How to Improve Your Chin Ups

December 1, 2009

Franco+Columbo How to Improve Your Chin Ups The last post I wrote about how to improve your chin ups detailed how to get from zero to one. Once you get to one you will, in time, work your way up to sets of five or even ten reps. But again, you will hit a wall at some point and be unable to make any more improvements. So today I am going to offer a very easy, completely unscientific method that will help you add more reps to your chins.

One of the major problems is that for most average guys a set of chins is a five rep max. Therefore it is true CNS draining Max Effort work. And they repeatedly do this time after time, workout after workout. There is no other exercise that you would continually max out on and take to near death failure like you do with chin ups. You would know better than to do that with squats and deads. But everyone is fine with doing it on chins. And I truly believe that to be one of the major reasons why more people don’t improve on their chins with any regularity.

The other problem is that there isn’t enough variety in the rep ranges and when you continually do those five rep max sets you are never doing anything to improve your endurance in that movement pattern. To get better on the 225 pound bench test you would do things like strap pushups, ascending board presses or pushups, high rep dumbbell presses, etc. on one day to build your endurance and some heavy pressing on another day to build your strength. But most people don’t take this approach with their chins; they only work on the lower end of the rep scale trying to improve strength, but do nothing to improve endurance. And obviously this doesn’t always work too well.

So the simple solution is to throw in more high rep work; which would again involve the use of the bands. The bands got you from zero chins to one and now they can help get you from your current plateau up to a new PR.

Exactly how, you ask…

Any way you want. Simply using more variety will be enough to do the trick and help you break out of a rut. Some workouts you can use the light band, some workouts you can use the mini bands, some you can use the average bands, some you can do with bodyweight, and some you can do weighted. Just mix it up each program and keep getting stronger on each variety of chins you do.

But remember not to go to failure and let your form break down. Again, most people are smart enough not to let their squat turn into a good morning, but everyone is ok with climbing up the invisible ladder, swinging, rest-pausing, severely protracting their shoulders and doing whatever else they can to make their final reps on chin ups look as ugly as possible. Don’t do this if you want to get stronger.

Below is a video from this past summer that we shot at Renegade Gym of Jen doing chin ups. She bangs out 13 picture perfect reps with no band. That’s something that most guys can’t do. In the video in the previous post about how to improve your chin ups she did 15 WITH the band. That was less than eight months earlier. The way she made such dramatic improvements was through variety and building up her endurance in that movement pattern with higher reps sets. She always did a variety of different grips and we varied her reps from 3-20. Some months she did chins twice per week (one day heavy, one day light), others only once. This is another way to boost your chins. Hit them 2-5 times per week for a month and then cut back to only once per week for the next month. The supercompensation effect from the reduced loading will often lead to improved performance in the second month.

Waving the reps up and down is more effective than just trying to make linear improvements; which only beginners can do. While a linear approach of starting with strong or average bands and working down to no bands worked well in the past, it won’t work so well now that you can do eight reps or so. You need to use a form of undulating or alternating periodization to get the best results.

But again, remember that you need to improve your strength endurance in that movement pattern. Having the arms extended overhead (as in a military press) makes it more difficult to breath. You need to get used to that. So even throwing in an exercise like the monkey bar climb, seen below, can be helpful as well.

Hopefully that gives you some good ideas about how to improve your chin ups and you’ll be setting some new PR’s real soon.

Please leave your comments below.

Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Muscle Building, Strength & Conditioning, Videos | 23 Comments

Power Wheel Pushup

July 10, 2009

This is a great exercise that works the upper body pushing muscles as well as the abs and lower back, which have to contract forcefully throughout the movement. We use this as an upper body finisher or rep challenge exercise. The key points to look for are a full range of motion and no sagging of the hips or collapse of the lower back… which of course, sometimes goes out the window in the heat of competition. But do your best.

What I love about this exercise is that it requires more athleticism than a regular pushup so it serves multiple purposes.

You can get your Power Wheel HERE. It’s a great piece of equipment that I can’t recommend highly enough. And nothing works your abs any harder.

Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Fat Loss, Muscle Building, Strength & Conditioning, Videos | 6 Comments

TRX Exercises

May 1, 2009

Today I’m going to show you a few cool exercises you can do with the TRX Straps. Everyone knows by now that I am a huge fan of heavy, traditional exercises like squats and deadlifts, but for years I have always preached the value of bodyweight exercises and moving your body through space. This elicits a higher level of neuromuscular activation and helps you build muscle and develop strength faster. Most of my workouts include some kind of big heavy barbell or dumbbell lift and a bodyweight exercise (or two, or three), often done with the TRX Straps.

TRX Exercise #1: Bicep Curls

TRX Exercise #2: Triceps Extensions

TRX Exercise #3: Inverted Rows

TRX Exercise #4: Low Ab Pull In’s

Get your TRX Straps today and take your training to the next level.

http://www.TrxStraps.com/

Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Muscle Building, Videos | 20 Comments

Bear Crawls

April 22, 2009

Bear crawls aka bear walks are an awesome strength and conditioning exercise but are commonly performed incorrectly. This is the proper way to do bear walks. The common mistake is to keep your butt up high in the air and allow your lower back to round. This can be problematic for people with glass backs and should be avoided. Performing them as demonstrated is a great total body exercise that really works the core musculature and the stabilizer muscles of the shoulder. This is way better than external rotations and other such isolation movements.

This exercise is way harder than it looks when done properly. Try to work up to 50-100 yard sets and increase your speed only if form is perfect.

For more great training tips visit http://www.MuscleGainingSecrets.com/

Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Strength & Conditioning, Videos | 15 Comments

How to Improve on Chin Ups

April 5, 2009

Today we are going to discuss how to improve on chin ups. Chin ups are one of the best overall muscle and strength building exercises around. The problem is that many beginners can’t do a single rep and many intermediate trainees can not seem to progress on them no matter what they do. One very simple solution is to get a JumpStretch rubber band and loop it around the bar to assist you, as shown in the accompanying video. Start with a strong enough band that allows you to do 5 reps. When you get up to 10-12 reps switch to a lighter band and start over again at 5 reps. Repeat this process with one or two more bands until you are strong enough to do them on your own.

Since the video will explain it more clearly than words ever could, watch below to learn exactly how to improve on chin ups.

For more great muscle building information please visit http://www.MuscleGainingSecrets.com/ now.

Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Muscle Building, Strength & Conditioning, Videos | 28 Comments

Battling Ropes of Death

April 1, 2009

Great workout tonight. Did some rowing, squatting, shrugging, etc. and finished with the battling ropes of death. I have gained back about 20 of the 48lbs that I lost and am feeling pretty good. The shoulder is coming along and I am happy at this weight. Gaining another 30 pounds on top of this is probably something that I won’t be doing. I’ll see how I feel as I progress but I feel very good being lighter. My natural adult weight is only about 165 at an even six feet tall and my wrists are only slightly bigger than six and a half inches. Carrying an extra 65 pounds around for all those years probably led to some additional wear and tear on my body and would continue to do so if I gained it all back. We’ll see what happens…

Anyway, here is a clip of the battling ropes from tonight. And also the aftermath.

And the aftermath… Unfortunately we didn’t capture the main blast on film, but the end was still entertaining.

Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Fat Loss, Strength & Conditioning, Videos | 5 Comments

Renegade Gym- Watchung, New Jersey

March 31, 2009

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Prowler Rows

March 25, 2009

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No Excuses

August 27, 2008

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Hardcore Conditioning

April 9, 2008

If you want to really bring up your conditioning and lose body-fat you need to get your ass off the stair stepper and treadmill and start moving. Sprints, Prowler pushes, jumping rope, sled drags, sandbag work, sledgehammer swings and bodyweight exercises are far more effective than any “cardio” machine could ever be.

A great exercise to really bring up your conditioning rapidly is the burpee/chin up combo. You perform a burpee and then at the top of each rep you jump up into a chin up. The higher the chin up bar, the better. Try performing a few sets of this at the end of your strength workout or as part of a conditioning circuit mixed in with some mountain climbers, grasshoppers, slalom jumps and jump rope sprints.

One note to be aware of when performing a regular burpee or burpee/chin up combo is that you don’t want your hips to sag when you are in the bottom with your legs fully extended. This puts undue stress on your lower back and can lead to injury.

Give these a try today and let me know how they work out for you.

And, for more incredible conditioning methods, don’t forget that Fit to Fight comes out tomorrow.

Unfortunately the tape ran out before he puked after rep number 21.

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