1/23/21
Thus far this year I have done pushups, some form of handstand work, pullups in some variation, and sledgehammer levering daily.
My daily chin up set was 17 reps today.
This is very close to my lifetime PR of 19 in any grip – that set done with an open handed nuetral grip off of a thick tree branch at 21 years old.
Every few days I’ve been hitting another PR in some capacity.
17 on the doorway bar is worth more than the equivalent somewhere I can fully hang.
I’m pumped up.
I don’t know my bodyweight.
I do know that I’ll be working weighted reps in.
Weighted reps have helped me before, about a year ago hitting 9 weighing high 250s/low 250s.
I feel the PRs are coming for a couple reasons :
•Daily Practice
Doing anything daily gets you better at it.
•Sledgehammer Levering (& by extension improving grip)
My best pullup sets over the years have always come after I’ve improved my grip.
I’ve often felt over the years that my back was strong/enduring enough, but my hands didn’t have enough reserve in them to allow me to show what my back can do.
They have that reserve now.
At present it’s from the levering.
Sledgehammer levering will improve your grip very quickly.
In the past it was from :
•lots of one arm row simulating isometrics against my bathroom doorway, and deadlift isometrics with a hot tub rail in the apartment’s pool complex
•working as a mover, which saw me become capable of one arm hangs holding a 70lb kb for sets of :45+ at 235lbs
Now, and in the mover example involved daily pullups, the isometric example was a bit less rigid on frequency.
With the pullups I’ve never regularly pushed to failure training them and had the rep count improve much.
I’ve always gotten better results leaving a bit in the tank each set.
Supersets with machine curls have helped, while being a challenge, but just racing to a rep count density style didn’t really work for me as far as improving rep count.
The two movements I could push harder together than I could with chins alone at the level of effort allowing me to still improve.
I’m at a higher level of chin ability now.
Often you have to slog your way till being at a higher level, and then everything comes together more and more easily.
I’m having an easier time now approaching a set of 20 than I did at 14 struggling to get anywhere from one to three reps.
If you struggle with chins, keep working, eventually they’ll improve.
That’s a guarantee.
Persistence & Tenacity