Natty Power

There is nothing truly new under the sun, so let’s get back to Nature. Lift weights and move your body the way it feels natural.

We are living in the age of so called “progress”. We are bombarded with “innovations” and “improvements” in all areas of life. Take a look at the number of scientific researches conducted in the physical training domain. It is huge and new ones are emerging every day all around the globe. Their purpose is to decode principles of Nature and results may be valuable, but unfortunately, way too many of them are sponsored by companies with direct interest in getting specific results. We can witness new stuff popping up all over the Internet, new training methods, new fitness machines, new diets, new supplements, etc. Majority of these “discoveries” are just aggressively advertised useless junk, with only one goal in mind - to take your money away! If you are not born yesterday, you are probably aware of all these frauds.

So, what is not a fraud in these crazy times? Well, things that are tried and tested in the past, probably are not a fraud. Be careful with anything that claims to be “innovative”, “advanced”, “hype”, “modern”, as well as with stuff that is heavily advertised. After all, Nature is not a fraud. Real natural things and real natural principles are certainly not a fraud. Therefore, it would be wise to always ask yourself:

If something is not natural, you should forget it, whatever it may be. If something has been proven to be really natural, it is more then welcome and you should embrace it. This is valid for food you are eating, training methods you are practicing or anything else for that matter.

Here are a few examples of this logic applied to foods in your diet:

• Is a beef steak natural? Yes -> Eat it.
• Is cheese natural? Yes -> Eat it.
• Is a sausage natural? No -> Don’t eat it.
• Is ice cream natural? No -> Don’t eat it.

Natural food means direct product of Nature in it its natural form. Steak is product of Nature. Cheese is natural product from natural processing of natural milk, so it is predominantly natural. On the other side, sausage and ice cream could be made from natural ingredients, but some chemicals are probably added in form of artificial flavors and artificial colors. Such products have been industrially processed and conserved, so should be avoided. Of course, no food today is truly natural, since some chemical substances are always present, coming from modern packaging or food growing process. That’s a whole another problem which falls far beyond our scope of interest, so we won’t elaborate it any further.

Here is a million dollar question:

It would be the best to practice both styles since each of them has its own benefits: slowly and under control is perfect for strength and size, while explosive lifting is excellent for power. Anyway, explosive lifting is better for covering all bases at once. Also, it is more natural and more effective. Just ask any Olympic weightlifter if he could lift the same weight slowly. Therefore, the conclusion is:

Now let’s see how this logic applies to different pullup variants and physical training in general:

• Are strict pullups natural? Yes -> Do them for strength.
• Are strict pullups behind neck natural? No -> Avoid them.
• Are kipping pullups natural? Yes -> Do them for power.
• Are butterfly pullups natural? No -> Avoid them.

While strict pullups present a very natural movement, doing them behind the neck is weird, unnatural and potentially dangerous variation. Keeping pullups could be considered as even more natural movement, because of the explosiveness which comes naturally and makes exercise perfect for development of pulling power. However, butterfly pullups are also explosive exercise, but the movement itself is not natural at all. They require less power and more acrobatic skill, which makes them inferior to kipping pullups in terms of power development. Forget them.

So, which exercise to implement in your training program, strict pullups or kipping pullups? Both would be the best, but if you have to choose, then kipping pullups should be your choice. They are more natural, because you surely wouldn’t do them slowly and under control, if you had to climb on a tree to escape a lion attack. They are also better for explosive power development, which will certainly include significant strength development in the process. Eventually, if they feel easy, simply add weight and do them to failure. Anyway, kipping pullups are the winner in all aspects, hands down.

Here is a true story… Once when I was young and macho, I spent a whole summer at the beach, doing ultra wide grip pullups behind the head. It seemed to be a perfect exercise for showing off and impressing onlookers. Since the grip was very wide, range of motion was quite short and I couldn’t do more then 10 reps that way, but the point was that others couldn’t do even a single rep. The problem is top position, which is very uncomfortable or even painful to some people. Somehow, I managed to touch the bar with back side of my neck in every rep. It was more about flexibility, mobility and acrobatic skill, then real strength, but I enjoyed the fame while it lasted.

One day, a giant Konstantin Konstantinov look alike came to the beach and saw me squeezing pullups behind the neck. He was brutally muscular and heavy, probably somewhere between 240lbs-260lbs, so I smiled at a thought of him struggling with pullups behind the head. But he didn’t bother with such a weird motion. Instead he jumped on the bar and literally exploded with a set of 30+ standard grip kipping pullups, full ROM, from arms fully extended to chin above the bar, in very fast pace, zero rest time. Wow, the whole steel construction was shaking, swinging, twisting and almost breaking apart, because it wasn’t built for such a huge mass moving explosively up and down. I thought “Gee, what a beast!”, while slowly walking away ashamed and acting nonchalant. We didn’t spoke a word, but it was obvious what was his answer to my cheap, short range, flexing trick – a tonload of explosive pulling power. In my head, I was arguing with myself:

“Meh, kipping pullups don’t count as real pullups, that’s cheating!”…
“Oh please, kipping is normal, natural, builds explosive power and… looks SCARY impressive!”…
“But it was easy, because jerking and momentum helped him do 30+ reps in a single set!”…
“Nah, no pullup variation is easy when you are that heavy, he’s a beast indeed!”…
“But, but, pullups behind the head are very hard to perform and I saw gymnasts practicing them!”…
“Yes, they are hard mainly because they put you in misaligned and unnatural position, but doing 30+ kipping pullups over full ROM are much harder in terms of total power output!”…
“But, but, he probably can’t do ultra wide grip pullups behind the head!”…
“Maybe, but why would he bother with such useless motion, when he can generate so much pulling power which is highly functional and will perfectly transfer to sports and activities!”

A few decades later, a real Konstantin Konstantinov became famous on the Internet, mainly as a World record holder in raw beltless deadlift. Believe it or not, he trains only explosive kipping pullups, regardless if there is additional weight, rubber bands or just a bodyweight. He does them as explosively as possible and at 50+ rep range. For him, explosive kipping pullups are a foundational deadlift assistance exercise. There you have it, a World champion powerlifter and Mother Nature are telling you the same thing: train kipping pullups. On the other side, awkward and unnatural pullups behind the head are mostly useless, you may get injured or even embarrassed, just like I did on that day at the beach :)

To resume, you should train only functional natural movements. Train hard, use heavy weights and lift explosively to develop power. There is no point in training weird unnatural movements, with no real functionality or practical purpose. Also, never do anything batshit crazy, it probably won’t bring any benefits and you can end up injured. For example, Nature don’t want you to perform heavy barbell squats on a Bosu ball. Maybe it looks like fun, but it is absolutely useless and dangerous. Rather leave all crazy exercises to YouTubers who are trying to entertain the audience and collect subscribers.