inic

[IronFist]

Hey, remember when you said if you hang at the top of a pullup you feel it in your abs? I tried it the other day at the gym because I wanted to see if it was caused by what I thought it was. At the top of a pullup, your body is kind of arched forward... it has to be to maintain balance. As a result, your legs go forward a bit, and that's what causes the tension in your abs/hip flexors.

I wouldn't recommend it as a training method, because it's kind of like just standing there and flexing your abs. Your time would be better spent doing other ab exercises that work you through a range of motion.

Unless you want your abs to develop strength in that position alone... which I can't imagine any use for.

Anyway, I can't remember if we discussed this or not so if we already did, disregard this post. Otherwise, I hope it helped a bit.

IronFist

[IronFist]

Yeah. It would be quite hard to generate sufficient tension to keep the body perfectly vertical while you were at the top of a pullup. It's unnatural. Like trying to do a barbell squat and keep your back vertical. You can't do it :)

IronFist

[guohuen]

Palms out chin ups are the best. In ranger school you have to do 5 on a 4" bar that turns just to get into the chow hall.

[IronFist]

Originally posted by inic
what about those guys u see in the circus or whatever. hanging off bars sideways and upside down and stuff. how do they train for that stuff?

That stuff is all physically possible. You just need incredible muscle control for some of it. Hanging off bars upside down? I used to do that from monkey bars in elementary school :)

IronFist

[Qi dup]

They have the Jedi:cool:

[guohuen]

inic, it's a 4" diameter galvanized steel pipe, 12 ' long inserted in 5" holes about 8' off the ground in two trees 10' apart. You have to jump to the bar, (it turns in your hand and it's too big to get your hands all the way around) A military pullup is counted like a pushup. Up, chin completely over bar, stop, down to a dead hang elbows straight, stop, up to chin over bar=one. Remember, palms out(not military, the army switched to palms in in the early '70's, the rangers kept doing them palms out.) The bar turns in your hand and you can't lock your fingers around it. Alot tougher than it sounds. I knew guys that could knock off 50 perfect pullups that struggled to do 5 (really 10) on the bar at ranger school. The first day I could'nt do it and I could do 20 (40) pullups on a normal bar. I got to 3 1/5 (7) and that was all she wrote. I did 50 pushups and they let me eat. A couple of guys were too tired for that and they went hungry. The next time Ijumped higher and got my wrists over the bar, kept my legs dead so they would'nt pull me off balance and was able to keep the bar from turning. Eventually got up to 10 (20). That thing is a pr*ck!:D :p

[guohuen]

Great regiment. I let mine slide for a while now I'm back to four sets of ten a day and just added ten lbs. to each leg for one or two sets.

[IronFist]

I have a weighted dip/pullup belt that I use. Have you seen them? It looks like a regular weight lifting belt, except instead of the leather fastener part, it's got a chain that you put standard olympic weight plates through and then fasten it. So the weight hangs in between your legs. You can't cheat with your legs at all. Definately a worthwhile investment, but sometimes kind of hard to find.

IronFist