Foo - Anyone do chin-ups?

So, I finally got around to building myself a chin-up bar out in my garage. Its a four foot piece of pipe wrapped with some old bar tape:D from a set of drops I've had hanging around for awhile. This whole set-up is hung from the central beam of my garage.

My question is; Does anyone have any suggestions as to what excersice to do with it? Like, what muscle groups and whatnot? Thanks in advance, foosters.

Oh my...

Uh..

Chin up: Supinated grip on bar
Pull up: Proanted grip on bar, you can do these with your head in front of the bar to hit other muscle groups
Reverse grip: Hands facing towards eachother
Negatives: Lowering yourself slowly
Lock offs: Holding yourself at a certain arm angle for a period of time
Claps: Exploding upward, clapping, and catching the bar
Any 1 arm variations... especially negatives
You can incorporate almost all of these basics into some pretty effective training methods. Combining them with abwork brings a whole new dynamic to it.

Onto that.

Tons of abwork to be done. From knee raises to leg raises to v's. Learning how to do a front lever is a pretty cool progression that hits the entire body, but especially the core and shoulders. If you teach yourself how to bathang from your toes or rig up a harness system you can do situps that way with tons of variations.


What are you able to do now? Honestly I'd just try to exercises, see how they feel, and try to figure out what does what you want. I can't really give much more specific advice as my training has never been regimented. Just random things that make me feel like muscles are working hard and give results.

Oh, unfortunately I haven't the slightest idea on muscle groups. My anatomy skills need refining.

This (http://www.dragondoor.com/articler/mode2/Workouts) site has lots of info on bodyweight exercises, including pull-ups, leg lifts, and front levers.

oh yea, linking. internets are interconnected.

bodyweightculture.com

Awesome. Thanks for the links, folks. I love the chin-ups, always have. just never got around to setting up a bar until last night. Kinda felt the need to balance out my cyclists legs with a better upper body. Can't wait to try out the leg lifts and whatnot.

I stop at monkey bars while running and do such exercises there.

chinups?!!!! I have a hard enough time with pushups! :)

I couldn't pull this fat ass up and over a bar even if my life depended on it.

My friends and I were at a park last friday. My buddy Jon brought his daughter with him, and she was playing on the jungle gym. I got the idea to try chin ups and pull ups and failed miserably at both. I've decided I need to work on upper body for a while. It's pretty sad when I can ride a metric no problem but can't even do a freaking chin-up.

Yeah, I just build a similar set up in the basement. I've been getting soft. Need to train the upper body this offseason.

I have a set at work.

A single set of 15-20 chinups there and 40-50 pushups every 2 hours, helps maintain a nice balance so you don't end up being a human leg.

I find it's nice to split it between half pullups and half chinups behind the neck, so you get the front and back of your upper body.

I can do three full chinups at the moment, might be able to do four. I have a bar in my bedroom door, and I don't use it as often as I used to. (I used to do 15 regularly.)

Most excercise experts recomend NOT performing any pull behind your head exercises because of the additional strain placed on rotator cuffs. Mind you this was about four five years ago when I was into lifting pretty hard core so they may have now decided they were wrong and it's actually good for you. The article I read in some musclehead mag had some god science behind it, I'll see if I can dig it up. Also working the "front and rear" with pull ups is not going to work. Any pulling motion similar to a pull up uses your back muscles, biceps and rear delts. Your front muscles ( front delts, pectorals, triceps) are activated by pushing movements for the most part. Changing the placement of the bar in relation to your head will not work your "front" half.

I used to rock climb and when I did it regularly I could do one hand chin-ups - I can't now so I guess I have deteriorated. I am pretty good at regular chin-ups though. Just so that if I ever find a rock in the jungle (fat chance) I do finger tip chin-ups.

Really good for crushing the hands of sales creatures too... ;)

I do chin ups on the cable trays in the tower shelters I work on- the bars are rectangular, so I do it as long as my hands can stand (5 or 6 usually), repeat as desired.

I find It helps my back if I just hang there for a while too.

Speaking of which, to answer the OP's question, I suggest you try to make "L's" with your legs while hanging and then slowly take them all the way back until your back is arched, this works your abs and gluts and strengthens your lower back & core.

Requires pretty significant flexibility too.

I was under the impression that a chinup and a pullup were the same thing, but you all got me thinking they aren't the same after all (they're different - a chinup has your palms facing you, a pullup has your palms facing away). While searching, however, I found this (http://www.beastskills.com/OneArmPull.htm): a training regimen for doing one-armed chinups and pullups.

Edit: this one-arm pullup guy must be a caveman. Check out his tutorials page: http://www.beastskills.com/tutorials.htm

Whatever you do, do it slowly. It twists my nipples to see guys at the gym doing pull ups helluva fast kicking their little legs doing whatever it takes to barely get their chin above the bar.

That website is pretty good, though I advise against grabbing your own wrists as you can (and likely will) grab it too tightly and lose a lot of the advantage. Bungee cords are more effective imo.

OH yea, no kipping.

Most excercise experts recomend NOT performing any pull behind your head exercises because of the additional strain placed on rotator cuffs. Mind you this was about four five years ago when I was into lifting pretty hard core so they may have now decided they were wrong and it's actually good for you. The article I read in some musclehead mag had some god science behind it, I'll see if I can dig it up. Also working the "front and rear" with pull ups is not going to work. Any pulling motion similar to a pull up uses your back muscles, biceps and rear delts. Your front muscles ( front delts, pectorals, triceps) are activated by pushing movements for the most part. Changing the placement of the bar in relation to your head will not work your "front" half.

DOH! You serious?