Chin Ups

[dipenchatterjee]

Dear Friends

First of all let me confess that I am very poor in Chin Ups. To develop on that particular exercise, I have developed a strategy which I would like to share for your comments and suggestions.
1. 1 rep of Chin Up X 50 (with gaps of 1 minute, since I can perform only one at a time and if i do not take the said amount of recovery period, the next repetition fails) - Regularly
2. Bent Over Back Rows (5 sets of 15,12,10,8,6) - Alternate Days to develop strength in the upper back and some to lower back
3. Heavy Weight Uprightrows (3 sets of 10,8,6) - To develop the strength in the muscle region between the scapula, which I think contributes a lot to the pulling up.

I once more request for your suggestions.
Regards
DC

[shaolin_tiger182]

Dear Friends

First of all let me confess that I am very poor in Chin Ups. To develop on that particular exercise, I have developed a strategy which I would like to share for your comments and suggestions.
1. 1 rep of Chin Up X 50 (with gaps of 1 minute, since I can perform only one at a time and if i do not take the said amount of recovery period, the next repetition fails) - Regularly
2. Bent Over Back Rows (5 sets of 15,12,10,8,6) - Alternate Days to develop strength in the upper back and some to lower back
3. Heavy Weight Uprightrows (3 sets of 10,8,6) - To develop the strength in the muscle region between the scapula, which I think contributes a lot to the pulling up.

I once more request for your suggestions.
Regards
DC

This article has plenty of suggestions:
http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_...o_1_the_pullup

Take a read if you have questions afterwards I'll try to answer them.

[Bostongeorge617]

No, just...no.

50 single rep pullups with a minute rest between each? So one hour to do 50 chin ups? That is a terrible idea. The article linked above offers some good pointers. Also, don't shy away from an assisted chin/pullup machine.

[PeterGibbons316]

No, just...no.

50 single rep pullups with a minute rest between each? So one hour to do 50 chin ups? That is a terrible idea. The article linked above offers some good pointers. Also, don't shy away from an assisted chin/pullup machine.

^This x 1000

Here is a good pullup program that will work for you: www.fiftypullups.com

[PaulieK]

Long time gym-goer here, first time poster.

I have found a lot of benefit to doing pull-ups and chin-ups every single day.

If you can only do one, finding a way to build you to doing more than one is (obviously) key to you improving your chin up. I must suggest assisted chin ups to ensure perfect technique and full range of motion.

It's also a body weight resistance exercise, which means that you can find a good way to do it at home. If you have a pull-up bar in a doorway, and a chair from the kitchen, you can virtually assist yourself. It works better for a human being to help you, but you won't always have that option. Start on the chin up bar with arms fully extended, and your legs bent 90 degrees, with your toes on the chair. Use your toes to assist yourself to doing a good set of pull ups instead of only doing 1 at a time. Full range of motion is key, because if you can only do one *mediocre* chin up, it will take you a very long time to do a solid, full range chin-up.

50 chin ups one minute apart is a hard workout to swallow, IMO, but I would find a way to make assisted chin ups work until you can do multiple full range chin ups.

I have a policy. Pull ups and push ups are OK to do every day (others may well disagree). Every single time I walk by my pull-up bar, I do half of my max. On a great day I can do around 25, so I do 12 chin ups every single time I walk past the bar. I change it up and do palms-facing and palms-away pull ups too, pretty frequently, but the principle is the same. Once you can do more than 1, you can use a technique like this (or any other of the millions of chin-up and pull-up centered work outs that you could imagine) to improve from there.

So, to recap, +1 on the assisted pull up machine, I support human-assisted pull ups if you don't have access, and using a chair if you really don't have access to any of that, to assist yourself.

Good luck, brother.

[dipenchatterjee]

@ Shaolin Tiger...Many thanks for such a wonderful link.

[dipenchatterjee]

@Boston George....Yes u r right. It was taking about an hour. and Moreover after 10-12 sets of 1 rep, I could hardly lift myself...

[dipenchatterjee]

@Peter Gibson...Thanks for sharing such a wonderful link..

[dipenchatterjee]

@Paulie K...Thanks for your suggestions. Shall give it a try. My Gym does not have an assisted pull up machine..so shall ask any spotter / trainer over there to give me a hand.

[mjlindne]

1. 1 rep of Chin Up X 50 (with gaps of 1 minute, since I can perform only one at a time and if i do not take the said amount of recovery period, the next repetition fails) - Regularly

DC

Bull****. You can do fifty singles but can't do a set of more than one?

[Tyciol]

don't shy away from an assisted chin/pullup machine.

I love those, wish I had one at home

Bull****. You can do fifty singles but can't do a set of more than one?

It can be a mental block in some cases. If he's able to do 50 resting a minute in between, possibly he could try resting 50 seconds each next time, then 40, then 30, then 20, then 10...

Once you can do 50 pull ups with only 10 seconds of rest in between, you're probably ready to do sets of 2 =) If not far earlier than that.

[dipenchatterjee]

@mjlindne...The fact is if I endeavor I can do 5-6 at a stretch but then the muscle exhaustion comes in very fast to the extent that the sets foes likes this 6,4,2,2,1...So i broke the entire thing in 1 reps into 50 sets...

[dipenchatterjee]

Tyciol..Lovely suggestion. Shall try to put in place in the same.

[dipenchatterjee]

I have also heard of bands which can act as a replacement for assisted chin ups...Do they help? Further can I request someone to share their experience like who could do 2-3 chin ups and gradually increased the repetitions after using assisted chin up machines or bands. That would be awesomely enriching in terms of experience sharing...

[supmannn]

I have also heard of bands which can act as a replacement for assisted chin ups...Do they help? Further can I request someone to share their experience like who could do 2-3 chin ups and gradually increased the repetitions after using assisted chin up machines or bands. That would be awesomely enriching in terms of experience sharing...

I sucked pretty bad at chin ups, only 2-4 at a time. One to two times a week, I'd pick a day and just do a crapload of chins throughout the day, gradually increasing as the weeks went on. It worked.

[dipenchatterjee]

One more thing I wanted to understand that whether the chest should touch the bar? Because how hard I cannot make the chest touch the bar...suggestions please

[Tyciol]

It doesn't have to, you're not obligated to go all the way and do a chest-up, but it is fun to do. Usually you have to arch back a bit to do this while still having vertical forearms. It isn't something you have to stress over early on though, if you're still trying to get 2 or 3 reps, touching your neck or chin or whatever to some point on the bar can be enough.

[Celtika]

I don't quite agree with doing one-rep with a minute in-between, but i do agree with your principal...why?

Apart from the logic of 50 chin-ups taking an hour to complete, amateurs have a tendency to 'cheat' on the first rep by just jumping up most of the way to the bar, which defeats the point of the exercise.

What i would do to improve it, is try and up the amount to 3 reps between rests, in a nice and controlled manner. This means even if they do cheat on the first rep, once they lower themselves back down, all they have is their good friend gravity!!

When i began doing chin-ups, i could barely do 1-2, what i found worked for ME, was doing different pull-up variations, as such:

Reverse-grip chin ups - max reps
(mess around doing other stuff for 5 mins)
Closed-hand overhand chip ups - max reps
(mess around doing other stuff)
Wide-grip chin ups - Max reps
(mess around doing other stuff)

Eventually i found my muscles begin to slowly develop, and the amount i could do SLOWLY increased over time. This was only a month ago that i could barely do 1-2, but now i can pretty confidently bust out 10, which is a huge milestone for me.

Also, i bought a pull-up bar for the house (without perm fixings so i can remove it if i need to) and hung it up on my kitchen doorframe, so whenever i go to grab a drink or something, i just try and bust out as many as i can.

Hope i was some help!

~Celtika~

[16lean]

Some excellent advice in this thread, really need to improve my chins as their embarrassingly bad, will be trying the chair method to assist myself

[Christaras9]

Practise makes perfect.
DO something else : completely hang from the bar,try to do 2 chinups.If you fail halfway there,put a chair below the bar.Get on it,grab the chin bar and slowly lower yourself.Do it again and again,with slow,controlled reps.
Build your way to 3-4 reps.I'm currently capable of doing 3 perfect chin ups(underhand grip,shoulders width)so I do sets of 3x4(I mean I do three chinups,wait 5secs and continue until I've done 12,then wait 2 minutes and go again) when I have chin ups in my workout.
Work on doing more and more!I was only able to do 1 kipping chin up in August and there are people that have done 4 times my progress in that time

[dipenchatterjee]

@Tyciol, Many thanks for your reply. It is indeed a relief

[dipenchatterjee]

@Christaras...Would appreciate if you can provide a link to a video for understanding purposes.

[dipenchatterjee]

Trust me 16lean, these guys have given fabulous tips, which are very realistic

[GeneralSerpant]

There's plenty of room between your max chin-ups, and performing a single in this case. If your max was 2 or 3, then adding another rep would send you over the hill, but as of now, you could very well just work on doing half of your max for a much shorter amount of sets than 50.

[Farley1324]

Dear Friends

First of all let me confess that I am very poor in Chin Ups. To develop on that particular exercise, I have developed a strategy which I would like to share for your comments and suggestions.
1. 1 rep of Chin Up X 50 (with gaps of 1 minute, since I can perform only one at a time and if i do not take the said amount of recovery period, the next repetition fails) - Regularly
2. Bent Over Back Rows (5 sets of 15,12,10,8,6) - Alternate Days to develop strength in the upper back and some to lower back
3. Heavy Weight Uprightrows (3 sets of 10,8,6) - To develop the strength in the muscle region between the scapula, which I think contributes a lot to the pulling up.

I once more request for your suggestions.
Regards
DC

Fix your avatar or negs

[ygbodybuilder10]

i have a question

Am I the only the does chin ups as a bicep movement only?

[NZninja101]

i have a question

Am I the only the does chin ups as a bicep movement only?

Probably because you can lift your own bodyweight without using your lats lol. Also saw a thread about you in the Misc a few hours ago saying you're not a pro, (as in you don't compete) and should compete. Y u no compete?

OT: OP as it's been said, I'm sure the 50 pull ups program will work fine.

[JasonDB]

Long time gym-goer here, first time poster.

I have found a lot of benefit to doing pull-ups and chin-ups every single day.

If you can only do one, finding a way to build you to doing more than one is (obviously) key to you improving your chin up. I must suggest assisted chin ups to ensure perfect technique and full range of motion.

It's also a body weight resistance exercise, which means that you can find a good way to do it at home. If you have a pull-up bar in a doorway, and a chair from the kitchen, you can virtually assist yourself. It works better for a human being to help you, but you won't always have that option. Start on the chin up bar with arms fully extended, and your legs bent 90 degrees, with your toes on the chair. Use your toes to assist yourself to doing a good set of pull ups instead of only doing 1 at a time. Full range of motion is key, because if you can only do one *mediocre* chin up, it will take you a very long time to do a solid, full range chin-up.

50 chin ups one minute apart is a hard workout to swallow, IMO, but I would find a way to make assisted chin ups work until you can do multiple full range chin ups.

I have a policy. Pull ups and push ups are OK to do every day (others may well disagree). Every single time I walk by my pull-up bar, I do half of my max. On a great day I can do around 25, so I do 12 chin ups every single time I walk past the bar. I change it up and do palms-facing and palms-away pull ups too, pretty frequently, but the principle is the same. Once you can do more than 1, you can use a technique like this (or any other of the millions of chin-up and pull-up centered work outs that you could imagine) to improve from there.

So, to recap, +1 on the assisted pull up machine, I support human-assisted pull ups if you don't have access, and using a chair if you really don't have access to any of that, to assist yourself.

Good luck, brother.

Why are only those movements ok to do every day? Entirely too much nonsense is spouted among bodybuilding circles that there are negative effects from performing a lift too frequently. In every other sport it is understood that doing it more often improves performance, even power movements. You will never see an Olympic lifter who only does their competition lifts once or twice a week, or a pitcher who takes 6 or 7 days between throwing a ball again. There is no scientific evidence that full recovery of a muscle is a factor in muscle tissue growth... and increased protein synthesis in a muscle as a result of training it is actually quite short-lived... all the research I have seen over the years suggests anywhere from 28-48 hours after training a muscle increased protein synthesis returns to baseline.

[ygbodybuilder10]

Probably because you can lift your own bodyweight without using your lats lol. Also saw a thread about you in the Misc a few hours ago saying you're not a pro, (as in you don't compete) and should compete. Y u no compete?

OT: OP as it's been said, I'm sure the 50 pull ups program will work fine.

i'm going to compete just not right now, i feel as thou i want to put on more size

[JasonDB]

i have a question

Am I the only the does chin ups as a bicep movement only?

In my own experience weighted chins use the bicep as a primary mover and are solid for adding mass to them.