Start strong, end even stronger!
So it’s arm day. You’re going to do your usual workout, on your usual machines, with your usual enthusiasm, “This is hard but bearable, at least I can maintain”. But for those of you who are awake, or just tired of being asleep, we’ve got a quick fix to terrorize your arm day, and give it that well needed jolt it deserves.
The secret we are sharing here is to perform pullups before any other exercise during arm day. This will surely fire up those biceps, but also work to target other muscle groups to give you a well-rounded warmup and pump all at once. For those skeptical, this training program can be a game changer if you open your mind to it and commit to seeing big gains.
The program is broken into two sections, “A”, and “B”, and you attach it to the beginning of your arm day workout. Alternate days according to your workout. By following this instructions, you will really start to see great gains and something you can be proud of.
Program A: Do 50 pull-ups as fast as you can (strict as possible)
Program B: Do as many pull-ups as you can within 10 minutes
The Breakdown
While the workout is fairly straightforward there are common pitfalls you can make. Many builders get too overzealous and go too hard in the beginning. While this is admiral, the guts and glory approach can leave you with nothing in the tank to finish the set. You want to leave at least two bullets (pull-ups) in the chamber in order to get to your goal. Longevity is key here.
Another common mistake is staying with one grip. You can switch up grips as much as you’d like for this exercise and we recommend that you do. If you’re a pull-up God then go for it, bust out 50 under hands, strict.
For the rest of us, alternate your grip between underhand (biceps), neutral (palms facing each other; brachialis), and pronated (palms facing away from you: corachobrachialis).
You can also alternate between hand placements. Wide grip emphasize the shoulders as well as other back muscle, while the close grip involve the biceps more as they are in line with the shoulders, giving them slightly more stability.
If you’re feeling really froggy, try extreme close grips (triceps) or extreme wide grips to (traps) to really give you that superman feel. *Plus they look pretty cool when you’re doing them on the bar*
Note: This exercise tend to work best with builders who can do at least 8-10 strict pull-ups, so if you’re not there yet, you might want to concentrate on those first. If you’re doing 10-15 strict pull-ups or more you might want to add weight to get you to the 8-10 range. This will give you the endurance and strength gains you’re looking for.
Wrap Up
To be honest you can add this to the beginning or end of any upper body workout as it hits your lats, biceps, and shoulders in many different ways. Pullups are a great exercise to promote all sorts of crazy benefits especially when it comes to overall strength and added support. For whatever your respective sport may be, definitely consider adding pullups to your training program before arm day to enhance that much desired growth. Make this change and you won’t be disappointed with the results.
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