Weighted pull ups are awesome! They will build the lats more than working on one arm chin ups will and will push your repetition pull up numbers through the roof. Done properly they will also build the lower traps and the rhombozoids and do a hell of a job building your grip. I do not rate them as great bicep builders though, but you can't have everything.
Weighted pull ups will balance out all your pressing work and will provide an excellent base for working on one arm chin ups.
First of all a word on technique. Do not let your shoulders shrug up at any point and focus on pulling the elbows down. Use any grip you want. Do not use a pull up bar that is too high as jumping up with weight will mess up your shoulders. Hang with straight arms and tight shoulders before commencing the pull. Look up at the bar at all times. Tightening your abs, squeezing your grip and clenching your glutes will give you an extra kick and will teach you to develop maximum tension. The chin should be over the bar at the top. If you cannot do the weight is too heavy. Do not kick or swing.
Wieghted chin ups can be a confusing exercise to program into your routine. I find three approaches that work for weighted pull ups-
1. The Conjugate Approach
Every 4-5 days pick a different variation of the pull up and work up to a 1, 2, or 3 repetition maximum weight. Use very small increments and take long breaks. Try to set a record every time in the variation you are using. I recommend having 3 favorite variations. For me these are:
Medium width underhand grip Chin Up
Medium width overhand grip Pull Up
Narrow Width Neutral grip Pull Up
Maintain 1, 2 and 3 repetition maximum records in each. This gives you nine records to break. Try to break each one of these records in a 9 workout period, and try again the next cycle. This method will teach you how to strain as hard as possible while pulling and will develop basic absolute strength. Using small increments will force you to do a number of repetitions above 85% of your maximum. This method will increase your max very rapidly.
Follow up you record weight with a reduced weight and perform 3 sets of 6 pull ups with the same variation. The last set should be fairly hard. The objective here is to build some muscle.
Then find your weak link and attack and build it up with a lot of volume. If your biceps are weak do close grip underhand chin ups. If your lats are weak do medium grip overhand pull ups. If your shoulders are weak do wide grip pull ups, if your upper back is weak do bodyweight rows, if your stabilizers are weak do one arm bodyweight rows, if your forearms are weak do close grip overhand pull ups. If your grip is weak do one arm dead hangs and a variety of towel chins. If you are weak at the top do top partial pull ups.
A couple of days after this session do some power chins with the main variety you want to develop. Power chins are simply chin ups done with as much force as possible with the objective of ramming the upper chest into the bar. Do not use any swing or kick, this is not a muscle up. You are try to develop explosiveness in the lats. Do 8 sets of 2. Follow this up with more volume work for your weak points as described in the previous para.
This system is obviously inspired by westside and I have used to very successfully on both myself and my clients.
2. The Accumulated Volume Method
This is based to a large degree on the training of soviet weightlifters in the 80s.
Decided how many weighted pull ups you want to do in a month. A good way to estimate this is to simply add up how much pressing work you usually do in a month and subtract 150. For me this number is 370. This is the number of weighted chin ups you want to do in a month.
Distribute 60% of this workload to the first 2 weeks, 25% to the third week and 15% to the last week of the month. For me this means I will do 110 weighted pull ups in the first and second week each, 90 pull ups in the third week and 70 pull ups in the fourth week.
The first two weeks are the preparatory phase, where 70% of the work is done between 70-85% of your maximum. So if you weigh 90 and your best weighted chin up is 60 your max will be 150kgs. Your range will be 105-125 or 15-35kgs of added weight. In this phase you have to complete all these reps with this weight using not more than 6 reps per set in whatever manner you deem fit. You could do 3-4 sets every day, or your could do 5-6 sets every alternate day like I do or any other workable combination that you can think of. For the remaining 30% of the volume 10% should be heavy singles above 85% of your max and 20% should be the warm up sets of weighted chin ups. Bodyweight chin ups will not be counted in the total.
The third week is the intensification phase, where 60% of the volume will be between 80-90% of your maximum. 30% will be below it and 10% will be heavy singles above it. This is the time to set records for future calculations.
The fourth week is the deload phase where all repetitions are to be done with no more than 70% of your maximum.
3. The Double Progression Method
The simplest method in the book. Choose a certain starting weight and reps and sets. Keep using that weight until you hit whatever target volume of sets and reps you have. Increase the weight and start over. Set and rep combinations I like are:
3 sets of 4-6 adding not more than 2kgs at a time
5sets of 2-3 adding not more than 1 kg at a time
3-6 sets of 2 adding 2kgs
3 sets of 3-5 adding 2 kgs
I hope this helps you structure your weighted pull up training.
Weighted pull ups will balance out all your pressing work and will provide an excellent base for working on one arm chin ups.
First of all a word on technique. Do not let your shoulders shrug up at any point and focus on pulling the elbows down. Use any grip you want. Do not use a pull up bar that is too high as jumping up with weight will mess up your shoulders. Hang with straight arms and tight shoulders before commencing the pull. Look up at the bar at all times. Tightening your abs, squeezing your grip and clenching your glutes will give you an extra kick and will teach you to develop maximum tension. The chin should be over the bar at the top. If you cannot do the weight is too heavy. Do not kick or swing.
Wieghted chin ups can be a confusing exercise to program into your routine. I find three approaches that work for weighted pull ups-
1. The Conjugate Approach
Every 4-5 days pick a different variation of the pull up and work up to a 1, 2, or 3 repetition maximum weight. Use very small increments and take long breaks. Try to set a record every time in the variation you are using. I recommend having 3 favorite variations. For me these are:
Medium width underhand grip Chin Up
Medium width overhand grip Pull Up
Narrow Width Neutral grip Pull Up
Maintain 1, 2 and 3 repetition maximum records in each. This gives you nine records to break. Try to break each one of these records in a 9 workout period, and try again the next cycle. This method will teach you how to strain as hard as possible while pulling and will develop basic absolute strength. Using small increments will force you to do a number of repetitions above 85% of your maximum. This method will increase your max very rapidly.
Follow up you record weight with a reduced weight and perform 3 sets of 6 pull ups with the same variation. The last set should be fairly hard. The objective here is to build some muscle.
Then find your weak link and attack and build it up with a lot of volume. If your biceps are weak do close grip underhand chin ups. If your lats are weak do medium grip overhand pull ups. If your shoulders are weak do wide grip pull ups, if your upper back is weak do bodyweight rows, if your stabilizers are weak do one arm bodyweight rows, if your forearms are weak do close grip overhand pull ups. If your grip is weak do one arm dead hangs and a variety of towel chins. If you are weak at the top do top partial pull ups.
A couple of days after this session do some power chins with the main variety you want to develop. Power chins are simply chin ups done with as much force as possible with the objective of ramming the upper chest into the bar. Do not use any swing or kick, this is not a muscle up. You are try to develop explosiveness in the lats. Do 8 sets of 2. Follow this up with more volume work for your weak points as described in the previous para.
This system is obviously inspired by westside and I have used to very successfully on both myself and my clients.
2. The Accumulated Volume Method
This is based to a large degree on the training of soviet weightlifters in the 80s.
Decided how many weighted pull ups you want to do in a month. A good way to estimate this is to simply add up how much pressing work you usually do in a month and subtract 150. For me this number is 370. This is the number of weighted chin ups you want to do in a month.
Distribute 60% of this workload to the first 2 weeks, 25% to the third week and 15% to the last week of the month. For me this means I will do 110 weighted pull ups in the first and second week each, 90 pull ups in the third week and 70 pull ups in the fourth week.
The first two weeks are the preparatory phase, where 70% of the work is done between 70-85% of your maximum. So if you weigh 90 and your best weighted chin up is 60 your max will be 150kgs. Your range will be 105-125 or 15-35kgs of added weight. In this phase you have to complete all these reps with this weight using not more than 6 reps per set in whatever manner you deem fit. You could do 3-4 sets every day, or your could do 5-6 sets every alternate day like I do or any other workable combination that you can think of. For the remaining 30% of the volume 10% should be heavy singles above 85% of your max and 20% should be the warm up sets of weighted chin ups. Bodyweight chin ups will not be counted in the total.
The third week is the intensification phase, where 60% of the volume will be between 80-90% of your maximum. 30% will be below it and 10% will be heavy singles above it. This is the time to set records for future calculations.
The fourth week is the deload phase where all repetitions are to be done with no more than 70% of your maximum.
3. The Double Progression Method
The simplest method in the book. Choose a certain starting weight and reps and sets. Keep using that weight until you hit whatever target volume of sets and reps you have. Increase the weight and start over. Set and rep combinations I like are:
3 sets of 4-6 adding not more than 2kgs at a time
5sets of 2-3 adding not more than 1 kg at a time
3-6 sets of 2 adding 2kgs
3 sets of 3-5 adding 2 kgs
I hope this helps you structure your weighted pull up training.
