Hi Max,
The idea of hanging for rest not sure it’ll work. Your biceps will get a rest, but your grip won’t, and lats will be under tension, so blood flow is restricted, meaning lactic acid can’t get out. Maybe you’d get an extra 2 or 3 out like that. Maybe more, but like you said, grip would have to improve a lot for that, and would take quite long to improve.
My first port of call would be greasing the groove (check breaking muscle articles). Strength is about muscle size, but also efficiency of the brains communication with the muscles. Greasing the groove focuses on that, which allows for quicker gains. Try doing 100 clean reps over a day, spread over 4 or 5 sessions. It’s important to keep reps clean, and stop as soon as lactic acid starts building up, as you want your body to be good at clean and efficient reps. This is something you can do over a weekend, as during the weekday might be hard.
In case you’re wondering, I’m a personal trainer who has trained lots of female clients do their first pull up, and can do 30 pull ups (arms completely straight down). I know you have a trainer already, so don’t want to muddy the waters, but chat with the trainer if they feel it’ll help. Or give it a go on the weekend.
I’ve loved reading your posts, and would love to do a fitness version of what you do.
Any questions, then so please ask away!
