Quick Hitter: Improving Your Pull-Up (Or Rope Climb)
TL; DR
Key Takeaways:
Strength is a multifaceted conquest and is not simply about muscle growth so don’t fear weights
Stability is a way to improve strength
Use of performance techniques to reach the goal of improving pull, in this case French Contrast Method
Joint Angles and role of vectors and specificity in improving strength.
Understanding difference between fitness and performance. Performance goals require knowing what NOT to do just as much as knowing what to do
Mentality and the belief one can actually do it goes a long way in expediting the training experience
A goal I often hear is the desire to improve the pull in some capacity, whether that is meeting the goal of a pull-up or a bit of a different variety such as a rope climb.
That’s the goal Sadie Newman had this year as she trained for the Victoria Secret Fashion Show. Sadie elevated her desire above simply fitness/aesthetics and wanted to meet a performance goal, which is not easy, of performing a rope climb.
Spoiler, she ended up doing it. You can get a closer look at her overall training journey below
The first time she tried she couldn’t move up the rope at all.
So how did we get it done? (which many of you asked post completion of her goal).
Below, I share the thought processes in a succinct (kinda) manner about how this was achieved. If you have more questions, don’t be afraid to hit me up but for sake of attempted brevity I’m going to keep it short and a few things were omitted.
Two other participants in the show, Megan Williams and Sara Sampaio had pull-up variation goals as well and many of the tips outlined below we used during their training as well in different capacities to help improve their skill.
General Prep phase of Conditioning and General Strength
When I first get an athlete, it’s a must that they get used to improving their base level of conditioning/work capacity. I want a quality resting heart rate (below 60 or so) which typically ensures when we begin to increase the intensity of the workouts, due to the improvement of the aerobic system, they will be able to recover quicker and provide higher quality work consistently.
From there, we have to get strong. I view strength as “structural insurance”. If the body is used to handling load through base movement patterns I’ve seen it help with decreasing injury risk but also it helps with force production. There’s a common misconception that strength improvements come with a gross change in muscle mass (which is where the myth of “getting bulky” comes in, especially for women). It often is the result of shoring up energy leaks (increasing efficiency of movement) and just getting the body used to producing force. For many people, including Sadie, it isn’t that they can’t move weight, it is just that they haven’t trusted themselves to do it consistently and controlled which will have these strength improvements stick.
Below you’ll see there are many ways to get strong. We attacked much of the purple which caused changes in the nervous system and not so much in the muscle so unneeded muscle growth did not occur. If you want to read more about these principles please click here
Functional Isometrics
I then needed Sadie to be able to control her body in distinct ways so we did exercises that would keep her shoulder “functionally stable” so it helped improve strength by improving stability. We couldn’t have shoulders going crazy when trying to do pull movement. They should synergistically work with her back to create a quality pull, but the shoulders couldn’t be responsible for all the movement. Base prehab movements including ones like “scarecrows” which would do with certain moments of isometric pauses in them.
Additionally, as Sadie got better at moving up the rope I noticed that it wasn’t so much that Sadie couldn’t get up, it was that when she transitioned in the hand over hand pull, she would lose ground and move down the rope slightly. I found isometrics to help in not letting this occur by helping her get used to keeping tension during transition moments needed in the rope climb.
Isometrics, while can be overwhelming, can cause increases in short term muscle performance. Below, you’ll see Sadie performing an isometric rope hold which was part of what we did to get better at the rope climb.
Joint Angle Specific Strength
Strength is specific which we tend to forget and the body gets strong through the angles and vectors imposed on it. That meant a lot of joint angle specific work that focused on vertical pulling (similar to what she would be doing during the actual activity of the rope climb) and providing support when needed. Also there’s a skill component to the rope climb so if she not only never practiced the rope + didn’t work patterns similar to what the rope climb would be, she would fail.
French Contrast Method
French Contrast Method is basically a method that looks to induce a “peak” moment by using potentiation to create both an acute and hopefully longer term change in strength and explosiveness by combined neuromuscular changes. It’s used fairly wildly as of late in the sports world and basically is a sense can we overload the body briefly and then reduce load while increasing speed to create some changes (contrasting) and creating a distinct set of movements (complex) that will maximize the effect of these exercises.
You have 4 types of lift in a complex to speed up adaptations which include strength.
- Heavy Lift
- High Force or Plyometric Movement
- Speed Lift or Weighted Jump
- Assisted Plyometric
Now, this is typically used for lower body movements but I figured I could tweak this a little bit to cook up using a pull pattern focused set. While it wasn’t perfect, it worked.
An example of what I did is below
- Half Kneeling Keiser Pulldowns (Heavy, examples are video 3 and 7 here)
- Pull-Ups (with slight assist from me)
- Bench Supported Row w/speed
- Band Assisted Pull-Ups (FAST)
There’s an inverse relationship between speed and load here. A muscle produces less force overall when a movement is done quickly but by doing a heavy movement first we can possibly increase the relative amount of force produced later (like with both the Pull-ups and band assisted pull-ups) by stimulating the nervous system. The research isn’t soundproof here, but there seems to be some validity.
To read more about French Contrast Method, please read here and here.
Not all this is perfect and I just like to experiment with empirical methods, especially from the performance world, and apply them accordingly. I often have to work against distinct timelines so don’t have the luxury to just “eventually” get there, results are needed ASAP.
Sadie got them. She left me hanging, but she got them.
Hopefully the information provided here can help you in some way.
Thanks for reading and hit me with any questions.
