Hey Mudders, Born here, your Official Tough Mudder UK trainer.
Okay, we know if you master the pull up game, you can master the muscle up. Saying that, it is also very important to remember to make sure that we keep training our antagonist muscles to the opposing muscles you normally train. Meaning if you’re pulling or pushing, you should be equally as strong in both actions to give you optimal maximum strength. So how can we achieve these? By mixing in some of these pull up variations of course.
WHY SHOULD I DO PULL UPS?
When you are training, you are basically doing one of two things; either pulling or pushing. Pulling is a lot harder than pushing, so that’s why you can never go wrong when training your pulling power (no pun intended). Pull ups are a fundamental compound, callisthenic movement, that engages your lats, biceps and core.
SO, WHY SHOULD I DO PULL UP VARIATIONS?
This has become a frequently asked question, as over the past few weeks we have been posting a mixture of workouts with different variations. The simple answer is, that variations, in terms of training intensity, reps, tempo, volume, duration and exercise selection, are all-important for continuous gains. As great as pull ups are, you are only utilising one dimensional plane doing regular pull ups, so to maximise your strength and progress, you need to be utilising all dimensional planes. So, to master your pull up game which will pay dividends when navigating The Whopper, doing a muscle up over Hero Walls or pulling your fellow Mudders to safety on Mud Mile, you need to be doing as many positions and angles as possible.
If you haven’t already, pick 10 exercises from our pull ups variation work out below and try 5 – 10 reps on each. Good luck Mudders.
