Unlocking the skill of your first chin up is a goal that is often presented to me by a lot of clients, as it signifies reaching a level of strength where you have total control of your own bodyweight.
I’ve lost count of the number of clients I have consulted with who have expressed to me how they feel this is an impossible task, how they’ll never be strong enough, but it is a nice idea.
Fear not, there is hope and it is possible. I am going to outline, step by step, my top tips and tricks to achieve your very first chin up or even improve your chin up performance if you are already able to perform a couple of reps.
1. Accept that it is a skill
Chin ups, first and foremost, are very much a skill-based exercise. Yes, strength is important, but it isn’t necessarily the be all and end all when it comes to the chin up. You need to know how to effectively manoeuvre your body through space.
When you were learning to walk, ride a bike, read and write, repetition and frequency was key, these skills needed to be practised in order to improve. Treat your chin up practise in the same way, you want to be performing the further tips that I outline below frequently across the week. This will allow you to refine your skill and accumulate a lot of quality volume.
2. Identify your weakness
Improving your general strength is a quick way to see improved chin up performance once you understand the skill and the necessary cueing/execution involved in the movement.
You are only as strong as your weakest link, so identifying where you are weak and then working diligently to improve on this weakness is guaranteed to lead to improved chin up strength.
For a lot of people, in my experience, improving grip strength and scapular control/strength has led to massive improvements. Learning to control the scapula and then layering the necessary strength on top of that will allow you to make continual progress in more than just the chin up.
One very easy way to target both your grip and scapula control is to perform scapula hangs and hanging scapula retractions. Simply hang from a bar and get used to feeling your scapula move around your ribcage as you essentially perform a reverse shrug up towards the bar.
3. Accessory movements
For some reason, a lot of people are of the belief that utilising machines or other exercises in an effort to improve chin up strength is a waste of time. This makes zero sense to me.
Using machines and other exercises such as the lat pulldown, different rowing variations, direct arm and grip work will allow you to strengthen the muscles involved in chin ups, how could this not help?
This becomes of even greater relevance when you understand where you are weak as outlined above. Taking scapula control and strength as an example again, if you perform the lat pulldown as a means to strengthen the lats, this will also allow you to work on your scapula control while performing the same range of motion you would for a chin up, without having to think about lifting your bodyweight along with it. This is all further refining your skill.
4. Eccentrics
One of my favourite methods for improving or working towards a chin up is to include eccentrics. Naturally, you are stronger eccentrically than you are concentrically, so further improving your eccentric strength will eventually carry over to your concentric strength.
I prefer to use higher sets of lower reps for eccentric work, ensuring to stay away from failure, with the goal of increasing the duration of your eccentric reps over time.
Start with 4-5 sets of 1-2 reps with a 5 second eccentric twice per week. Once you’re able to perform each rep for a 10 second eccentric add an additional rep to each set.
You’ll usually find once you’re able to perform 3-5 reps with a 10 second eccentric you should be able to perform a couple of reps of full chin ups.
5. Drop some bodyweight
Lastly, and, probably the most fool-proof way to improve your chin up performance is to lose any excess bodyfat you are carrying, as, essentially, this unnecessary weight is just weighing you down.
Losing some bodyfat will carry over to improved chin up performance as there will be less bodyweight to lift.
In Summary
· Refine your skill. Skill acquisition requires repetition and frequency.
· Identify your weakness and eliminate it. You are only as strong as your weakest link.
· Utilise accessory movements to strengthen your weak areas.
· Perform eccentric work regularly to grease the groove and create a carryover
· Lose any unnecessary bodyweight