Iron Gym Pull Up Bar Workouts

I love the Iron Gym - I did a review of it on my website and gave a shout out to the Marines. My Iron Gym Pull Up Bar Review.

Pull ups don't need to be done everyday as it is a pretty intensive exercise on the upper back and biceps. Every other day works o.k. but even then it is a good idea to switch up the grips to work the joints a little different and hit the muscles and biceps from a slightly different angle. The bicep is the weak link on this exercise and will give out before the upper back muscles so their is a intensity technique I use that works great for building those lats.

Once you reach failure on pullups and can't make a complete rep use your upper back to pull yourself a quarter of the way up and hold for a second. Do it like a shrugging movement and don't let your biceps initiate the movement or pulling. When done correctly you can do quarter reps and really exhaust the upper back muscles to the next level. Most times when you reach failure on pull ups it is the biceps that are toast and the upper back still has more juice left so do some quarter reps until the muscles are on fire.

Vary the rep ranges also - you can do a day with 10 sets of 3 reps to work the strength motor units. Most people need to add some weight around the waist but choose a weight where you can do 5 complete reps. 10 sets of 3 reps on Monday. Then on Wednesday work the motor units differently by doing 5 sets of 8-10 reps with a reverse grip or use a V bar to make it into a pullup rowing movement. Friday go with 4 sets of 12-15 which for many people will require using a pullup assist if you can't do 12 to 15 deadhangs.

By varying the rep range and rest periods you can work muscles with greater frequency getting faster results. But by doing the same pull up workout a few days a week the body will adapt within a couple weeks and results won't happen.

Semper Fi!

by Rick Porter - 12-15-09

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