Stuck in a pull-up plateau?
Let’s break through it together!
Join us for an 6-week pull-up challenge starting July 17th. Inspired by the 2012 palm cooling study by Heller et al, we’ll be doing high volume pull-ups with palm cooling rest between sets. How does it work?
Apex Cool Labs Palm Cooling & Pull-Up Challenge
- 2 pull-up sessions per week (ideally at least 48 hours between sessions)
- 8 sets of as many reps as possible
- 3 minutes of palm cooling rest between sets
In the original study, pull-up trained participants did 2 sessions per week with 10 sets of max rep pull-ups. On average, they saw a 144% increase in their pull-up volume! We’re suggesting 8 sets instead so you can get this done in about 30 minutes.
But wait! I can’t do pull-ups twice per week.
No problem. If you are short on time, you can just do one pull-up session per week. When I did this last year, I saw a 50% increase over 8 weeks! You can also cut it down to 6 sets per session and / or reduce the palm cooling rest to 2.5 minutes. You won’t see the same gains but it should still be impressive!
I can only do a few pull-ups. Will this work for me?
In the 2012 study, the researchers looked at two groups: one group was pull-up trained meaning they had been training pull-ups for at least two years, the second group was referred to as pull-up novice.
The novice group only did 6 sets per session (two sessions per week). On average, the group started out doing about 3 pull-ups per set. By the end of the six week program, this group averaged an 80% increase in pull-up volume!
In short, this challenge is really great for pull-up trained folks looking to reach new heights, but it will certainly have a meaningful impact for people who can consistently do at least 3 reps for 6ish sets.
I’m so ready!
Sweet! Here is a Google Sheet template for tracking pull-ups you can use. We hope you'll share your progress by tagging @apexcoollabs on Instagram or Twitter. If you have questions, say hi@apexcoollabs.com.
