That’s great that you got to 10 pull-ups. Looking forward to hearing about when you get there again!
We've known for a long time that it's way easier to regain muscle than it is to develop it in the first place.
Turns out the reason is pretty simple, muscle cells are similar to fat cells - meaning that they never go away. They just activate as needed.
So it takes enormous effort to develop muscle cells, but one you have them, getting the size and strength back after taking a break is way easier.
My rule of thumb is to stick with as much compound work as possible as it’s a more efficient use of time. Single arm isolated work as example is great, sure, but hardly makes use of other muscles in the time you have to perform a workout.
Another variation I use: neutral (palms face each other) grip pull up.
Leg presses, delt flys, and lat pulldowns are some that I prefer to sometimes do in isolation to ensure that one side isn't significantly compensating for the other. I find that it's also a more effective use of the mental energy required, by reducing the total amount of muscles to pay attention to.
I tend to prefer about shoulder-width lat pulldowns, but slow ones. Somewhere between shoulder width and a right angle at the elbow.
This is a common misconception. Close grip allows for greater range of motion in the lats. Think about it, wide grips are harder to do than close grip and if you were recruiting more back muscle compared to biceps that wouldn't be the case since your back is far stronger.
This applies to all back exercises. Wide grip will hit different muscles (so bodybuilders still utilize it) but close grip overall will hit the most back muscles with the greatest ROM.
Though in addition to the lowering, I also did horizontal rows using my kitchen table to work in the concentric direction.
Just two minutes.
I’m going to re-add eccentric focused movements back into my pull-up routine.
IMO, the best thing is if you have access to an assisted pull up machine or lat pull down.
Bands can work alright (and they're cheap!), but assisted pull ups and/or lat pull down allow you finely tune your progressive overload. The general problem with bands (and spring type resistance in general) is that the non-linear resistance makes it more difficult to judge your progress.
Assisted forms ultimately "assist" you at some fixed point which alters the path you would take if hanging, often removing your core entirely.
Also, I'd take the non-linear resistance of bands over the absence of core activation from a pull-up machine or the very different lat pulldown motion.
For reference, I'm a rounding error away from 50 and I still do advanced bar work - muscle ups, archer pullups, pull overs, etc...
I think it's important to always work with your bodyweight.
80% of strength is neuronal coordination, you'll get strong with the way you train.
Use your bodyweight in closed kinetic chain [1] exercises and avoid the machines unless you're injured or have a specific reason.
There are progressions for every level.
I recommend "Be your own gym" and "Overcoming Gravity" for great references on bodyweight training.
(Also: don't do muscle ups. The only people who like that are sports medicine docs.)
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_kinetic_chain_exercis....
To build volume with pullups, complete your sets with negative pullups as gp describes (nb: at least three seconds down from chin over bar to full hang) when you fail the full pull-up (at least two seconds up, from full hang to chin over bar) any more.[1]
>> I am trying to build upper body strength
1. Keep a diary recording every session. 2. Stay away from the bench press. Focus on your back chain, arms, and grip: deadlifts, pullups (weighted, when you can do a set of 20 body weight), and overhead presses. Add squats and weighted press-ups if you insist. (Make sure you get taught both proper form and proper warm-up sequencing and always use them!)
Observe that these are all exercises that most people hate doing. For good reasons: they are hard work, and nearly all the gain is in your back, which you can't see in the mirror.
1. I used to see a lot of people doing what they claimed were pullups, with only a ten inch range of motion. Not helpful in real life. Start from a full hang: shoulders under hands, arms straight.
Sure some of this might be worthwhile to try, but if you just want to work on your upper body strength, you can do a lot less than this. Way more important to just do something with your muscles and experiment a few times a week, a long with increasing the amount of weight over time.
Just because someone is trying to gain strength, doesn't mean they don't know how.
I've been going to the gym for years, love pullups, vary in strength over time, and have never and will never likely take notes. But for some, that could be your type A thing to do.
Also, “make sure you get taught proper form” is doing a lot of work here. It can be hard to find someone who really knows their stuff and pays close enough attention to correct subtle mistakes.
Recommend giving this video a look, and the channel in general. Lots of good vibes and solid advice for working up through a progression without the muscle bro wankery.