It was a great month, as I added +2 reps and at the end of month I was able to make 12 pullups!
After hot summer months, september came with colder weather and rain. It is not so pleasant to do workout outside anymore. But I was aware of that, it’s just not so comfortable and that’s it.
Progress is stall, what now?
For some weeks, I have feeling that I don’t progress anymore. I realized, that my muscles get adapted to my typical exercises and I need to change my training plan. As I want to work more on strenght, I have to add load and do sets with 4-6 reps. If I am doing 8 and more, that works more on endurance. Regarding pullups, I just need to add such weight, that I can perform 4-6 reps.
My first weighted pullups.
I have never added any weight. As it is already hard to do pullups without additional weight😁. At first, I have to test some weights, and I tried 4kg, 8kg, 12kg just to understand how I feel with it. I was able to do pull up with all of those weights, but of course I need to start with appropriate weight, to do 4-6reps. First weighted workout I went with 4kg and made sets with 6, 5, 4, 4 reps. And after those sets, one more set of 6 reps without additional weight. I felt completely different than previous workouts. It was really good shock for muscles. I tried dips on parallel bars with that weight too, and it went good also. Regarding dips I need to be very careful, as I streched my chest muscle few weeks ago, when was trying to do straight bar dips. And I still felt uncomfortable when doing dips. No need to risk, I felt my chest was not completely recovered yet.
Next workout I used 6kg and did the same amount of reps.
One more week later I took 8kg, and did 5,5,5,4 reps. 8kg was appropriate weight and I did few more workouts with that kilos.
Results.
Last workout of the month, I made first set without weights to test my max result. I did 12 pullups! I was really hapy. Weighted pullups helped me to make such progress obviously.
On the new record hype, I tried next set with 11kg, but it was too hard, I managed to do only 4 reps. So I went back to my usual 8kg, and I did 2 sets with 5 reps. After four sets with additional weight, I did two bodyweight sets of 7 pullups. It was incredible, how easy it felt! I felt like I am much lighter and even after hard sets with weight, reps without weight was really enjoyable. Difference is very noticeable, looks like muscles were already used to more weight.
Last workout this month, I did at 30 september, with such pull-ups sets:
- 12 reps, bodyweight
- 4 reps, +11kg
- 5 reps, +8kg
- 5 reps, +8kg
- 7 reps, bodyweight
- 7 reps, bodyweight
I was very happy with new high – 12 reps! Also, I was quite surprised how much I could perform in 5th and 6th sets without additional weigt. I was completely satisfied with my result. Weighted pullups was totally worth it!