Pull-ups for Older People | Dan John's Take

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Dan John has spent his life with one foot in the world of lifting and throwing, and the other foot in academia. An All-American discus thrower, Dan has also competed at the highest levels of Olympic lifting, Highland Games and the Weight Pentathlon, an event in which he holds the American record.

Dan spends his work life blending weekly strength training workshops and lectures with full-time writing, and is also an online religious studies instructor for Columbia College of Missouri. As a Fulbright Scholar, he toured the Middle East exploring the foundations of religious education systems. Dan is also a Senior Lecturer for St Mary’s University, Twickenham, London.

His books, on weightlifting, include Intervention, Never Let Go, Mass Made Simple and Easy Strength, written with Pavel Tsatsouline as well as From Dad, To Grad. He and Josh Hillis co-authored “Fat Loss Happens on Monday.”

Dan is one of the original practitioners of the "Kettlebell Swing" in the US and is widely renowned to be the inventor of the "Kettlebell Goblet Squat". He is the host of the weekly Dan John Podcast; discussing all things strength, kettlebells, Olympic weightlifting and athletic performance as well as doing live workshops, coaching and online personal training.

#danjohn #strengthtraining #nutrition #onlinepersonaltraining #danjohnpodcast #kettlebell #powerlifting #kettlebelltraining

[jerryayres]

I’m 75 and still train pull ups 3x/week. I also do dips, pushups, kettlebells etc. There are 2 reasons why I can still do pull-ups pain free: one is I never stopped doing them from when I started at age 40 and secondly I went to a neutral grip pull up. Much easier. Can’t do as many as I used to do but can still knock out five sets of 4-6 reps.

[robw]

At 63 I had the same issue. I just followed Dr Stuart McGill's advice, just do as many as you can fast and skip the grinders ( Power Pull-Up Supersets.)

[Stronglifeliving]

This issue was truly heartbreaking the moment it happened to me a few years ago. I loved performing various types of pull-ups and bouldering as well.

I did some research and decided the exact same : time to let the strict pull-ups go and substitute with leg assisted variations with my suspension trainer. Rotation of the handles and offloaded weight takes away the strain on the tendons of the inner elbows.
Loaded carries and focusing on other restorative exercises such as kettle bell basics, walking, and yoga have helped significantly.

I enjoyed my pull-ups up but they had to be retired in the traditional sense. Keep those hangs in your programming though !

Great work Dan ! Always a fan

[scottmartin]

I love pull-ups. I’m 47, but only about 150#. I’ve trained them on and off for years; about 8 months ago I started adding pull-ups as a ‘grease the groove’ exercise doing 2-4 reps at a time, lots of rest between sets. I don’t track sets real closely, and it varies from day to day depending on how much time I’m spending at home, but probably average 6-10 sets/day. Occasionally have a little elbow soreness, but not pain. I mostly use a neutral grip. It’s been working well so far, max pull-ups increased after a few months of training this way, but haven’t tested in a while. Thanks Dan, always thought-provoking stuff on your channel!

[mikeprovost]

This hits home. I worked up to 50+ total pull-ups per session (3-4x per week) about two years ago, and developed horrible golfers elbow. I had to retreat to horizontal pulls on a TRX and a variety of kettlebell rows for a solid year before I could do a single painless pull-up again. Even now, I never do more than two at a time, and never more than 20 total in a day. Listen to your body, friends...it'll last longer that way.

[rbyfheq]

I prefer hanging vs pull ups. I find it more “ functional”. I can comfortably do approx 8 pull ups without practicing them by only doing hangs 2-3x a week for 30-60 sec. Have a buddy that boulders . He never does pull ups, but hangs by one/ two hands for minutes at a time in different angles. When we workout, the guy can knock out 30 pull ups without effort.

[farstrider]

I had MAPS pretty bad back in the pandemic(age 41) when I was stuck at home and tried to do the Fighter Pullup program from Strong First.
I had to take about three months off of pullups, then I started adding them back in slowly. Currently a few weeks into ABC program and I do 2-4 sets mixed in on my OHP day in-between cycles. As long as I avoid the grinding sets, I don't have anymore issues.

[janariej]

Love this channel. Always good advice Dan, keep up the good work. Iam 54yo now and cant workout that much anymore because old rugby injuries (playing at a very high level) but still i can do the main lifts but 4 years ago i made a switch from pull ups to chin ups and that works very well for me.
Mon
Squat 5x5-3
Bench Press 5x5-3
Thursday
Deadlift 5x5-3
Overhead Press 5x5-3
Saturday
Chin Ups 5xFailure

Mobility work and Conditioning at the rugby club.

Greetings from Holland

[dnt]

I also suffer from MAPS, or MAPS-like issues. For me, I "manage" the issue by doing dead-lifts with straps vs. just using brute strength grip. The wraps seem to - for me anyway - alleviate the issue enough that it doesn't affect my other lifts/exercises.

[AntonioReyes-lvxm]

Huge fan of yours since I was in my teen, Dan! Firstly thank you for all your contributions to the strength, conditioning, fitness, health, and sport world!

I’m 39 now and have found that I need 2-3 row, reverse fly, int/ext RC focused sessions for every 1 pull-up dominant session. (Also keeping pronated, supinated, and neutral grip elbow flexion focused sessions as well).

Hope that helps some of the others!

[adamtakacs]

I love pull ups, I learned it about a year ago at age 45. Today I woke up early, went to the market for bread which is 4 stops by bus. Back and forth I made about 20 pull ups, even tried commandos.

In the outdoor gym I work out an advanced athlete does sets of 6 front lever pulls. That might be my next goal.

[calitide]

I'm 64 and can relate. For me the issue is shoulder pain. I saw the comment about assisted pull-ups, which may help, but one of the problems with the pull-up bar is you are locked into a plane of motion that isn't necessarily natural for your joints. Also, agree neutral grip may help. I started using resistance bands to do pull downs. Not the same level of satisfaction for sure, but allows your joints to move freely and it's almost impossible to overload. This might help with healing and getting back to pull-ups someday. I rarely do pull-ups any more, but I can still knock out 2 sets of 5 just from doing my kettlebell routines.

Good luck! Agree with Dan. Seek a professional opinion. I'm just a guy commenting on a YouTube video. 😆

[FinC_]

Currently working through golfers elbow 👴 dropping pull-ups until it feels 100% fine and then still dropping them for a few months after 😂
I love pull-ups but not enough to permanently destroy my forearm.

[strongman-frank]

😂 Rest is for a lot of people the "hardest" exercise. Greetings from Hamburg, Yours Frank

[MikeC-pdvq]

Had maps pretty bad. 50’s over 200 lbs.
I used finger bands opening my fingers high volume.
I used a liniment on the bad spots with self massage.
I do full range of motion pull-ups however I use partial range of motion to make up the volume.
I never do to failure sets of full range of motion.
You can find comfortable spots doing the partial range.

[diang]

Being waaaay more than overweight till 22 to the point where i have still issues at 40(though now my weight is just 20 pounds of from ok), i recently said no reason for pull ups even trying .Just as The Man, The Myth, The Legend said "just hang from the pull up bar".

[jculbert]

Middle aged here and also occasional MAPS sufferer. For me, #1 is using parallel or "hammer" grip for chin-ups, if the bar allows it. And second, as I compete in strongman, I have a ton of sandbag and Atlas Stone work, where I'm using that sorta "hands cupped" toward me grip, to pick them off the floor... And plain and simple, I've had to modify my volume on either the chin-ups OR those implements when they come up. Doing all of them just RUINS my forearm tendons. Just have to do less chin-ups.

I also regularly do rice bucket exercises at night watching tv when it acts up. Wrist rolls, extensor flexing, that kinda thing. Or you can buy those little elastic finger extensor things rock climbers use. Same idea.

[_CoachW]

This is interesting because at a young age I realized I couldn't regularly do high rep pull ups due to my body type, short torso, long arms. So I modified a trick I got from either you or Pavel. Multiple sets low reps, slowly increasing the weight.

At one time, time permitting I was doing 15 sets of 2-3 reps with added weight of 15-25lbs.

The next year I go to a fit expo where they have do this many pull ups for a prize at different military booths. I hit 4 booths and did 20 pull ups each.

I never bothered with high reps pull ups since. Good to know I can keep modifying the advice.

[Mrautiger]

35 is not old, if pullups are your thing, you should be doing them more effectively than ever at "35"

[craigmather]

(age 42; weight 185 height 6') I started suffering from distal biceps tendinopathy in my left arm from bad form in the clean (I think) and too much volume too fast with the RKC rite of passage. I've had success so far rehabilitating it with hangs, pull-up negatives, and low volume. I got the hangs from you, Dan. Thanks.