koffiejunkie
Executive Member
If, as I suspect, the issue is that your grip gives out before you can't do any more pull-ups, you're well ahead of most people, so don't feel bad. There really is only one thing you can do, and that's increasing your grip strength. Before I make any suggestions, you didn't mention how many pull-ups you can do. If you're already doing a decent number - say 5 or more, you can break it up into smaller sets - say 4 per set, rest a minture or two, repeat as many times as you can. Over time either increase the number of sets or number of reps per set - your hands will get stronger. If you've done that for a while and aren't getting any further, there's pretty much three things you can do:
1. Dead hangs. Presumably you already have a pull-up bar. What you want to do is start by doing one hang for as long as you can hold it - until failure. Put a clock or something in front of you so you can time it. Put your hands in the same position as during a pull-up. Hang. Try to relax your shoulders and back as much as possible. Once you fail, record the time. Work out 90% of that time - this will be your training time. Don't do anything further today, give your hands time to rest. Next day, do three hangs at 90% of yesterday's max. Rest a minute or two - however long you need to recover - inbetween. Next day, increase the time by 1% or a second, whichever is greater. Wash, rinse, repeate. Pretty similar to progression in pull-ups. Try to arrange your day so that you do pull-ups in the morning and hangs in the evening, or vice versa, so that you get the most out of both.
2. Get a grip trainer - something like this. This is technically unnecessary if you already have a bar to hang from, but whatever. You can follow the same linear progression approach by setting the weight to something you can do a solid 8 or so reps. Do 3 sets of 8 reps, rest inbetween. Or 4 sets or 5 if you really want. Put it down, come back tomorrow, do one rep more per set. Once you've exhausted what the 60kg setting can give you, you can progress to using only two fingers at a time - a bit harder with the handle, but you'll figure it out.
3. Deadlift. Deadlift is the one lift where 1) the full weight of the bar is hanging from your fingers, so similar to doing pull-ups or dead hangs, and 2) As a beginner, you'll progress to lifting more than your bodyweight within probably a year. This will makes your hands stronger.
I wouldn't use straps for supporting bodyweight hanging from your hands. Straps are mainly used for deadlift, and there they mainly assist in preventing the bar from rolling and prying your fingers open. Yes, some of the weight is transferred to your wrist, but you don't want that to be too much - you can hurt your wrists. The main difference here is if you fail a rep with a deadlift, you can just drop your torso and let the weight fall to the floor. If you're hanging with straps, it's a bit trickier to get out. Again, there's a risk of injury (I've seen both happen at my gym). Best to just work on your grip strength.
