Pull ups/chin up

Your regime will be set by your ability.

Rather than maxing out every set, you can also get good results by doing sub maximal sets, which enables more of them so you achieve more volume of reps per workout.

Narrow grip will be easiest with more bicep recruitment, wide grip harder with more lat/trap recruitment.

Pull up to your clavicles, not your chin.

Maintain tension at all times.

Lower down slowly (eccentric) and don't lock out the elbows.

Keep some money in your back pocket for when the door frame falls apart

… preferably in coins to add to the weight you’re pulling

I do/did have been up to double figures of reps and 4/5 sets as part of circuit training but it takes time and right now I’m too fat so about 5 on first set and rapidly depleting thereafter. Good way to start is just lowering yourself 5 reps of various grips pulls and chins and holding at the bar for a count

Oh and you know that total knobber doing sets on the climbing frame in the park? That’ll be you

Yep, they're hard - for a cyclist! I was a bit slack with them over December as riding more often, so lost some strength pretty quickly.

I got up to doing sets of 10 during the summer when more dedicated to it (the last couple of reps were pretty ugly mind you!)

Although I could do both chin-ups and pull-ups, I prefer chins, I just like the feeling of arms getting involved, feel like I'm getting more bang for my buck. But still do pull-ups to make sure I don't lose it.

I can do around 6 now, so want to progress back up to 10 by spring.

I'll try do pull/chins 3 times a week roughly, 4 sets of 6 reps currently. For strengh work I do a push/pull split. But only really get time to do strengh 2 or maybe 3 times a week as riding is my priority. So to get 3 x a week I top up using the pull-up bars in my local outdoor gym thing when walking by on my lunch break.

Oh and you know that total knobber doing sets on the climbing frame in the park? That’ll be you

Yep! 😂

One thing that helped me. I started with a resistance band until I could do 10, then chucked the band and could do 4 un-aided, progressed slowly from there.

Another thing, contract your abs! Well really, you use your whole body, but really tighten the core and it make a massive difference.

I was thinking of doing something like this and ended up doing pushups instead.

Guess I was a typical cyclist with relatively weedly arms.

I started off seeing how many pushups I could do in 10 mins with a min rep of 5 at a time.  Think I managed about 50-60 or so and then progressed to 5 pushups every 30 seconds for 10 mins, then 6 pushups every 36s and so on - aiming for around 100 in 10 mins each time.

I'm now close to doing 10 pushups every 60 seconds for 10 mins.  I just plan to keep increasing the min number of reps until I can do 100 in one go.  Might take a lifetime to get there but I'm consistently moving in the right direction.  Max reps in 1 go at the moment is about 40 (was 13 back in Novermber).

Obviously not pull up related but gives you an idea of how I progressed my plan.  I'd probably do something similar if I started doing pull ups but obviously less reps.

I need to try again but I keep forgetting what the form is supposed to be, almost fully straight arms but not locked?

Was doing lat pull downs as a sort of gentle introduction but was doing them wrong as my forearms were giving out before my lats even got warm, so changing grip, reducing weight and doing some forearm exercises on the side 😂

More than you need but the Crimpd climbing training app has lots of pull up stuff. It's free if you just want to do the exercises and use the timer or you can pay a subscription and get a progressive pull up strength programme.

Be hard to start with, in which case slow your your descents to make use of the extra time on the muscles

also, don't right off leg raises etc from hanging

thing that got me about the door frame jobbie isa its so bloody low and having to keep your legs out of the way all the time put me off...also, if it comes off the frame for any reason, your legs could well be folded up out of the way :S

I'd second the idea of a resistance band handing over the bar, to essentially 'remove' the weight of the band (i.e a 35kg bad makes you feel 35kg lighter..ish!).

This allows you to get a good technique, and build on that.

A few years ago I started with this setup doing sets of 10 pullups followed by squats...pressups..etc., then progressed to using the band for the last few pull ups of each set..to not using the band..to wearing a 5kg weight vest.<br />Those were the buff-ting days!!

DrP

Take it from me. Just make sure the band is well placed under mid-foot so it can't slip out when it's fully stretched and give your arse a mighty slap! Wooohaa! 😫

15 years ago I could do about 6 pull-ups and got a pull-up bar with the aim of building up to 20 and achieving a lifetime goal of a muscle-up.

I can now do about 2 pull-ups.

Almost everything I came here to post has already been posted by Qwerty.

Theres something about exercises hanging from a bar that appeals to me. They shouldn't, as I'm fat, but they do.

Don't think about your arms, think about your shoulder blades. Doing sets of scapular retractions hanging from the bar can be good initially. Where I differ from Qwerty is that I go from a dead hang with straight arms and return there (slowly!). So that scapular retraction is the start of the movement and is what gets me moving.

The sub-maximal reps is such good advice. I aim for 30 reps total, in however many sets it takes to get there. Usually sets of 3 to 5, but the point is not to exhaust yourself so that you start grinding out crap reps, so if I need to drop down to single reps I will. Every month or so I'll test to see what my 1 set max number of reps is, and it always goes better when I've been working below my max rep threshhold.

For pullups (palms facing away) try a false grip (thumb over the bar, with the rest of your fingers)

Buy chalk.

Can do about 3 chin ups at the moment. Weirdly even when I was at my strongest and fittest a while back I could barely do about 8 without having to jump and do negatives for the rest of the set.

When you can do a few, work up to these. Your core will know about that. I can do a set of 10, but only when I'm lean and have been training for a few weeks

Not really as my son pointed out that I did 3 last year... But have done lots before but use the juggy part of a fingerboard instead of a bar. Yeah, as above, keep good form and don't drop on the way down. Use a band to take weight off to get started, then progress from there. Son now adds 20kgs or so to his now... via a belt with a chain to thread weight plates through.

And the obvious, make sure it's really secure. There have been some bad injuries with doorway bars failing.

Anyway, once I have cleared my impinged shoulder injury I will be back on them.

Was listening to someone saying if all you can do is three or four, do those, have a rest then do three or four more. Don't get disheartened if you can't smash out 20 straight off. You'll take a while to get to Goggins' level!

I can't do any. Beer and cheese have wrecked my strength to weight ratio

Just out of interest, what does everyone count as a 'proper' pull up?

I recently decided to start from scratch and only count chest to bar as a full rep (slight pause at the top).  It's been a humbling experience as I quickly discovered I can do a grand total of 0 pull ups.

Currently working on building up some volume on the lat pull down machine before I go anywhere near a bar again.

Just out of interest, what does everyone count as a ‘proper’ pull up?

I can't do anything other than just hang there at the bottom, so you're probably doing better than me

I do a poorly-executed prison style bodyweight workout in my extension twice a week, so a doorway pull-up bar is on my list.

Serious question though- they are actually OK to use in a proper, standard wooden doorframe...right?

and only count chest to bar as a full rep

Most people count getting your chin over the bar as success! But I'll give one of these a go - sounds like it's halfway towards a muscle-up

When I was doing them regularly I could do 12-15 depending how on form I was that day. Then I went down to just once a week and could only manage 10-12. Nowadays at 55yrs old and doing them only once in while I can just about manage 7 or 8. Thats forward grip chin-ups, reverse grip chin up are a bit easier, haven't done any of those for years. 

I've got some gymnastics rings hanging from the rafters in my garage I use for pullups, they're a bit kinder on your elbows than a standard bar.<br /><br />I can do 9 with good form and then a ropey one. No matter how much I work on them (and I have tried quite hard in the past) I've never got above 13-14 chin-ups on a bar.

my main advice for pullups would be to actually do them, they're a great exercise in whatever form.

Serious question though- they are actually OK to use in a proper, standard wooden doorframe…right?

Ours lasted okay. Solid victorian house doorways, used by a pretty solid over 6'2" 13 stone millennial son who was working as a roofer at the time. Took it with him when he moved out. Doorway seems okay.

I do pullups on an old metollius fingerboard mounted over a doorway, wide grip with hands over the top jugs, pull up top of chest on the board chin over, set of 15 which is getting not easiser passing 60 then sets of eight with a 15kg weight. Which are getting more like sets of six... And last couple of weeks more like 10kg. Then assisted single arm stuff.

It's always been my strongest exercise. Used to be able to more or less do a really shite one armer and could lock off okay pretty solidly on both arms. Before I gave myself golfers elbow and basically stopped climbing...

Serious question though- they are actually OK to use in a proper, standard wooden doorframe…right?

Mine is the expanding/threaded type bar which has little ~10mm plastic buttons which you screw in to the doorframe with a normal wood screw.

I didn't have to tighten the bar very much before it split the side of the door frame away from the top slightly (nothing a bit of paint wouldn't cover, am now wondering about structural implications though 😬). Other than that it seemed to hold my 90kg weight OK (and my 6 year olds 25kg weight + wriggling) but I wasn't actually doing pull ups, just dead-hanging, so there wasn't any jerking on the bar.

Underhand about 10 last night, overhand about 5. Long way short of my younger self, but more interested in form. Weighting 95 kilos I wouldn't do it at home.

I fitted a proper one to the outside of the house, just outside the kitchen door. My first barrier to training is making bit as easy as possible so didn't want to be taking one up and down.

It's bloody slow progress though at 53...

Depends how fit you are, IME they're a bit of a pass fail test rather than an exercise in their own right. A bit like being able to do a push up (or a set).

I used to be able to do do 10+ reps with a wide overhand grip. Never trained for it, just tried it on the bar at a friend's house.

Now I can't do any.

There's loads of guides online going through hangs, scapula retractions, reverse, underhand, using bands, etc. In reality the biggest/quickest progression would simply be lose a few stone.

Another thing, contract your abs! Well really, you use your whole body, but really tighten the core and it make a massive difference.

+1

The initial movement getting out of the hang is basicly the same as setting up for a deadlift. Engage your lats (bend the bar), scapulas go back and down, then imagine pulling the bar down to the front of your pelvis which should engage your core.

You want to pull your body up straight, not bend your back which makes the last bit more like pulling the bar towards you rather than it moving down your chest.

If you find pull ups too difficult lower the bar to around waist height to do body weight rows, they're a beginner progression to pull ups, and/or do them after your pull ups.

I use to be able to do around 20 pull ups. I’m literally on my way to buy a bar tonight. I reckon I’ll be lucky to do 2 nowadays..

for those worried about the bar giving way in the doorway, or threads pushing out into the wood and marking it, ive had a 'powerbar 2' for years and its been spot on.

the weight transfers into the wall rather than downwards.  (picture is NOT me btw)

You'll be like this guy in no time:

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