Ladders

Originally published: 7/10/2011

I am 3 weeks through the 5 week 50 Pullups Challenge. The program started to incorporate wide grip pullups for the first time this week. This puts too much pressure on my trapezius, so I think I’m going to skip the wide grips altogether. Instead, I plan on using “Pavel’s Ladder”.
Pavel’s Ladder maximizes your efforts, without going to failure. You start with a one rep set, then add one rep for each additional set. Keep going until you are about 2 reps from failure. Then you start over with the 1 rep set.
My ladder has been 1-2-3-3 and 1-2-3-2 so far. I like what I’m seeing. Today alone, I have done 17 pullups. I could have done another set, but I had other stuff to do today. I won’t give up completely on the 50 Pushup Challenge, but I see myself doing the Pavel Ladder more.