UKC

I'm guessing that on average women can probably do less pullups than men can. I was just wondering how much harder we really do find it.... So as a kind of impromptu poll, are you male or female, how many pullups can you do (palms facing away on a bar) and what grade do you climb ( hardest onsight in whatever style you like, including toprope or bouldering), and how long have you been climbing.......

To start:
Female
3
6c+
3 years

In reply to ClimberGirl:

Female
7 usually (but just checked and managed 10 today - whoop!)
7b (but Kaly 7b so more like 7a)
10 years

In reply to ClimberGirl:
Male
x14 as of last week. Straight arms to chin over the bar, reasonably wide grip.
Right now? Probably about severe lol. Have done soft indoor 6c a couple of times and E0 jamming maybe once.
*edit; leading*
5-6 years

In reply to ClimberGirl:

Male
10
6c sport
6 years

In reply to ClimberGirl:

Female
3 or 4
6a indoor lead
6b indoor toprope
6months - 1year

In reply to ClimberGirl:


That is VERY impressive. Can you do the same number on your other arm?

In reply to ClimberGirl:

Male
40 Years old.
16 Pull ups from straight arm hangs.
E1 best grade onsight

TS

In reply to ClimberGirl:

Male
15-20 depending on the bar/hangboard
7b is best o/s
climbing for 30 yrs

In reply to ClimberGirl:

Female
When climbing regualrly, 10 pull ups, 6a-b ish (indoor) and climbing for 1 yr.
Now 3 pull ups, 5+ indoor and occasional climbing for 15 yrs...

In reply to ClimberGirl:

Female

When climbing regularly:
5-6
6B lead, 7a toprope, HVS
10 years

Now (had a bit of a hiatus, coming back):
Not sure, haven't tried recently - maybe 3?
Brit tech 6A bouldering, long mountain easy trad
20 years

In reply to ClimberGirl:

Male
14
6c (sport)
5 years

In reply to ClimberGirl:

Male
20+ chin-ups
7c flash
Climbing 12 years

But more interestingly, Mrs Dandan:

Female
0 chin-ups
6c (7a second go)
Climbing 8 years

In reply to ClimberGirl:

Male
about 10 pull ups
6b+ is about the hardest I can onsight
11 years

So far, there's not much correlation between number of pull ups and hardest grade

In reply to ClimberGirl:

Male

Never train pull ups but between 10-15 if I jumped on a bar right now or 15-20 with a couple of weeks focusing on them.

On-sites: Bouldering f7B, Sport 7b/+, Trad E3'ish (I don't bother with hard trad on-sighting)

20 years.


My own conclusion is that beyond a base strength which will get you to about 10, the number of pull ups you can do isn't a very good indicator of how hard you climb, repeating that movement isn't a good cross over for climbing in general, unless the routes you do are just campusing on jugs all day.

In reply to ClimberGirl:
Some interesting comments, and further links, here regarding pull up and lock off training:
http://www.rockclimbing.com/forum/Climbing_Information_C2/Technique_%26_Tra...

In reply to ClimberGirl:
Male
0
7a+, E4 and the very odd E5
43

In reply to ClimberGirl:
Male
15-20 on a normal day
E5, 7a, V5
Over 10 years (7 years seriously)


Very interesting results so far with the lack of clear correlation!

Well over 30 in a single set from a deadhang and a couple one armers too, yet my best onsight is only 7a sport (and have not actually redpointed anything harder). My upper body strength is wasted on my current climbing ability and I regularly get out-climbed by people who aren't physically as strong. My core is similarly strong but my fingers are the weak link (and technique).

Have been climbing for a year and a bit

In reply to Christheclimber:





Zero???? I don't believe you with 7a+ leading.

In reply to ClimberGirl:
Male
22 (this morning)
E1
26

But I'm a boulderer at the moment so I don't count!!!!
Also, I'd be better off learning to touch my toes.

In reply to bouldery bits:
No currently can't do a pull up after shoulder surgery a few years ago.

In reply to ClimberGirl:
Female
5-10 pull ups (don't ask me about push ups though, I find them so hard!)
Primarily bouldering
Highest outdoor grade f6B in Font, hoping to tick a couple of f6C+/7A this summer.

Can indoor lead climb around 6c/red-point 7a but don't get outdoors enough to see how it correlates.

In reply to bouldery bits:

Female
3-4 with good form and another couple of ones that probably shouldn't be counted
6a/b ish
5 years

On a similar note, can any of you ladies do front lever? I seem to have got into a bit of silly "...by year end" challenge and feeling like it's near impossible at current rate of progress!

In reply to ClimberGirl:
I'd say forearm endurance and finger strength are far more important for rock climbing than pull ups. Winter climbing is closer to doing pull ups but even there you never actually do a free hanging pull up and getting weight on your feet is key, just like when rock climbing.

I can do less than 10 pull ups. Probably more if I train for it specifically.
Onsight 7a on a good day
Solid on E3 but have onsighted up to E5 6a
Have done a handful of VIIs
Climbing about 10 years
Male

To improve at onsighting, I think I need to get better at reading the moves, push the redpointing grade and climb faster, as well as generally getting fitter and stronger (which means following a proper training plan). However I don't think being able to do more pull ups would help (although I may be able to do more as a result of generally getting stronger).

In reply to Christheclimber:

Presumably it makes more sense to give the number of pull ups you could do during the period you were climbing at your best on-sight grade, otherwise its kind of meaningless

In reply to ClimberGirl:

Male
10 (Normally from straight to chin over bar)
7a, WI5
~11 years

In reply to Šljiva:

Training for a front lever will have benefits for climbing I'm sure - core strength will go through the roof, so it's a worthy goal. However, getting a 'proper' front lever with straight locked arms and flat body within a year is a huge challenge for anyone. Personally I find them harder than the one arm pullup, so don't get too discouraged if you don't manage it by the end of the year it's a very tough move

In reply to Šljiva:

Nowhere near. In fact my core is pathetically weak at the moment, it's holding me back far more than my pull up ability. I did make a half arsed attempt to train up to front lever a few years ago so maybe I should revisit it...

In reply to ClimberGirl:
Male
2-3
6c Sport
E4 onsight, E5 headpoint
9 years (ish)

In reply to climbingpixie:

Join our challenge It's taken me from January until now to manage to engage my core and back /shoulders at the same time. Finally seem to be able to approach something resembling horizontal tuck but not hold it at all. Agree Liam, enjoying the challenge at least and it can't harm. Trying to work on dragon flag as well to get the core strength up - seems to be working. Might even be helping the climbing a little too!

In reply to james.slater:


Pullups just aren't that useful for climbing, and the pullup related things which could potentially more relevant (locks, etc) aren't that well correlated with number of pullups.

In reply to Christheclimber:


Ah! That makes far more sense.

In reply to Šljiva:

I've been doing progressions from inversions on the rings at the wall - spin up into an invert and then lower as slow as you can trying to stop at horizontal. Sort of doing eccentrics I guess. Really hammers the muscles in the middle of the back.

In reply to Liamhutch89:


Front levers are very dependent on ape index, height and weight. Many gymnasts like Ido Portal, Steve Lowe and Chris Sommer recommend pairing lever work with L-Sits and Mannas for shoulder girdle health as much as anything.

In reply to ClimberGirl:

Male
14
E3
15

In reply to ClimberGirl:
male, 18 pullups

E5/7b+ onsight

3yrs

though may be similar for both sexes for people Under 18!?

In reply to ClimberGirl:

What about weight as well as gender?

In reply to ClimberGirl:
Female

6 reliably, but could do up to 10 when I was really trying (usually involves a bowl of porridge in the morning)

6c+ but I'm shit at o/s-ing, 7a flash

7 years

My onsights are marred by my inability to read (I don't climb outside that much) and to trust myself especially if it feels run out.
Id be more interested to see if girls who can do say 6-10 pull ups can also do 1-3-5 on big campus rungs - I'm nowhere near and I find this more of a limiting factor than just simple pull ups

In reply to ClimberGirl:

Male
0
E1
45 years

In reply to ClimberGirl:
Female
Maybe 1 if I try really hard
Second 6b+ and e2
Lead 6a/+ indoors
7 years
35

In reply to ClimberGirl:

Female
1 pull up on a good day when I'm feeling fresh
6c indoors 6b outdoors E1
10 years

I'm pretty weak but I don't feel my lack of strength is holding me back as much as my fear of falling

In reply to ClimberGirl:

0
VS
Too long....

I don't think this proves anything apart from, perhaps, if I went to a wall and trained I could probably do pull ups and climb harder.
But on the basis of the best climber being the one having the most fun, check out my photo upload for Right Fin yesterday.....

In reply to ClimberGirl:

Male
6c sport
Climbing 2 years
17

In reply to ClimberGirl:

There are several scientific studies looking into this for example http://www.livescience.com/42318-women-pullups.html

In reply to ClimberGirl:

Male
25 both arms, 2 one armers on each arm
V11
8 years

In reply to joe.91:





Strong.

In reply to ClimberGirl:

Female
0
Hvs/e1
6b
22 climbing for 4 years

In reply to ClimberGirl:

8 (on a good day) on jugs
5 on small beastmaker crimps
Font 7c
10+ years

In reply to ClimberGirl:

Male
probably between 5 and 10, though haven't tried for over a year.
On sight sport 7a outside regularly.
20 plus years.

In reply to ClimberGirl:

Male
23 pullups
7b indoors
5 years

About a year ago I could get 30...was climbing at a max of 7a then...injured my self so pullups were a no no for a while. Now I don't train them at all and just focus and deadhangs on a finger board and go climbing about twice a week, my grade has improved quite a bit within the last few months

In reply to ClimberGirl:

I doubt there's any correlation, particularly since there's a lot of guessing going on. 2-3? 10-15? Well which is it?

I can definitely do somewhere between 0 and 100 pullups.

In reply to Shani:


I'm not sure that any of those people are actually gymnasts.

In reply to Šljiva:

I have a rather long-standing bet with my good friend John Gill about this. Dr. Gill says he will "eat his hat" if a women does an honest-to-god front lever, held for the requisite three seconds. I've argued women are perfectly capable of such moves but simply haven't bothered.

If you want to bother (understanding that carry-over to climbing is not going to be anywhere near proportional to the effort put in), I think I know as much as anyone about the tricks and progressions required for this gymnastic move, and of course I'd love to win my bet. You can send me a pm and I'll elaborate.

Oh...pullups etc.

I'm well into my dotage now, doing 5 sets of 5 weighted pullups, at the moment with roughly 25% of body weight. Many many years ago, I could do 25 two-arm pullups (never worked on that at all) but also 7 one-arm pullups on each arm, together with various gymnastic tricks including front levers. As for climbing, I peaked at 5.12 trad (but very little of that; lots of 5.10 and a decent amount of 5.11 trad) . Most of my bouldering was at best V4--V5, but I am told one of the boulder problems I did in Yosemite is V7.

I don't feel that the upper-body strength was much use in climbing. I got strong because I was training before there were climbing gyms and hangboards, and gymnastic-style workouts seemed to be as close as one could get to climbing training.

In reply to ClimberGirl:

Don't get too hung up on how many pull ups you can do, it doesn't translate that much into climbing ability either way.

For example, Dave Macleod reckons he can only do 24 pull ups.

http://onlineclimbingcoach.blogspot.co.uk/2007/12/24-pull-ups.html

In reply to pec:

Lass I knew couldn't do any, but managed E4/5 regularly !

In reply to ClimberGirl:

My 10 year old daughter can do 4 proper ones...
My 7 year old son can do 3...

In reply to pec:

Yeh - but Dave could do 24 pullups above a death fall...

In reply to ClimberGirl:

Male
30 pullups
font 7C
4/5 years seriously

In reply to ClimberGirl:

Male
6+ pullups (6 is the current number I need to enter the kitchen, theory being I'd ever get strong or thin...)
Indoor 6b/6c (steep/slab)
4 years

But... 2/3 years ago, probably 6a/6b indoor, 0 pullups. It definitely won't have hurt, but losing 5kg or so probably helped as well.

In reply to pec:

Agree. My wife can't do any 'proper' ones, but can still climb 7a (outside).

In reply to Removed User:


Now that would be just showing off!

In reply to ClimberGirl:

male
15
hardest onsight 7a, hardest redpoint 8b
15 years

In reply to ClimberGirl:

female
PB of 6
Lead 7a/E2
4 years

In reply to kwoods:

30 strict? Dead hang to chin over bar?

In reply to JayPee630:

My record was 27 on a bar.Now down to under 12,aged 60. Used to do 5 sets of 20 on fingertips. Weak as... now

In reply to paul mitchell:
I remember Ron doing 1000 pull-ups in a day in sets of 20 (IIRC), and on hearing this news later that same day, Jimmy Jewel set about attempting the same feat.

Always makes me smile to think back about that as back in the mid 80's this level of training and intensity seemed a curious thing.

In reply to JayPee630:

On 3 finger open handed, 1 pad, so no bar. But yes, full range.

In reply to Removed UserZebdi:





A 4 grade difference between on sight and worked?

I can onsight 7a pretty consistently, and also 7b on a good day, but I could no more get up an 8b - even if I spent 2 years working it - than I could split an atom using a teaspoon?

In reply to Goucho:

A no profile player there G.

I'm in your camp. Though if you figure the atom bit, I'd like to have a crack too.

In reply to ClimberGirl:

I have coached climbing for years, and thought I could share two stories on this topic - women doing pull-ups:

1) about 5 years ago, a particularly strong 16-yr old girl I was coaching was the first girl I've trained who could do a STRICT one-arm pull-up, from dead-hand, without kip-up. I've had a couple closed to a OAP, but until Amy, never one that was strict. That year she was national champ in her age category, and competed at worlds. She trained for 6 years to get to that point, and is capable of 8a sport.

2) about 12 years ago, there were two girls I was coaching. A the time, they were 15 or 16 (I forget). One could do ~25 pull-ups, the other ~2. They placed 1-2 at nationals in the OPEN category against the adults, and both could climb 8a+ sport. Short form: pull-ups matter less than we think.

Finally me: currently 44 years old, climbing for 28, can do 8 pull-ups on a good day. Still can on-sight in the 7c/7c+ range if I'm lucky.

In reply to ClimberGirl:

Female
45
3 years climbing
6b (indoors so make of it what you will).

can't do a pull up from a dead hang to save my chuffin' life. Got a bloody ace sense of humour though and no bingo wings!

In reply to rgold:


I've got to think that Alex Puccio is more than capable. Should fire her a note. I would like to see a video shared of the legend, Dr. Gill, eating a hat.

In reply to rgold:

Looks like a two finger front lever:

http://restingbuddha.tumblr.com/post/47086541361

In reply to ClimberGirl:

I used to train pull ups and could do about 25-30 and could do 2 on just my right, but i don't think it helped my climbing significantly. At the time i climbed into the low e grades. Today having not done any pull ups for a year or two i managed 4! I would happily climb vs at the moment or perhaps hvs/e1 for a route I'd done before. Training deadhangs on slopers was way more useful than pull ups in my experience.

In reply to Steve Crowe:

Impressive, but not quite a front lever as defined in gymnastics - more a variation on the FL. (Bent arms hugely ease lever work).

In reply to Goucho:



Minor point, but that's 8 grades difference, not 4.

In reply to ClimberGirl:

Male
2 pull ups (just tried)
6b+ (indoors)
E1 or 2 ish outdoors
40+ years
In the past (and I hope the future) I've climbed harder and also done more pull ups.

In reply to Shani:


Yup, arms are quite bent; it won't satisfy the requirements, which is not to say the person involved can't do a proper one using both hands. But John, who naturally is not enthusiastic about even the finest cordon bleu chapeau, requires a video proving the three-second hold.

In reply to rgold:


Indeed. I've been trying to get a FL for years but at 6ft 3 it is tough - and keeping those arms straight is VERY demanding. I was always impressed at John Gill for his lever quality given that he was/is also over 6ft. Tall people who can lever and planche are a rarity.

In reply to Shani: How are we defining tall?

In reply to Šljiva:

Not sure for a woman, but looking at elite gymnasts like Hamm, they're around 5ft 5. I'd say anything over 6ft is 'tall' in terms of gymansts.

Edit: Lever work has helped my weighted chin ups hugely and I'm still setting PBs.

In reply to Goucho:

I know it sounds a bit crazy, but yes. Endurance is my weak spot, so I prefer working the routes. That 8b was rather specific - short, crimpy route that required a lot of finger strength - and I have plenty of that. It took me nearly two years to climb it - waiting for the right conditions, getting all the moves right, etc. I can't imagine myself wasting so much time on a single route again.

Perhaps a better description of my climbing level : if the route fits me, I can do 7c in up to 5 tries

In reply to ClimberGirl:

I don't think you're going to find much of a correlation between pull-ups and rock climbing performance. But you can definitely train your pull-up ability, I regularly see girls doing weighted pull-ups at CrossFit and it's a cool thing to see. But I doubt it'll do much for your lead grade. =o)

Male
21 strict pull-ups
+45kg weighted pull-up
~30 kipping pull-ups
~15 kipping chest-to-bar pull-ups
7 bar muscle-ups

Max lead grade E1, Fr6b, Scottish VI
>10 years climbing
3 years of CrossFit which is where the pull-up numbers come from

In reply to highaltitudebarista:
I'm amazed you can do 30 pull ups while having a kip.

In reply to ClimberGirl:

33yrs old - male
At least 12 strict pull-ups in a single set, could do lots more if I tried
Can do pull-ups with 70kg extra added to my 90kg bodyweight
Can hold front lever and flag and other shenanigans
Climbing about 10yrs
Hardest onsight 7C+ boulder, hardest redpoint 8A (rarely climb outdoors), would expect to boulder up to 8A+8B if I put the time into a particular problem

Ms.Alx can knock out 12 strict pull-ups, and can do sets of 3-4 reps with 15kg added.
Has bouldered 7A-7B outdoors, would expect to climb harder since we don't get the chance often

In reply to ClimberGirl:

Male
10 (approx - not tried recently)
7a+
3 years in my current climbing incarnation (Climbed for around 20 generally and onsighted 7b+ previously)

I'd say pull ups are the most specific to climbing of conventional exercises - and fingertip pullups are the best of climbing specific exercises. Of course if one's limiting factor is finger strength or technique or head being able to do more pull ups won't help much if at all.

In reply to ClimberGirl:

Also another interesting question would be how much harder are pull ups are for adults.

Not sure what the record is but the current record for muscle ups is held by an 8 year old....

youtube.com/watch?v=_jqVEzSU2SQ&

In reply to alx:



You're officially a beast.

In reply to stp:


Totally agree, would also add that number of pull-ups doesn't help past say 6-8 reps per set.

Once you can do sets of 6-8 reps, start adding weight.

Once you hit adding 80% bodyweight, start one armed training.

To stp's point about fingers, you need to work these at the same time to see the gains translate into climbing.

In reply to ClimberGirl:

16
6a sport
4 years

In reply to ClimberGirl:

I can do 6 normal pull-ups, or 1 L hang pull-up. L-hangs are a great work out!

I climb 6c-ish indoors, vs outdoors.

I am female

Aged 33

In reply to ClimberGirl:

Male
14
6c+
5yrs with 2yrs out in the middle.

In reply to ClimberGirl:

Female
10 pull ups
6b (outdoor sport)
3 years