Pull ups vs grade climbed?

I'm collecting data on this topic!

How many pull ups can you do and how relevant is this to what grade you climb?

ANSWER BELOW in this ANONYMOUS form please!

-how many pull ups you can do (0 is also an OK answer)

-and then say what grade you can climb.


https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdD--jUbLC1KSRXhH_hEOU2oQyc4qWvNZ4y9t6vy966mV-vgw/viewform

Interesting study! Can't wait to see the result.

I'd be interested to see how many people are training using modified pullups (weighted, square, frenchies, ect) as well. I've personally never tried to get over 10 because I'm too lazy and don't see much of a reason to.

I don’t click on rogue links, but put me down for 3 pull ups and an occasional V4.

Dan Cooksey wrote: I don’t click on rogue links, but put me down for 3 pull ups and an occasional V4.

lol it says google forms right on the link

lucas funkhouser wrote: -4
-v3, 5.10+

Please log it in the form!

Anecdote: A couple years ago i had a torn bicep and couldn't complete a single pull-up, but i could climb a number of v7 boulders (no underclings or compression). I suspect max reps of pull-ups have nearly nothing to do with your ability to climb the majority of routes/problems.

The correlation isn’t what you’d think.  I can do 10-12 pull-ups but suck at climbing.

I bet there’s a better correlation with max weight pull-up than there is with #of pull-ups.

Back when I could do 100 pull ups I climbed 11d. Now I can do zero and just did a 10d. It depends on the kind of climbing. I've always been more of a thin face and hard slab kind of climber, not a jug haul overhanger.

Steve Bechtel did a podcast on this awhile back. I think it didnt show a correlation past a certain grade. It was something like surveying 30 climbers that have redpointed 13a. The lowest was 4 pullups and highest was 35 or so. The mean was 16 or so.

When I was young, I was strong and my technique sucked. (20 pull ups, 5.10)

As I aged, I got weaker, fatter, and more skilled.

In my opinion there is absolutely no correlation between physical strength and climbing. I can comfortably bang out 20 pull ups. I can also do 10 sets of 50 push ups in a very short period of time. I can rep 225 on the bench like its bitch weight.  If I was to train I could get 315 up a few reps. Most pro climbers can do none of the above. Most pro climbers are just amazing a climbers because of their strength to body ratio, their mind set, coordination, and balance. They are naturally gifted. They are just born to fucking crank it on the rock.

With this said, what do climb? Traditional five eight to five ten range, nothing harder. Sport climbing can add a few number grades but I don't count it as shit. Im one strong mother fucker and it dosent mean shit when it comes to climbing. I have a partner that is a 60 year old woman and she will bring me to shame anywhere from New York to Oak Creek Canyon. Very humbling. I aint shit! 

Agreed, this isn’t a “study” it’s more like a bored masturbatory collection of bad data.
so clearly I sent in my numbers.... and can’t wait to look at the results 

Simeon d wrote: In my opinion there is absolutely no correlation between physical strength and climbing. I can comfortably bang out 20 pull ups. I can also do 10 sets of 50 push ups in a very short period of time. I can rep 225 on the bench like its bitch weight.  If I was to train I could get 315 up a few reps. Most pro climbers can do none of the above. Most pro climbers are just amazing a climbers because of their strength to body ratio, their mind set, coordination, and balance. They are naturally gifted. They are just born to fucking crank it on the rock.

With this said, what do climb? Traditional five eight to five ten range, nothing harder. Sport climbing can add a few number grades but I don't count it as shit. Im one strong mother fucker and it dosent mean shit when it comes to climbing. I have a partner that is a 60 year old woman and she will bring me to shame anywhere from New York to Oak Creek Canyon. Very humbling. I aint shit! 

I’m not sure I agree that there is no correlation with strength, it’s just that you’re using the wrong examples/types of strength. Most all the people I know who climb (what I consider) hard sure are strong, just not necessarily in terms of bench pressing etc...if measuring max hangs or weighted pull-ups, I bet they are all on the high end.

Sooner or later someone will mention that grip strength is the key.  Then we'll go down a long path with people spewing anecdotes and citing studies about that.  Then the "results" of the pullup survey will come out.  Surprise - little correlation.  Then silence for a few years until some one posts - "I'm conducting a poll of pullups..."  Anyone want to wager that we won't make it until 2022 until we see this one again?  I know that most of us are locked down and limited but do we have to recycle everything?

There seems to be a pretty good correlation between grip strength (not to make Eric's prophecy come true!) and potential maximum climbing grade, if I'm to believe the Lattice climbing coaches.

Simeon d wrote: In my opinion there is absolutely no correlation between physical strength and climbing...Most pro climbers are just amazing a climbers because of their strength to body ratio...

Just sayin.

If we mapped the climbing grades onto a linear scale (v0 is 1, v1 is 2, etc, similarly idea maybe starting at 5.6 for routes). I bet there is something like a 0.2 correlation between max pull-ups and climbing max grade. I wonder if the data will be different for men/women. I'm also interested to see whether splitting the data by grade might yield stronger correlations. It wouldn't surprise me if above 5.14 pull-ups are a better predictor while below 5.12 they mean almost nothing.

Simeon d wrote: In my opinion there is absolutely no correlation between physical strength and climbing. I can comfortably bang out 20 pull ups. I can also do 10 sets of 50 push ups in a very short period of time. I can rep 225 on the bench like its bitch weight.  If I was to train I could get 315 up a few reps. Most pro climbers can do none of the above. Most pro climbers are just amazing a climbers because of their strength to body ratio, their mind set, coordination, and balance. They are naturally gifted. They are just born to fucking crank it on the rock.

With this said, what do climb? Traditional five eight to five ten range, nothing harder. Sport climbing can add a few number grades but I don't count it as shit. Im one strong mother fucker and it dosent mean shit when it comes to climbing. I have a partner that is a 60 year old woman and she will bring me to shame anywhere from New York to Oak Creek Canyon. Very humbling. I aint shit! 

I would disagree, Im sure 99% of pro climbers can do those reps pretty easily. I could and I don’t train that hard, although bench press really doesn’t matter, does nothing for climbing that push ups don’t accomplish.  

Weight is also a huge factor. 
Of course technique matters greatly for almost any climb, however for outdoor bouldering and hard sport routes, there are many that require very good core strength, being very light and being really really strong in the forearms/biceps.  
I hate to say it but I haven’t seen anyone out there lately sending 5.13+ or V9+ boulders who isn’t really fit. 

15/v10

I’m guessing the study won’t have statistical relevance because it will be poorly constructed.