Greasing the groove - how much 'grease'?

[lljohansen]

Hello

I have just bought and installed a pull-up/chin-up doorway bar (a GYM MASTER EXERCISE BAR) http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001Y7OEQY/ref=s9_simb_gw_xu_s13_p200_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=1HZJQY2J75XBJTAC8P0S&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467128473&pf_rd_i=468294

To 'grease the groove' on my pull-ups and chin- ups.

My question is; how much 'grease'? meaning how many pull-ups/chin-upps a day? how often? just one at a time?

Hope somebody can answer these questions.

Thank you very much.

[lovestolift]

Here is Pavel's article on GTG, it should answer your question.

[lljohansen]

Thank you very much.

Very good article, with a lot of humour - good read.

lljohansen

[ViolatedBird]

I read the article and the ensuing posts in the tread, but I'm still confused. They mention keeping reps low and keeping training frequent, but I need something specific.

Does frequent mean 10 times a day, 3 times a day, or simply as many as one can tolerate?

How many reps should one do if training for pullups/chinups? I can do approximately 2-3 before failure. So, I'm assuming that I should be doing a single pullup -- and I'm going to guess I should do one pullup at 3 seperate times of day? Am I right here?

[holvoetn]

(removed the duplicate post)


So you can do 2-3 before failure.
3 times one is still 3 a day.

Why not go for 10 times 1 per day (if you can) ? That's 3 times more !

Go for quantity across the day here.

[22Alpha]

Are you able to do pull-ups/chins? If so, how many?

[Hawkeye]

This program is from the thread with Pavel's article:

6 week program for "zero fighters"

Let's say you are so weak that you can't even do a single chin up.Don't worry.But you can do flexed arm hang right? Remember this was an item during your primary school NAFA test? In more chim terms,the flexed arm hang is called a static hold.

So everyday,learn to do 5 sets of static holds 3 times daily.Hang there until your arms give way.Best if you have a bar at home,if not go to the fitness corner at your neighbourhood.By 2-3 weeks,you SHOULD be able to do 1 single chin up.

Once you can break that zero barrier,you are well on your way.Now,the program is such you do sets of 1 rep again for 3 times daily. Each time,you will do 8 sets of a single rep with 1-2 min break in between.So that's 24 chinups in a single day.

If you work hard enough,you SHOULD be able to progress from 1 rep to 3-4 rep within ONE week.When you can do 4 reps,continue with the 3x daily program,but do not do 8 sets of 4 reps,instead do 8 sets of 2.Remember when training for strength,always stop short of failure.

When your reps have gone up,it's time to cut down on volume,so you will do less sets.Hence when you can do 8 chins,you should do 4 sets of 6 reps and so on.

To make things clearer,

Week 1-2
Static holds daily-5 sets for 3 times

Week 3

8 sets of 1 rep for 3 times daily

Week 4

8 sets of 2 reps for 3 times daily

Week 5

6 sets of 4 reps for 3 times daily

Week 6(by this time,I assume you're knocking out 8 reps)

4 sets of 6 reps for 3 times daily.

[seadog]

Be careful. I once tried to get all of my friends on a bodyweight program called simplefit. It has you doing lots of pull ups/chin ups which is great. What is not so great is that more than a few of my friends got tedonitis in their elbows from doing more P/Us than their muscles could support. Greasing the groove is great but don't push too far. This type of injury lasts way too long. I would say start out with 5-7 sets spaced out for recovery, i once did them during commercial TV breaks. If you don't experience any twinges after a couple weeks go a little harder, perhaps doing ladders for 45 reps. Your elbows are the guage. They will get a little sore so you have to feel the difference between sore and tendonitis. I guess the answer is just do not push the accelerator down and hope for the best you might not appreciate the outcome.

[s0ku]

I tried static holds with wide-grip pull-ups the last few days, and now my biceps are killing me. I was able to bench press today, but my weak bicep almost lost me the weight. Is this normal? I thought wide-grip pull-ups de-emphasized the biceps and emphasized the lats. I've never experienced this with chin-ups, which are supposed to hit the bicep, and I can do many of those.