your thumbs straight up with your fingers with your hands a little outside shoulder width. I know this next thing is going to sound like a contradiction but hear me out. Before you begin you do not want to be at an absolute 'dead hang'. By that I mean not just hanging there by your grip, you want your shoulders locked or popped in their sockets. If you don't do this you will be pulling improperly and wasting energy and won't be pulling with your lats. This is one of the most important things, PULL WITH YOUR LATS. These are huge powerful muscles in your back that all too often get ignored or abused with nonfunctional 'lat pulldowns' and other trash. You pull with your lats by having your shoulders properly locked in, a very good firm grip and by focusing your pulling effort on your pinky and ring fingers. You will know that you are doing it right if you feel it in your armpits.

As you pull up keep your face forward, don't get into the habit of just barely clearing your chin, get it all the way over the bar. Also, as you activate your lats by pulling like I said, try to work on flexing your core and other muscle groups (even your buttcheeks) to build explosion. On the way down relax these muscle groups. You will find with practice are you in control of your body and conserving all of your energy, instead of having a complete deathgrip and swinging wildly wasting everything.

Back to the program, I would try to start by doing 2 Pull ups per minute for 30 mins. (start with 1 if you have to, or if you are really out of shape you can start with assisted). A watch that beeps every minute is ideal but a stopwatch or even your phone will work just make sure you are keeping track.

All you have to do to start is do this 3 times per week, I do it on Mon, Wed, Fri. Start with the 2 pull (just using 2 as an example here) per min for 30 mins, which would equal out to 60 pull ups in just 30 mins. For the first 15 mins or sets, do them with an overhand grip. With the final 15 mins or sets switch to the palms facing you thumbs wrapped around the bar this time. If this is too difficult just go to 1 pull up per minute for the first 15, then 2 per for the last 15. Make sure you do at least a minute of warm up before you start doing pulls, do some arm circles, stretch your chest and back, punch the air and what not, just get your muscles warm. Also, once you have finished after the 30 mins, rest a few minutes and then do a few sets of push ups (making sure you aren't going to failure, same ****) or dips. After doing a pulling exercise you want to do a pushing one, dips are ideal but push ups will work fine. That will train your muscles properly. Once you have the program down after a few weeks, you can adjust the numbers and add some more stuff, it is really easy to work around. For now off days are great days to commit to mainly cardio. Also, you can still bust sets of pull ups throughout the day (NOT MAX SETS), on the days of the program I would wait until you have finished for the day but on off days continue as normal, bust a set every time you go to the bathroom or whatever. Once a month you will do one max set to complete failure to see how much improvement has been made and that way you can adjust the program as needed.

What I personally like to do is on the middle day, do weighted pull ups. You don't need fancy weights or anything, throw some bricks in a back pack and put it on. This will force you into having good form.

In kind of a hurry so if there are some spelling errors and whatever, I apologize, just wanted to get this information up asap.

Any questions or anything at all, hit me up.

[KevinL]

Thanks for the post Sergeant I'll try this workout soon. I've been stuck at 16 pull ups for the past month and hope this will get me over my plateau.

I leave for bootcamp in 13 days so I will probably have to try this after bootcamp.

[Failuredrill]

If you are already doing 16 I would start with 3 or 4 depending on how it feels for you. I would also do the weighted ones in the middle of the week. You can improve in boot camp, your muscles will be pushed to failure like crazy but I would still hit the bar every chance that you get.

[KevinL]

If you are already doing 16 I would start with 3 or 4 depending on how it feels for you. I would also do the weighted ones in the middle of the week. You can improve in boot camp, your muscles will be pushed to failure like crazy but I would still hit the bar every chance that you get.

I've been using this workout for a while: http://www.oo-rah.com/Store/pt/pt0830.asp but now I've stalled. Its helped me feel more explosive when I pull up and get me 4 more reps in.

I'll switch over to your program tomorrow and hopefully get a few extra reps before bootcamp.

Should I work my pull ups by myself during bootcamp? I always felt I would want to save my energy for the next day.

[Failuredrill]

Man, I remember looking through similar stuff years ago. Yeah, that workout is a pretty good example of what not to do in my opinion (although he does have a lot of good stuff, just have to pick through it). About pull ups in boot camp, I wouldn't go crazy but definitely try to get some in when you can. If I remember correctly we had to do a 'max' set almost every time we got a head call (try to avoid going to failure, obviously). For the first month or so you probably will be way too tired and getting used to the routine, but after that should be game on.

[32JJW0311]

Sergeant Stonecold.

Question? I am at 13 Pull-ups(palms facing away/wide grip) any I've been asking everyone on how to improve but they say to get more pull-ups you need to lose weight. Or Just do them everyday. But If I do them everyday I'm going to over work my muscles I'm sure. That would be the same as doing biceps two days in a row.
I'm starting to do pull-ups with a 25 pound weight on me but I don't know what would be the best. Any suggestions Sir?

[KevinL]

Man, I remember looking through similar stuff years ago. Yeah, that workout is a pretty good example of what not to do in my opinion (although he does have a lot of good stuff, just have to pick through it). About pull ups in boot camp, I wouldn't go crazy but definitely try to get some in when you can. If I remember correctly we had to do a 'max' set almost every time we got a head call (try to avoid going to failure, obviously). For the first month or so you probably will be way too tired and getting used to the routine, but after that should be game on.

Good to go Sergeant. Just did the workout today and thought it was going to be easy doing such low reps. Started out with the 4 rep scheme you suggested and it definitely feels like I'm working harder then my last routine. Ill give you an update before I leave for bootcamp if I have improved at all.

Thanks for the info and tips.

[Failuredrill]

Sergeant Stonecold.

Question? I am at 13 Pull-ups(palms facing away/wide grip) any I've been asking everyone on how to improve but they say to get more pull-ups you need to lose weight. Or Just do them everyday. But If I do them everyday I'm going to over work my muscles I'm sure. That would be the same as doing biceps two days in a row.
I'm starting to do pull-ups with a 25 pound weight on me but I don't know what would be the best. Any suggestions Sir?

How wide is a 'wide grip'? You really don't want grip any more than just outside of shoulder width. Losing some weight would definitely help if you are a bigger guy but you won't see any real improvement unless you are training the right way. Don't work them every single day, you will do more harm than good. Your body needs time to rest and recover. I would say just follow the program, pick three days a week (Mon, Wed, Fri is what I do) and start with 2 reps per minute. If 2 isn't that much of a challenge, try 3. I would only do weighted pulls once a week (I like to do them on the middle day). Doing a few sets of 8 or 9 throughout the day on off days won't hurt anything, just make sure you are resting those muscles completely at least 2 days (I rest on the weekend). You can work on your legs / cardio or whatever else on those off days.

[usmcrro]

Regarding the grip that is personal preference. If you do palms out, it is best have it a more that shoulders width if you have strong lat muscles b/c you have less of a distance to travel (assuming you are not too tall). Palms in, you can't do it as wide as palms out. It's best if you are able to do both. That's how I get 20 pull ups.

[32JJW0311]

Alright thank you very much Sergeant Stonecold. Well the losing weight would be kinda hard at this point it would be muscle I would be losing.
I'm going to start that on monday now. Hopefully it works. I really would like to get 20 plus because Recon, and one of my recruiters Ssgt Mercer says I have to do twenty pull-ups for a long sleeve shirt that looks pretty cool. I got to 14 then just stopped, I couldn't do anymore.
My ship date may move up because of how much I'm ahead of the poolees knowledge wise but how do I keep the physical increasing so I can still become the best that I can be?

[Failuredrill]

Alright thank you very much Sergeant Stonecold. Well the losing weight would be kinda hard at this point it would be muscle I would be losing.
I'm going to start that on monday now. Hopefully it works. I really would like to get 20 plus because Recon, and one of my recruiters Ssgt Mercer says I have to do twenty pull-ups for a long sleeve shirt that looks pretty cool. I got to 14 then just stopped, I couldn't do anymore.
My ship date may move up because of how much I'm ahead of the poolees knowledge wise but how do I keep the physical increasing so I can still become the best that I can be?

The biggest thing when starting out is making sure you have perfect form. If you are making sure that every rep counts you will start to see that just doing pull ups correctly will get you few more reps. About working on other things, I'm not sure what your whole program is right now but if you are planning on doing the recon indoc you need to be doing a 300 pft and very comfortable in the water. To be quite honest with you, I only know one guy that actual passed everything when I was at SOI and ended up being a recon Marine. The best route in my opinion is to hit the fleet, get some experience with the real grunts and go from there. That's where I saw most guys succeed, after they already had some experience and solid all around infantry knowledge while really working on their PT and pool work.

Sidenote: I went to bootcamp with 3 guys that were all gung ho about recon, once they made it through boot 2 of them completely turned into turds in SOI when they got their first taste of grunt life. I know one of those got separated for 'mental issues' the other may have made it but I'm not sure and the third finished SOI and went back to his reserve unit, never passed the indoc. Focus first on becoming a Marine, then focus on becoming a grunt, then maybe you can think about recon / sniper / marsoc if you really have your stuff together. Trust me, you'll find being one of the few and the hard (0311/31/51.... don't know about those damn 52's and 41's ) is quite the challenge itself, but it's worth it.

[32JJW0311]

The biggest thing when starting out is making sure you have perfect form. If you are making sure that every rep counts you will start to see that just doing pull ups correctly will get you few more reps. About working on other things, I'm not sure what your whole program is right now but if you are planning on doing the recon indoc you need to be doing a 300 pft and very comfortable in the water. To be quite honest with you, I only know one guy that actual passed everything when I was at SOI and ended up being a recon Marine. The best route in my opinion is to hit the fleet, get some experience with the real grunts and go from there. That's where I saw most guys succeed, after they already had some experience and solid all around infantry knowledge while really working on their PT and pool work.

Sidenote: I went to bootcamp with 3 guys that were all gung ho about recon, once they made it through boot 2 of them completely turned into turds in SOI when they got their first taste of grunt life. I know one of those got separated for 'mental issues' the other may have made it but I'm not sure and the third finished SOI and went back to his reserve unit, never passed the indoc. Focus first on becoming a Marine, then focus on becoming a grunt, then maybe you can think about recon / sniper / marsoc if you really have your stuff together. Trust me, you'll find being one of the few and the hard (0311/31/51.... don't know about those damn 52's and 41's ) is quite the challenge itself, but it's worth it.

Thanks again Sergeant Stonecold. That's what I'll do. I found out I can take all the training that Recon does without actually being Recon so I'm pretty pumped. Just hope they will let me. Most people go for the name. Just about everyone I talk to is like I want Recon, and I just say do you even know what they do? They say no. I'm just like your not going to be shooting your gun as much or if at all. But thank you very much Sir.

[Lisa 23]

Thanks again Sergeant Stonecold. That's what I'll do. I found out I can take all the training that Recon does without actually being Recon so I'm pretty pumped. Just hope they will let me. Most people go for the name. Just about everyone I talk to is like I want Recon, and I just say do you even know what they do? They say no. I'm just like your not going to be shooting your gun as much or if at all. But thank you very much Sir.

It's not a gun, it's a rifle!

[Failuredrill]

Thanks again Sergeant Stonecold. That's what I'll do. I found out I can take all the training that Recon does without actually being Recon so I'm pretty pumped. Just hope they will let me. Most people go for the name. Just about everyone I talk to is like I want Recon, and I just say do you even know what they do? They say no. I'm just like your not going to be shooting your gun as much or if at all. But thank you very much Sir.

Well you sound motivated but I would like to know more about what you have heard about how you 'can take all the training that Recon does without actually being Recon'.

[32JJW0311]

Well you sound motivated but I would like to know more about what you have heard about how you 'can take all the training that Recon does without actually being Recon'.

Well talking to my recruiter's boss he was telling me that I can volunteer for SEER, jump school, dive school, mountain school, all the fun stuff that Recon goes through that is mandatory for them. I'm sure for me earning to be an 0311 Rifleman Infantry they may not let me do all of the training but I'm sure if I volunteer and request it enough they would get sick of me asking and just let me idk? From what he say's I can try and get it and most likely get it. But then I also heard from some other Marines that unless your MOS requires it you won't be taking it because it's going to cost the military even more money. So I'm not sure. But I'm really hoping that the commander of my unit and company or Batt. would approve, So that's what I heard.