Guest Jonah Posted December 4, 2001 Share Posted December 4, 2001 Please excuse my ignorance, but I'm fairly new to the "grip" world of strength training. I'm looking for information on rafter pullups. I've mentioned to friends that this feat of strength has been done (often) and I have prompty been accused of being delusional. ??? So, if anyone can tell me who does this well...what grip needs to be developed (my goal is to perform this myself as the ultimate correction to those in complete ignorance)...are there any records and any training tips. Pull-ups have never been a problem, but pinching a rafter an performing them...Amazing. Jonah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuel Crusher Posted December 4, 2001 Share Posted December 4, 2001 I read in one topic, can't remember if it was this board or the hardgainer forums, where one chap substituted the bar on his pulldown machine for a piece of 4" by 2" wood. Thus enabling progression up the weight stack and towards proper pullups. If you tried this though you would have to be very careful of the stack falling if you lost your grip. :0 FC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terryduty Posted December 4, 2001 Share Posted December 4, 2001 Mark Harris aka Monket Paws has a cool video of himself doing rafter pull-ups. He also does them seated with barbell plates in his lap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyrannosaurus Dave Posted December 5, 2001 Share Posted December 5, 2001 The best I have heard of is Al Berger in 1941, 12 consecutive chins on rafters at bdwt 193#. Considering his size, this might be a record. This is a pinch grip feat, so it could be trained like any other pinch grip goal, except real difficult, especially so for heavier men. Scott Clayton mentioned a clever idea for working on this in his workout reports around Thanksgiving. Check it out and good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the swiss Posted December 5, 2001 Share Posted December 5, 2001 rafter pull ups are cool, but vary very much in difficulty depending on: - rafter width - rafter distance, if you use 2 rafters: closer rafters are harder, because you can't use as much pec strength - rafter texture. I can do pull ups with 2 rafters about 18cm wide and 40cm appart, am working on doing those with closer rafters. My goal being pullups on one rafter. Those I find extremely impressive. Have never seen it done actually. train hard david Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roark Posted December 5, 2001 Share Posted December 5, 2001 Rafter pull-ups are an inverse in some ways of pinch gripping parallel pieces of wood from the floor. Has anyone tried making a rafter like structure with 2 x 6 wood separated the appropriate distance, then stepping inside it and pinch deadlifting it? Until you can deadlift your bodyweight in this manner, a pull-up will not be possible- I know there are other muscles involved, but this seems a good beginning step, or am I missing something? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Askalas Posted December 6, 2001 Share Posted December 6, 2001 Doing "pinch deadlifts" sounds like a good idea to build up the ability to do rafter pullups. It seems something like Brookfield's Mr. Pinch-O-Grip would come in handy for training this (see his book "Mastery of Hand Strength"). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest runchman Posted December 9, 2001 Share Posted December 9, 2001 Sheesh, now I've got another gizmo to make... I figure with a couple pieces of 2x6, my PDA shrug bar and some means of attaching the two, I'll have that rafter deadlift setup ready to go. Have to at least use the softball grip thingy that I made today though before going off to make a new toy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.