I struggled with pullups for a year and a half, it took me about 8 months just to be able to do one, and at the end of the year and a half I could barely do 2. My routine included negatives and asking someone to assist me on my pullups. My progress was so slow that I gave up on pullups and decided to do Pendlay Rows instead. I actually only started developing lats once I started with Pendlay Rows. The nice thing about the Rows is that one can start on a lower weight and start making newbie gains rather than suffering because one can't pull one's own body weight.
From the article I linked to:
"There is no doubt that Pendlay Rows performed as I describe them will activate the lats more completely than done any other way I have ever seen."
(Note: Pendlay specifically talks about barbell training, he's not including pullups in his discussion.)
I still have a vague future plan to start pullups again in the future, but I want to first be able to Pendley Row something nearer to my body weight. I'm guessing that the strength from the row will transfer somewhat to my pullup and then I can make real progress rather than putting an enormous amount of work for trivial gains.
From the article I linked to:
"There is no doubt that Pendlay Rows performed as I describe them will activate the lats more completely than done any other way I have ever seen."
(Note: Pendlay specifically talks about barbell training, he's not including pullups in his discussion.)
I still have a vague future plan to start pullups again in the future, but I want to first be able to Pendley Row something nearer to my body weight. I'm guessing that the strength from the row will transfer somewhat to my pullup and then I can make real progress rather than putting an enormous amount of work for trivial gains.