Who should be able to do more pull ups - a gymnast or a rock climber?

Here's the second try where she manages:

https://youtu.be/ZQKRcWRjQbs?t=1215

You guys are doing fantastic. At my best, I usually felt like I could outclimb anyone who could outrun me, and outrun anyone who could outclimb me. You youngsters are kicking up some serious dust there!

Ashima Prefontaine wrote:

pishposh wrote:

its nice to know theres climbers/runners out there than just me. I climb 5.13c and boulder v8 as well as being able to run 10 miles under 55 min. I'd like to think im pretty special but now that theres at least two other runner climbers on these boards im wondering if theres more.

thats awesome!

5.13c/4.35 this year. I found training low mileage for the mile much easier to do when also training for climbing.

"Lowe improved his upper body strength as a result of an exercise regimen that included 400 chin-ups and hundreds of dips. In an article for Active Lifestyle, Gordon Wiltsie, a photographer who climbed with Lowe in Antarctica and Canada's Baffin Island, said, "he'd hog the pull-up bar to knock out 400 pull-ups in sets of 40 and 45. He disliked downtime and knew where to do pull-ups in many airports. Even on expeditions, when rest is hard to come by and much appreciated, Lowe was an oddball. He'd cop pull-ups on a ship's rigging en route to Antarctica, or do dips in a snow pit he dug at base camp." In that article, Wiltsie said, "At Baffin Island, after hauling supplies to a high point on a climb, we went back to camp beat and tired, but Alex proceeded to do pull-up after pull-up. He even brought an exercise device on climbs."

Serious???? wrote:

Gymnastics conditioning is insane. They are the strongest athletes pound for pound of any sport.

Olympic weightlifters are by far the strongest pound for pound.

One of the great things about climbing (and running) is the how you get to meet the legends and chat with them or even climb with them. Met Alex once at the gym-doing pullups of course! He was a force of nature.

It would make sense that an ice climber would outdo everybody on volume of pullups- it actually mimics the activity (except for the wrist pronation).

I had one friend who was a 5.12 climber back in the '70's who claimed to do 1000/day in sets of 50 until he got serious tendinitis, and I have every reason to believe it...he was seriously OCD on exercise.

I'm sure there are climbers that could best a gymnast and vice versa, but overall i'd bet on a gymnast who does bars/rings, due to years of focused training. Also, neither of these guys in links below are skinny rock climber types, they look more like gymnasts to me:

20 hand clap pull ups (note thick bar, which is way harder):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1JqtbRPNps

24 hour WR=4,210 pull ups.

http://www.mensfitness.com/training/new-pull-world-record

Serious???? wrote:

Try doing 1 pullover on bars and understand the strength a basic move like Kip cast handstand takes...

As a skinny distance runner in college I could do 18 pull ups, and did 8 pullovers one of the few times that I tried it. In fact I found the pullovers quite easy to do, but was losing my grip on the last one, with no chalk, which freaked me out and I never tried them again.

Totally wrong wrote:

[quote]Serious???? wrote:

Try doing 1 pullover on bars and understand the strength a basic move like Kip cast handstand takes...

As a skinny distance runner in college I could do 18 pull ups, a...

Not saying you or anyone else here "cheated", but if you watch the average guy in the gym doing pullups/dips, their head has a vertical movement of about 2-3 inches because they cheat so much, not even getting their elbow to 90 degress let along straight down, and and only getting their chin over the bar because they tilt their head way back. It's pretty funny to watch, like guys doing 250lb squats by ducking their head up/down like a chicken, barely bending at the knees/hips.

Also many people confuse pullups and chinups: pull ups have palms forward, as if you're pull yourself over a fence. Chin ups are often (not always) considered to be palms in, and are generally easier.

Totally wrong wrote:

[quote]Serious???? wrote:

Try doing 1 pullover on bars and understand the strength a basic move like Kip cast handstand takes...

As a skinny distance runner in college I could do 18 pull ups, and did 8 pullovers one of the few times that I tried it. In fact I found the pullovers quite easy to do, but was losing my grip on the last one, with no chalk, which freaked me out and I never tried them again.

If you could do 18 pull ups you're already way beyond the average guy. You probably had a helpfully low BF. As for pullovers, what kind of style points did the judges give you?

NotASkinnerClimber wrote:

if you watch the average guy in the gym doing pullups/dips, their head has a vertical movement of about 2-3 inches because they cheat so much, not even getting their elbow to 90 degress let along straight down, and and only getting their chin over the bar because they tilt their head way back. It's pretty funny to watch, like guys doing 250lb squats by ducking their head up/down like a chicken, barely bending at the knees/hips.

Also many people confuse pullups and chinups: pull ups have palms forward, as if you're pull yourself over a fence. Chin ups are often (not always) considered to be palms in, and are generally easier.

Yes that's exactly correct. I always did mine from dead hang, arms completely straight. A football player in the gym said he could leg press 400 pounds 20 times on the universal, proceeded to slide his body down the chair with legs straight, then move the weight back and forth with his toes. Then he couldn't do even one from the sitting position, whereas I did 20 in most forward position, but the universal was not like real weights.

SeriousYa wrote:

If you could do 18 pull ups you're already way beyond the average guy. You probably had a helpfully low BF. As for pullovers, what kind of style points did the judges give you?

Really, is that better than 8 pullovers? I did 18 a few different times, but am not sure if I ever did more then that, and I was particular with my form.

The average competitive female gymnast is around or slightly under 100 lbs. in terms of absolute strength, they're not really that strong. Average adult male is pulling around nearly 75 pounds more and so would be stronger.

Those gymnast girls are light as a feather.

Plus, you're better off getting your daughter involved in something that won't get her stuck at 5 feet tall for the rest of her life. Rigorous gymnastics training from around age 4 or 5 tends to severely stunt skeletal growth. Kim Zmeskal is only like 4'10. But when I watched her on TV I was thinking she was bigger because the camera angles only featured her by herself and a close up. She is powerfully muscled though, but if I were female I wouldn't want to be barely above the legal definition of a midget...

Most lifting/exercise challenges are subject to a subjective factor that makes them more like racewalking than running track. That is the objective elegance of both running and climbing: either you made the top without falls or not; either you ran the time or not (Litton/Rossi notwithstanding).

Addendum to my 30 pullups age 55: at that point I was working a full-time+ manual labor job and had to cut my running and climbing way back. As a doable personal challenge, I decided on the "30/30/300" which was 30 dips, 30 pullups and over 300 squat. It took three months (in the context of work, running and climbing) to get all three. Dips were the easiest.

When I started climbing in my 20s I was a skinny (143 lbs) 2:38 marathoner who could do maybe 5 pullups. I am now still really lean (at 163), but a whole different animal in all-around terms.

Snooze, who are you? 50+ 5.14 climber and runner? Can't be too many around.

Pretty bad ass! I'm duly impressed and inspired and retract my earlier scepticism

Very impressive, a great role model.

Good point on subjectivity aspect.

Really, once you can knock out 20 pull ups with ease, it isn't as important a motion to work on.

For gymnasts, a rings guy probably has short arms and can do pull ups all day. The pommel horse specialist will have longer arms and won't do as many. A floor/vault athlete has more mass in his legs and won't be as strong in pulling as the rings champ.

Climbers, gymnasts, and lifters will all lose to John Breznk in arm wrestling.

Snooze Alarm wrote:

I had one friend who was a 5.12 climber back in the '70's who claimed to do 1000/day in sets of 50 until he got serious tendinitis, and I have every reason to believe it...he was seriously OCD on exercise.

Most pullups in 1 hour: 1009 (http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-pull-ups-in-one-hour). Who the heck nows what the form rules were.

Most people struggle with pull ups (even doing 1 or 2 is hard) so it is hard to imagine being able to crank out a zillion of them. But think of the elite marathon runner. Most people would struggle to go out and run a 2:30 800m. The elite go though can run 52 of them in a row. Once you get your strength to weight ratio up high enough in the back and build grip strength, you can crank out a lot of them.

Personally think anyone doing 200+/pullups day is probably crazy. Get a weight vest and up the intensity a bit.

there are probably not a lot of guys over 200 lbs doing more than 15 or 20 reps.