One arm pull ups! A party trick or essential for elite climbing performance. It’s neither if you ask us. While it is cool to do a one-arm pull up, this does not correlate with climbing performance. In fact we’ve seen many elite climbers that are not able to do a one-arm pull up. However, doing a one-arm pull up is a clear display of upper body strength. It’s hard to make the argument that upper body strength does not help climbing performance. Therefore we think training for the one-arm pull up, as a climber, is as fair and noble a training goal as any other. So if you are interested in your one-arm pull up, Ed has got you covered. His top 3 exercises (not including the one armer) are;
Uh one arm pull ups one of the best Strength exercises for climbers or are They simply a party trick we believe It’s got to be somewhere in between Obviously being able to pull and be Strong in a unilateral position is going To be useful to a climbing situation but Being able to do a one-arm pull-up well There’s many very good climbers which Still can’t do this and they still Perform very well there’s much more to It than just pulling strength however Being able to do a one-arm pull-up is a Great Benchmark of strength for climbing And the journey to be able to do a One-on pull up is going to provide an Excellent foundation for your strength And conditioning for your climate Foreign [Music] We’ve got Ed Smith in with us and he’s Going to be talking through his three Favorite exercises for building to the One arm pull up let me just jump in with A quick caveat here these are free Excellent exercises for training a One-on pull-up but they are not the only Exercises for the one-on flip there are Going to be other exercises people might Want to add in the comments below which They think were really effective we Might have things like negatives or Assisted when I’m perhapsed even Potentially the bench press because we
Know that pec muscle is going to be Involved in that initial pull of the one Arm pull-up okay so my first exercise is The simple Hammer curl the reason I’ve Chosen this is because it’s suitable for Anyone any ability and strength level You can start out by picking up a light Dumbbell and work towards a heavier one I find it’s really good because the one Arm pull-up with it being unilateral Tends to load the brachialis to a Greater degree so it enables us to Really focus on that and develop the Conditioning and low tolerance of the Muscles involved so a hammer curl Differs from a conventional bicep curl In the orientation of your palm or Forearm so rather than having the Palm Facing upwards in a supinated position Like this you’ll have your forearm in a More neutral position so grasp it in the Dumbbell and bringing it up towards the Chest So if you’re new to hammer kills you Might want to start with a rep range of Maybe 8 to 12 reps and perform three to Four sets of this exercise if the focus Is to develop maximal strength in this Movement then you may wish to reduce the Number of reps that are completed within A set aiming for five to eight Repetitions and this is going to enable You to increase the amount of load That’s lifted and maintain good form so
My second recommendation is the Archer Pull-up so this differs from a Conventional pull-up in that when you Are pulling towards the bar it’s going To be asymmetrical or offset so you’re Actually pulling your body towards one Hand and this means that a greater Proportion of the load is taken through One shoulder or the lats or biceps so It’s a little bit more specific to the One arm pulling motion and does enable You to get into that deep lock off Position It’s really simple exercise as well you Don’t need a great deal of equipment Just a bar is suitable and it’s very Easily scalable as well so when you are Comfortable at this exercise at body Weight you can simply apply more load by Adding weight to a weight belt or Harness so if you struggle with the Archer pull up at body weight do stick With the conventional pull-ups and add Load progressively using a weight belt Until this movement becomes more Accessible so in terms of rep ranges for This exercise I would recommend eight in Total that is alternating right to left Four times so my final exercise is the One arm lock off now we’re getting Really specific now in terms of the Angles that are used and also the loads That are going to be placed through the Shoulders when we perform a one-arm
Pull-up but we are essentially isolating The exercise down to certain isometric Positions so typically we’d have the 90 Degree lock off and also the 120 degree Lock off Tend to avoid the very deep locks Um mainly because this can be quite Stressful in terms of the compression Forces that are seen on the elbow unless Of course this is a particular Performance goal of yours let’s say this Is involved in a particular project so We’re utilizing an isometric approach For this exercise before advancing to The full one arm pull-up simply because You are able to produce more force in an Isometric position so this becomes more Accessible for individuals who are Working towards being able to perform a Full one-arm pull-up but still able to Progressively overload so for this Exercise we’d be looking at performing Four sets at each joint angle so that’s Four sets at 90 degrees and four sets at 120 degrees and you’d be aiming for a Duration for the Hang between 5 and 10 Seconds before progressing the load so Because these are all strength focused Exercises we want to be able to Reproduce the the intensity that’s used In each set and therefore long longer Rest periods might be required between Two and three minutes make sure your Climbing and skill based work comes
First and takes priority however if your Schedule allows it will be very Beneficial to do these exercises on Their own on a separate day so that you Can really maintain the quality and high Intensity of these strength exercises if You enjoyed this video please give it a Like And subscribe for more content like This we’ll see you next time [Music]
