Pullup Improvement

[August]

I have been doing pullups for about 4 months now and I have gone from about 8 to 15 pullups but I seem to have hit a wall and my pullups have slowed in increasing. My question is im doing about 65 pullups during my workouts in about 8 sets, is it better to do fewer sets of higher reps, or higher sets of fewer reps?
Any advice on pullups at all is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Alan

[Ranger Bill]

You probably will get a number of opinions on this, but my advice is to do three sets, maxing out on each set. Maybe it goes 15 on the 1st set, 8 on the 2nd, 3 or 4 on the 3rd set. Write the numbers down in a log. Your goal should always be to get at least one more rep on one of the three sets. I'm also a believer that once you can do 12 in the first set, that you shold add some weight using a dip belt or other means. Also, bear in mind that it is easy to make progress in the beginning, but after some time, progress becomes much harder. In any case, 15 well-performed dead hang pull-ups with a full range of motion is nothing to be ashamed of.

[August]

Thank you very much for the advice Ranger Bill. I will definitely incorporate your pullup routine into my workouts.

-Alan

[Oto-Man]

I am with Bill on this, but with one difference...I personally believe in what we called "Russian Breakdowns"...it works with weights on the bench, leg press, push ups, sit ups, pull ups...any muscle group.

Very simple:

1st rotation: as many reps as possible to fatigue...rest 1 minute...
repeat to 50% reps as previous or fatigue...rest 2 minutes.
repeat to 50% reps as previous or fatigue...rest 3 minutes.
repeat...rest 3 minutes.
repeat...rest 3 minutes.

continue until you are only able to complete 1 rep...60,30,15,7,4,2,1,1. (If you get to 50% of previous then stop.)
rest 10 minutes.
start with 1 rep...wait 5 minutes...attempt 2...wait 5 minutes..attempt 3...continue to failure.

you have now completed the Russian Breakdown.
(If it is a weight excercise (ie bench press) reduce weight by 50% for each rotation and work to muscle failure following the same regime-and then double weight and reps up until failure).
You can use this with any repetitive excercise...Improvement should come within 10 days.

[August]

Thank you both for your advice Oto-Man and Ranger Bill, I think I will try both of those workouts for a month at a time and see which works better for me.

Thank you,
Alan