How To Do A Chin Up

Rob King 11.08.2010 Muscle Building, Training, Weight Lifting 17

0 Likes

One question that I get asked an awful lot by people is how to do a chin up. One of the most basic, yet essential exercises you can ever do! Chin Ups & Pull Ups RULE!

Here is the thing, most people avoid doing them like the plaque because they are hard, really hard, and well, it’s so much easier to just sit down and do pull downs. I mean 190lb pull down is the same as me doing a chin up since I weigh 190lb right?

WRONG…VERY WRONG.

Lets be clear here, Chin ups & Pull Ups are FAR SUPERIOR exercises than any variation of pull downs. Not to say pull downs don’t have their place, they do, but for the most part chins are better, way better.

My guess is that you may have tried to do a chin or two, couldn’t do it, gave up on it, and went to the lat pull down machine. Well I am going to share with you 3 tips that drastically helped me with my chin ups & pull ups.

I can now usually get 20-25 chins any day. I have 2 turn biceps (one bicep sugery for a complete tendon rupture), and the other a partial tendon tear. If i can do 25 chin ups, YOU can do them as well! At my best I did 30 chin ups and 2 reps with 100 lbs strapped to my waist.

Here is the first video tip of 3 that will really aid you in getting a chin up or getting many chin ups!

Any questions PLEASE POST EM UP! I Look forward to hearing from you.

Check Out My Other Posts

Comments

comments

mike

LOVE chins and pull-ups! Another great post, Rob!
Gregory

Thanks, it’s real informative, I will give it a try immediately.
brandon hamilton

ur traps look huge rob
Rob King

Thanks Brandon, nice to be lifting weights steady again.
TC

Hey Rob
I’m like you weigh in at about 190 lbs and I could do 20 pull ups anytime. I agreed with ya that pull ups/chins up are far more superior than any variations of pull down. I train this dude who is my personal training client with a lot of negative pull-ups like the one you shown in your videos and his muscular development of his back I thought was pretty good. You can have a look at this link: http://www.tcpersonaltraining.com/blog/2010/08/11/client-of-the-month-july-sal-jumat-gains-8-3kg-of-muscles/
TC

BTW Rob, I’ve been using your “Build a Bigger Bench Press” ebook and seeing some breakthrough in my bench press which I haven’t seen in years.
ray

how can i geg past this tendenitous(not spelled correct)????
Riaz

Rob please post your videos on youtube. This vimeo is shit & slow. Thanks.
Jay Park

Oh yeah I do this, but now I’m going to do it everyday.
Dustin Shaff

Hey Rob,
Pullups/Chinups should be in everyone’s workout and never leaves mine. I like to change up grips but I’ve been having a nagging shoulder injury that prevents full extension anytime I grip the bar overhand. The way I figure it I’ve got a rotator cuff issue. But for one reason or another it’s just not going away. Any suggestions?
Rob King

Hey Dustin

Dont go all the way down, if it bothers you avoid it.

palms facing you and palms facing each other should take away a bit of the strain on the rotators. palms facing away with full extension can be a little harder on the shoulders for sure.

I find palms facing grip to be the easiest generally on the “wear” on my body/joints/etc. I change grips a lot, but i avoid the full stretch at the bottom unless its the final rep.

Hope this helps!
Rob King

TC nice hearing from ya and thanks a ton man!

Tendonitis sucks bad. I have had it sooo many times.

Ice post workout big time, get some deep tissue work on the area and get some aleve.

ill do a blog post on it soon, writing it down now!
Karlus Good

You hit the nail on the head brother,it seems as if evereyone has forgotten the old school basics.Pullupsof all types weighted and no weight,Deadlifts,BB Rows,Back extensions and Good Mornings are all Ive ever used in my back worckouts,,,,,, primarily the pullups and deadlifts.
Rob King

Karlus buddy you got it!!

Thanks for posting man!
ryan sparkes

Hey Rob, coming from a rehab guy here it IS NOT a good idea to let your shoulders completely relax while doing any form of chin up, especially if you are a heavy person and have weak scapular stabilizers as most people do. This can cause undo strain on any of the shoulder girdle musculature especially if there is a “weak link” in the chain. So do your scapular exercises! Perhaps rob you could post a video of some good ones ( Y T W exercises lying on the Swiss Ball using no weight up to 3 – 5lbs with various thumbs up/down positions to hit rhomboids, lower traps, middle traps, etc ). Very useful.
Rob King

Agreed fully. Not a fun of letting the shoulders go, i meant more that you stretch the LATS. I never like to fully extend on any chin or pull up variation.

I always have my clients perform scapula wall slides, Y. T’s etc. Great exercises and I will do a blog post on it for sure!

Those are great exercises Ryan and really impt espicially considering most people lifting weights always train too much “bench” stuff and never enough for the smaller muscles, which will bite you in the ass sooner or later.

Thanks for your feedback Ryan.
James

this blog gave me some very encouraging info thank you very much Rob!