Chimp Power!!!

Welcome to part three of JUNGLE TRAINING!!!

In this instalment I’m going to teach you how to become a climbing monster, how to have massive pulling power in your upper body, how to have real world chimp power.

Whether you are an actual climber, a martial artist, a gymnast, a wrestler, a traceur, or any kind of warrior, we all need the ability to pull either our own bodies or that of our opponent. Most folks are so weak in the pulling motions of their body; bench press and beach muscle culture have made people ignore what they can’t see in the mirror, what a mistake!! It’s time to unleash some of the most powerful muscles in your body, time to unleash CHIMP POWER!

What to pull up on???

Pull up bar
The handy thing about these are, if they are in your home, you can do pull ups anytime, good for greasing the groove type training where you perform sub maximal sets of pull ups throughout the day to improve your pull up ability.

Tree branches
One of my favourite, natural you can find one anywhere, anytime, the different thicknesses, and angles of some branches make for some interesting and challenging workouts.

Playground swing sets
Like the tree branch these can be found anywhere, and all have different angles, thicknesses and a million other variants. It’s always fun outdoors too; get some fresh air about you!!

Wall/ ledgest
These are perfect for anyone especially climbers or those of us who practice Parkour. All you need is the ability to get your fingertips onto a wall or a ledge and you can pull up, again there are many variants in the structure of the wall and what you can do.

Gymnastic rings
If you have access to gymnastic rings then fantastic, these make for really challenging pull ups.

Anything
Anything you can get you finger tips on you can do pull-ups on so there are no excuses, lets get pulling!!!

PULL UP VARIATIONS

Basic pull ups
Hands slightly wider than shoulder width apart, palms facing away from you, begin from a dead hang, pull down through the elbows, pull your self up until your chest touches the bar, lower, and repeat for desired reps.

Basic chin ups
As above but this time palms facing you.

Wide grip and narrow grip
You can do both pull ups and chin ups with various distances between your hands to change the load on the muscle groups, add variety and difficulty, for wide grip you can go as wide as your shoulders will allow, and for close you can go all the way until your hands touch, experiment with different hand spacing and feel how it affects the way you pull up and the load on the muscle groups.

Alternate hands
One palm facing you, one away, change around every set.

Side to side pull ups
These are great to build up to one arm pull ups, pull yourself up to the bar, but pull yourself more to the one side, try to touch your chest to that hand, this will put much more of the load on one side, lower and pull up to the opposite side.

Assisted one armed pull ups
Tie a belt or piece of rope round the bar, hold this with one hand, as far down the rope as you can, hold onto the bar with the other hand, now pull up, most of the load will be on the arm holding the bar, with the other arm merely providing assistance. The lower down your hand is on the rope (further from the bar) the more load will be on the arm on the bar, if you are down at your waist level with the rope then you are ready for......

The one arm pull up
Grab the bar with one arm, either underhand or overhand, begin from a dead hang, using tension techniques - tighten your core like bracing for a punch, tighten your glutes like pinching a coin in between them, squeeze the bar as tight as you can, make a fist with the free hand and pull up whilst breathing out forcefully, pull up chest to bar, lower. You can either go for reps with one arm or switch arms at the bottom of the top.

L pull ups
Start from a dead hang with your legs pointing at a right angle in front of your body, so you make an L shape, pointing your toes. Now pull up, lower, and repeat, I love these!!!

Sternum pullups
As normal pull ups but pull your body up much higher so that your sternum or even your waist touches the bar.

Weighted pull ups
Get yourself a weighted vest, or a backpack and fill it with weights, now do your pull ups with this on.

Medicine ball pull ups
Place a medicine ball between your knees and squeeze your legs hard together to keep it in place, now do pull ups.

Accordian pull ups
As you pull yourself up to the bar, simultaneously pull your knees up to your chest, extend your legs again as you lower.

Explosive pull ups
Pull up with such force that you leave the bar at the top of the motion, catch the bar on the way down, repeat.

Clapping pull ups
As above but add a clap in whilst you are in flight.

Hand switch pull ups
Begin in overhand grip, pull up forcefully and leave the bar, in flight switch your hands and re-catch the bar in underhand grip, continue in the manner, switching grip every time your hands leave the bar.

THE WORKOUTS

OK, NOW IT’S TIME FOR THE PAIN!!!

For the following workouts you can use any of the above places and types of pull ups, I recommend varying both your grips and places you do your pull ups, experiment and find all the different things you can pull up on and all the different ways you can pull up, and then do some psycho workouts.

100 PULLUPS FOR TIME
OK simple basic, effective, perform 100 pull ups in as quick a time and as few sets as you can manage.

ENDLESS PULL UPS AND PUSH UPS
If you go at this one hard enough you can have it done in about 15 minutes and your upper body will be done too. Perform 15-20 sets of back to back push ups and pull ups, so you will do a set of pull ups to near failure, then drop into a set of push ups to near failure, then back to pull-ups, no rest!!!! Continue this for 15-20 sets, change hand grip every set.

GREASING THE GROOVE (Brutal style!)
Perform 200 pull ups before the end of the day, do them all through the day in as many sets as you want, whatever reps you want just make sure to have done 200 cumulative by the end of the day. If you are already a pull ups beast then make the pull ups L pull ups or weight pack ones!!

PULL UP vs. PULL UP
This is a ladder; you will need to things to pull up on about 50 metres apart. A tree branch and wall are perfect. Perform 1 pull up on one station, sprint or animal walk to the next then perform 10, sprint back 2, back 9. So one you are increasing from 1-10, one from 10-1, then go back down and up the pyramids until you reach 10 and 1 again. Make sure you are doing a different pull up variation on each station, so chin ups on the tree branch, narrow grip pull ups on the wall ledge, etc.

HANG TIME
Pull your self half way up, hold fro 5 seconds, then chest to bar, hold for 5 seconds, lower to half way, hold for 5, lower to dead hang hold for 5, continue for as many reps as you can. Continue for sets or shoot for total number, like 100.

JUNGLE TRAINING CHALLENGE
This is a culmination of the 3 jungle training articles and it will hurt!

Find a place to do pull ups and then mark 50 metres away from it. Do one pull up, drop down and sprint to the marker. Perform 2 push ups, now animal crawl back to where you are doing pull ups, now do 2 pull ups, drop, sprint back, 4 push ups, animal crawl back....... Continue the ladder up to 20 pull ups and 40 push ups then come all the way back down so, 1-20-1 pull-ups, 1-40-1 push ups, with animal crawls and sprints in between.

This has taken us to the end of the 3-part introduction the Jungle Training, but the adventure is just beginning. These three jungle training articles have provided challenges to awaken you to power and truth with all nature, how you can train anywhere, anytime with no equipment; how you can move freely unbounded by the constraints of fear, worry or doubt, how you can reveal spirit by pushing that bit harder, by tapping into something within you, how you can unleash the force, truth, power and love of nature that exists within us all, we are all part of nature, we are nature.

Jungle Training will continue in book format in the near future, I hope you have all enjoyed this introduction into my ever evolving training methods and I look forward to continuing to share this adventure with you in the book.

I leave you with this quote…

“'Everything in nature contains all the power of nature; everything is made of one hidden stuff.”
Ralph Waldo Emmerson

It’s time to find that hidden stuff. And look, before you, it is already there!

LET THE ADVENTURE CONTINUE!!

Live the adventure
Live free
Kelso