During the COVID-19 outbreak, many gyms have temporarily closed, mine included. Although it’s awful not having a gym to go to, these measures need to be taken. I am looking at it as a time to get better in other areas of fitness. For me, like many others, I am focusing on bodyweight training and running. I am looking forward to getting better at pull ups, and hoping to beat my PR of 23. Below I have laid out three different pull up programs everyone can follow.
Max Divide by Three Program
This is a program that I got from someone and then tweaked, but I do not remember the name of it. This program is the simplest to follow and I had some really good results with it. The program is 5 days a week. Everyday is two max sets. Then sum those two max sets and divide it by 3. Do three more sets with that number. For example if the two max sets were 10 and 8, then divide 18 by 3 to get 6. So three additional sets of 6 reps.
Armstrong Pull Up Program
The Armstrong Pull Up program was created by a Marine, Major Charles Lewis Armstrong. I have used this program myself and I had great success with it. It took my pull ups from 13 to 23 in one month’s time.
Working sets
A working set is just another way of saying a number of reps that can be done for multiple sets. In this program, the working set is used on Wednesday and Thursday. I would low ball the working set for the first week. If Wednesday and Thursday are too easy, then the working set should increase. I recommend starting off with 20%-30% of the max rep set for the working sets. Aim to increase the working sets every week or every other week. For example, someone with 10 as there max reps, would have their working sets be 2 or 3 reps.
Monday
Monday is self-explanatory. Just do 5 sets of as many reps as possible.
Tuesday
Tuesday is the pyramid day. For this, start at a set of 1 rep and then rest for 10 seconds. Then do 2 reps and rest for 20 seconds. Continue to increase this way until a set is failed, which means that set didn’t increase from the previous one. After that, do one max rep set.
Wednesday
Do 3 working sets of pull ups, 3 working sets of wide grip pull ups and 3 working sets of chin ups.
Thursday
Do as many working sets as possible The goal is to get as many sets done, but at least enough that the number of sets done multiplied by the working set reps is equal to max reps.
Friday
Choose whichever workout was the hardest during the week and do it again.
Russian Fighter Program
This is another great program, I have not done it personally but I know people who have had success with it. This program is much simpler. For someone with a max of 5 pull ups then they would do one set of each of the reps for that day:
If more than five reps can be done then this program gets adjusted. If 6-8 reps is the max reps, I would take the difference of the max reps and 5 and add it to each set. For example, if max reps is 7 then 7-5 =2, so add 2 to each set. Monday of week 1 would then be 7,6,5,4,3.
If 9-12 reps can be done then start with 8, for example on Monday of week 1 it would be 8,7,6,5,4. If 12-15 can be done then start Monday of week 1 with 10,8,6,4,2. And if more than 15 can be done, do 15,12,9,6,3.
The progression throughout the week is adding one rep to the last set on Tuesday, then one rep to the second to last on Wednesday and so on. Beginning in the second week, one rep is added to the first set on Monday.
I hope these programs help everyone push themselves during this pandemic. I also hope the workouts help everyone clear their mind from the panic. Be safe and God bless.