Weighted pullups are an excellent pullup variation for increasing strength and building power. They can also be helpful for working towards the muscleup. I will review their benefits and teach you how to incorporate them into your routine based on your specific goals.
Let’s get to work. 💪
⚠️ Prerequisites
Be able to:
- Do at least 12-15 perfect form, standard pullups.
- Maintain a chin-over-bar static hold for at least 30-45 seconds.
- Complete 100 pullups in at least 25 minutes, but ideally 20 minutes or less.
Table of Contents
- Weighted Pullup Benefits
- Weighted Pullups for Strength
- Weighted Pullups for Hypertrophy
- Weighted Pullups for Endurance
Weighted Pullup Benefits
Weighted pullups are a fantastic training tool that can be used to gain strength, build endurance, put on slabs of muscle, and help you achieve the muscleup. They can be performed in a wide variety of ways. Two of the most popular methods are wearing a weightvest and attaching an external weight to your waist via the use of a belt. Less common options include having another person hold on to you or wearing ankle weights.
Although whatever method you choose will undoubtedly make the pullup more difficult to perform, keep in mind that they will affect your body in different ways. Hence why I recommend rotating the type of external weight you use. This way you experience a more well-rounded strength increase.
To get a firsthand experience of what I mean, use a belt to attach an external weight that you can only perform 1 or 2 weighted pullups with. Then load up a weightvest with the same amount of weight and try doing those 1 or 2 reps. You will notice that the way the load is distributed on your body feels different. You may not even be able to do those 1 or 2 reps or maybe you’ll be able to do more than 2. It really depends upon your current strengths.
The point is that by rotating the way you add external weight to your body, you alter the way your body adapts to it. The more different types of ways you can do that, the more benefits you will receive. This is also why I advocate using other methods besides only weighted reps to challenge yourself on pullups. Strive to become well rounded. You will come across a lot more people who can do weighted pullups than people who can do one arm pullups for example. There’s a reason for that – weighted pullups are easier. Nevertheless, they have their place in the training toolbox.
Below I will outline four different ways that you can incorporate weighted pullups into your training.
One thing to note is that despite me describing these as targeted strategies, all of them will have overlap with each other. You can train primarily for strength, but that doesn’t mean that you won’t pack on at least some muscle in the process. The same is true in reverse. We cannot completely detach the results of doing weighted pullups from each other and separate them into neat little boxes.
The body doesn’t work that way.
You can train for a desired outcome, but it won’t be the only outcome.
Weighted Pullups for Strength
When training for strength, you want to keep the weight heavy, the reps low, and the overall volume moderately high.
If the goal is pure strength while trying to minimize muscle growth, I recommend performing the reps in a 1:3 fashion.
This means as fast as possible on the way up, but slow and controlled on the way down.
The reason for this is because while time-under-tension builds strength, it also builds muscle. Being explosive on the way up builds power (more power translates to more strength) but minimizes time-under-tension. Going slow on the way down will give you the strength benefits of increased time under tension, but since you will only be going slow for half of the rep, it will minimize the hypertrophy (muscle-building) effect to some degree.
If your goal is to get stronger AND build muscle then you can follow the above suggestions on one day and the suggestions for hypertrophy on another day. You can also combine them into the same workout. If you do that, I would start with the strength-based reps first (when your Central Nervous System is fresh), followed by the muscle-building reps afterwards.
An example of a strength focused weighted pullup routine would be as follows:
- Warm-Up: 3 sets of 10 normal pullups (1:1 pace)
- Multiply your 1-rep max (1RM) by 0.75. Do 20 sets of this number with 1 – 2 minute rest in between. Towards the end you might need a longer break. That’s fine. Just complete all of the reps. Focus on maintaining a 1:3 pace for the first 10 sets. After that it might be hard to maintain so you can drop it to 1:2 or even 1:1.
As a Tool for Unlocking Muscleups
Using weighted pullups as a tool to achieving the muscleup makes intuitive sense. As a move that requires you to pull yourself way above the humble chin-over-bar standard for pullups, it stands to reason that if you weigh yourself down and get stronger, that when you remove the weight you will feel lighter. If you feel lighter then you can launch yourself higher.
So the best way to incorporate it into a muscleup achievement strategy then, is to closely follow the guidelines set forth above. In fact you can follow them almost identically.
The only adjustment I would suggest is if you want to combine it with plyometric pullups on the same day. Then I would cut the volume in half. This way you’ll still have some juice in the tank to do the plyos.
If you start with the plyometric pullups and then you move on to weighted pullups, then you can make a judgement call as to how you feel. If after you make it halfway through and you think that you will be able to finish all 20 sets as described, then go for it.
As you build strength with the weighted pullups, your body will naturally start to feel lighter when you take the weight off. This will make it way easier to proper yourself up and over the bar, which is what the muscleup requires.
Keep in mind that while all of that is true, the muscleup also requires some technique. Being able to launch yourself higher helps, but it’s only one piece of an intricate puzzle.
For that reason, I recommend checking out my full bar muscleup tutorial.
Weighted Pullups for Hypertrophy
Using weighted pullups as a muscle-building (hypertrophy) tool requires a different approach that involves using lighter weight (between 25 – 50% of 1RM), a lot more volume, and slower pace reps (either 2:2 or 3:3).
The reason we use slower pace reps is to keep the muscle under tension for as long as possible. The tension builds strength as mentioned earlier, but it also places stress on that muscle. That stress, when combined with the proper diet, will result in muscle growth.
A good weighted pullup routine for building muscle would look similar to the strength routine above, but the difference is that overall volume will be much greater due to the lower weight being used. Time under tension will also be greater.
- Warm-Up: 3 sets of 8 normal pullups (2:2 pace).
- Multiply your 1RM by 0.50. Do 10 sets of this number with 1 – 2 minute rest in between.
- Multiply your 1RM by 0.25. Do 10 sets of this number with 1 – 2 minute rest in between.
Towards the end you might need a longer break between sets. Make sure you finish all of the reps. Focus on maintaining a 3:3 pace for the first 10 sets. After that drop it to 2:2. If you can no longer maintain 2:2 then 2:1 or 1:1. Whatever you need to do to get the job done – excluding injuries or pain of course.
- Perform one bodyweight-only set of max rep chinups.
Weighted Pullups for Endurance
The way we use weighted pullups for endurance is much more subtle than the way we use them for either strength or hypertrophy. The weight is kept relatively low in order to keep the focus on maintaining a fast pace. My recommendation is to stick to 0.25 x 1RM or less.
As an example, let’s say your 1RM is 90 pounds of weight attached to you. You’ll want to go no higher than 22.5 pounds when working on endurance (90 x 0.25 = 22.5).
The way this works is that you will take an established pullups based endurance routine that is typically done bodyweight-only, and you will do the same routine but this time with added weight attached to you. It should be noted that this is a more advanced technique for those who already have decent-to-good endurance to begin with.
A really good routine you can do this with is the 5MD or 5 Minute Drill.
The classic 5MD is to do 50 pullups and 100 pushups in 5 minutes or less.
Let’s say you’ve already achieved this goal or that you aren’t too far off and you want to take it to the next level. You can try it weighted to boost your performance. The added weight should be enough to slow you down, but not so heavy that it’s not an endurance routine anymore. Hence my suggestion to keep things relatively light. If you manage to bring your time down doing it weighted, then when you take the weight off you will surely be doing the bodyweight-only version even faster.
My final comment is to train smart. Make sure you understand why you are incorporating weighted pullups into your routine. Once you understand your why (your goal), then you can follow the appropriate methodology for best results.
Good luck and have fun with your training.
If you have any questions, just shoot me an email.