I went from 11 to 17 max pull ups in 30 days. Here's how I did it

[OptimusPrime69]

TLDR: Went from 11 to 17 pull ups in 30 days.

I documented my journey in this video:

To see my initial rep max, skip to 1:00

To see my final rep max skip to 2:52

 

For my 1st ever challenge (the one from April 23 - May 30), I decided to take on the Russian Fighter Pull Up Program for 30 days straight.

https://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/107841-optimus-prime-rolling-out/

 

I’ll admit, I wasn’t very good at recording my daily logs, but I did complete the entire program to a T. Basically the goal of the 30 day program is to increase the number of pull ups you can do in a single set.

When I started the program, I had to test my max. I ended up getting 11 reps.

 

My goal for the program was to increase my max pull up reps from 11 to 16. I also had a reach goal of 20.

 

I used the 5RM Template from the StrongFirst link above to create a program for someone with an 11RM.

 

Here is the program I did for 30 days:

Day 1 11, 10, 9, 8, 7

Day 2 11, 10, 9, 8, 8

Day 3 11, 10, 9, 9, 8

Day 4 11, 10, 10, 9, 8

Day 5 11, 11, 10, 9, 8

Day 6 Off

Day 7 12, 11, 10, 9, 8

Day 8 12, 11, 10, 9, 9

Day 9 12, 11, 10, 10, 9

Day 10 12, 11, 11, 10, 9

Day 11 12, 12, 11, 10, 9

Day 12 Off

Day 13 13, 12, 11, 10, 9

Day 14 13, 12, 11, 10, 10

Day 15 13, 12, 11, 11, 10

Day 16 13, 12, 12, 11, 10

Day 17 13, 13, 12, 11, 10

Day 18 Off

Day 19 14, 13, 12, 11, 10

Day 20 14, 13, 12, 11, 11

Day 21 14, 13, 12, 12, 11

Day 22 14, 13, 13, 12, 11

Day 23 14, 14, 13, 12, 11

Day 24 Off

Day 25 15, 14, 13, 12, 11

Day 26 15, 14, 13, 12, 12

Day 27 15, 14, 13, 13, 12

Day 28 15, 14, 14, 13, 12

Day 29 15, 15, 14, 13, 12

Day 30 Off

 

After day 30, I took 2 days off and retested my max. I ended up getting 17. Better than my goal of 16, but lower than my reach goal of 20. Still, its over a 50% improvement so I consider that a win!

 

I am 6’0 and 170lbs. I consistently ate at my maintenance level calories of around 2500. My weight did not change throughout the program.

 

I also had side quests of:

1) Sleep 8 Hours a day. I know it should be easy, but sometimes its easy to stay up late!

2) Take a green food supplement every day. Again, it's easy to think I get enough veggies. But it doesn't always happen. This is more of a guarantee that I do get enough greens each day.

 

Both of which I successfully completed!

 

If you’re someone who is interested in increasing the number of pull ups you can do, I highly recommend the Russian Fighter Pull Up Program! Its definitely the best pull up program I've done so far. Here are some more links if you’re interested:

https://www.strongfirst.com/the-fighter-pullup-program-revisited/

https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-do-the-russian-fighter-pull-up-program

 

[OptimusPrime69]

On 6/11/2018 at 8:09 AM, Big Al. said:

Nice man. What do you think you are going to try to accomplish in the next 30 days ?

 

I was thinking of doing some parallette training. Would be nice to improve my L-Sit. And it would be awesome to someday do a planche

[Elastigirl]

Impressive! The Russian  who wrote the Fighter Pull Up program is Pavel Tsatsouline https://www.strongfirst.com/the-fighter-pullup-program-revisited/

[EricM25]

Congrats!

 

You did great!

[OptimusPrime69]

On 6/14/2018 at 1:00 PM, Elastigirl said:

Impressive! The Russian  who wrote the Fighter Pull Up program is Pavel Tsatsouline https://www.strongfirst.com/the-fighter-pullup-program-revisited/

Actually in the StrongFirst link, the author states that the author of the program is unknown. Pavel just happens to be the one most associated with the program.

 

On 6/14/2018 at 8:33 PM, EricM25 said:

Congrats!

 

You did great!

Thanks!

[Chaosbane]

Impressive! when I weighed 68Kg and was climbing lots I could crack out sets of 20 - climbing was brilliant for this.