There is always room for improvement! šŸ’ŖšŸ¼

91bravo said:
In one set? I consider myself fairly fit, but no way I can do 100 in one set! My speed would be 5 sets of 20.
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Even though I alternate weeks with bodyweight pullups for volume, and weighted pullups with a 40lb vest for strength, I haven't been able to crack 5 sets of 20 yet. I can get 20 for the first 2 sets, but by the 3rd set, I can't complete 20.

Working on it, as one of the parts of prepping for the Murph Challenge for next year. I figure if I can get to 20 reps in 5 sets with bodyweight, and 10 reps for 5 sets with the 40lb vest, it'll help with the 100 reps wuth a 20lb vest (currently able to do 7, 7, 7, 7, 8 wut the 40lb vest. I find I make better progress by reversing the order of increasing my reps. When I can add an extra rep to the last set, I can usually add an extra rep to the 2nd to last, and last sets the following week, or week after. Adding the extra rep on the 1st or 2nd set, often results in lower reps on the following sets).
 
91bravo said:
In one set?
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I wish.

91bravo said:
I consider myself fairly fit, but no way I can do 100 in one set! My speed would be 5 sets of 20.
Click to expand...

I once did a set of 20 strict pull-ups. Twelve years ago!

Today I did about 80 sets with active rest between them (ie 15-45 seconds of yardwork). So mostly singles, after the first few sets of triples and doubles. I have been neglecting pull-ups lately, so I decided to ramp up the volume in an easy to recover format, in large part to help correct a niggle in my right elbow that plagues me on days where I use the dremel at length. Since I am due for a couple of those days in a row shortly for our friend Andrew of Lucky Dog Knife Co Lucky Dog Knife Co I wanted to get the prehab started a few days early.
 
David Mary said:
I wish.



I once did a set of 20 strict pull-ups. Twelve years ago!

Today I did about 80 sets with active rest between them (ie 15-45 seconds of yardwork). So mostly singles, after the first few sets of triples and doubles. I have been neglecting pull-ups lately, so I decided to ramp up the volume in an easy to recover format, in large part to help correct a niggle in my right elbow that plagues me on days where I use the dremel at length. Since I am due for a couple of those days in a row shortly for our friend Andrew of Lucky Dog Knife Co Lucky Dog Knife Co I wanted to get the prehab started a few days early.
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Awesome! As long as youā€™re consistent, results, speed, strength, and stamina will increase. I try and stay active and right now, Iā€™m working on cardio. My goal is to sprint a full mile non stop. Itā€™s slow going, but results are getting better each week.

A body in motion tends to stay in motion.
A body at rest, tends to stay at rest.
 
bluemax_1 said:
Even though I alternate weeks with bodyweight pullups for volume, and weighted pullups with a 40lb vest for strength, I haven't been able to crack 5 sets of 20 yet. I can get 20 for the first 2 sets, but by the 3rd set, I can't complete 20.

Working on it, as one of the parts of prepping for the Murph Challenge for next year. I figure if I can get to 20 reps in 5 sets with bodyweight, and 10 reps for 5 sets with the 40lb vest, it'll help with the 100 reps wuth a 20lb vest (currently able to do 7, 7, 7, 7, 8 wut the 40lb vest. I find I make better progress by reversing the order of increasing my reps. When I can add an extra rep to the last set, I can usually add an extra rep to the 2nd to last, and last sets the following week, or week after. Adding the extra rep on the 1st or 2nd set, often results in lower reps on the following sets).
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Set a goal, and work towards achieving that goal. Once achieved, set a higher goal.
 
David Mary said:
I wish.



I once did a set of 20 strict pull-ups. Twelve years ago!

Today I did about 80 sets with active rest between them (ie 15-45 seconds of yardwork). So mostly singles, after the first few sets of triples and doubles. I have been neglecting pull-ups lately, so I decided to ramp up the volume in an easy to recover format, in large part to help correct a niggle in my right elbow that plagues me on days where I use the dremel at length. Since I am due for a couple of those days in a row shortly for our friend Andrew of Lucky Dog Knife Co Lucky Dog Knife Co I wanted to get the prehab started a few days early.
Click to expand...
If you're talking about lateral epicondylitis/ tennis elbow; 2 things I've found to be incredibly effective for remediation and prevention, are doing the Tyler Twist exercise with a Theraband Flexbar, and for prevention, regularly doing sets with extensor bands.

When I first got tennis elbow years ago, I just tried to take it easy in the hopes it would go away. As most folks who've had epicondylitis know, it doesn't usually go away easily.

After 6-8 weeks where it got progressively worse, I searched for a solution and learned about the Tyler Twist. Ordered a Flexbar, and felt relief the very first time I did the exercise. By Day 3, the pain was significantly reduced, and by Day 5 doing the Tyler Twist exercises, the pain and inflammation had subsided so much, I was able to start lifting again after ~2 months. 7 days after starting with the Tyler Twist exercises, the pain was completely gone.

Most of the guys I've recommended the Flexbar/Tyler Twist to, have had similar results; significant pain reduction within the first 3 days, back to working out by Day 5, pain-free after 7-10 days.

After that, I ordered extensor bands. I finally broke the last of the extensor bands I'd bought after ~3 years, and got complacent. After ~18 months since doing the extensor exercises, the tennis elbow came back. Immediately used the Flexbar again, but I couldn't remember the brand of extensor bands I'd previously bought. Ended up trying ~7 different brands, and they all sucked in comparison.

One day, while digging around the basement. I found one last unopened pack of the original extensor bands.

FlexEx. They're available on Amazon now (they weren't ~10 years ago). They're actually cheaper ordered direct, though.

They come in 3-packs with 3 different resistance levels. The standard pack has Yellow/Light, Red/Medium and Blue/Heavy resistance bands. I find the Yellow too light on their own, but they can be doubled up with the other bands for more resistance (and they may be the ticket for rehab, or maybe folks who don't do a lot of forearm exercises).

The Sport pack is what I'd recommend for most guys. They come with Green/Medium-Heavy in place of the Yellow/Light in the standard packs.

I use these twice a week.

For each hand. I do
50 reps Red to warm up
50 reps Blue
50 reps Blue
100 reps Green.

The bands last months before they snap, and my hands are just big enough to palm a basketball.

P.S.
There's a Reverse Tyler Twist for Golfer's elbow/medial epicondylitis.

For folk wondering which one they might have;
While standing straight with elbows at your side, raise your forearm parallel to the ground and hold your hand in the thumbs up position. If the pain is on the outside of the elbow, it's tennis elbow/lateral epicondylitis. If the pain is on the body side/inside of the elbow, it's Golfer's elbow/medial epicondylitis.
 
Here's another part of my elbow protocol.


And tomorrow I will include wide grip spike pushups with these contraptions my maintenance supervisor built for me at a job I had fifteen years ago.

IMG-7826.jpg


I had told him of an article I read by a kung fu guy on how to develop strong wrists for bare handed punching, so that hitting a moving target off-line would not destroy the wrists. He described doing pushups on spikes like these as adding a significant stabilizing component to pushups, building strength around the wrist. So Jim made these for me with scrap materials he had at the maintenance desk! Well, I found that with the wide grip on these, they also seem to reinforce the muscles around the elbow, and combined with the above plate drill (also learned from a kung fu guy) finger tip pushups, and self administered forearm and hand massage, tend to fairly quickly make my elbows pain free and quite resilient, even if I have neglected those exercises for a while.
 
I just looked up the Tyler twist. Interesting! Actually, my washine machine is busted, so I have been doing laundry by hand lately, and have to wring stuff out by hand before I put it in the dryer. Two birds with one stone! Extensor bands, also a great idea. I have not used them in a while, or rather never really used proper extensor bands, but I have done similar exercises with office elsatics, and the nice warm burn I get from light sets of high reps can definitely help. So I'm going to hit those before bed. Thank you very much for your post B bluemax_1 !
 
IMG_7331-L.jpg



Points make them exponentially harder to use. Iā€™m no longer strong enough to use them without being on my knees, this way.


I made these recently, but I used similar when I was very young. Despite being built out of pipe cleaners, I was capable of hitting harder than my wrists could support, so these were the answer. As a result, Iā€™ve always been able to do a push-up while holding screwdrivers.
 
David Mary said:
May I ask your bodyweight B bluemax_1 ? And is that 20 reps x five sets or vice versa?
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Was 188lbs but cut down to 178lbs, and back to a 6-pack (plus hernia bubble šŸ˜…). Still working towards my competition weight of 198lbs from 3 decades ago.

And yes, 20 reps x 5 sets.

Was ~167lbs for many years. Down ~40lbs of muscle vs my competition days (lower bodyfat percentage, back then. I used to stay around 6-7% bodyfat year round, at 198lbs/90kg).

The lean muscle doesn't come as easily nowadays, and I lose it much more easily. Since I began trying to see if I could (even) get back to my peak muscle mass and strength from those days, I've gained 10lbs of lean muscle in a few months, then lost it again, 4 different times.

Twice was due to messing up my diet (cutting too drastically, to cut the fat I'd gained from a dirty bulk, gaining 15-17lbs total, 10lbs of muscle and 5-7lbs of fat). Twice due to illness (I lose muscle insanely quickly if I get really sick. Bronchitis in June a few years ago? What the heck...).

Stalled out on progress recently, and realized the extra cardio I was doing, was great for cutting, but I wasn't compensating with enough calories, so now I've gone to adding 6tbsp of EVOO, to add an extra ~780 calories per day, with the minimum increase in added quantity as possible (always the hardest part for me; eating for mass gains).
 
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Wow, you're a pretty big guy to be doing 5 x 20 pullups. That's impressive. :thumbsup:
 
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