Alternative to 3xfailure w/ pull ups in SS

[Regin Smidur]

I havent had the best results with 3xfailure, and pull ups have stayed at 6 for weeks now. I havent been gaining bodyweight either. Is there a set/rep scheme with properties more magical then 3xfailure?

[Dastardly]

There has been many good long threads on this subject. The generally accepted view is that 3xfailure sucks for actually increasing you pull up numbers but at the same time is probably a good idea if you dont want to be overly fatigued on your following bench press workout.

[Regin Smidur]

My apologies, I shall UTFSE. Any keyword suggestions for finding them?

[Tom Campitelli]

Try three sets of five and use weight like you would for the other lifts. I found I had to microload the pullups pretty quickly, but the 3x5 weighted scheme seems to work and allows for making progress without going to failure all the time. blowdpanis had a thread entitled pullup propaganda thread, or something like that.

[misspelledgeoff]

Regin, I think 3 sets to failure is best if you are able to rep 10+ for each set.

You might consider something like this:

week 1 - 6 sets of 5 (30 total reps)
week 2 - 5 sets of 5, 1 set of 6 (31 reps)
week 3 - 4 sets of 5, 2 sets of 6 (32 reps)

Afer you get to 6 sets of 6, then next week do one set of 7 and 5 sets of 6.

And so on and so on. If it were me I'd max total volume out at about 45 and reduce number of sets accordingly as my reps per set increased.

Ultimately you'd get to 3 sets of 15, at which point you'd move to weighted chins.

Hope this helps.

[scoppi]

i switched to doing 3x5 weighted chins, and its been going much better.

[Squatson]

I let my chinup game slip when I started SS. I could do around 7-8 before SS, but I wasn't doing chins and gained about 50#.

Johnny Pain recommended I do chins on a clock. When I started I could only do 1 chin. When chins came up in the program, I did as many as possible on a one minute clock. When I got up to 6, I started cutting the rest by 5sec each workout. Now I'm doing 6 chins with 50sec rest. JP says that by the time you can do x chins on a 30 sec clock, you can do x chins in one set.

I also got a bar to use at home, and I bang out reps throughout the day. I get about 15-20 reps a day. I would say get a bar, and whenever you are chillin, just do a couple.

I hope you are doing chinups (palms in) and not pullups (palms out)

[JStrong]

I switched to doing 25 reps of chins/pulls alternatng every workout, since my three sets to failure was like 9 total reps.

When I get less than 3 in a set, I switch to assisted chins and only add weight when I get less than 3.

This is not necessarily advice but so far I'm making progress doing it this way.

[DV]

Found aforementioned thread: http://startingstrength.com/resource...ght=propaganda

I'm the same: Sets to failure gets me nowhere fast. Staying 1 or 2 reps away from failure on three sets across makes me progress fast. I also like weighted work, as advocated in the link.

Good point by Dastard though: Is the point of going to failure that you dont tire yourself out too much for bench etc? I have a hard time seeing this being much of a problem, but who knows.

[bcsmith3]

It would be helpful to know what your chinning goals are. Do you want to increase the number of body weight chins you can do in a single set or increase the total weight you can chin?