IGP - Intermediate Goals (for) Pullups

-

Been working on the blog since morning... Having all the time in the world this Sunday but reckon the body's call for a rest is warranted today.

Came up with a lot of acronyms in my training log file as its hard to find a suitable description for the things I have been doing.

...so IGP or what I call Intermediate Goals (for) Pullups is just the 'method' for monitoring progress since the beginning where my focus was... of course, all about improving pullups. 

An obsession.

The whole wake up call of how everything started have been repeated to death on this blog.  ..

  • 09 Apr 2022  - 0 proper pullup --  "The Wakeup Call"
  • 25 June 2022 - 4
  • 21 Jul 2022 - first double digit - 10 reps in a set
  • Aug 2022 - first >1000 pullup in a month 
  • 28 Dec 2022 - Completed 5000 pullups before year end
  • and more...

Filtering the spreadsheet and looking through the past 17 month now, I notice more. Initially, improvement came fast and furious.

Knowing or unknowingly-- from the beginning I embarked on fixing a number and work towards completing it. Subsequently pushing harder by cutting down the number of sets and or the time needed to finish the pulling session each day.

This began with a modest 10 reps in Jul 2022. All the reps were anything but good/ decent. It was just about sticking the chin over the bar. Hardly any  setup of shoulder/ scapula before pulling and due to the low doorway bar-- I was doing it with legs perpetually crossed at the back. At that time I didn't even know about maintaining a hollow body to do it with better form.


However adding volume to a session was relatively easy in the beginning... 10 became 15 which became 20 and on...

Starting from 20 total reps/ session, I was also trying to cull the sets. First with 20 in 5 sets then down to 4 and eventually to 3 etc. This was followed by higher reps but using the same pattern of sets dropping with 30 in 4 then 30 in 3 and duration wise, it started with a total of about 16-18 mins per session

The set and timeculling plateau finally came in at "40s in 4" under 8 min.

Increase in max rep of the first set came slower too.. First 15 in 1 materialize after mid Oct 2022 (the previous was 12 in 1 on 31 Jul... after that, been struggling between 12 to 14 but never quite made it until 19 Oct). From there it took another 3 months before reaching 17/set in Feb 2023. 

Not indicated in the filtered table above but there was one entry of 39 in 3 - Yes, stuck as early as Jan 2023. Unable to unlock that pursuit of  a "40in3" .... which took another 8 months.  Only achieved in the last week of Sep 2023, which incidentally is also when the max rep/set was broken again... 18 this time.

The trend is therefore clear... as I move up the numbers or downing the sets involved each time-- that journey towards that next way-point will certainly take longer.

The one thing is that the form for all my reps as time went by is getting cleaner. Though most time not as strict as normal training days when going for PR but I have made sure that they are at least decent ones.

A shoulder-over-bar set of 12 as a warmup before chest day at the gym

MPUG? ...WTFIT!

Enough about actual numbers on pullup, coined up another abbreviation today... OK, just one final one. 

15 or more in 1 for an MPUG aka Monthly Pull Up Gauge. This is the latest as I am tapering on pullups now in order to to find more time and energy to focus on other areas. Basically its just mounting the bar and doing 15 or more few times a month... so long as it doesn't fall below, I'm good. If things deteriorate-- then its time to come back to more pull training.




Popular posts from this blog

2022 October Training Reflections

-
Image
1 Been roughly two month since turning weekly "trainer/ coach" - conducting an hour plus of class each Thursday in office. Having literally no idea what to do initially.  My own daily exercising has never been any strict regimented programs; outlined with exact sets, reps etc. It has all been one big long experiment from the start. While my "Daily  Trinity" of Pulllups, Diamond Pushups and Dips forms the base of each day's load/ intensity with other exercises--truth is, even for these fundamentals, its been a never-ending series of changes and adaptations as new discoveries and observations/ realizations are made -- almost daily at times. Personally, being disciplined with core training has never been much of a regular affair either. Since definitions in these muscles comes naturally without much actual focused training. Most of my cores are indirectly trained because of the constant contractions applied while doing other exercises to maintain stability during ...
Read more

2023 May Training Reflections

-
Image
Almost mid May, usually penning monthly reflection thoughts comes at the tail-end of the month. But with a fair bit this time, so before I forget... Like Apr-- continued with lower reps with more sets on pulls to hit usual daily numbers to reduce physical stress and focus more on joints recovery (elbows and left shoulder).  Started switching to weighted pullups 3 days ago and daily shoulder warmup is an essential daily affair by now. Micro-dosing it throughout the day when getting up from the chair to stretch. The left shoulder inflammation is much reduced, mobility/ flexibility has improved. Still not optimal of course. However the frequent "shoulder dislocation" and dead-hang exercises have certainly proven effective and useful.   "Shoulder Dislocation" Move Finally, on 13 May, managed to pull off a somewhat "passable" shoulder dislocation with that same initial broomstick from 2 months ago.  Recalling the agony and angst of not able to move the darn sti...
Read more

2023 Oct Training Reflections

-
Image
Oct 2023 fitness and training was all over the place. A week in Cologne for the Anuga Food Show with lots of drinking. Yes drinking. Something since Q1 of 2022 that I had largely eliminated. Never been much of a drinker all my life but during the pandemic lock-down period-- found myself grabbing a bottle of whisky off the shelf to replenish just before the last one dries up in the house. Soon it kinda became a habit.  Those 2 years also saw my highest running mileage ever and my cardio fitness was back right up there  to my ultramarathon days... so I thought a few drinks was ok. But when life returned to normal going back to office, that's when I it dawned on me that something was not right and I need to kick the bottle away. So why this "binge" week during Anuga this time? Call it an experiment. First I can certainly still drink pretty copious amount but the fact is I really do not like it at all... Alcohol. Especially beer, it just smells rotten somehow. Call it overnig...
Read more