IMPROVING YOUR CHIN UPS/PULL UPS

​Everyone wants to perform chin ups/pull ups, simple as that. People get a great buzz out of being able to conquer the chin up bar and it does give a sense of achievement when you perform one. Being able to pull your own body weight and be in control of your body gives you confidence when moving on to other lifts. Both males and females pride themselves on this movement but I am afraid women in general have a slight disadvantage and have to work harder to improve or even get their first chin up. Females tend to have a lot of strength in their lower body but lower levels of strength in their upper body. Due to their hormone levels, body fat tends to be slightly higher. This means their road to that first chin up usually takes a longer time than men.
 
Ask yourself, do you have the range of motion to perform a supinated chin up, supinated means an underhand grip on a straight bar. If you cannot do this without your elbows flaring out, you probably do not have the appropriate range of motion and may need to use a neutral grip (palms facing each other). This may allow you to have a more active range of motion. If you cannot do a chin up, you can still test the supinated grip. Just stand up, bring your hands in front your face in a supinated grip and imagine your chin is already above the bar. Begin to lower yourself by raising your hands directly up (trying to keep your hands supinated with elbows facing forward). By raising your hands overhead you can see where the range of movement begins to break down, the hand may come out of supination, elbows may flare out or you may be very uncomfortable doing this movement. If so, a neutral grip will be your friend.
 
Pronated = Overhand grip
Supinated = Underhand grip
Neutral = Palms facing each other
              
 
Aside from this complex range of movement, it is a compound movement which uses multiple joints and muscles. Are your lats, biceps, shoulders, scapula, and core all able to perform this synchronised movement? This is where other exercises come in to play. Look at the muscles that are needed to perform a chin up and examine how you can improve them individually. By performing lat pull-downs, seated rows, bicep curls, hammer curls and exercises that test your grip (carries, deadlift variations etc) you will improve these muscles and their performance. If you will be someone who will be performing a neutral grip chin up, then make sure your seated rows and lat pull-downs are done with a neutral grip also (make the movement as transferable as possible). You will also strengthen this grip too with each movement. I spoke about scapula retraction in one of my posts on Instagram and it is very important that you learn the importance of scapula retraction and how to perform it when lifting weights. If you gain control of that scapula, chin ups will be a lot easier in the beginning. So practice this during the lifts. When you are performing a row or a lat pull-down, imagine when you pull that handle towards your torso that you are trying to squeeze and hold a pencil between your shoulder blades (that is how you retract your scapula).
 
Of course increasing your general strength will have profound benefits on your bodyweight exercises. By concentrating on your compound movements and overloading each week (increasing weights, sets, reps etc.), you will be building overall general strength. By having a consistent routine of resistance training, you will be improving body composition (increasing muscle and losing fat), which will lead to an easier chin up. Another way of improving bodyweight exercises like the pull up is by losing some body weight, fat is not a contractile tissue and won’t aid you at all and losing any unnecessary fat will aid your pull ups massively. Proper nutrition can and will benefit your bodyweight exercises, especially chin ups/pull ups where you are carrying your weight and pulling it against gravity. The lighter athlete here is usually the better one when it comes to calisthenics.
 
For the person who wants to improve the amount of chin ups they can do, frequency is going to be king rather than weekly overload. In this case, it is better to do 25 reps 3 days a week, rather than 100 reps on one day. Even though you would do a total of 25 more reps in one week with the 100 reps. A less extreme example for getting better is simple, if you have a pull up bar at home that can stick up on the door, they are a great tool. Put it on your bedrooms/kitchen door and every time you pass by, complete 2 chin ups until it becomes too easy and you have to complete 3 chin ups etc. This frequency is a very quick way to improving your chins ups, alongside all of the previous topics I have covered here.