Learning to do Pull ups and Chin ups? How often?

[JH88]

I am have been trying to do pull ups and chin ups. Right now I can get three reps.

Should I attempt them every day until I get 10-12 reps or should I try every other day?

[agsuper]

I do them in conjunction with my back or bicep days one time per week. Just what I do. I went from 0 to 8 after dropping 40 pounds.

[Fifty+]

I am have been trying to do pull ups and chin ups. Right now I can get three reps.

Should I attempt them every day until I get 10-12 reps or should I try every other day?

Are you performing more then one set (attempt)? Are you attempting pulls or chins after working other muscle groups? A little more info. would go a long way.....thanx..

[JH88]

Are you performing more then one set (attempt)? Are you attempting pulls or chins after working other muscle groups? A little more info. would go a long way.....thanx..

I have been following the routine below except I can not make the 12.

Week A

Day 1

Squat 3x5
Bench press 3x5
Chin-ups: 3x12

Day 2

Front squats 3x3
Press 3x5
Deadlift 1x5

Day 3

Squat 3x5
Bench press 3x5
Pull-ups: 3x12

Week B

Day 1

Squat 3x5
Press 3x5
Chin-ups: 3x12

Day 2

Front squats 3x3
Bench press 3x5
Power clean 5x3

Day 3

Squat 3x5
Press 3x5
Pull-ups: 3x12

[runswithscissor]

I hope you have left out your warm up routine. You don't want to go from doing nothing to lifting. A decnt rule of thumb for getting warmed up and limber is at least one set at 40-50 percent of your normal lift rate.

When I go to the gym, I lift one set of everything I am going to do at 40-50%. I go for two hours when I go, so if I am going to life something in 1/2 an hour I'll do it no matter how funny it looks, be it curling with 25 pounds when I can do 50-60. If you are not warming up somehow on those specific muscle groups, you can pull something or worse.

I can do two pullups at the end of my routine. At best. Never tried it first thing because I just want to start lifting and pulling things.

I do have days where I can do my comfortable max to 12 reps times 5 sets, other days, I end up pyramiding.

I would say that you should make sure you warm up first, do your pullups like someone has already mentioned on a proper day (as you get more into it, you don't do pullups on a ham/calf/leg/cardio day).

Also, keep in mind if you haven't done this in a while, don't get discouraged, you are trying to do more than most, even 1/2 your age, and when you get tired from trying pullups, based on your age, think back to P.E. (back then we had P.E. and "gym teachers"). Boys did pullups and girls did the whole hanging and timing it thing. To start do as many pullups as you can and then try to hang on.

The heavier you are, the harder it will be to do either.

[JH88]

I hope you have left out your warm up routine. You don't want to go from doing nothing to lifting.

I do warm up/

[Fifty+]

I have been following the routine below except I can not make the 12.

Week A

Day 1

Squat 3x5
Bench press 3x5
Chin-ups: 3x12

Day 2

Front squats 3x3
Press 3x5
Deadlift 1x5

Day 3

Squat 3x5
Bench press 3x5
Pull-ups: 3x12

Week B

Day 1

Squat 3x5
Press 3x5
Chin-ups: 3x12

Day 2

Front squats 3x3
Bench press 3x5
Power clean 5x3

Day 3

Squat 3x5
Press 3x5
Pull-ups: 3x12

I would suggest you substitute one chin/pulls workouts with a bar movement. Then work on your chins/pull ups with multiple sets of 2 reps, if you fail at 3 reps. Very soon 3 reps will be easy so work multiple sets of three and then try 5 or 6 reps. Nothing happens over night. Keep hammering. And if chins or pull ups are a priority, work them first in rotation..

[Vanport]

Everyone is different, but I can share what I did to get good at pull ups.

* Warm up and break a sweat.
* Do pull ups every day you are at the gym.
* Do multiple sets, and never do pull ups to failure.
* Assisted pull up machine is your friend.

Make your goal 15 pull ups in one set.

Once you reach this goal, then quit doing them for numbers. Start increasing the difficulty of the pull ups and bodyweight routines. Increasing the difficulty will bring you back down to only a few reps. Then over time your numbers will go up again with harder routines.

[older2533]

Progress with pullups is slow for me, but steady.

I started with being able to do 2 or 3 on the first set, now I can do 6 or 7 about 3 months later. But the first three or four are now very easy where the first one was hard when I started.

I do them once a week. 5 sets. But after the third set, I can basically only do 1 or 2. So for the last two sets I do negative pullups. That is, I get a chair, use it to hop to the top of the pullup and then try to descend as slowly as possible. I'll do 2 sets of 5 of these. I believe these have helped a lot.

[DSUP]

* Warm up and break a sweat.
* Do pull ups every day you are at the gym.
* Do multiple sets, and never do pull ups to failure.
* Assisted pull up machine is your friend.

^^^^ This. I worked up to pull ups with an assisted pull up machine.

Everytime I was at the gym, after my cardio warm up, I did a routine on the assisted pull up machine that went: dips, pull ups, dips, wide-grip pull ups, dips, hammer-grip chin ups, dips. No rest between sets. When I could do twelve reps of every set, I adjusted the machine so it made me work with more of my own weight and I would work that level until I got back up to twelve reps per set.

I still use the machine because I can switch between dips and pull ups without stopping but I don't use any assistance. I do this routine everytime I'm at the gym. I consider it part of my warm up and not part of my weight training.

[VirtualT]

Should I attempt them every day until I get 10-12 reps or should I try every other day?

If you do pullups every day unless you are conditioned to it you will more than likely end up with an injury.

IMO..

[jellodirt]

I am have been trying to do pull ups and chin ups. Right now I can get three reps.

Should I attempt them every day until I get 10-12 reps or should I try every other day?

I do them once a week and that's good plenty...Instead of doing just three reps try adding some negative reps once you've hit your max.

[BalloonKnot]

I would do a set everyday for a month and then take a week off before testing yourself.

[Like It Or Not]

I have been following the routine below except I can not make the 12.

Week A

Day 1

Squat 3x5
Bench press 3x5
Chin-ups: 3x12

Day 2

Front squats 3x3
Press 3x5
Deadlift 1x5

Day 3

Squat 3x5
Bench press 3x5
Pull-ups: 3x12

Week B

Day 1

Squat 3x5
Press 3x5
Chin-ups: 3x12

Day 2

Front squats 3x3
Bench press 3x5
Power clean 5x3

Day 3

Squat 3x5
Press 3x5
Pull-ups: 3x12

Looks like a modified Rippetoe's Starting Strength program. Not sure if you workout in a home gym or not, I workout at home, but have a squat rack. I am going to begin incorporating chinups as well. Since I will be doing these at the end of my workout. I am going to get a band to help me. I think you should work on doing assisted chinups and work your way up to 3 x 12. Or 3 sets of max.

[Skydiver40]

I am have been trying to do pull ups and chin ups. Right now I can get three reps.

Should I attempt them every day until I get 10-12 reps or should I try every other day?

I successfully trained to increase my pull ups when I tried out for the SWAT Team a few years ago. I went from doing 8 good overhand hanging pull ups to 18. I now do 16-18 pull ups before every workout to warm up my back and shoulders. I also do 10-12 with my gun belt and soft body armor on every time I walk by the pull up bar at work. Its a lot easier to keep doing them regularly, I find if I stop doing them I lose the muscle endurance quickly.

Here is what I did to train for them:

I trained them no more than every two to three days

1 Set of as many as I could do

Went over to the Smith Machine (with no weight on it) put the bar on the highest position, put a chair or bench parallel with it (to put my toes on for forced reps). Do as many strict pull ups as possible when you can't do anymore put your toes on the bench behind you to force rep yourself to as many as you can. Push with your feet only as much as you have to, make your back and arms do the most work. After two sets of those, I would do three sets of Lat Pull downs with a weight I could still handle for 10-12 reps. Keep in mind you are building muscle endurance not mass or strength. You are already strong enough to do 3 reps you need to build muscle endurance.

I am not an expert but that's what worked for me and I have given the same advice to others at work trying to get their pull up numbers up for SWAT tryouts with success. I was 32 years old when I got on the team and am 40 now, I still do 18 pull ups before every workout. Best of luck to you.

[JH88]

Looks like a modified Rippetoe's Starting Strength program.

It is. I got it off a Wiki site I ran acrosss somewhere on this board.

[cozener]

I haven't done this in a few weeks but for a while I was incorporating pullups into my shoulder/arms/lat day. I'd do one pullup between each exercise. But something started hurting in a way I didn't particularly like so I've stopped that for now. I'm sure I'll pick it up again. I still do lat pulldowns on this day though. I like doing my push and pulls on the same day...shoulders and lats on one day, chest and back on another. So I'll do shoulder presses then lat pulldowns right after or on chest/back day I'll do bench followed by rows.

[tonester]

I haven't done this in a few weeks but for a while I was incorporating pullups into my shoulder/arms/lat day. I'd do one pullup between each exercise. But something started hurting in a way I didn't particularly like so I've stopped that for now. I'm sure I'll pick it up again. I still do lat pulldowns on this day though. I like doing my push and pulls on the same day...shoulders and lats on one day, chest and back on another. So I'll do shoulder presses then lat pulldowns right after or on chest/back day I'll do bench followed by rows.

I hope you give your shoulders a break between these days. Or at least do some external rotation work. That's a lot of internal rotation. Where did you feel this "hurt that you didn't particularly like"?

By the way, and this is just my personal opinion, lat pulldowns have you supported by your knees which takes away from the stability that belongs on your scapular structure. If you develop that structure you might just become best friends with the pull up. (Check out the upper back/scapular muscle development of anyone who can knock off a bunch of pull ups, skinny or otherwise.)