Alobravo has a fun collection of videos up, The 6 Sickest Playground Workouts You Can’t Do (no arguments here). I’d seen the Bartendaz one before, but the rest where new to me. The Hannibal video is unreal. The guy does some exercises I’ve never even imagined before. (via SttB)

And here I thought the one-arm chin was a difficult skill… How about one finger? Also, Jim at Beast Skills turns in some great work on the pegboard, including a muscle-up. That guy is a machine. (both via SttB)

Very cool indoor caving setup, cobbled together with eye-bolts and hinges. Great pulling workout, and that knee-over-the-arm move is clever (makes it look easy, until you consider the grip strength involved). ‹via cr›

Sorry these piled up, I was away for a bit:

• The CrossFit 5/2/08 workout links to a great video, "Deadlift Set-up with Mark Rippetoe". He makes it seem so simple!
• Conditioning Research on Dr. Craig Duncan's "20 meter rule" concept. Good stuff at his blog, the idea of an acceleration/deceleration threshold as athletic predictor is an interesting one.
• Metabolic conditioning with "the 3x3 workout".
• ESPN: The Ball That Just Won't Die.
• New York Magazine: How We're Wrecking Our Feet With Every Step We Take.
• Finally, wow, 17 minutes and 4 seconds?!

Sorry, another link backlog:

• The NY Times has a nice piece on the humble push-up.
• I somehow missed this CrossFit video of cool towel pull-up variations (Quicktime video).
• Coach Sommer's hamstring stretch.
• StrongLifts on glute activation. Lots of good exercises there.

Another Furman link: I really like the looks of this pull-up variation. Definitely going to have to give that a try.

Wow, good link day. Drop what you're doing and read these three:

• The Year I Did Everything Right
• Physical Strategies: Don't Be A Sissy
• Why Pull-ups? by Ed Thompson

Now that my new pullup bar gives me plenty of room to hang and swing, I've been able to work on my kipping pullups (Crossfit has all the best resources on what these are and how to do them: this thread is essential reading (or the first page, at the very least), and here's a movie teaching them). What a great exercise!

The debate over which is "better", kipping or strict, is extensive. I'm sure I have nothing new to contribute to that discussion. I like them both, but personally find kipping pullups to be more fun, and somehow more satisfying. And it's not because I can do more of them, because I can't! As I'm just starting with them, they have exposed a set of weak links I wasn't aware I possessed. When I bottom out on a kipping pullup, the speed of the descent and the swinging motion requires more power and flexibility in my shoulders than during a strict pullup, and at the same time that force really taxes my grip and forearm strength.

Anyway, they feel great, give 'em a try. I'm sure I'll keep mixing up pullup varieties in my training, but kipping pullups have definitely joined my list of staple exercises.

P.S. Having learned and only done these on a swinging pullup bar, I wonder how they'll feel if I get to try them on a fixed bar?

I mentioned previously the Again Faster Bar, and really liked the look of it. The market inefficiency of spending 20% of the total cost on shipping bugged me though, so I never ended up taking the plunge. So I percolated for awhile over how I'd build one myself. The trick is attaching the pipe to the strap such that it doesn't spin (although a spinning bar would offer a different challenge). Here's what I came up with:

...and here's a detail of the end assembly:

Here is the equipment list and costs:

• 1" diameter 48" long black pipe ($8.96)
• 1/2" x 6" (I think) eye bolts ($3.72)
• 2 1" galvanized Ts ($4.62)
• 2 1/2" lock washers ($0.30)
• 8 1/2" fender washers ($2.00) 4 1/2" fender washers ($1.00)
• 2 1/2" nuts (mine were included with the eye bolts)
• 2 carabiners ($12.50)
• 2 NRS 1" HD Tie Down Straps ($16.55)

Grand total: $49.58. More than I was expecting, but isn't that always the way? You could economize by leaving out the carabiners and just threading the straps right through the eye bolts, and by buying shorter straps. I wanted the straps longer so I could throw them over high things (like swingsets, rafters, and tree branches), and the carabiners make life a little easier.

Anyway, assembly was easy: screw the Ts onto the pipe. I used a pipe wrench and a huge screwdriver through the T for lots of leverage, getting them nice and tight. You'll want them to both be oriented the same way when they are snugged down. Put an eye bolt through one of the Ts. Then, on the other side thread on the two four fender washers (two four because you want the metal to be thick here, as it supports everything three or four per side might be better). Then the lock washer, then the nut. Hold everything centered as you tighten the nut. I got mine tight enough that the washers went slightly concave on me (again, three or four fender washers per side might be better than my meager two). Repeat on the other side, and you're good to go!

I'm no engineer though, so don't be surprised if the whole thing falls apart, the straps break, or the washers just pull right through and dump you. The eye bolts even say explicitly say not to use them to support people. So don't build one of these. If you do, and you get hurt, it's not my fault. I'm just telling you what I did.

UPDATE: be sure to read the comments for design suggestions/concerns.

UPDATE 2: became convinced two fender washers on each side weren't enough, so upped it to four, and updated the instructions above accordingly.

On Crossfit today was a link to a "Cliff Kipping" video by Jon Gilson. I liked his portable pull-up bar setup, and didn't have to look very far to discover he sells them under the name The Again Faster Bar (after his site). If you live in the Boston Metro area you can pick up the complete set, which comes with lashing straps and chains for $150, or you can have just the bar and straps delivered anywhere in the US for $60 + $15 FedEx shipping. Here's a related thread. Tempting as an option for my garage, so I don't have to move the rings around, and could just leave it slung over the rafters, but I can probably jury-rig something if portability is not a priority. Still seems like a nice piece of equipment though.

When I saw the headline I thought it was a joke, but Jim at Beast Skills does indeed have a tutorial up on the no-handed one-arm chin.

I've read a few Brad Johnson articles, and linked to a couple in the past, but recently sought out all I could find. Very cool, creative stuff. Here's the rundown:

• Brad John's Extreme Bodyweight Training. Currently this link is for "See-Saw Pullups", but I assume that will change eventually as this is the start page of the series. Here's the rest:
  • Upper Body Crush Pushups
  • Sledgehammer Pull-ups
  • Ball Pull-ups
  • Anvil Horn Pull-ups
  • Suspended Renegade Rows: I tried these by tying some dumbbells to my rings. Killer core workout.
  • Gripper Pull-ups
• DragonDoor.com Bodyweight Strength Training Articles:
  • Abdominal Exercises for Total Body Mastery: It's a little hard to tell with the lighting and lack of shadows, but I believe that's a benchless Dragon Flag in the two pictures at the bottom. Quite a feat!
  • Get a Grip When You Hit the Road
  • Gymnastics Tension Exercises
  • Progressions to the Standing Evil Wheel
  • Tired of the Same Old Pull-ups? Try These!
  • The Rafter Pull-up

A few days ago I mentioned a DIY pull-up bar as an alternative for more expensive models. I just ran across an inexpensive off-the-shelf model though, that looks almost exactly like the one I own. The only differences appear to be that mine was by Champ's and this one is by Everlast. Also, mine had red pads and this one has black. Otherwise I'd say they are identical (from looking at the pictures, at least). Read the user reviews, as they raise the following potential issues: cheap construction (mine has lasted great), possible marring of surface just above the door due to scraping (yes, I get a bit of this), marring of door trim surface due to color rubbing off the black padding (haven't noticed this with my red pads), and door sizing issues (description says, "fits most doorways up to 32 inches"). $25 is quite a price though.

A few years ago I bought a pull-up bar from Champs for around $25. The beauty of this particular bar is that you don't need to screw it in or fasten it in any way. I dangles off the trim and gravity and leverage keep it securely in place. A buddy of mine was recently looking for something similar, but most such bars now seem to be $50 and up. Fortunately, you can build your own pull-up bar for around $30 using off-the-shelf threaded pipe (scroll down to "Doorway Chinup Bar").

Why should you care what Brad Johnson says about pull-ups? Well, he can do a rafter pull-up, for starters. For finishers, look at all these variations he suggests. I'm going to make a set of those PVC thingies, at least.

I just tried a minor Tabata interval tweak:

First I set up the pull-up bar and then warmed up on my NordicTrack. For the first set, I cranked as hard as humanly possible on the NT for 20 seconds. I know you're supposed to go that hard whenever you do these, but this set really needs to be super-hard, like it's the only 20 seconds you're going to do, and you're going for the world record. Take note of how many calories you burn in that 20 seconds (so yeah, you'll need a machine with some kind of monitor for this flavor of Tabata interval). Now, during your 10 seconds of "rest" go immediately to the pull-up bar and do as many as you can, keeping count. You now have two numbers. Calories burned and pull-ups pulled. For your remaining Tabata sets, continue to go as hard as you can, but instead of doing them for time, do them for work. So in the second set, you stay on the machine until you've burned the same number of calories as in your first set, then you hop on the pull-up bar until you've done the same number of pull-ups as in your first set. Repeat for a total of eight to ten sets (four to five minutes of total work). Race against the clock, trying to stay within the time constraints defined by straight Tabata intervals. Do not dawdle as you transition from machine to bar and back.

The NT is slightly limiting in terms of how hard you can crank, so doing pull-ups during the "rest" really ups the intensity to a level I hadn't experienced doing unadulterated Tabatas on that machine.

Today's Crossfit Workout of the Day—100 pull-ups! (with video!)— led me to a great thread over there on the virtues of the kipping pull-up. The whole thread is informative, especially Coach Sommer's posts.

While we're on the subject, Jim over at Beast Skills is on the rebound from a wrist injury. Gotta love a guy whose recovery is miles better than my best day. But anyway, further down in his post he describes a monster pull-up I haven't seen mentioned before: "the rafter chin". I don't think his training log is broken up into separate pages, so look towards the end of the 10/4/2005 entry.

I was going to write something about pull-ups, but there's so much good information out there I'll just link you up:

If you can't do any pull-ups, or if you struggle just to do one (that's where I started out at the beginning of this year) give Pullup Training for Women and/or The Road to Your First Pull-Up a good read. The former article talks about using Jump-Stretch bands to assist, which seems like a much more economical solution than the Active Cords I used (I swear they were cheaper way back when I bought them).

Regardless of how many pull-ups you can do to start, you should definitely read The Application and Creation of Pullup Power first for invaluable advice about engaging the big muscles of the upper back rather than just pulling with your arms.

That's really all you need to know to get on the road to respectable pullup power. Beyond that, there's The MonkeyMaker, and a great discussion on Crossfit concerning how high to pull yourself (click the "Archive through..." link at the top of the page to get back to the beginning of the discussion). From that discussion, take special note of this post by Greg Everett and watch the "Big Fat Pullups" video he links to. The guy just flys over the bar.