This is a surefire way to get to 10 pull-ups in record time. However, this pull-up blueprint works best for people who can do 3 or more pull-ups. All you have to do is follow the plan.
Before we give you the blueprint here are 2 golden rules you can apply to get better and stronger in any exercise you want regardless of whether it’s the pull-up or not.
Golden Rules
＃1 Prioritise
At the start of your workout, you must do the exercise you wish to get stronger or build more muscle with.
This is why you’ll do pull-ups at the beginning of your workout. Doing pull-ups first means you are fresh and have maximal energy to put all your focus and effort into increasing your pull-ups.
#2 High Frequency
You must do the exercise you want to get stronger and bigger more frequently. If you’re training the exercise 1-2 times per week, you need to increase the frequency. The more you practice the faster you will adapt and improve.
In this blueprint, you will be training pull-ups 5 days in a row with a rest day every 6 days.
Next, we’ll give you 2 examples of the repetition schemes based on whether you can do less than 5 pull-ups or 5 or more pull-ups.
For less than 5 reps
This set will be your maximum effort set and then thereafter you will reduce the number of repetitions like a reverse pyramid scheme. If you are only able to do a few pull-ups, then you will need to do 10 sets with 2-3 minutes rest between sets.
Most of your sets will be single reps. This is because you’ll be working much closer to your maximum effort so you will fatigue far easier. The single reps are necessary for accumulating more reps and providing you with more neurological practice.
3 repetition max example:
| Day | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5 | Set 6 | Set 7 | Set 8 | Set 9 | Set 10 |
| 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
When you can only do fewer than 5 reps, 1 rep gets added on every other day.
The 6th day is a rest day and you will continue to rest after every 5 days. Before you start Day 7, test your new repetition max.
Assuming your new repetition max is now 4 example:
| Day | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5 | Set 6 | Set 7 | Set 8 | Set 9 | Set 10 |
| 7 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 8 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 9 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 10 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 11 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Again, rest on the 6th day and test your repetition max. When you move to the 5 repetition blueprint you will continue to rest on the 6th day but you will NOT need to test your max.
For 5 or more reps
| Day | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5 |
| 13 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 14 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| 15 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| 16 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| 17 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
When you move to the 5 repetition blueprint you will continue to rest on the 6th day but you will NOT need to test your max.
Continue to progress by adding a repetition to each set as shown here:
| Day | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5 |
| 19 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| 20 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| 21 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 |
| 22 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 |
| 23 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 |
Of course, if you are already able to do 5 reps for the pull-up, you would start with the 5 sets blueprint of 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 from the first day.
