Train explosive power for climbing with the Chest Bump pull-up

In today's guest post, Christof Völker presents the Chest Bump Pull-up, also called Power Pull-up. With this exercise you get the explosive power you need for dynamic or long stretches when bouldering and climbing.

A guest post by Christof Völker of target10a

Although the Chest Bump Pull-up not very different from a normal pull-up, it is - if done correctly - much more difficult. What makes this type of pull-up unique (and difficult) is the force it takes to accelerate your body upward so that you have enough momentum to bring your chest up against the bar. In a normal pull-up, your body slows down when you are in the highest position. With the chest bump pull-up, however, you accelerate towards the bar at this point. Therefore every pull-up ends with a push of the chest on the bar.

This is how you do the chest bump pull-up

1. Grab the pole shoulder width in the upper grip (palms face away from the body).
2. Begin each repetition with your arms slightly bent and the thought of trying to bend the rod - this will activate your rotator cuff and shoulder stabilization.
3. Now draw explosively with the goal of bringing the rod under you so far that you can hit it with your pectoral muscles. Really strong climbers pull the bar down so far that they touch their upper abdominal muscles!
4. When you are almost at the highest point of the pull-up, squeeze your shoulder blades together and lean your head back a little - this will help you push your chest to the bar.
5. Get back to the starting position with moderate speed to finish the repetition in the Dead Hang. Start immediately with the next repetition.
6. Do about five to ten (hard!) Repetitions. The reps don't count if your chest didn't hit the bar properly.
7. Make one to three sentences. Pause for at least 3 minutes between sets.

Tip for touching the chest bump pull-up

While initially you will only be able to pull the bar down so that you are touching your upper chest, make it your long-term training goal to lower the bar to touch the lower pectoral muscles and ultimately your upper abdominals (as on the photo). This training progress will make you a great one explosive power develop.

You want to know more about the training?

Further Training tips can be found here.

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Credits: Titelbild AO Content Pool / Pavel Blazek, Text Christoph Völker von target10a.com / Eric Listen /trainingforclimbing.com