Pull ups and press ups: how many can you do?

[ORD]

Totally unscientific, but can you guys let me know the number of proper pull-ups (or chins) and press ups you can do with proper form along with your bodyweight and age?

I have been looking at some standards for these (to set targets), and they vary wildly. Some of them seem utterly unrealistic (e.g. 25 pull ups being the minimum to be classed as anything more than "good"), so it would be good to know what the PH crew can manage.

I have not once in my life seen a man who weighs more than about 70kg do 20 or more pull ups, so I am very sceptical about the numbers that I see floated around.

[ORD]

For reference, last time I tried, I could do 14 neutral grip dead hang pull ups. And that was after a few weeks training them quite often. Pathetic if there are really loads of otherwise not very strong men doing 20+!

Not sure about press ups - more than 40, I would guess. I think press ups require mental effort as much as anything - it is really unpleasant after about 45 seconds. When I were a lad (22), I could do 80 press ups in a minute, which included a 10 second rest after 60. I think 50 would be a good target.

34 years old and 82kg.

[ORD]

Thanks, guys.

Interesting to see people clustered around the mid-teens for pull ups. I suspected that was more realistic than 20.

[ORD]

People generally find pull ups slightly harder, but that is partly because they generally take a wider grip on pull ups. Much wider than shoulder width makes pull ups quite a lot harder (but better for strengthening the back, supposedly).

Chin ups and pull ups activate the same muscles (if done at the same width) and to an almost identical extent. For that reason, the usual advice is to do whichever is most comfortable for your shoulders.

I find neutral grip slightly more comfortable than supinated (chins) and vastly more comfortable than overhand (pull ups). But I think I can probably do more chins than neutral grip (by 1 or 2 reps). Pull ups are much worse because my shoulders seem to get in their own way (minor impingement, maybe).

In my experience, it's hard to predict what pull-up training will work for you. 'Greasing the groove' works for me only to the extent of making it much easier to do a few pull ups; it doesn't seem to increase my max much.

[ORD]

I think that's true, Rob. But there are also dozens of people posting about their running programmes. If, like me, you think running is a waste of time, it's nice to have threads about other exercises!

The thing about weight training is that it takes time - months to build a decent base level of strength. It also stays around for quite a while if you train less. My experience of running is that improvements come quickly but that the fitness it brings goes just as quickly if you stop running for a while. It took me only a few weeks to get to a 21 minute 5k, whereas it has taken me months to get to decentish deadlift and squat numbers.

It is good to be balanced. I see bodyweight exercises as giving a fairly good indication of overall fitness. If you can 10 pull ups, you're probably not a fat mess or a weakling. It is hard to think of many other things that provide that much of an overall assessment.

[ORD]

chris watton said:

So said:

Are you very skinny?

I don't think so. 5'7" and 74kg.

Chris is too modest to say it, but he isnt just not skinny - he is a small/medium sized powerhouse! He also could do practically no pull ups a couple of years ago and one of the best adverts for resistance training.

[ORD]

AndStilliRise said:

Pull ups/Chin ups = 5-8
Press ups. 4*50 = 200. 1 minute recovery

5,7. 60kg.

Bloody hell that is a mis-match between pull ups and press ups! Are you sure your press ups are with good form? If they are, you have a really unusual strength balance.

[ORD]

RobM77 said:

ORD said:

I think that's true, Rob. But there are also dozens of people posting about their running programmes. If, like me, you think running is a waste of time, it's nice to have threads about other exercises!

Oh, I agree entirely, I was just commenting on how representative your demographic sample would be here I suspect the average guy my age can't do a single chin up or press up!

I take that point - not many people would post "barely any" but anyone with a good number will want to mention it. Nothing wrong with that, but it does skew the sample, as you say.

[ORD]

chris watton said:

ORD said:

Chris is too modest to say it, but he isnt just not skinny - he is a small/medium sized powerhouse! He also could do practically no pull ups a couple of years ago and one of the best adverts for resistance training.

Thank you, ORD, am blushing here!

I just followed Arnold's advice regarding Pull Ups, do 50 reps in as many sets as it takes each workout. I started using a resistance band doing behind the neck pull ups (as these were considered harder to do, I figured if I could master these, the others would be not so bad to do). Like most things, do them enough times and inevitably, you do get better. The trick for me was to be stubborn and never give in, rather than think I'd never be able to do them.

Is that 50 per workout stopping short of failure in each set (i.e. leaving one rep in the tank)? I do 50 per workout but I do them in easy little chunks (5-8) because otherwise they interfere with the rest of the workout. If I go even close to failure on chins, I find that I then feel sluggish for everything else.

[ORD]

chris watton said:

It was 50 per workout in as many sets as it took, so for example, when I started without the resistance band, I would do 3 or 4 per set, meaning it took over a dozen sets to reach the 50.
I now do them near the end of my workout, as I believe they help in stretching the spine back a little after the heavier back exercises, so they're now a little more tiring than when I did them as my first back exercise.

Understood, but how close to failure do you go in each set? Until you could not do another rep or until you think you could do one more but want to stay fresh?

[ORD]

Pulse said:

I don't do push ups, but:

Age: 32
Weight: 87kg

I've managed 10 medium-width pull-ups in one go so far. I haven't used an underhand grip for a while as I've been trying to improve my overhand, but I can generally do a few more of those, or at least do them with more ease.

Personally though, I don't go to a full dead hang. I don't like the feeling on my back or my shoulders.

The jury is very much out on whether or not it is best to let your shoulders come up at the bottom (which gives you more ROM). Upside is that it allows you to commence the movement with scapula depression; downside is that it can involve hanging on the soft tissue for a split second. I have not decided which is right for me so tend to alternate randomly, which is probably the worst of all worlds.

[ORD]

No surprise there at your bodyweight. Aside from a few exceptionally strong guys (Diddlydoo, for example), heavy men struggle with pull ups. If you find YouTube clips of huge bodybuilders doing '20 pull ups', there's usually not a single complete or decent rep to be seen.

[ORD]

RobM77 said:

It does seem to vary enormously between people. I haven't had time to check yet, but I think I can do at least 30 press ups straight off, but I can only just do 5 chins ups, perhaps only 4, and they've been part of my weights routine for about 8 years - I started unable to do even one! I weigh 67-72kg depending on the time of year and do weights once or twice a week.

My wife does weights once a week alongside CV, and she also climbs regularly, so she can do press-ups and other bodyweight exercises without an issue, but she can't do a single chin up.

Edited by RobM77 on Wednesday 26th April 10:08

Several factors:

(1) Pull ups are simply a lot harder than press ups. Much higher load.
(2) Men generally a bit of strength in their chest and triceps but much less so in their upper and mid-back. The typical British man is very unbalanced front to back.
(3) Pull ups are harder to cheat (without it being obvious) than press ups

[ORD]

Another point - pull ups and chin ups have a real weak link: the biceps. Unless you do lots of curls, your biceps don't get much stimulation from anything except pull ups. Triceps get decent work from all pressing motions (which people do more than pulling anyway).

Also, pull ups simply don't respond that well to training. Not sure why. Perhaps because they are a fairly complex movement so it can be hard to identify the weak link. Perhaps because they rely on total body strength but building total body strength normally adds mass, and the two cancel each other out. For all these reasons, getting better at Pull ups seems almost always to involve simply doing vastly more pull ups (4 or 5 workouts per week). Not many men train with that kind of frequency.

[ORD]

RTB said:

I have to say that very very few people ever do pull ups at my gym and the few that do tend to do very limited range of movement. They do one full pull up to start and then sort of bounce 4 or 5 inches from the top of the first press up.

As I said earlier, I've been doing low rep weighted pullups (the goal is being able to do 100lb pull ups). When you try body weight only pull ups the first 8 or 10 are very easy (you feel like you're going to launch yourself over the bar), however my endurance is pretty poor, hence I can maybe manage 13 or 14 in a row.

I guess you can either have strength or reps, but not both.

True for a lot of people but that is largely down to muscle mass. Strong guys are often too heavy to be able to do lots of reps. But the extremely strong guys can also do lots of reps (although it is very rare). Also, strong guys often do very little endurance work. I can do more pull ups when I am simply a bit fitter!

The light guys who are absolutely awesome at pull ups have strong upper body relative strength, which can involve having tiny legs (dead weight in a pull up). Teenagers often fit the bill here.

[ORD]

There's an Australian guy who holds a bunch of pull up records - upper body of a bodybuilder; legs of a child!

[ORD]

popeyewhite said:

RobM77 said:

Ah..... that makes sense now. I have extremely long legs with quite a lot of muscle and a relatively tiny upper body. It sounds strange, but it never occurred to me why I was so bad at chin ups!

Most bizarre reason I've ever heard for poor pullups. Excuses . Anyway small upper body = short levers, so pullups should be easier. Long levers = slightly harder work but denser lats.

Here's some good progression exercises to set you on your way https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdtrfXK7bcg

Note the baggy shorts on the model

[ORD]

popeyewhite said:

Want to see Kai Greene doing pullups? His quads are wider than your body

Just googled it. Didnt see a single rep in his "pull ups".

[ORD]

popeyewhite said:

Not sure what you mean?

In the video I saw, he goes nowhere near the bar at the top of the rep and nowhere near dead hang at the bottom. His ROM was several inches.

[ORD]

V8covin said:

Seems to me many people are confusing chin ups with pull ups.

Pull ups https://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/main/popup/...

Chin ups https://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/main/popup/...

Pull ups are a lot harder than chin ups !

Chins ups are a variant of pull ups and are almost identical in terms of muscle used. Slightly easier for most people but not much once you get into high reps.

Easier for untrained people because they are easier to cheat and can be made more arm-dominant.