Content
here at Pierini Fitness – all
original and written by its chief executive blogger also named Pierini Fitness – generally follows the genre
of “middle-aged man reflections about living and dying, gracefully-aging and
trying my best to live a good and honest life.”
Those
of you who have read Pierini Fitness over its 10 years in
existence, know there’s also good middle-aged man diet, fitness and health
stuff here too. Occasionally, I share a
snapshot from my training journals and that’s what I’m doing today.
Today
I’m sharing part of my Saturday workout from a couple days ago. It was a
workout of alternating pull-ups and chin-ups done with a “greasing the groove” cadence.
What’s
greasing the groove? It’s an approach to
doing an exercise frequently where every set is performed without going to
muscular fatigue. Do a Google search and
read up on it if you’re unfamiliar with this training method.
About
a dozen years ago when I was closer to being in my prime, I was a pull-up
“beast” and regularly completed some amazing high-volume workouts. I also did heavy weighted single pull-ups and
chin-ups. I recall doing a pull-up with
88 lbs. strapped around my waist, and a chin-up with 100-lbs. added. I built a killer back from doing this “simple”
exercise.
 |
| Pierini Fitness circa 2007 at about age 52 |
Here’s the detail from my Saturday workout:
# of rounds and reps
|
Reps done
|
Start new round every
|
10
rounds of 3 reps
|
30
|
60
seconds
|
10
rounds of 2 reps
|
20
|
30
seconds
|
20
rounds of 2 reps
|
40
|
Flexible
based on feel
|
3-2-2-2-1
|
10
|
Finish
as quickly as possible
|
Total
reps completed
|
100
|
My
plan was also to perform this workout as a superset with bar dips, but I only
did bar dips for the first 10 rounds as my right tricep muscle had a funny
feel to it and I didn’t want to injure it.
I was able to complete 35 bar dips in these 10 rounds. Pull-ups and bar dips make a nice couple for
a superset workout, so I’ll try again soon.
If
you want to restore some lost pull-up performance like me, let’s do a once-a-week
volume workout of pull-ups and chin-ups greasing the groove style. While it won’t be our primary purpose, who
knows, we may get our Fountain of Youth back.
Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum
