For those of you that joined the gym since we moved to our current location, there’s a small bit of Intrepid history that you missed out on. We used to have monthly challenges to add a little spice and focus for our day-to-day training. Today I’m proposing an unofficial challenge and looking for volunteers to play along.

Ruth has posted a few articles in the last few months about improving your pullup or chinup ability. In the comments for one, Anna mentioned when she approached me about increasing her strict pullups and I suggested a variation on the frequency method. I have found this tends to work really well for most people and a number of members have mentioned the desire to increase their pullups.

With that in mind, here’s the unofficial challenge — 1 strict pullup on the first day — and one more each additional day. That means that on March 15th, you will do 15 pullups… and for the quick thinkers, yes on the 30th you will do 30 pullups. Don’t go running away at the thought of this. You do NOT have to do all of these in one set!

Here are the “rules”:

• Start on day 1 (March 1st) with 1 pullup, followed by 2 on the 2nd, etc.
• Pullups, chinups, pullups on the rings are all legit. No kipping though!
• Total amount of pullups may be broken up into multiple sets as needed, as long as they are done in the same day
• If you miss a day, you must make up that volume the next day. (e.g., miss the 12th and you need to do 25 on the 13th!)
• When the day’s workout or warmup includes strict pullups, you may count those towards that day’s pullups (but no, you cannot “bank” excess pullups for later in the week)
• Yes, this challenge will include Sundays, so either familiarize yourself with local parks that have pullup bars or follow Sean’s lead and purchase a doorway pullup bar.

I would suggest most people would also benefit from doing an equal number of pushups each day. If you currently don’t have a single strict pullup or chinup, look at Ruth’s post “Pull Ups by the Numbers”, pick your stage in the progression and stick with it for the month. Most days you will find it easiest to sneak in your reps during warmups, between sets or at the end of class. Since you start with only ONE rep, it’s pretty easy to hit the ground running and allow your strength to keep pace with the volume. I’ll be playing along this time and we will be starting on Thursday, March 1st. So… who’s in? Ask any other questions in the comments

See also:

Upping Your Pull Ups

Pull Ups By the Numbers

The Pull Up vs Chin Up

UPDATE:

I love the interest so far! Here’s our little “accountability role call”, if you will. Starting tomorrow, when you see fellow participants in class, make sure to ask them if they’ve done their reps yet!

1. Marcus + pushups
2. Tami
3. Ruth + pushups
4. Josh
5. Holley + pushups
6. Alia
7. Amy + pushups
8. Brian + pushups
9. Amanda
10. Pablo
11. Mike S.
12. Cristina + pushups
13. Corrine + pushups
14. Sean + pushups
15. Ray + pushups
16. Mark + pushups
17. Brady + pushups
18. Jake + pushups
19. Mike H. + pushups
20. Tyler + pushups
21. Stephanie + pushups
22. Patrick + pushups
23. Celina + pushups
24. Tom + pushups
25. Dan + pushups
26. AJ + pushups
27. Troy + pushups
28. Michelle + pushups
29. Kathy + pushups

WOD 02.29.12

Bench Press 3×5
Deadlift 1×5