Rules of the Pull (Up)
Functional strength could also be considered ‘skill strength’, or the ability to easily apply your strength to a specific task. And what is ‘functional’ if not the ability to move your own bodyweight around?
Now, whilst there are many guys walking around most gyms who have the ability to pull a barbell with over twice their bodyweight off of the floor, there seems to be a shortage of guys who have the ability to perform five strict deadhang pull ups. Which is just weird, because unless they weigh over 16 stone they ‘should’ be strong enough to do it. So why are ‘good’ pull ups a rarity in most gyms?
With the explosion in popularity of mud races such as Tough Mudder, Spartan Race, Beast Race, The Major Series, etc, I’ve seen an increase in people approaching me to prepare them for these events.
Now, if you’re already insane enough to consider doing an event like this you are probably already insane enough to be up at ‘zero dark-thirty hours’ and putting in a 10k before work. What most people coming to me tend to lack is the requisite strength necessary to complete many of the obstacles. For Mud Race preparation I almost always include the following in any client’s programme:
- Back Squats
- Deadlifts
- Push Press
- Farmer Carries
- Heavy Ass Kettlebell Swings (aka HAKS)
- Crawling
- Turkish Get Ups
- Pull Ups
The ability to pull your own weight over a bar means that you are definitely going to be able to get yourself over a wall… IF you are able to reach the top of it (and the Squats, Deadlift, HAKS and Push Press may have some beneficial effect on your vertical jump). One thing to bear in mind is that in this type of obstacle race you’ll most likely never have to do ‘a strict pull up’, but rather a hybrid ‘run-jump-catch-vertical scramble/crawl’ up a wall.
So the ability to do a strict pull up will mean you are ‘overpowered’ for the event (in Strength and Conditioning circles we would say you have built up ‘excess capacity’). This excess capacity is essential in a Mud Race because of the ‘compound effect’ of having to do back-to-back obstacles, with a run, in aggregate conditions (mud, heat, rain, electric cattle prods, etc). In layman speak you need to completely own each obstacle in training because in the race you’re going to be knackered.
The pull up seems to be the one thing in the prep that really trips people up. So here is some guidance on getting good at pull ups.
[Note: We use the term ‘pull up’ to denote that the hands are pointing away from the face and ‘chin up’ to denote that the palms are facing towards the face. Pull up training is more beneficial for ‘tactical athletes’ than chin ups, though chins do have a place in training… especially for building bigger ‘guns’.]
A study in the mid 2000’s by the United States Marine Corp showed that there was a problem in using the ‘assisted pull up machine’ and rubber bands to make pull ups easier. The EMG results showed that the muscular ‘firing pattern’ when using these aids was ‘wrong’. To take a driving analogy, instead of going ‘mirror, signal, manoeuvre’ the body was doing it backwards ‘manoeuvre, signal, mirror’… which you may occasionally get away with in a car, but the body can’t do a pull up backwards.
So, if we can’t use external assistance to help with the pull up, what can we do? [There is a way to have a partner help with pull ups, but it is very specific.]
In three easy points:
- Get stronger (deadlifts, pullovers, hammer curls, batwings, incline rows)
- Learn the skill (see the video)
- Lose the chubb (seriously, it’s easier to get 82kg over the bar than 88kg, trust me on that one)