Weight Training
• Introduction To Weight Training
• How to Put on Muscle
• The Weight Training Diet
• Example Weight Training Diet
• Weight Training Exercises
• Working Out at Home
• Weight Training Myths
• Vitamins and Supplements
• Protein Supplements
• Progressive Overload
• Best Foods To Build Muscle
• Alcohol and Weightlifting
• Build Muscle and Burn Fat
• How Often Should I Workout?
• Overtraining
• Pre Workout Meal
• Post Workout Meal
• Weight Training Plateaus
• Clean Bulking
• Dirty Bulking
• Pull ups and Chin Ups
• How to Increase Your Bench
• What to Eat Before Bed
• How to Build Muscle
• Losing Muscle From Time Off?
Weight Loss
• Starting A Diet
• How To Lose Weight
• The Basics Of Weight Loss
• Common Weight Loss Myths
• Losing Weight Quickly
• How to Control Hunger
• Im Not Losing Weight?
• How to Lose Stomach Fat
• How to Stop Food Cravings
• How to Get a Six Pack
• What is a Keto Diet
Cardio Training
• What Is Cardio
• Different Types Of cardio
• The Best Type Of Cardio
• The Maximum Heart Rate
• Fitness Equipment
• Fitness Accessories
• The Elliptical Machine
• Benefits Of Jumping Rope
• HIIT Cardio Training
• Best Time to do Cardio
Additional Help
• More Useful Resources
• Contact Us

How to get better at pull-ups and chin ups

Learning how to get better at pull ups and chin ups will help make you stronger in a number of other exercises such as the bench press and overhead press so it’s important you incorporate them into your program at some point. Pull ups and chin ups are a tough exercise and will take some people a while to grasp. The majority of beginners probably won’t even be able to perform one chin up or pull up. This is completely normal and definitely not uncommon to the untrained or unconditioned athlete.

Learning how to get better at pull ups and chin ups will not only help you progress in other exercises but will help build quality muscle mass in your biceps and back. Chin ups and pull ups are one of the best exercises you can do to build muscle in your upper back and biceps and should therefore be used in both your back and bicep workouts. A lot of people think that pull ups and chin ups are the same exercise. Pull ups and chin ups are not the same exercise, let me explain.

What are Pull Ups and how do I perform them?

Pull ups are performed with your palms facing away from you when you grip the pull up bar. This means that your knuckles will be facing you whilst performing the pull up. To perform the pull up grip the bar slightly wider than shoulder width using the grip described above (palms facing away from you). Let yourself hang at arms length and pull yourself up as high as you can go. You should get into the habit of only counting each rep if your chin has successfully cleared the bar. Pull ups work less of your biceps and more of your back and are harder to perform than chin ups.

What are Chin Ups and how do I perform them?

Chin ups on the other hand are performed with your palms facing towards you. To perform a chin up, grip the bar at around shoulder width apart with your palms facing you. Hang at arms length and just like the pull up attempt to pull yourself up so that your chin successfully clears the bar. Chin ups will work more of your biceps and be a little easier to perform than standard pull ups.

Learning the technique of chin ups and pull ups

It’s important to learn the proper technique of both the pull up and chin up in order to perform as many as you physically can. The first thing you want to make sure of is that you squeeze the bar. Be prepared to squeeze the bar hard as you lift yourself up. This will help contract the muscles and give you maximum support during the lift. Also, when gripping the bar, ensure the bar is close to your fingers and not in your palm. This can make for a weak grip and will make the lifting part of the exercise feel extremely uncomfortable. You will also need to learn when to breathe during the exercise to help minimize the feeling of fatigue and help you grind out an extra rep or two. Always breathe at the bottom of the rep (while hanging). It’s easier to breath at the bottom of the rep so take a nice big breath before pulling yourself back up.

Keep your chest up. When pulling yourself up on each rep lead with your chest up. If you don’t lead with the chest then you will likely let your shoulders go forward putting your shoulder muscles in an unnatural position. This we don’t want so lead with your chest up while keeping your shoulders back to prevent any niggling injuries. Always look up. When you’re performing pull ups or chin ups you must always look up. Looking down will make performing pull ups or chin ups extremely hard if not impossible and is not the correct way to perform the exercise so keep your eyes focused on the bar throughout the exercise. One last thing worth mentioning is what you do with your feet during the exercise. To minimize swinging and swaying on the bar I would recommend you bend your legs and cross your feet whilst hanging. This should allow you to stay reasonably steady throughout the exercise.

Additional tips to help you get better at pull ups and chin ups

If your one of those who cannot perform one single chin up or pull up do not worry. We will now run through some methods that will help you get better at pull ups and chin ups and help you increase the number of reps you can perform for both exercises.

Perform more sets but fewer reps

If you’re struggling to do more than 1 or 2 pull ups or chin ups then perform more sets but with less reps. For example, if you can only perform one pull up before reaching failure then after that one pull up, take a minutes break and then attempt another 1 pull up. Once you’ve done this repeat for as many sets as you want. You don’t have to stick with the traditional 3 sets of 5-12 reps for all exercises especially if you can only perform one rep so use some common sense and wait for the results. Try these simple routines if you can only manage a few pull ups or chin ups:

5-10 sets of 1 rep

4 sets of 2 reps

3 sets of 3 reps

Feel free to alter the number of sets to fit in with your training routine and match your current pull up/chin up strength. Another simple variation to this technique is to set a rep goal and keep performing sets of chin ups or pull ups until you reach this rep goal. For example, say you set a rep goal of 30 reps, you would then perform however many sets it takes for you to reach this number:

10sets of 3 reps or

5 sets of 6 reps or

3 sets of 10 reps

This sort of technique can be great to use once you start becoming a little stronger and are able to perform more reps for each exercise.

Practice the negatives

This is another great little tip to help you become better at performing both pull ups and chin ups. The negative part of the pull up or chin up is the lowering phase. Once your chin is just above the bar and you start to lower yourself in a controlled manner that is the negative part of the lift. If you can’t perform one pull up or chin up practice the negatives. This will eventually build enough strength for you to be able to perform one complete pull/chin up. To perform the negative jump up onto the bar using the desired grip and hand positioning. Then lower yourself in a controlled manner and count this as one negative rep. You will then need to jump up onto the bar again and repeat until you are no longer able to lower yourself under control. Instead of jumping up onto the bar for each rep you can try placing a bench or chair underneath you to help kick yourself back up to the negative part of the lift. Our bodies are naturally a lot stronger on the negative phase of the lift and you are therefore able to lower far more weight than you can actually lift so everybody should be able to perform negatives.

Do assisted pull ups or chin ups

If you have access to a gym and are a member try using the assisted pull up/chin up machine if they have one. These are great to get you use to doing pull ups and chin ups and can help improve your technique when it comes to doing proper pull/chin ups without any assistance. Usually the assisted pull up/chin up machine will require you to step onto an assistance lever or padded platform before you perform the lift. Once you’re in position perform the lift and repeat for as many reps as possible.

Get stronger at other back and bicep exercises

This tip makes quite a lot of sense. Spend a few months strengthening the muscles involved in pull ups and chin ups and you should be able to grind out more than a rep or two for each exercise. This will mean developing your back and bicep muscles. In order to do this, focus on two main exercises. The barbell row and the bicep curl. The chances are if you’re pulling a 70 pound barbell for reps on exercises like the bicep curl you are going to be able to perform at least one chin up. Same goes for the pull up. If you’re pulling impressive weights for the barbell row you won’t find it as difficult to perform a pull up.

Weighted pull ups and chin ups

Once you have learnt the proper technique of a pull up and chin up and are able to perform around 12 consecutive reps you should start to add weight to the exercise to make it more challenging. To add weight to either exercise we have a few choices. You can try putting a dumbbell between your legs. This will work your abs a little as well but doesn’t really work when you need to add heavier weights to your lift. Another way is to use a rucksack or backpack. Place your weight plates inside the backpack and wear it on your back whilst performing the lift. One last way of adding weight to your pull ups or chin ups is to wear a belt or a dipping belt. As long as your belt has the ability to attach a chain to it like a dipping belt, you should be fine. Attach your weight plates onto the chain and your set to go.

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