I did pull-ups every day. Here's what happened.

For the past 30 days, I've been performing pull-ups every day. Why? I wanted to see if increasing the frequency of an exercise would lead to greater strength gains.

The Programme

I started with 4 pull-ups a day, then added a rep each week. I allowed myself to do as many sets as I liked to hit the total number. By week 4, I was at 7 reps per day. This was the equivalent of the 50 total reps I would usually do over two days.

Results

My 1RM improved by 33%, going from 22.5kg to 30kg. My max bodyweight reps also improved (though not as much), going from 11 reps to 13 - an 18% increase.

Main Takeaways

Every exercise is a skill Though they don't take as long to perfect as a golf swing, pull-ups are definitely a skill. After just 1 week, I felt my body becoming much more efficient at them. By week 2, hopping up and doing a rep or 2 explosively felt effortless.

Specificity is key I got a lot better at the 1RM pull-up than the max reps test. This actually isn't all that surprising when you look at how I trained.

The 1RM test is a test of absolute strength - the ability to recruit as many motor units as possible and fire them in sync at max force. The max reps test however, is really a test of muscular endurance; your body's ability to maintain submaximal strength in the presence of fatigue.

When I was doing pull-ups every day, I very rarely performed all my reps in one set. The reason for this is because taking sets close to failure generates more fatigue, and I was wary of burning myself out early. Instead I broke the reps up into sets of 1 - 3 reps. This allowed me to practice them explosively and with good form, but I never really practiced pushing through fatigue.

If the max reps test is your main goal, your training needs to reflect that.

Utilise light and heavy days Around the end of the third week, I found myself starting to get a bit fatigued. I could still perform all the reps no problem, but they didn't have the zip behind them that they did in week 2.

I think that at a certain volume, the importance of varying the stress of the week comes into play a lot more. If I were to do this challenge again, I would probably have manipulated volume and intensity to minimise fatigue, with heavier and lighter days.