Come on! Two years ago, I started training weighted pull-ups for the first time with the
goal of doing a pull-up with my wife on my back, which was equivalent to 77% of my body weight.
The moment I achieved it, I stopped training weighted pull-ups and started focusing on training
one-arm pull-ups, and eventually I successfully achieved the one-arm pull-up. After that, I made
the mistake of stopping doing any form of high intensity pulling training by shifting my focus
to pull-up endurance training in order to chase views. I did this for a few months until I came
across the first ever online weighted calisthenics competition hosted by Micha Schulz. In this
competition, the weighted pull-up is one of the moves to be tested, so I went ahead to test my
weighted pull-up for the first time in 2 years. To my great surprise, I was only able to do 75 lbs,
which was 57% of my bodyweight, a big 20% drop from my personal record. I was shocked at how much
strength I had lost. This was unacceptable to me, so I decided to start training weighted pull-ups
again. I was able to regain my weighted pull-up strength back to 90 lbs after a month of training,
which is 68.7% of my bodyweight. After training for another 2 weeks, I was able to hit 95 lbs,
which is 72.5% of my bodyweight. After training for two more weeks, I was able to hit 100 lbs,
which is 76% of my bodyweight. It took me around 2 months to regain my strength back to being able
to pull up with an extra 76% of my body weight. The timeframe is nearly identical to 2 years ago
when I first trained weighted pull-ups, where it took me 57 days to achieve pulling up with
an extra 77% of my body weight. At this point, I thought about stopping and calling it a video,
especially if we consider and add in the weight of the chain and the belt,
the load actually becomes 77.4% of my bodyweight, which will surpass my previous 77.1% of my
bodyweight PR by 0.3%. However, I thought to myself, why not try to go for a decisive new
PR instead? Therefore, I decided to continue to train and aim to achieve a pull-up with 105 lbs,
which is 80% of my bodyweight. I continued to train, train, and train. However,
a personal life-changing event happened to me, which made me have to alter my sleep schedule,
which significantly affected my weighted pull-up performance. Prior to the event,
I was training with 2 reps of 80 lbs pull-up for 4 sets. After the event, I couldn’t even finish
the third set. It took me another whole month to finally be able to complete all 4 sets of 2 reps
of 80 lbs pull-up again. After that, I decided to double-check if I could still pull 100 lbs,
and yes, I could. Two weeks later, I decided to go for 105 lbs, and this happened.
Nice! Oh!
As usual, due to the camera angle, I know some people are going to whine about whether my chin
is really above the bar, so here’s another camera angle that clearly shows that my chin
was above the bar. Nice! Oh! Yo PR! Man, that's a great start, that's a great start.
Okay let's take a look at the weights guys, take a look at the weights. We have 5, 10, 45,
45, so that is 105. Now it’s time to talk about what everyone cares the most,
which is how I trained for it. When I mentioned the exact training plan I did 2 years ago, which
includes the percentage of the weight relative to my body weight, reps, and sets, a lot of people
copied exactly what I did. Some people messaged me, telling me that it was impossible to complete
the workout because the intensity was too high, but some other people also messaged me, telling
me that the workout was too easy, and they weren’t seeing the same results in 57 days as I did. The
truth is, those exact weights, reps, and sets work for me, but won’t necessarily for you, because
it’s impossible to have a cookie cutter workout program that works for everyone, so this time I am
going to explain how I trained at a higher level. The way I trained for it is finding the heaviest
weight that allows me to do a pull-up with strict form that is slow and controlled. When you are
going for one rep max, it is inevitable that your form is going to break down. For example, I wasn’t
able to maintain scapula depression, but since my chin was still above the bar, it still counts.
But when you train, you shouldn’t train with an intensity that causes you to elevate your scapula.
Another example is that during one-rep max competitions, as long as your chin is above
the bar for just one millisecond, it still counts. As a result, competitors pull a bit explosively at
the bottom part to create a momentum to avoid pulling hard at the top portion of the pull-up,
since pulling at the top portion of the pull-up is the most difficult. It makes sense to do this
during competitions, but it does not make sense to do it during training, because you will never
strengthen the top portion of the pull-up if you train like that. I can go on and on with
more examples, but in the end it all comes down to whether you are being honest with yourself.
If the weight that allows you to do a slow strict weighted pull-up is only 70% of one rep max,
that will be totally fine. There’s zero point in forcing it to be 85% of one rep max and compromise
the form just because Geek Climber trained it with 85% of one rep max. If you can actually do a slow
strict pull-up with 90% of one rep max, you should go for it and not drop it back to 85% just because
Geek Climber trained it with 85% of one rep max. Once you figure out the perfect weight, do as many
reps with that weight as possible in a set. For me personally, it was 3 reps initially, and then it
became 2 reps. If you have good endurance, it could be 4 or 5 reps and that’s totally okay.
As for the set count, I believe you need at least 4 sets to get the necessary volume in.
You can rest up to as long as 5 minutes in between sets. For most people, a 5-minute rest should
be more than enough, but if somehow you can’t complete the set with a 5-minute rest in between,
reduce the weight to the point that will allow you to finish all 4 sets with a strict form. To
show you some real numbers, for me, it was 3 reps of 55 lbs for 4 sets, and it evolved to 2 reps of
70 lbs for 4 sets, and then 2 reps of 75 lbs for 4 sets, and then 2 reps of 80 lbs for 4 sets. Again,
this is what works for the 2022 Geek Climber, and it won’t even necessarily work for the 2020
Geek Climber, so you really need to figure out what works for you based on these principles.
Hope that’s not too complicated. Feel free to comment below if you have any questions.
Additionally, out of curiosity, I decided to test my max reps of body weight pull-ups,
and I was able to do 16, which is 1 rep more than my previous PR 15. This again shows that
max strength and endurance are two completely different things. Lastly, I know a ton of people
want to see me training for 25 reps bodyweight pull-ups, but I decided to put it in the back
of my to-do list because I realized that I am much more interested in high intensity training
than endurance training. I decided to take a break from weighted pull-ups since I hit a PR.
I decided to change things up a bit and continue my high intensity pulling training by training
the weighted muscle-up. I like it so far, and I will make a video of it in the future,
so definitely stay tuned for that. Thanks for watching. If you enjoy this video,
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