30-day pull-up challenge until Christmas – progress my bouldering to 6B…

After explaining in my last post Rocky Montage in real time… how much I suck at following through with a plan or sticking to a schedule, it is only scientifically sound to test this hypothesis over and over again. So here I am ready for a 30-day challenge.

Why pull-ups?

I’ve been back to bouldering in a gym regularly since the beginning of June 2021 and I love it. It is so much fun, challenging and the most fun strength training for me. I am happy with my progress since June. I have been working on my technique, balance and I did get a little stronger. Here is the thing though. Most reputable sources will tell you, that in climbing technique is way more important than pure strength. These sources will tell you that and then proceed to do a one-arm pull-up on an 8mm edge…

The hardest grade I climbed in my bouldering gym so far is a 6B. I can connect multiple moves on other 6B boulder problems; however, I do not feel like I have fully arrived in the 6B grade yet, since there are still 6A boulder problems have no chance to complete. Whilst I try to continuously improve my technique and efficiency, over the past few weeks, I realized that it would be beneficial to have a bit more pulling strength, especially for long moves requiring considerable reach. That’s when I decided to train pull-ups and since training pull-ups is rather boring and painful, I need some external pressure to actually do it. So, I’m putting it out there, if someone wants to join, please go ahead!

The workouts

Since I am not a fitness professional in any stretch of the imagination, I will follow the advice from said professionals. I will follow the video Pull-Up Training for Beginners ¦ Climbing Training with Lattice on YouTube from the channel Lattice Training. I will not explain all the exercises here, since it is their training program and you should check out their video, for the proper information. What I like about this specific training though, is the way they split the workout into two sessions, which you can do separately or combine for a more intense workout. The exercises require little equipment, and the trainer are explaining the correct form and any adjustments you can make very thoroughly. It is also motivating to follow along two extraordinarily strong ladies.

What you need

I am a beginner at pull-ups, so I ordered resistance bands for the assisted variations of the exercises, and I do have dumbbells (3kg, 6.6 lbs) for the low rows. I will use the pull-up bar at my climbing gym. Since I do not have a proper pull-up bar at home, I will use my rock rings.

With rock rings, the pull-up movement is a little bit different. It is more like a mix between a pull-up and a chin-up, but I don’t really care. I’m not trying to win a CrossFit competition here.

The “plan”

My plan is, to keep doing what I’m currently doing and add the pull-up training on top. I currently go to the boulder gym three times a week and practice just hanging from the fingerboard at the end of each session to slowly (and safely) build finger strength. In addition, I usually go (trail) running 2-3 times a week.

In the video they recommend doing max. two pull-up sessions a week at this beginner stage. This seems reasonable to me, and I should be able to add this to my weekly routine without risking any overuse injury. They also mention that you could do this training at the end a bouldering session.

And that is the whole plan really, complete two sessions of the pull-up training each week for the next 30 days. This is as rigid as I will get with this plan, otherwise I will for sure not do it.

The goal

My final goal is to get better at bouldering, but this is extremely hard to measure since within 30 days the improvements might be modest at best. However, I will be happy with the result of the challenge if I…

 1) …followed through with the plan

2) …can do more than one pull-up on a pull-up bar by Christmas

3) …am not injured by the end (me falling while trail running not included)

To keep it scientific, I will do a baseline test on both the rock rings and the pull-up bar just to see if I can even do one pull-up currently (my guess is no, not without a tiny hop from the ground). I will update my progress mostly on Instagram and come back here with a conclusion after I completed the challenge.

Wish me luck!