Newbie Pull-up/Chin-up questions

[Dan Koloski]

In my Starting Strength / Practical Programming (SS/PP) workout I am doing pull-ups and chin-ups every other workout. I'm using the woody bands to assist. I'm doing 4 sets of these, and the log looks like this:
9/24/2008 - 8 pulls + 5 chins + 5 pulls + 4 chins
9/28/2008 - 10 pulls + 6 chins + 6 pulls + 5 chins
10/5/2008 - 12 pulls + 7 chins + 7 pulls + 5 chins
It seems that in keeping with the other SS/PP exercises I should increase the weight (meaning reduce the woody assist) so that I can only do around 5 reps in each set. So maybe in the first set not use the assist at all, then use it for the other 3 sets. Does this make sense?
Thx,
Dan
PS-I would have posted these SS questions on the ************ website, but apparently they are having problems and new member registration is shut down.

[Chris Scott]

Originally Posted by Dan Koloski

In my Starting Strength / Practical Programming (SS/PP) workout I am doing pull-ups and chin-ups every other workout. I'm using the woody bands to assist. I'm doing 4 sets of these, and the log looks like this:
9/24/2008 - 8 pulls + 5 chins + 5 pulls + 4 chins
9/28/2008 - 10 pulls + 6 chins + 6 pulls + 5 chins
10/5/2008 - 12 pulls + 7 chins + 7 pulls + 5 chins
It seems that in keeping with the other SS/PP exercises I should increase the weight (meaning reduce the woody assist) so that I can only do around 5 reps in each set. So maybe in the first set not use the assist at all, then use it for the other 3 sets. Does this make sense?
Thx,
Dan
PS-I would have posted these SS questions on the ************ website, but apparently they are having problems and new member registration is shut down.

Hi Dan!

While your approach to the chins/pulls makes sense to me, I'm far from an expert. It does seem that less assist = better for the overall philosophy of the program.

I checked PPST, and it calls for a different schedule than the one you're using (p's only on Mon, c's only on Fri). Has yours worked better for you?

[Dan Koloski]

Chris,
Thx for responding.
These are literally my first three workouts with the pull and chin-ups, so I don't have any experience if doing both in the same workout is better than separating them. The exercises use slightly different muscles, so I guess I put them both in because otherwise each exercise would only be done once a week (remember these alternate with bench presses). I guess I could experiment both ways.
But whether I followed PPST to the letter, as you point out, or with my slight alteration, my question remains the same. Should I scale back the "assist" so that I can only do about 5 reps per set?
Dan

[Chris Scott]

Well, I'm no expert, but it seems like a good idea to me. Since the idea behind the 5RM approach is to hit a sweet spot between building strength on the low-rep side, and endurance on the high-rep side, and since right now you need to build both strength and endurance in these exercises, it seems to me that you're taking a good route by trying to stick with the 5-rep approach by adjusting your assistance.

But there's folks around here who are much smarter in these things than I....