Aug 25, 2017 · 2 min read
Hey Max, love the posts and enjoy reading about your monthly challenges!
As a health and fitness nut, I wanted to offer a couple of thoughts as you enter the home stretch to 40.
- Have you been taking any supplements? The two that I’ve found most helpful for short term gains in strength are branch chain amino acids (BCAAs) and creatine. The only issue with creatine is that it can add water weight which may go counter to pull-ups, but I think the associated strength gains make it worth it.
- Have you experimented with sets of full extension pull-ups, including long pauses at the top and bottom? With the 90 degree form and pulling your elbows back, you will be isolating more of your larger back muscles, but possibly at the expense of gains in arm strength and overall endurance. What muscles do you feel reach failure first?
- Have you tried incorporating reverse bench press exercises into your routine? Basically you get a straight bar, usually resting on the bar of a squat rack, and lay down on the floor while grabbing the bar and pulling yourself up to it keeping your heels on the ground. There are machines that simulate this movement, but I like the straight bar because of the range of motion. You’re working many of the same muscles but with a slightly different range of motion which helps target slightly different areas of the back. There are something like 20+ muscles in the back and not all get worked equally in a pull-up.
- Are you doing a lot of core exercises and stretching? As you probably know, your back muscles are connected to your core and hips, so core exercises will help strengthen those connective tissues and stretching will help with your overall range of motion and muscle fatigue, especially when pushing yourself on the last few reps which is where you can over-extend a muscle and without proper flexibility you could reach failure faster or even create a tear.
I’m not a professional trainer or anything, but I geek out on this stuff so just take it for what it’s worth. Good luck getting to 40! I’ll be pulling for you (cheesy pun intended).
