How to Work on One Chin-Up
If one or more chin – ups is one of your goals in life, you’re in luck. Here’s a game plan you can follow, even if all you can do is hang out like a bag of meat.
While it’s true that your upper body needs to be strong, pull-ups actually involve your entire body. You need to maintain tension throughout, including in your abs and legs, so you don’t wobble or stray from your pull-up path. This pull-up program from Jennifer Blake and Jen Sinclair talks about what you could do right now to see improvements in just two weeks. We’ve written extensively about how to help you train your pull-ups , but this program is pretty simple to do and includes exercises that we haven’t talked about before .
This program is aimed at eliminating common shortcomings that most of us had at the beginning of the journey. These include: learning to contract the correct muscles when pulling up, being able to create tension throughout your body (so you don’t swing too much), building up the actual pull-up movement, and increasing overall strength in the upper body. … You will most likely not go from scratch to a pull-up hero in two weeks, but Blake and Sinclair point out the importance of setting baselines by writing:
Take the timer and head to the bar. Can you dangle from the bar with a top-down grip. Great! You can make a complete hang. Can you do the same by keeping your shoulder blades in your back pockets and tightening your abs? Awesome, you can hang with a hollow body! How about keeping your chin over the bar, bending your elbows and tightening your abs? Sweetheart, you have your bent arms hanging. The point is to check what you can do right now so that when you check again you can see what has changed.
Do the suggested exercises two to three times a week and check yourself again after two weeks to measure progress. Don’t be discouraged if you can’t do a full pull-up after two weeks. It takes time, and progress in any form is exciting!
If you’re like me and want to pull up more , increase your vertical rows and upper body strength. In fact, Lifehacker push-up extraordinary Beth Squarecky will try this program herself in her constant quest to do one to two (or more) pull-ups. If you would like to join her, click on the link below for more details.
Do Better: Your Way to Bodyweight Pull-Up | Flawlessly powerful