Who's in on the 100 day pullup challenge?
Starting today with 1 pullup, getting up to 100 pullups on January 14th.
Strict if you can do 'em, kipping otherwise.

I think doing strict pull ups simply because you can, despite their difficulty, is of far less functionality than doing pretty much any kind of kipping pull up. If you just want to make this harder, I would recommend either
a) just doing more kipping pull ups
b) kipping chest to bar
c) doing weighted kipping pull ups
d) doing muscle ups

Except for the functionality of building strength.

Another challenge is to do it with weighted pull-ups and everyday, add a pound. The 100-pounds in 100-days weighted pull-up challenge.

Justin
Are you saying that the stricts are better for building strength than kipping?
On the hundreds of threads on the message boards with the topic of dead hang v. kipping, an often used argument in favor of kipping is that people who train with kipping pull ups almost always pull more additional weight on a weighted pull up than those who train exclusively with strict pull ups. As far as I know, this point wasn't backed up by any scientific data or anything more than anecdotal evidence, but from my experience as a CFer, I'm willing to believe this on face value.

I also proposed the incremental weighted pull up challenge yesterday, but we don't have 100 incremental 1 lb weights.

Where can we get fishing weights for wholesale prices?

Jeff, using 100 1lb weights would be funny, but unnecessary. How would the weighted challenge go? Max reps at the given weight each day?

The chest to bar challenge sounds brutal but interesting, the muscle-up challenge sounds just plain brutal.

I'm in for the 100PUC

There are people who say that if you can do more kipping pull-ups than you can do more dead hangs. I don't agree, but I won't argue the point. And as far as pure fucntionality, I would say that kipping pull-ups are more functional (scaling a wall, fence, etc), but as far as strength goes, the dead hang (and by this I mean weighted as well) is actually a function of upper body strength, where kipping is more a function of power.

I can agree that a dead hang is a clearer expression of upper body strength than a kip, but in terms of ability to progressively develop that upper body strength, the kip is the better way to go, even in spite of the fact that you're drawing power from outside your upper body for assitance. After all, we CFers got to where we are by taking baby steps (kips) not leaps and bounds (dead hangs).

As CFers we're constantly of the mindset that the harder something is, the better it is for your training. I think this is the rare case, where you can justify the easier alternative without being a cop out.

isn't the whole idea of doing the 100 day challenge a little flawed since you never really get a chance to recover? there's been a lot of people complaining about shoulder problems lately which i think was/is at least in some way linked to the burpee challenge.

not that it doesn't sound badass or anything.

I may be a little late to the party, but I wanted to add my observations. I bailed on the burpee challenge early due to having to miss 10 days in a row. After watching my fellow CF'ers struggle through it and soldier on, I have to say that I tend to agree with Ryan. Especially at the end of the challenge, I would think your shoulders and hips never really get to recover from the work and therefore, you don't really get stronger.

Now you could be getting better at the movement as your body and mind accept that greater numbers are possible and you become inured to the beating it puts on your body. However, I see this as similiar to constant distance building under an LSD model of running improvement, except that you never take a day off. In terms of running, we would reject this out of hand. Why then, would we do it with bodyweight exercises?

As an alternative (and experiment) I decided to pick a target number and then see how many days it takes me to get to that number. If my body tells me I need a rest day, I take it and let it recover or I do less repetitions that day. If I am strong or know that I will take the weekend off, I go further than normal. For my personal challenge, I chose 10,000 pushups, but you could just as easily pick 5,000 pullups (about what the 100 day challenge works out to be). This system also doesn't knock you out if you miss a few days or a week due to sickness or injury (as the 100 day challenge did for me). You keep going till its done.

From a programming stand point, it seems to be a little kinder on the body and adjusts for how you feel that day, rather than an arbitrary progression.

My personal experience with the burpee challenge:
* Days 1-30 or so were cake
* Days 30-60 I was sore pretty much constantly -- shoulders / hips / lower back variously felt kinda broken
* Days 60+ have been really great -- even when I've missed a day and had to do 140+ to make up, it's been totally feasible and I've had no issues with soreness or injury.

My shoulders feel like they're made of STEEL at this point ;)

My latest plan is to extend the pullup challenge into an "angie" challenge. Day 1: 1 pullup, 1 pushup, 1 situp, 1 squat. Day 100: Angie.

WOD @ home
5 rounds:
10 overhead walking lunges, one-arm 35# DB (5 left arm, then 5 right arm; 3 sets leading step on working arm side, 2 sets leading step on non-working arm side)
10 pull ups
10 55# DB bench on Swiss ball
~11:00

Not as bad as I thought it would be, but then again I wasn't working all that fast. Maybe I could have gotten sub 10 since I didn't warm up and I lost a lot of time because I only partially set up my bench station before starting the clock.

Next time I should consider just using the incline bench.

@ manhtn box
53, 70, 88, 93, 98(PR), 100.5, 103
BW: 183

I'm in for the Angie challenge