Rodney Hahn, a 55-year-old Navy vet broke the world pull-up record with a staggering 6884 reps. Inspirational enough? Here are his top tips on how to ramp up your rep count and break your own PB.
Hot step prep
Once a week I’ll work two opposing muscle groups, such as pull-ups/ chin-ups and push-ups/dips. I’ll train these tabata style, where I set the timer on 30-second intervals for 60 minutes. This sees me completing eight pull-ups every 30 seconds and 10 TRX push-ups during the next 30 second interval. I switch it up on different workouts, doing weighted chin-ups with a 25lb weight on a belt. I also thoroughly enjoy walking kettle bell lunges with goblet squats.
World beating moves
My favorite exercises involve climbing around on the monkey bars, doing muscle ups, dips, and crazy rope climbing stuff. My least favorite is anything remotely therapeutic, thanks to an injury. I know I need it, but I love the workouts that require me to dig deeper. The large kettlebells are my favorite go-to workout on good weather days, as I definitely prefer outside workouts that include a jumping rope and some kind of cardiovascular combination as a challenge.
Mental strength
My workout mantra is: walk the walk, no excuses. Successful mental tactics involve visualizing what I am about to do. Then, if my form breaks down, I stop, regroup, and go again. If you compare my form in the 24-hour attempt, you will see that my form on the first, and last rep, are identical.
Pulling fuel
I am not the strictest when it comes to diet. However, my Peruvian wife cooks our family fresh organic meals every day, using mainly homegrown ingredients out of our own garden. Rarely do I drink a pre-training formula but, when I do, I prefer the Endurox R4. Post-training I prefer chocolate milk because it is easily and quickly digested. Fortunately, I have leanness genes on both sides of my family and I also control body fat through intense interval training.
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