pull ups/chin ups

so i recently got a chinup bar and i've been doing chinups and pull ups every once in a while for the past 3 weeks. anyways i always start with wide grip pull ups, then do chinups.

so i started off being able to do something like 5 wide grips followed immediately by 7 chin ups, didn't notice much of a change for a while, it went up by about 1 in each department. then this week i noticed that i could do 10 wide grips followed by 6 chinups, and today i did 14 wide grips followed by 7 chin ups. so i guess it's a mixture of a week off of rowing and working out mixed with my cold being gone (it was with me for 2 weeks because i wasn't sleeping much, rowing every morning in freezing weather, getting wet, and racing every once in a while) that did it or something because it was literally from 6 to 10 to 14 in the span of about 4 or 5 days.

Sounds right to me from what you post about your workout habits and overall health. If I were to drop down and do pushups right now I'd probably only be able to knock off 35-40 but if I do them routinely for the next week I'd get up to about 60. I know this to be fact because I've taken breaks and got back to form quickly. I think its all about muscle memory/toning. Since you didn't do pull ups regularly before, the muscles weren't in the habit of being put to that specific task, but after they were put in a pattern, they can produce much better. :2cents:

yeah that's true. the thing that surprised me was that in 4 days i almost doubled. i wonder how well i could have rowed if i didn't have a cold during our last, and biggest, competition.