Strict Pull Ups Before Kipping Pull Ups? A Round Table Debate at Crossfit HQ with Russell Berger, Carl Paoli, Dave Durante, Jacob Tsypkin and Dan Pope

Several weeks ago Crossfit HQ was kind enough to fly me out to Santa Cruz to have a sit down discussion all about kipping pullups. This was for a program entitled “Crossfit Offline” hosted by Russell Berger. Given that I love talking about kipping pullups I jumped at the opportunity.

Crossfit put together a great cast including gymnasts Dave Durante and Carl Paoli, crossfit gym owner and Juggernaut Training Systems contributor Jacob Tsypkin as well as myself. Between the four of us we all had differing backgrounds and subsequent opinions lending to a pretty heated conversation. The main topic at hand was whether or not kipping pullups should be performed without a base level of strength and whether or not the kipping pullup (and butterfly pullup) are potentially causing injury in the crossfit population. The kind folks over at Crossfit, and behind the scenes wonder woman Noor Greene finally got the video up and running.

And to quote a wise man in an amazing movie featuring dinosaurs, “Hold onto your butts.” Without further ado…

A big thanks to Crossfit HQ for giving me the opportunity to come express my thoughts on kipping pullups. My head is always swimming with these thoughts. Also a big thanks to Carl Paoli, Dave Durante (Dave was kind enough to come on the podcast to discuss the kipping pullup in even more depth) and Jacob Tsypkin. I learned a tremendous amount over this weekend and the differing opinions really added to my own knowledge of the topic.

Sammy Jackson can perform 300 unbroken kipping pullups,

Dan Pope, PT, DPT, CSCS

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