So here's a question.
About 9 or 10 months ago I started doing chin ups.
Actually, that's not quite true. I attempted to do 1 chin up but couldn't manage it, I had to stand on a step and assist myself a with my legs. That continued for quite a while but I have slowly worked my way up to 10 proper chin ups, 6 more after a one minute rest and three more after another minute.
I've always done each set to the point of exhaustion and for the first 6 months or so I improved slowly but for the last few months It's been 10, 6 & 3 for my best effort.
I'm happy enough with that, I'm only doing it to try to maintain a bit of upper-body strength as I get older but I am curious about reaching this plateau. Is that how things usually work and what would I need to do to improve if I decided I wanted to?
I do 3 sessions a week btw.
Plateaus are common but they're very normal. 10, 6, 3 shouldn't be a plateau for pull ups so you've just got to find a way of doing more work and giving your body a chance to adapt.
If you always do 10 reps your body will adapt to 10 reps. No more, no less. Why would it get strong enough to do more if you never ask it to?
The problem with pull ups is they're one of those exercises where once you've done an all out max set it's very difficult to recover. For this reason I'd never max out until the final set.
The key to building strength is programming. You have to develop a program that allows progressive overload. Initially you can wing it but you're past that stage now if you want to progress further.
I'd recommend doing something slightly different every session in the week.
Day 1 - 4 sets of 6.
Day 2 - 5 sets of 5.
Day 3 - 6 sets of 4.
Also scrap the arbitrary 1 minute break. Just rest for as long as you feel you need to rest to be able to complete your next set whether it be 1, 2 or 5 minutes it doesn't matter.
Try the above for a week and report back how it went. Don't worry if you don't hit failure, you're not actually supposed to. You don't have to fail to get stronger.
The above is a starting point, don't be tempted to change the numbers just do the above and we'll tweak it once we know where you're at.
Make a note of how each day goes then we'll work on your progression if it's too easy or you don't hit your rep count.
I'm assuming the ultimate goal is to do as many as possible in a single set? It may seem counterintuitive but doing the above is what will get you there.
I'm happy to work with you on a little programme, I find it really interesting and it's as much fun for me as you. We'll keep tweaking it and test your single set max after 4 weeks to keep an eye on progress.