One Arm Pull-up Analysis

[nabis]

Hi,

this blog post about one-arm pull-ups states that if you can perform a two-arm pull-up with 62% of your body weight added you should be able to perform a one-arm pull-up. With that in mind I opened my workout log and did some number crunching to see how many more session it would take for me to achieve my eagerly awaited first one-arm pull-up.

Assumimg it's enough to pull up 62% of your body weight added once, I calculated my one repetition maximum for each set based on this formular. Since you are typically doing more than one set, you're left with more than one value, so take the average of them all and hope it's more accurate . From this you can calculate your absolute weight added (average minus body weight) and take the difference to your goal weight that you need to add (body weight times 0,62) and voila you get a nice graph that should point downwards.

My calculations tell me that I am at 44% and that I need about 12-13 more sessions to get to 62%. At least if my strength gains are linear . Here's my graph: 



I'm hoping some of you will also post your results for which you can use my attached excel file. Maybe we can find a similar percentage value to do a one-arm pull-up. I can state that with 44% I can't do a single one .

Attachments:

Traing Season 1 Pull-up Analysis.xlsx (15.22 KB)

[robertorama]

I can do a normal pullup with additional 62% of my body weight. But I can´t do a one arm pullup. I dont think I´m even very close. I´m pretty tall though (194 cm), maybe it´s harder with long arm compared to short arms.

And I highly doubt your strenght gains will be linear as soon as you come closer to your limit

[jessebruni]

Yeah, what Robert said. My 1 rep max is +90 lbs and I weigh around 137. That is 65% of my BW. For a one-arm I can pull up from a engaged shoulder to about 90 degrees but can't go past 90 to get my chin over the bar, and I can't start moving from a deadhang. I suspect there's more to it than just pure numbers. Strength gains are not linear unless you're operating far lower than your max.

[MarkAnderson]

Not really on topic, but if you want to do 1-arm pull-ups for some reason, I recommend you do 1-arm pull-ups. Use assistance if needed. My favorite way to do this is with a gymnastic ring set up so that the tail end of the strap is hanging down where you can reach it. Wrap your inactive hand around the loose strap, around shoulder height, and use it to assist the active arm as needed.

[joshvillen]

Seems the logic behind the 60-70 percent calculation is flawed, can you do a 1 arm in that range of strength? Yes, will it be good form? No, you will most certainly not be doing a "clean" 1 arm. Instead you will be using momentum and "body english" to assist you. Most people will use their opposing arm in a swinging motion, along with an ab and leg pump kick to finish.

I'll let you know how much cleaner my motion is when I hit 100% body weight, currently at 95% on my gyms lat pull-down machine.

[joev9]

Jun 12, 2015 10:17:20 GMT -7 joshvillen said:

Seems the logic behind the 60-70 percent calculation is flawed, can you do a 1 arm in that range of strength? Yes, will it be good form? No, you will most certainly not be doing a "clean" 1 arm. Instead you will be using momentum and "body english" to assist you. Most people will use their opposing arm in a swinging motion, along with an ab and leg pump kick to finish.

I'll let you know how much cleaner my motion is when I hit 100% body weight, currently at 95% on my gyms lat pull-down machine.

Do you mean 195% like almost double your bodyweight? Plus, don't you think the pulley/cable system gives some advantage on the lat pulldown machine?

[joshvillen]

I meant 95% of my body weight...because I am doing 1 arm lat pull-downs. I don't think the lat pull-down system is 100% accurate or perfect but it's transferring really nicely. The math is all adding up pretty predictably as well. Left arm 115 + right arm 120= 235 which is what my max lat pull-down is. The numbers are matching up for my girl friend as well, hardly a case study but I've been happy watching my percentages go up

[joev9]

Ok, that makes sense...

[Mtn5]

I would say you need 80% 160lbs climber two arm pull-up with 125-130lbs added

[Just Me]

On Lat pulldown machine 95% of weight = about 1 pull up
On Lat pulldown machine 180% of weight = about one 1 arm pull up
YMMV