Post: #1

while browsing through fitness videos on youtube the other night, i came across one that claimed that you can improve your performance at pull-ups by hanging by one arm from the pull-up bar. intrigued, i went to the park with a friend the other day and had him time me. i only managed 0:10 with my left arm, 0:20 with my right arm. additionally, my friend said that it looked dangerous, in the sense that it looked like it might injure my shoulder or elbow. my right elbow does actually hurt a little bit today.

i'm interested in opinions on whether hanging from one arm to improve pull-ups works. has anyone out there tried it? i can do maybe 12 or so pull-ups with near-perfect form, maybe 15 or 16 if i kip a bit, but i've been stuck at this level for years. i'd like to get to where i can knock out 20 with good form, then move to advanced stuff like muscle-ups and clap pull-ups, maybe even one-arm pull-ups.

Post: #2

Do weighted pull ups instead. Start with 20lbs and work your way up to 50lbs. Really good for back definition and increasing your general strength.

Hanging from one arm doesn't seem like it would help with much other than hanging from one arm.

Post: #3

I don't see how this would improve your pull up ability. You're more likely to over stretch your lats and injure yourself. Try doing some weighted pull ups. 6 to 8 reps, 4 sets, 60 second rests in between, 2 or 3 times a week. Add a bit of extra weight on every new work out.

Edit: Atlantic beat me to it.

Post: #4

It can help, as grip strength is often a limiting factor in pullup strength. Improving your relevant grip strength is likely to transfer positively to your pullup ability.

Hanging from one arm will also be important if you are working up to one arm chinups. If you can do one arm chinups, you will be able to do a fair few two arm ones. All hanging, pulling and grip work will have a positive effect over time. Be sure to retract your scapula so that you are not dangling by the shoulder ball and socket directly.

Post: #5

(03-01-2016 03:19 PM)Atlantic Wrote:  Do weighted pull ups instead. Start with 20lbs and work your way up to 50lbs. Really good for back definition and increasing your general strength.

never tried weighted pull-ups, but they look great for building strength and muscle. bit tough in my situation since i work out at home and don't have the equipment, but it's still something to consider. do you think weighted pull-ups would help me up my max reps of unweighted pull-ups?

Post: #6

(03-01-2016 03:37 PM)H1N1 Wrote:  It can help, as grip strength is often a limiting factor in pullup strength. Improving your relevant grip strength is likely to transfer positively to your pullup ability.

Hanging from one arm will also be important if you are working up to one arm chinups. If you can do one arm chinups, you will be able to do a fair few two arm ones. All hanging, pulling and grip work will have a positive effect over time. Be sure to retract your scapula so that you are not dangling by the shoulder ball and socket directly.

grip strength is another reason the idea of hanging by one arm appeals to me. seems like if i could get to where i could do 1:00 on each arm, my grip would be vastly stronger than it is now, and i reckon grip is an underrated aspect of overall strength.

have you tried this? if so, how do you incorporate one-arm hangs into your routine? that's another thing i can't quite figure out.

Post: #7

I'd do them at the end of workouts, usually on an upper body day (although it is nice to do them on squat day to decompress the spine).

Usually it would be something like this
Alternate between left and right arm one handed hangs to failure for 3-5 sets
Then finish with one or two sets of two handed hangs to failure

It's not going to turn you into a gripmaster, but it will put a bit of size on your forearms and help you out with all your other pulls, as people are more limited by grip than they realize.

Grip strength is not quite the same as other strengths, either. "Strength endurance", or the ability to grip for a long time tends to carry over to maximal feats of grip strength.

I did a gymnastic program once where I was doing bodyweight rows with the rings, just regular bodyweight rows for 5 sets of 15. At the time I had not deadlifted more than 315. I bought a set of weights after 4 months on this program and deadlifted 345 lbs at a bodyweight of 165, and this was with a double overhand grip (not even a hook grip).

Post: #8

(03-01-2016 04:26 PM)bucky Wrote:  

(03-01-2016 03:37 PM)H1N1 Wrote:  It can help, as grip strength is often a limiting factor in pullup strength. Improving your relevant grip strength is likely to transfer positively to your pullup ability.

Hanging from one arm will also be important if you are working up to one arm chinups. If you can do one arm chinups, you will be able to do a fair few two arm ones. All hanging, pulling and grip work will have a positive effect over time. Be sure to retract your scapula so that you are not dangling by the shoulder ball and socket directly.

grip strength is another reason the idea of hanging by one arm appeals to me. seems like if i could get to where i could do 1:00 on each arm, my grip would be vastly stronger than it is now, and i reckon grip is an underrated aspect of overall strength.

have you tried this? if so, how do you incorporate one-arm hangs into your routine? that's another thing i can't quite figure out.

Yes I do these for a number of reasons:

1. I am working towards a one arm chinup
2. I believe that for real world strength grip and core strength are a priority.
3. I found that I got better at chinups initially when I started doing them. I went from around 15 reps to 18 reps in a set. I weigh 194 lbs so improving chinups is relatively hard for me.


I incorporate them by doing them whenever I can. I don't want to rant too much, but nerds have fucked up the strength and fitness world more than I can state concisely. It's not as complicated as the internet makes it seem.

For me, it boils down to this:

Pick a few movements that obviously make you strong, and get better at them.

Don't do the same set of movements two days in a row

Train as much as possible

Train as hard as possible (you should be familiar with lightheadedness, exertion headaches etc when you are training)

Do conditioning

Balance antagonist muscle groups

Do some high rep stuff and some low reps

Eat vegetables

Eat cute, fluffy things

Sleep enough

Minimise life stress as far as possible.

Do real world work - get outside and lift odd objects, or swing an axe, or wrestle, or whatever, just do stuff that actually makes you use your strength and appreciate what usefully strong actually is.

Do this for years.

Post: #9

As H1N1 said, you'll need to build up to a fair amount of slow, controlled two-arm pull-ups (I believe Convict Conditioning says 2 sets of 10... what I did was 5 sets of 5). As you are building that, you do the hangs to work on grip strength. The next step is the one-handed chin up:


I've found that I am strong enough to do these after the regular pull-up training, but I lose control because of a weak grip. So I have started doing exactly what you said in OP, adding in some one-armed hangs every day, just to train my grip strength. I don't think you need to build up to 1 min each though (go for as long as the weaker arm can hold on both arms, and add a second or two each day), just supplement with regular pull-ups until you are comfortable doing at least a few sets of 2-3 reps of the one-handed chins. Then that exercise alone will work back, biceps, and grip.

Post: #10

Ido Portal suggests doing hangs (both hands) from a bar on a regular basis. He suggests 3 minutes every day.

Other than that, not a whole lot I can add that hasn't been mentioned already.

Post: #11

Gymnasts do it. It's a time under tension thing and increases your bodies overall capacity to support your own weight. It does work.

Post: #12

(03-01-2016 05:49 PM)Hades Wrote:  Ido Portal suggests doing hangs (both hands) from a bar on a regular basis. He suggests 3 minutes every day.

Other than that, not a whole lot I can add that hasn't been mentioned already.

i wonder if maybe that would be similarly beneficial to doing shorter one-arm hangs to failure, yet easier on the joints (my right elbow still hurts from yesterday). much easier to do two-arm hangs on the door frame pull-up bar i'm using now, too.