I've never met a person that wouldn't benefit from being stronger.
The athletes I've worked with would be faster and more agile from being stronger. The fitness competitors would be able to do their routines with less effort, or challenge themselves to even more daring moves. Moms and dads would be able to lift the groceries and children with greater ease and less risk of injury from lifting in awkward positions.
And people looking to lose fat would have better results if they were stronger. That's right, strength training will only help your fat loss, and never hinder it.
We could talk about strength training all day long, but let's focus on Chin-ups.
So here's a 3-step progression for chin-ups.
i) Kneeling Reverse-grip Pulldowns
Yes, start with pulldowns. Keep your body upright. Abs braced. Use an underhand grip and pull the bar to your chest.
ii) Assisted Smith Machine Chin-ups
Set the smith machine bar at the top height. Grab it with an underhand grip. Keep your feet on the ground and bend your knees so that you squat down until your arms are at full extension (essentially you'll be crouching).
At this point, you'll pull with all your strength to pull your chest to the bar. Use your legs to push up as needed. Try not to use them too much. But it gives you all the force you need to do these "assisted chinups".
iii) Eccentric Chinups
Whatever set up you use, be careful, okay? Get a boost up to the top position of a chinup. Slowly lower yourself to the full extension position, taking 5 seconds to do so. Do 3 repetitions. Do 1 set in the first workout. In the next 2 workouts, add 1 set so you work up to 3 sets of 3 reps.
In addition, in each workout, add 1 more second to each repetition until you are finally lowering your body under control for 10 seconds.
By this point, you should be able to complete a full chinup, from a dead hang, pulling your body up to the bar.
(you can use the same progression for overhand grip pullups as well - but they are a harder exercise)
Want to see a picture of the assisted chin-up? I've put one in the January 2007 TT Fat Loss workout, which all TT Members can download HERE
Good luck with your chin-ups.
You can do it!
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