Help! How do you do a pull up or a chin up?

[livinghealthy]

I made a new short term goal this week: Do 10 pull ups.
Well, I tried really hard and couldn't even do one. Pathetic, I know. So then I tried to do chin ups, no luck there either. I gave it my all, tried really hard, but only lifted myself up about 1 inch.
My question for you all is: Are there any exercises that I can do do build up my strength so that I will be able to do pull ups or chin ups?
All replies will be repped! Thanks!

[HardHitter22]

I made a new short term goal this week: Do 10 pull ups.
Well, I tried really hard and couldn't even do one. Pathetic, I know. So then I tried to do chin ups, no luck there either. I gave it my all, tried really hard, but only lifted myself up about 1 inch.
My question for you all is: Are there any exercises that I can do do build up my strength so that I will be able to do pull ups or chin ups?
All replies will be repped! Thanks!

You have to keep doing pullups and chinups. You can do negatives, which is when you just lower yourself down from the up position. Here's a link that will help you out a lot:

http://www.projectswole.com/workout-...ining-routine/

[glais]

I started off with my max of like 4 chin ups full form, 2 months later can do like 2 sets of 10.. All i did was keep on doing the amount i could do.

[TheSoldier]

use your legs to support you a a bit, and take a lift off from your legs, than just go down as slowly as you can and keep doing that until you can do a chin up.pull up and go from there and get to your goal

[CelticTheTruth]

first try to do pull-ups in the assisted pull-up machine.
It helps alot if you can't lift your own bodyweight yet.
Start with like 25% of your bodyweight maybe

[squat4speed]

Not trying to be discouraging , however females will find it a lot harder to complete a pull up or chin up because potential of upper body strength is far lower compared to their lower body strength potential. That being said, strengthen the muscles used (lats, biceps) and use negatives and also use some assistance from someone to slowly build up to doing a chin up, then the pull up comes next and from there you can slowly work on doing reps.

[Veeshmack]

i found my best success with increasing number of pullups came from doing back, bicep, and shoulder exercises and then constantly going back to pullups and trying to do as many as i could

[DaBurg3r]

The assisted pull up machine is good, depending on how close you are to being able to do a pull up you could loop a stretchy band from the pull up bar to underneath your feet for assistance as well. Another variant is to put a barbell in the squat rack so that when you stand in front of it, the barbell is just below your chin. Then grab ahold of the barbell and lower yourself under it so your hanging off it basically then pull yourself up as hard as you can, using as much leg drive as necessary to complete the "pullup."

Lat pull downs, seated cable rows and one arm dumbell rows will all help you build strength towards your goal.

[apfu]

Like other have said, use an assisted pull-up machine if you have access to one. You can also use a chair and support some of your weight by standing on the chair. Work in some negatives. You can also hang from the bar as long as you can.

[DeathByBacker]

Lats pulldown is a good exercise for training for pull ups. Any type of row is good for building your back as well, which will in turn help with a pull up.

Good luck.

[Fullback7]

Not trying to be discouraging , however females will find it a lot harder to complete a pull up or chin up because potential of upper body strength is far lower compared to their lower body strength potential. That being said, strengthen the muscles used (lats, biceps) and use negatives and also use some assistance from someone to slowly build up to doing a chin up, then the pull up comes next and from there you can slowly work on doing reps.

That's actually not true brah. There was a huge debate awhile ago about females believing it was gender discrimination to perform the exercise in fireman/women training. I forget the guys who testified, but they demonstrated that a woman performing the exercise has the same ability as a man to perform the equal amount of pullups.

[Dom_88]

Not trying to be discouraging , however females will find it a lot harder to complete a pull up or chin up because potential of upper body strength is far lower compared to their lower body strength potential. That being said, strengthen the muscles used (lats, biceps) and use negatives and also use some assistance from someone to slowly build up to doing a chin up, then the pull up comes next and from there you can slowly work on doing reps.

na, brah. Read up on Charles Poliquin's work on pullups.

That's actually not true brah. There was a huge debate awhile ago about females believing it was gender discrimination to perform the exercise in fireman/women training. I forget the guys who testified, but they demonstrated that a woman performing the exercise has the same ability as a man to perform the equal amount of pullups.

This. It was Charles Poliquin who showed that women are closest to men in the pull-up more than other exercises.

[livinghealthy]

Thanks for all of your great advice!

[Fullback7]

na, brah. Read up on Charles Poliquin's work on pullups.



This. It was Charles Poliquin who showed that women are closest to men in the pull-up more than other exercises.

yes, thanks. repped

[soapman89]

Not trying to be discouraging , however females will find it a lot harder to complete a pull up or chin up because potential of upper body strength is far lower compared to their lower body strength potential. That being said, strengthen the muscles used (lats, biceps) and use negatives and also use some assistance from someone to slowly build up to doing a chin up, then the pull up comes next and from there you can slowly work on doing reps.

great advice right here. assisted pullups will get ur numbers up it worked for me. do as many as u can even if its one or none then cross your feet and have someone hold youf legs that will make u lighter and then do as many as you can eventually you will build up strentgh and need less assistance. also the wider your grip is the harder i use a just out side shoulder width and i can do 28 pull ups and i stared at 2.

[jgood]

Assisted pull-ups are good, lat pull-downs are good for a very basic strength building (only will carry over to a certain point though)

[AzN_hEAT_7]

I always do my pullups, switching off front and then behind the neck

[Bigjay10.0]

as a person who can't remember the last time he weighed less than 200 pounds i can certainly relate to your issue. start with negatives, slow as possible. when you can fully controll through about 8 of them for 2-3 sets add weight to yourself using either a belt or a backpack. once you've added about 25 pounds and can control your descent through a full range of motion for about ten you will be ready. after this my guess is that you should have about 2 to 4 good ones, after that the sky is the limit. supplement this workout with WIDE grip lat pulldowns and remember to not restrict your calories too much, you need to build lat muscles and your upper back.