For many gym goers the the chin up is a constant struggle. A seemingly simple task yet deceptively challenging and equally as frustrating. Lift yourself up and lower yourself down. What is so hard about that? There are usually a few reasons why and body weight plays a large part in the equation and using it as an excuse is in most cases akin to saying I don’t like to lift weight cos I don’t want to get too big. Yep good one bruh. Obviously if weight loss is one of your priorities then adjusting strength training goals accordingly is going to be an important part of your success and chin ups might need to be prioritised as a future goal once you reach a healthy weight range for your body type.
The Chin Up Solution
I’ve put together a twelve week plan for anyone to get better at chin ups combining my favourite methods that I’ve been using with clients for years to help them either increase the number of chin ups they can do or to be able to do them in the first place;
Phase 1
I have long been a fan of chin ups and other bodyweight exercises for muscular development, structural balance and maintaining healthy joint mechanics. One of the most effective ways I have found to rapidly increase one’s ability to do them is by training the eccentric phase (The eccentric phase is the part where you lower yourself down) for long slow tempo sets. The aim is to do reps of 20-30 seconds and as many reps in a set as you can within that tempo. As a general rule for every 30 second eccentric you can do you will equate to 1 regular repetition. Many lifters in the beginning will struggle to lower themselves slowly through the full range of motion so simply hold at the top for 5-10 second lower yourself a few inches and hold for another 5-10 seconds and lower a further few inches and hold there for the remaining 5-10 seconds. Follow this for 4 weeks or until you can do 5 full repetitions on your own.
Phase 2
Once you can complete 5 or more regular chin ups you are ready to start doing some high volume work. The Purpose of the high volume work is to do as many reps as you can in a short timeframe. I like to aim for 8-10 sets at 1 rep less than your maximum amount of reps is. So if I can do 5 reps I am aiming for 8-10 sets of 4 reps. Once you can hit 8-10 sets of the target rep number with 60-90 seconds rest between sets then it’s time to increase the rep per set number. Follow this method of training for at least 4 weeks before moving onto the higher rep work outlined in phase 3
Phase 3
One of my favourite ways to hit high rep chin up training is to pick a target number, say 25-50 reps and do as many reps as possible each set until you reach your target number. If you get to 48 reps in 6 sets (8 reps each set) you still push for as many as you can on the last set then aim to achieve the goal in less sets the following week. This is a challenging and fun way to build the reps on the chin ups and gets great results from both a strength development and muscle building perspective.
Conclusion
Once you are this level of training and have followed each phase listed above for around 4 weeks you will be effortlessly smashing out rep after rep and can focus on more specific training protocols to suit your current phase of training whether it be a strength phase (focusing on lower reps and heavier weights), hypertrophy phase (higher reps for repeat efforts) or conditioning based program (time based, rep based or circuit based) for example.
Good luck and happy lifting!
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