How to achieve your first chin up | The Food Medic
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This article was written by our regular contributor; personal trainer and fitness writer – Adam Willis
For me, the pursuit of achieving a first chin up is definitely a goal that is worthwhile for almost everybody. It’s one I encourage often and love to coach clients towards. My belief is that almost everybody should be able to do one chin up, or at the very least, train consistently for a period of time to achieve one during the course of their training years.
The feeling of achieving that first chin up is undeniable. I’ve seen the giant smile on client’s faces when they hit that first one to confirm this. It’s so empowering and almost primal in some way. Possessing the ability to pull yourself up to a bar unassisted is so badass, much like the raw primal feeling of pulling a heavy deadlift off of the floor.
Due to its empowering feeling, the chin up is a very common goal. Perhaps you too have aspirations to achieve your first one. If you do, there are a couple of things that are worth knowing before embarking on this journey.
1. You need to give yourself at least 8-12 weeks, maybe slightly more, of focused chin up training to achieve the goal. It unfortunately won’t just happen overnight.
2. You’re going to need to prioritise the training that needs to be done to achieve that first chin up. This will mean doing 1-2 specific exercises, 2-3 times a week, to move you closer to the goal.
Before I get to the how, or put another way, the 12 week “achieve your first chin up” program, it’s worth covering some of the “why” behind the program and its exercises.
You see, the pursuit of the first chin up is often undertaken incorrectly. People gravitate towards banded chin up work and little else, and this causes them to miss the 3 key areas of focus that should be covered when trying to achieve a first chin up.
Key 1: You have to learn the skill/technique of the chin up. This means you have to do 1-2 exercises a week that closely mimic the pattern of a chin up. To achieve this key, I like to use eccentric only chin ups.
Key 2: You have to increase your strength and lean muscle through similar movement patterns and the required muscles that a chin up requires. To achieve this key, I like to use eccentric only chin ups and horizontal pulling variations like TrX or barbell inverted rows, dumbbell 3-point rows, chest supported rows etc.
Key 3: You have to strengthen the common “weak links” in the chin up chain. Those areas are usually:
Chin up strength can be greatly reduced if there isn’t stability in the lumbo-pelvic region. If this is a weak link your ability to lock in your technique position from top to toe will be compromised, often resulting in a hyperextended lower back position.
To work on this weakness, you should focus on “core” work that falls into the Anti-Extension category. So, you should be looking at incorporating dead-bugs, plank variations, rollouts, or hollow body holds in your programming.
The ability to control the scapulae [shoulder blades] during a chin up is vitally important. During the movement your scapulae actually move to help perform the movement. Your scapulae must be able to 1] move well and 2] move with control. On the way up during a chin up your shoulder blades depress down and rotate inward towards your spine, like you’re trying to put them into your back pockets. On the way down your shoulder blades elevate upwards and rotate outwards away from the spine.
Why grip strength I hear you ask?
Well, if your grip can’t hold on to the bar long enough, you’ll never be able to perform the required work to get stronger and achieve that first chin up. Thankfully, training grip for the chin up is very simple. My go-to’s are dead hang holds, suitcase walks and farmer walks.
Now, to address the elephant in the room…
…and more importantly, why I don’t use them with my clients or recommend you use them if you want to achieve your first chin up.
Put simply, they don’t perform as advertised.
In my experience people just get really good at doing banded chin ups as they learn how to become efficient with the band. The band allows someone to relax their bodyweight into its supporting assistance. But a chin up requires a person’s bodyweight to be supported by their hands wrapped around the bar. This is why, for me, eccentric only chin ups are superior to band assisted chin ups.
Oh, and another added bonus of the eccentric only chin ups…they get you your first chin up faster. Much faster in my experience.
So, with the key 3 areas detailed, and the elephant in the room addressed, let’s move on to the “how” of achieving your first chin up.
The 12 Week Training Program
With this program you’re essentially going to add 2 exercises a training session, 3 days a week, for the next 12 weeks, to your current training program to get you to that all important first chin up.
2 noteworthy points to help you be successful on this program.
Stick to the program as written below. Don’t do more than prescribed, believing you’ll get to that first chin up faster
Avoid constantly testing yourself to see if you can do a chin up yet. In my experience, those who test often get disheartened quickly when they’ve not achieved one in 2-4 weeks. Follow the program, delay gratification as long as possible, and then at the end of phase 3 test yourself
you’ll be adding 2 new exercises to your usual training day so be sure to remove 2 exercises to make space for it
remember that achieving the chin up goal is the priority here so you may need to put another training focused goal on the backburner to achieve it
always put eccentric chin ups as the first exercise you do on a training day
the dead-bugs, dead hangs and suitcase carries should go at the end of a training day
always put eccentric chin ups and scapular chin ups as the first exercise you do on a training day
the hollow body holds, and farmer walks should go at the end of a training day
the rollouts and suitcase carries should go at the end of a training day
Now, I’ve had a lot of success with clients using the exact program above, however everybody starts and progresses at different rates. This may mean that you require a couple of tweaks here and there.
The most common 2 tweaks are:
1: You can’t do the 5s eccentric only chin up starting out.
If this is the case, start where you’re at. If that is just a 3s eccentric, then that is fine. Still complete the programmed sets and reps, but just start with the 3s eccentric and try to build up to 5s over the course of the 4-week phase.
2: you get to the end of 12 weeks and are close to your first chin up, but it’s not quite there yet.
If this is the case, repeat phase 3 again, and look to add weight to yourself for the 10s and 30s eccentric only work to increase the difficulty.
Give yourself 12 weeks to prioritise this incredibly primal and empowering goal.
I promise you it’s worth the investment of time and effort.
But be warned, chin ups are addictive.
Once you hit that first one and get a taste for them, you’ll want more. You’ll want 3, then 5, then 10, then pull ups, then weighted reps etc. The possibilities become endless.
…let’s get you that first chin up.
How to achieve your first chin up was last modified: November 18th, 2021 by Adam Willis