High Frequency Pull up Training: Superior for Strength?

Superior for strength?

Will training the pull up with a high frequency result in greater gains in muscle and strength?

Most definitely, you can see huge improvements in size and strength training the pull up with a high frequency. Just be sure to follow some basic “good practices” for high frequency training and for strength training progression.

I have been a big fan of high frequency training for years.

For most of my gymnastics career, my teammates and I were required to perform certain full body basic strength movements on a daily basis. After warming up, we had to do pull ups and legless rope climbs, each and every day.

We rarely tested movements or trained to failure.

Gymnasts use High Frequency Training

Our method of training went against common beliefs about strength training

You have to blast a muscle group with a ton of sets per session

1-2 times per week per body part is best.

Slam each body part and then give it 5-7 days of rest before training again
High frequency training programs are OK for beginners, but once you get more advanced, you need to ‘graduate’ to a split routine.

Training each muscle group frequently will lead to injury and overtraining

Instead, we

Trained each muscle group or movement with 1-3 sets per session

Exercised each muscle group, every day

Worked each muscle group more frequently as we became more advanced

Recovered quickly from each session, and rarely (or never) got hurt from strength and conditioning movements
Got strong and jacked as hell

We got so strong at pull ups Most of us could bust out 14-20 at a time even though we just did 1-2 sets of 10 per day.

My Bro-Training Experiment: High Frequency Training no More

As a college student, I decided to experiment with a more traditional body part split strength and conditioning program. I trained back/biceps, legs, chest/triceps, legs, and core: each once per week. Even though I trained with a lot more volume and similar exercise selection, I got consistently weaker.

Coming back to more formalized training in the fall, I was in my worst shape ever. My max pull ups had dropped from 14 to 7 and my coaches were disgusted.

At that moment, I ditched my “blast each body part” routine and regained my strength with an ‘old school’ high frequency routine.

I hope you will consider doing the same. I’m going to share with you how you can use high frequency training to build freakish levels of strength.

What Exactly is High Frequency Training?

We can define high frequency training as training each muscle group or movement 3+ times per week. You can train each movement or body part up to 9-15+ sets per week by breaking that training into small, frequent bouts.

For our purposes, we will define high frequency pull up training as training the pull up 3 or more times per week (as a side note, however, I believe you may eventually benefit from training the pull up more often.)

How long or intensive is each training session?

There is no minimum/maximum volume or intensity requirement to each session.

For example, you could do just one set of pull ups at each session, for a few easy reps, always leaving a few reps in the tank.

Or you could do multiple sets, training at sub-maximal effort (i.e. don’t train to failure).

This is precisely how many of the world’s best weightlifters train. They train each lift every day, with sub-maximal intensities and moderate volumes per session.

As your recovery and strength improves, you can add additional training sessions per week, instead of adding more volume per session.

Are there any studies comparing higher training frequencies to lower training frequencies?

The Norwegian Frequency Project:

In this study (Raastad et al. 2000), 13 national level Norwegian powerlifters (10 male and 3 female) were split into two groups.

One group trained each lift three times per week. The other group trained with the same total volume (shorter sessions) but split their training volume into daily sessions (six times per week).

The high frequency group gained nearly twice as much strength in the squat and bench press as the group training each lift just three times per week.

These were not newbie trainees, these were National level lifters. The High Frequency got much stronger than the lower frequency group. This goes against the “bro-wisdom” that more advanced trainees need to rest each body part longer between sessions.

Menno Henselmans talks about this study and its practical implications here.

Another Study:

In 2000, McLester et al. found that experienced lifters that trained three times per week gained more lean body mass than lifters who trained each body part one time per week.

Again, trained lifters made better gains on a higher frequency routine.

Why could High Frequency Training be Superior for Size and Strength?

More muscular growth:

Muscle protein synthesis is elevated for the first 24-36 hours after strength training and usually returns to baseline levels after 48 hours. For advanced trainees, muscle protein synthesis is only elevated for 6-8 hours after training.

If you can elevate muscle protein synthesis more frequently by training each body part more frequently, you can give your body more chances for growth throughout the week.

(Pull ups are already one of the best exercises for muscle growth, click here to learn more about how pull ups can be used to gain mass in your back and arms.)

More Practice

Strength is a skill. So, if you want to get good at a certain skill you need to practice it frequently. Frequent practice helps your body to become more efficient at specific movement patterns. Additionally, constant practice helps you to gain confidence with specific movements.

Because you will start each session relatively fresh and rested, your practice will be high quality. Instead of accumulating set after set on an already fatigued body, you will get the chance to practice each movement with more energy and mental focus.

More training volume

Actually, It is easier to accumulate more training volume if you train each body part frequently.

Your body can only handle so much productive work each day. If you train one body part per session, you are likely to be so tired by the end of the session that your last few exercises and sets suffer.

With high frequency training, you bypass that problem. You train multiple muscle groups per day or use full body training multiple days per week.

This way, you can approach each exercise relatively more “fresh” and lift heavier loads or get a few more reps with each individual exercise.

Common Myths about High Frequency Training

Myth 1: My muscles won’t recover enough by the next session with high frequency training

Recovery is marked by being able to repeat your baseline performance, with the same relative intensity.

Your recovery will be much faster with high frequency training than typical body part splits. Just keep your volume and intensity within limits. I.e. don’t do 15 + sets per day per muscle group. About 3 sets per muscle group per day is a great place to start.

You will also find that you get much less sore training with a higher training frequency. This will help you to train with more intensity each session.

As you become more acclimated to high frequency training, you will become even less sore. Now you will recover even more quickly, allowing you to train with an even greater training frequency.

Myth 2: I will over-train with high frequency training

Your body can adapt to much more work than you are probably doing!

Just increase your training volume, over time, to make more progress. The easiest way to add training volume is to train more frequently.

Most people have become so sickly afraid of over-training that they never do enough work to make any meaningful progress.

Training more frequently might lead you to the best gains of your life!

High Frequency Training is too Taxing on the Central Nervous System

Strength training is less likely to cause central nervous system fatigue than it is to cause peripheral fatigue or muscular fatigue.

Most people believe that intense strength training with compound exercises (heavy squats and deadlifts) will fatigue the central nervous system. However, this belief is unfounded in the scientific research.

While strength training does cause muscular fatigue and temporary reductions in power output, the central nervous system is largely unaffected.

You should not worry about a high frequency training program producing central nervous system fatigue.

High Frequency Training is more injurious than more traditional training schedules

You are unlikely to have a higher rate of injury with high frequency training than lower frequency training. Incorporate slightly different movement patterns to prevent pattern overload.

With the pull up, you can use pull ups, chin ups, close or wide grip pull ups, partials, or negatives to help you avoid injury. This will also help you stimulate slightly different portions of the muscle fibers.

Most likely, high frequency training is superior from a recovery and injury prevention standpoint. It allows more frequent nutrient delivery to tendons, joints and muscles. (To learn more about how to prevent injuries in your training program, read Pain in the Pull up. )

Now that we have debunked many of your concerns about high frequency training, let us discuss who might benefit from this type of training.

Who Benefits?

Beginners need more frequent practice to gain efficiency with movements.

Advanced trainees need to stimulate muscle protein synthesis more frequently to gain more muscle and strength potential.

Women generally recover faster from any acute exercise bout than men. Women are more resistant to muscle damage from training and can handle higher overall workloads.

Thus, women and advanced trainees should probably train with the highest training frequencies. (If you fall into both categories, you are probably the perfect candidate for high frequency training.)

High Frequency Pull up Training: Free Training Programs

To improve the number of reps you can do (i.e. be able to do more pull ups with your bodyweight ONLY)

Beginners use assistance as needed.

Tuesday: Pull up 1 set x REPS, leaving 1-2 reps in the tank

Thursday: Chin Up 1 set x REPS, leaving 1-2 reps in the tank

Saturday: Wide Grip Pull up 1 set x REPS, leaving 1-2 reps in the tank

After a 1-2 week adaptation period, you will find that you are getting less sore and are able to do more pull ups each week. Continue this plan for 3-6 months until you start to plateau. At that point, simply add another training session each week and repeat the process, up to 6 pull up training sessions per week. Once you are doing pull ups each day, you can start adding a set to 1-2 of each session to add additional training volume (remember, you need to increase your training volume over time).

High Frequency Pull up Training: Improve your Pull up 1 Rep Max

Tuesday: 3 x 5 with 70 % of your pull up 1RM

Thursday: 6 x 3 with 70 % of your pull up 1RM for Wide Grip Pull ups

Saturday: Work up to a heavy single with the Chin up (pull up + weight added), then drop back down to 75% for a 2 x 3

Each week, add 1-2 lb to your pull up weight. Don’t take any sets to failure. Don’t worry if you can’t add weight every week. The important thing is that you end up a lot stronger than you started out.

High frequency training does work, and provided you don’t attempt to take all your sets to failure or do a gross number of sets each training day, it can work fantastically for the pull up!

Follow one of the programs above and expect to be building bone-crushing strength in the pull up in no time!