One Arm Pull Up Training!

[hellswindstaff]

Perhaps, the rings aren't more difficult but more user-friendly?

[patrickmeniru]

Perhaps, the rings aren't more difficult but more user-friendly?

Yeah, i'd say that sounds about right.

[patrickmeniru]

I've decided to start working one arm pushups (i'll call them OAPu) in addition to the pulling motion. I've realised that doing one with strict form (not rocky style) is actually quite a worthy challenge, and should help balance out my pushing and pulling strength. At the moment i'm getting a lot stronger on pulls than i am with presses.

Managed 1 x 3 frenchies yesterday with 24kg additional weight PB in terms of reps with that weight. Also did some one arm lat pull-downs with my left arm, turns out it's a LOT weaker than my right, especially at the top of the OAC.

[hellswindstaff]

I've decided to start working one arm pushups (i'll call them OAPu) in addition to the pulling motion. I've realised that doing one with strict form (not rocky style) is actually quite a worthy challenge, and should help balance out my pushing and pulling strength. At the moment i'm getting a lot stronger on pulls than i am with presses.

Managed 1 x 3 frenchies yesterday with 24kg additional weight PB in terms of reps with that weight. Also did some one arm lat pull-downs with my left arm, turns out it's a LOT weaker than my right, especially at the top of the OAC.

My pulling strength is a lot higher than my pushing strength as well. I can row with dumbbells at 130-140lbs weight... but can't push that with both hands... through a full ROM at least.

[Electron]

Seems like we're all unbalanced. I used to be able to bench more than I could squat.

What's a strict one arm push up, and what's a rocky style push up?

[patrickmeniru]

Seems like we're all unbalanced. I used to be able to bench more than I could squat.

What's a strict one arm push up, and what's a rocky style push up?

Jim describes both quite well:

http://beastskills.com/tutorials/tutorials/45

Basically, Rocky style is easiest and most common, legs splayed arm out to the side, leaning to one side. Strict form is legs very slightly apart, neutral body position in terms of leaning and arm close to body, much more like a normal pushup position.

[Electron]

I find the arm-in position a lot harder. Can you do any rocky style 1 arm push ups?

[demarcoa]

Got my first full left arm OAC (from a hang, not with feet on the ground) from a 2'' bar today 8)

@ Patrickmeniru

Do you think that the rings make the maneuver easier or hardier than a straight bar?

I'm not 100% sure, because i haven't tried on a bar for a long time, but i'm pretty sure they make it a tiny bit easier. When you are on rings, you don't have to worry about controlling your rotation, so you're always in the best position to pull-up. Although, i think that once you have the strength to do a OAC, you can probably do it on either a bar or rings, might just take a little practice to get used to the one you don't normally use. That's my best guess at any rate.

I think you're right, but never tried rings either.

I find the arm-in position a lot harder. Can you do any rocky style 1 arm push ups?

It is. I found that lever pushups progressing to using just the fingers of your extended arm helped a lot. Weighted dips can help too.

[Electron]

Good job on the left armed 1APU. That's a good idea with the extended hand helping. Will try...

[patrickmeniru]

Demarcoa: Congrats on getting the OAC!

TentacleGrip: Yeah i can do a few 'rocky style' pushups, maybe 3 or 4 each arm, but no strict form ones, so i'll work towards that.

[hellswindstaff]

At certain positions I am beginning to get lift off, but only in very very slight lift off. I can feel my feet barely touching the ground, but still touching the ground none-the-less. A few more weeks and I assume that I should be able to pull off one.

[hellswindstaff]

I think after I'm satisfied with my 1AC progress then I will g2g on another bodyweight exercise; front planche, back lever, or flag... dunno which yet, but this training really isn't taking up any of my time.

[patrickmeniru]

I think after I'm satisfied with my 1AC progress then I will g2g on another bodyweight exercise; front planche, back lever, or flag... dunno which yet, but this training really isn't taking up any of my time.

To be honest you can start working your flag and planche now, they won't affect your ability to do OACs or recover from OAC training. For planche, start with planche leans, then try tuck planche on parallettes, then adv. tuck, then try tuck planche on floor and work up through the progressions on the floor from there is my advice, you can also go back to paralletes for PL pushups too in the various progressions. PLANCHE PROGRESSION IS SLOW! even compared to OAC, so best to start practicing asap. Mix the planche work with HS work to help shoulder development. HS work will also help the flag, you need lots of pressing strength in the bottom arm, then just do lots of ab and oblique work and you should get it pretty quickly, depending on BW etc.

[hellswindstaff]

I think after I'm satisfied with my 1AC progress then I will g2g on another bodyweight exercise; front planche, back lever, or flag... dunno which yet, but this training really isn't taking up any of my time.

To be honest you can start working your flag and planche now, they won't affect your ability to do OACs or recover from OAC training. For planche, start with planche leans, then try tuck planche on parallettes, then adv. tuck, then try tuck planche on floor and work up through the progressions on the floor from there is my advice, you can also go back to paralletes for PL pushups too in the various progressions. PLANCHE PROGRESSION IS SLOW! even compared to OAC, so best to start practicing asap. Mix the planche work with HS work to help shoulder development. HS work will also help the flag, you need lots of pressing strength in the bottom arm, then just do lots of ab and oblique work and you should get it pretty quickly, depending on BW etc.

Actually the other day I was just d%cking around and did a flag with my legs tucked behind me but the dropped after like 1 sec, so I'm pretty close. Also I stuck out one leg at a time with the back lever, but just for a second or two... getting close there too. Planche... LOL hasn't gone much of anywhere.

[hellswindstaff]

So I completely agree... planche is slow go. my assumption is that all the other bodyweight moves will play into it though.

[Electron]

Just wanted to say that I got a secret weapon (no, not the grip kind) that will help me train for and gauge my progress on the 1AC. I've just moved into my new place so stuff still needs to be done, but I'll make a video of myself using and explaining it later when I can.

^Letting the anticipation build Mighty Joe style...

[hellswindstaff]

Just wanted to say that I got a secret weapon (no, not the grip kind) that will help me train for and gauge my progress on the 1AC. I've just moved into my new place so stuff still needs to be done, but I'll make a video of myself using and explaining it later when I can.

^Letting the anticipation build Mighty Joe style...

Some type of counter weight system?

[patrickmeniru]

Counter weight set-up would be cool, nice to get some kind of empirical sense of progress. I tried a negative yesterday, but couldn't get it at all, just dropped like a stone, a decrease in strength from the last time i tried a couple weeks ago. Pretty frustrating! I'm not too concerned though, just a nice little reminder that progress is slow with the more advanced stuff. I think that i had been getting a little ahead of myself with the progress that i'd been making so nice to have a reality check to make sure i don't try and go too far too fast. Will keep going with weighted chins, frenchies and try another neg in a couple weeks, see how that goes. Main thing is that i'm avoiding too much elbow pain i guess, eventually the tendons will be strong enough that i can increase the workload a little.

Anyone else got any advice on plateaus? It's tough because i can't just train more... elbow will get crushed. So i'm guessing i just carry on as usual and eventually the elbow will become conditioned so that i can handle more work and progress from there.

[hellswindstaff]

I would say drop the eccentric work... it's what's tearing up your elbow. I'm not saying that eccentric strength isn't necessary, because it is, but a supra-maximal eccentric will not necessarily carry over to a concentric movement.

What I've been doing for recovery is high rep band pulls. Ive been looping the band around my chin up bar and sitting on the ground and grabbing the band and pulling down, just to pump blood in my arms... intensity is pretty low, around 50-200 reps, just to get the blood pumping in the area.

Also, I made a counter-weight system last night. Attached a loading pin to a rope and threw it over my pull up bar. I did an assisted one arm chin with 25lbs attached as the counter weight. So I'm getting pretty close.

[patrickmeniru]

Nice!! 25lbs is getting pretty close, probably about 30lbs of actual assistance depending on the friction of the bar, it will be nice to be able to start taking a pound off here and there.

I'm not sure that eccentrics are what's hurting my elbow - they don't feel noticeably sore after i do them, and i only do them once a fortnight or so. It seems to be more muscle ups that cause me pain in the elbow. Nevertheless, there's no point asking for advice then ignoring it when it comes along!! I think what i'll do is drop the one arm exercises altogether for a while, focus on doing one or two muscle ups each day until i get no pain, then up the volume of muscle ups until i can do 2 sets of 5 good reps each day without pain. I'll also keep up the weighted chins and pull-ups once or twice a week, but use a weight that i'm really comfortable with - say 25kg. Hopefully within a few weeks i'll be able to do muscle ups without pain, which will be a good sign that my elbow conditioning is improving.

Either way, i'll start using a band to do some high reps as you suggest, sounds like a good idea.

[hellswindstaff]

Supramaximal eccentrics are always rough on the connective tissue. It sounds like volume may be too high though between the 1AC training and muscle-ups.

As far as the counter-weight is concerned... I'm just going to keep toweling it down. I may have to add a little weight at the bottom position of the towel though.

[demarcoa]

A 25lb counterweight... is that accurate? I mean, that's roughly equivalent to having to increase your two arm) weighted chin by 50lb. Pretty far away--not to mention that since you seem pretty good at the towel variety you should be able to do a one-armer with less than 25lb assistance. idk.

I have a sort of mini-article that I wrote up for the bwc website about my OAC work, if you guys want some extra ideas in here....

[Electron]

Yeah man, bring it on!

[demarcoa]

aight, here it is:

I wanted to do OACs basically since I started training, so I guess I trained directly or indirectly for about 3 years, give or take. When I started I could do about 5 full chins, it took me a little over a year to get to 20-straight strict pullups--first using GTG, then density training, then pyramids.

A while after that I began doing weighted chins, after some time working with sets of 5 I was able to do a single with +80lb. After that, working with triples (mostly 3x3 with a weight, when I could do all 3 triples with 1.30 in between I'd increase the weight). This led to PRs of +70x4 and +105x1 (underhand chinups) at a bodyweight of 145.

After quite a long time off from focusing on chinning (~8 months) I started up again with high frequency, low volume sets of 8-12. I worked on this for about 4 months, working up to +45x10 chins and +35x10 pullups with a very wide grip, at a bodyweight of 140. Finally, I spent about 4 months doing 1 or 2 sets of 1 to 4 reps, 2 or 3 days per week.

At this point I was comfortable using +80 or so with very good control and an overhand grip and began thinking of the OAC. I'd spent some time training for the OAC with the towel method over a year earlier, but that ended badly--only able to do 15 consecutive chins at the time, I simply was not ready.

The final 3 months leading up to the OAC were when I began doing specific exercises.

At first, I felt weakest at the top of the movement, so I started pausing my weighted chins at the top to take away all momentum and get comfortable at holding myself there. I also ended my sessions with a two-armed hang either at the halfway point, or with my chin over the bar for 1 or 2 sets of 30 to 45 seconds. Both of these additions helped a great deal and soon I was able to 'lock off' with one arm, chin over the bar, for 5 seconds or so without trouble. However, the bottom of the movement had now become my main weakness.

To solve this new problem, I began doing my weighted chins with an extra hang at the bottom between rests, pausing for a full second or two and relaxing my shoulders. I had to work into this one slowly to avoid shoulder pain/injury but it did pay off with increased lat/pec/serratus/rear delt power off the bottom. The other technique I used in the final month or so before the OAC was a one-arm isometric, pulling up from the bottom of an OAC as hard as I could with my lat/bicep and bending my arm as much as possible. I also did a lot of dead-start partials, either 1/2 or 2/3 range of motion on the OAC, for about 6 weeks before the OAC to maintain my specific strength in the upper range of the movement.

In the middle of February I learned that there would be a bodyweight training event on the 25th of March to commemorate Jasper Benincasa's passing. I decided to try and get the OAC with each arm by then; at the time I was able to do 2/3 reps with each arm and had chinned +90x2 (normal style, no extra pauses). This final month, as aforementioned I did a lot of weighted chins paused at the top and bottom (working up to +90x3 this way), partial OACs (standing on stacked barbell plates beneath the chin bar), isometrics, and finger-assisted full range OACs.

I got my first OAC with my right arm on the 12th, and continued normal training until the 3rd week of March, at this point I took a few days off and then did the following sets:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qfbNQQqVSI

Which at this time is the best PR I've attained in all my training.

To summarize (also if you're a 'TL, DR' sort of fellow)

-work up to at least 20 consecutive pullups with good form

-add weighted chins, cycle between 3s and sets of 8-10, alternating between a top set and 2-3 sets when progress stalls

-When you can chin about +2/3 bodyweight with full range and good control, begin working on specific stuff

-Partial OACs, slowly adding ROM were my biggest specific helper.

-Pausing weighted chins at the top, and bodyweight chinup holds at the top helped strengthen my 'finishing' portion of the chin.

-Isometrics and 'relaxed' hangs between reps of weighted chins strengthened my 'starting' portion.

-Lots of reverse curls reinforced my brachioradialis. I did not get tendonitis though my elbows still do hurt for a day or so after a hard OAC session.

That's about it. Hope this helps all you guys who also want to do OACs.

Edited June 2, 2012 by demarcoa

[patrickmeniru]

Great post, thanks for putting it up! It confirms my suspicion that i should ease off the one arm exercises for a while and go back to weighed chins because i'm not quite at +2/3 BW yet (52kg for a full ROM single at BW of 90kg). I think i'll try using the 3x3 weighted chins progression and see how it goes. I also like the idea of mixing in some high volume unweighted stuff too.