The Side Road to the One-Arm Pullup

Justin Qualler, RKC

December 14, 2004 02:09 PM

After years of dreaming - my eighth grade gym teacher said he'd pay 100 bucks to anyone who could do a one-arm pullup - and relatively little doing, I stumbled upon, quite accidentally, the side road to the one-arm pullup.

There were two exercises and two techniques that contributed to my success. Before getting into these, let's make one thing clear: You can bet that I used every tension technique that Pavel's books talk about, including the anal lock, power breathing, ab and glute flexion, and the crush grip. Learn the techniques well. If you're just starting out, practice on stupid things like opening doors, getting out of cars, and, if you're sadistic, shaking people's hands.

My road to the OAP was unscientific because I wasn't training specifically for it. But I do know what exercises and techniques helped me the most and what approach worked the best. It is my noble intention and sincere hope that this will help you achieve the one arm pull up (OAP).

The Kettlebell One-Arm Military Press

The unexpected exercise that helped me on the OAP side road was the military press. I play softball and throw hard and I have abused my shoulders. I liked the safety behind the concept of successive induction (see Power to the People!), that is, pulling with the muscle opposing the group you are working on the eccentric. In the military press, this meant I was pulling hard with my lat on the negative of every rep. Actively pulling down with your lat will groove a motion strikingly similar to the OAP, and we need all the help we can get!

I trained the MP hard for a month or two, and then backed off to a reasonable twice a week schedule. When I was training hard, I military pressed with low reps 3-5 times a week. The general schemes I followed were 2x5, 3x3, 5x3, 3x2, doing a different load each day. When you do sets of two, that is the time to really hone your concentration and feel every muscle fiber?look forward to those days! I trained with the 1.5 pood at a bodyweight of around 175. I occasionally mixed in bottom up presses with the 1 pood, as well as super-concentrated regular MPs. You'll want to adjust your MP weight according to your bodyweight.

Remember: you must pull like hell with your lat when the weight is descending!

I hate clich?s, but?listen to your body. Up the volume gradually if you haven't been training and always reread key points in the MP form. There's no excuse for sloppy form when so many resources exist that explain the right way. The best advice is to keep your shoulder in the socket. Do this by imagining you are pushing yourself away from the weight (without bending your legs). And employ every tension technique. Always.

There's no magic formula, but at some point you'll feel very comfortable and strong when you are pulling the weight down. The duration it takes to achieve this feeling will vary with your coordination, body awareness, and the length of time you've been training in general.

It took me a few months. Then one day I tried an OAP and was surprised that I could actually pull myself up?but I couldn't do a complete rep. Remember, I had not been training pullups at all during this time.

I made a mistake here, like all people who get close to something and get stars in their eyes, which cloud reality?I kept trying to do the one-arm pullup. Avoid this temptation! This set me back because as I was pulling up, I wasn't making the entire rep?I was failing, and thusly training my nervous system to fail.

Trying to press forward too quickly caused my progress to stall and, frustrated, I forgot about the whole thing for a while. You can do better than me and instead of messing with one-armers before you're ready, hone your form in good ole' regular two-arm pullups.

The Pullup

Chances are, if you test yourself and can pull yourself up with one arm but can't do a complete rep, you can handle some weight on your back for a weighted pullup. But before you get to that point spend a few weeks just doing regular pullups so your form is impeccable. Keep these tips in mind:

• The shoulders down and back?keep 'em in the sockets.
• Apply "The Corkscrew" from The Naked Warrior?screw your shoulders into your sockets and feel the tension spiral into your fists (it'll improve your grip which will give you extra strength).
• Keep your face calm as a Hindu Cow (a la Fight Club)?use the tension you would have used to screw up your face and put it to work in tensing your muscles.

Take a week or two to perfect your form. There's no rush, you're ingraining the perfect pullup into your nervous system. I trained this way for a few weeks, twice a week. I'd do sets of five with lots of talking and resting in between. Then I'd do a few more sets, up to a volume of 20-25 reps and call it a day. These sets were not easy because they were super-strict. Work on feeling the corkscrew, it's easiest (at least for me) to feel it at the top of the movement. If you can feel it at the top, you'll learn to create the effect throughout the entire movement.

An alternative would be to GTG the pullup for a week or two. Do around 5 sets of 3-5 pullups throughout the day. Notice I'm being vague, time durations are up to you, but don't progress too quickly. Remember, you want to be like the 60 year old farmer Steve Justa talks about in his book Rock, Iron, Steel?you know, the guy who mops the floor with young, punk construction workers?

Now you're ready to add some weight. Bodyweight pullups were just to hone your form. You will need to experiment with the poundage.

Here's a tip that you may or may not already know: to add weight to a pullup hook your feet around a kettlebell horn or use a backpack with some weight thrown in. Several comrades on the Dragon Door Forum pointed me to Ironmind.com where you can buy dip belts and even a squat belt that will support over 1000 pounds.

I started with 35 pounds and used a subtle variation of the Power to the People! format. Since I was training pullups only two days a week, I did a working set of 1 x 5 @ BW + 35 lbs. and another set of 1 x 5 @ BW. Next workout I did 1 x 5 @ BW + 35 lbs. and another at 1 x 5 @ BW + 10 lbs. You can see the progression. The speed at which you progress is up to you, but you must keep good form?it's not about the weight, it's about the execution. When you're second set is around 25 pounds, up the working set to 40, you could do this very comfortably for your fourth workout. If you've upped the load of your second set gradually, you should be able to hit 2 x 5 @BW+50 ?congratulations. After that you'll want to switch up the cycle.

Keep in mind, this is just one possible format. If you were going to train the pullup 5 days a week, you could make faster progress and use different weight progressions. Think two steps forward and one step back.

There's no magical weight that instantly means you'll be able to do an OAP. The idea is, don't worry 'bout it. One day, when you're fresh and feeling confident, shake your arms out and walk over to the pull up bar and do a one-armer. Just remember your intent, go up and grab the bar as hard as you can and know that soon the bar will be under your chin. Use all the tension techniques and chances are you'll have yourself a PR.

Feed-Forward Tension

It's the idea of feed-forward tension discussed in Power to the People! I rarely see anyone mentioning it, but it was one of the techniques I unconsciously employed. And I think it's damn cool.

Here's what you do: Do a one-arm pullup without the bar. Straighten your arm out using all points of good form: the shoulder in the socket, a calm Hindu cow face, remember the corkscrew. Now, pull your arm down as if you're actually doing a one arm pull up: Flex your butt, tighten your abs, make a white knuckle fist, do power breathing, and employ the anal lock while pulling your fist down to your chest with your lat, in an identical motion you would use if you were on the bar. While you're doing it, visualize yourself actually doing it on the bar in real life. Work both arms equally. If you do this in public, be prepared to give passers-by a Party debriefing.

Detachment

I'm not going to get pseudo-new age here, but if you constantly worry about whether you'll be able to do an OAP, you won't do one. Doubt has a powerful way of messing with your abilities. I succeeded when someone told me to "Just do it." We've all heard this line before, thanks to Nike. You get the idea, don't think much of it, you know you can do it, pop on the bar and grind it out.

A quick summary of everything you've read:

1. Practice the MP hard and heavy employing low sets and low volume 3-5 times a week. Think impeccable form. You must pull down hard with your latto groove the OAP feeling. When this 'pulling with the lat' feels very proficient, move to step two.
2. Practice the pullup. Spend a few weeks honing your form. Review my fine points listed above as a starter. Get your volume up over time using sets of 5 @ BW with perfect form. Ease into weight using PTP-esque cycling. 2x5 @ BW + 50 lbs. is an accomplishment?but it doesn't necessarily guarantee one-arm success.
3. Practice feed-forward tension and detachment. Do no bar OAPs using the instructions above, but don't overdo it. A couple times a day or a few times a week is sufficient. If you doubt or worry about your ability to do the OAP, chances are you won't do one.

Recommended Reading
The following articles and authors came to mind as I was typing this. I personally recommend you read every article you can (esp. on DragonDoor.com) simply for the value of motivation and knowledge.

Rob Lawrence's "Technique, Repetition and Insight in Kettlebell Training"
This article influenced my desire to master technique in any given exercise.

John "Pullup" Allstadt's "Pullups: A Matter of Function"
Highly motivational and excellent tips to boot.

Brett Jones' "The Power of Intent"
He's very strong and knows what he's talking about. 'Nuff said.

When you do your first OAP or if you have questions, drop me a line at justinqualler@wi.rr.com or hit me up on the DD forum, qualler, rkc.

---

Justin Qualler, RKC, is a recreational athlete based in Waukesha, Wisconsin. After years of high rep bodybuilding schemes made him more injury prone and gave him bloated muscles and decreased performance, he discovered what really worked?low rep barbell exercises for strength...and kettlebells for pretty much everything else. He provides one-on-one and group training as well as demos. To contact him, email justinqualler@wi.rr.com

Back