12 Weeks Until Your First Chin Up!
12 Weeks Until Your First Chin Up!
The Ultimate Back Builder
Chin ups are one of the best indicators of fitness and strength-to-bodyweight ratio. Navy SEALs regularly perform chin ups as part of their fitness tests. Gymnasts perform chin ups and its variations on a daily basis, and they boast some of the most impressive back development among athletes!While the chin up is often regarded as an upper back exercise (latissimus dorsi and biceps to be exact), it actually involves many more muscles in the body. Your abdominal muscles and glutes will all play a role in lifting your chin over that bar, so the chin up should really be seen as a total body exercise.
Pull-ups vs Chin-ups
The difference between a chin up and a pull up is your grip. The pull up uses an overhand (pronated) grip while the chin up mainly uses a neutral or underhand (supinated grip). The pull up tends to work the brachialis and brachioradialis (muscles around the forearm) while the chin up works all the muscles around the biceps fairly equally.
If you can’t do a chin-up yet, it’s really worth having a go at training for it. It will renew your confidence in the gym, give you a goal to work toward and improve your strength through your whole upper body and core. This article will detail an excellent program to get your first chin-up within 12 weeks!
The Exercises
First, let’s have a look at the exercises. Before you can effectively perform a full-body weight chin up, you’ll need to start off with easier variations of the chin up. As you get stronger, you’ll be able to progress the exercises. When you reach a certain level of proficiency, through consistent practice, you’ll be able to perform chin-ups all by yourself! Let’s begin with the easiest variations:
Exercise #1: Ring Rows
-Set the rings at around waist height. (If you don’t have rings, you can use a bar on a rack)
-Take a wider than shoulder-width grip on the bar and hang underneath the rings with your feet positioned in front of you and your legs straight.
-Using your arms, pull your chest to the bar. -Hold for a 1-2 second count at the top of the movement and squeeze your back (imagine pinching a pencil between your shoulder blades) -Lower yourself down slowly, until your arms are straight and repeat.
Exercise #2: Scap Pulls
-Hang from a pull-up bar -Keeping your arms straight, try and lift yourself. -Think about pulling your shoulder blades down toward your back pockets. This is called scapula depression. -Hold at the top for a 3-4 second count, and lower yourself down. Repeat. -This is a great exercise for improving the lower portion of the lift where most people are weak.
Exercise #3: Eccentric chin ups
-Find a box or a bench that is high enough for you to get your chest to the bar. -Keeping your scapula depressed, hang from the bar and slowly lower yourself down. -Lower yourself down in 5-10 seconds. -Repeat until you can no longer make the required time
Exercise #4: Banded chin ups
-Find a resistance band and hook it to the pull-up bar. -Place a foot or knee in the band. -Keep your glutes squeezed, and abs braced while pulling your chest to the bar. -Come back down in three to four seconds and repeat.
The Workouts
Each will consist of one variation of the pull-up. These can be performed up to three times a week with at least a day of rest between each workout as these workouts may leave your biceps and lats very sore in the beginning!Weeks 1-4
1.Eccentric chin ups – 5 sets of 5-second eccentric reps, performed for as many reps as possible until you can no longer lower yourself down in 5 seconds. Rest 90-120 seconds between sets.
2. Scapula pulls – 3 sets of 6-10 reps with a 2-second pause on each rep. Rest 60-90 seconds between sets.
3.Ring rows – 3 sets of 8-10 reps. Rest 60-90 seconds between sets.
Weeks 5-8
1.Eccentric chin ups – 5 sets of 7-second eccentric reps, performed for as many reps as possible until you can no longer lower yourself down in 10 seconds. Rest 90-120 seconds between sets.
2.Banded chin ups – 3 sets of 6-10 reps. Rest
3. Scapulls – 3 sets of 8-10 reps. Rest 60-90 seconds between sets.
Weeks 9-12
1. Eccentric chin ups – 5 sets of 10-second eccentric reps, performed for as many reps as possible until you can no longer lower yourself down in 10 seconds. Rest 90-120 seconds between sets.
2. Banded chin ups (using a thinner band) – 3 sets of 4-6 reps. Rest 60-90 seconds between sets.
3. Scapula pulls – 3 sets of as many reps as possible! Rest 60-90 seconds between sets.
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