First things first: What’s the difference between a chin-up and a pull-up?

Both movements involve hanging from a bar, with arms fully extended, and pulling your body up so that your chin is above the bar. Some people like to say “chest to bar”.  There are variations such as “kipping,” using your legs to generate momentum. For the purpose of this challenge, we are going to assume strict pull-ups or chin-ups, with no momentum.

The very simple difference between the two exercises is this: pull-ups use a wider overhand grip, while chin-ups use an underhand, narrower grip on the bar. Chin-ups are usually a little bit easier for most athletes. However, mobility limitations and any injuries to your wrist, elbow, or shoulder, might mean that one is more comfortable for you than another. 

Throughout this challenge, I will normally use the terms interchangeably so I don’t have to say “pull-up or chin-up” every single time… And the workout program for both will be the same.

Here are the basics:

This video shows pull-ups, but the guidelines are the same for both pull-ups and chin-ups!

Do: Start from fully extended arms. Engage your back muscles to draw your shoulder blades down and together to initiate the movement. Keep a locked & strong core in the Hollow Body position. Pull chest to bar by pulling your elbows back and down at the top! (See below for a video of the Hollow Body hang).

Don’t: kick your feet to generate momentum. Shrug your shoulders. Look at the ceiling. Have a floppy core.

How to modify:

There are several ways to modify a chin-up while you improve your strength until you can do that first, awesome, unassisted one! 

Assisted Chin-Up Machine – most gyms have something like this:

Usually, as with this example, there is not a hand grip for a fully-underhand chin-up grip. Use the one that has your hands angled towards you for chin-ups. Use the wide grips for pull-ups.

The weight stack here is the amount of resistance that the knee pad will provide. Lower weight = less assistance. Higher weight = more assistance / easier. 

Most machines will have a catch that allows the knee pad to fold down out of the way. If you don’t see a pad sticking out as in the picture, it’s probably down. Find it, rotate it into position, and the pin should automatically lock it into place. If you get so super strong that you’re ready for unassisted pull-ups, you’ll fold that baby out of the way again.

Set the pin in your stack first, step onto the foot platforms, get your hands on the grips with one knee/foot on the pad, and finally take your weight with your arms and place your other knee onto the pad. THE PAD WILL START TO DROP. Please don’t kneel on the pad without your hands on the grips, and faceplant onto the machine for me, OK? :)

The nice thing about this machine is that you can gradually reduce the weight in very precise doses as your strength increases.

Band-assisted chin-ups:

There are three basic ways to use a resistance loop to assist you in a chin-up:

 

 

 

From left to right, they are – 2 knees through the band, one foot through, and one knee through.

In all cases you will need to use a loop-style band, not one with handles at both ends. Loop the band through itself over the bar as shown in the pictures. It helps to have a friend hold the band for you while you get into it (it also helps to avoid you snapping yourself in the face with it. We’ve all been there…). You might need a bench or step below the bar to help you reach the bar!

The advantage of a band assist is that it provides more assistance at the bottom, where most of us need it more, and less at the top where we are usually stronger. It also mimics more closely the full push-up body mechanics. The disadvantage is that, short of using different thicknesses of bands, it’s a bit of a one-size-fits all approach, and you can’t get as much assistance as with the machine. 

Chair-assisted chin-ups:

This is the quick-and-dirty at-home method! Set up a chair under your bar. Put one foot on the chair and use it to boost yourself up and/or take some of your weight on the way down.  You can make it harder by moving the chair forward beyond the bar and resting both heels on it with straight legs, so it’s taking more weight at the bottom, less weight at the top.

How to test your Chin-ups for the Baseline Test:

If you can do some chin-ups (even one):

• Warm up first.
• Warm up the target exercise:
  • Do 5 to 8 machine-assisted chins, or pulldowns using the lat pulldown cable machine if possible. Make the exercise quite easy by adding weight to the machine-assisted chin-up, or reducing weight with the pull-down cable. Unless you are super strong, I don’t recommend warming up with a band-assisted chin-up as it’s likely too tiring. Use a chair/bench and take some of your weight with your feet instead to make it easier.
  • Rest 3 minutes or more
• Do max reps of unassisted chin-ups/pull-ups
• Record your score!

If you cannot do one unassisted chin-up, we will use two different options to test.

Machine-assisted version:

• Warm up first.
• Start with a high weight stack – maybe half or more of your bodyweight. Do 3 reps.
  • Reduce by 5 to 10 pounds, do 1 rep.
  • Repeat the above, resting 2-3 minutes or more between sets, until you reach a weight at which you cannot complete a full chin-up with good form. 
• Record your assist weight! This is your 1 rep max. Your goal for the challenge should be based on improving your 1RM, and/or doing a certain number of reps at your 1RM.

Band- or Chair-assisted version:

• Warm up first.
• Do a few warm-up reps if possible – use the lat pull-down machine as described above in the first test option, or use a chair or bench and place as much of your weight as you want onto it to assist you with some easier chin-ups. Rest 2-3 minutes.
• Do your maximum continuous reps with your chosen assistance method!
• Record your score.  You should base your goal for the challenge on increasing this max number of reps, OR moving to full unassisted chin-ups.

Tips on Form!

One reason why we are doing Hollow Body holds and/or rocks on our build up days is that this is the body position you should be holding while doing your pulls. If you can’t do a single chin-up, working on hollow body HANGS is a great exercise to help strengthen everything to make that first one come a little easier, sooner!

Here’s a great video that shows the hollow body hang. You can repeat these same steps (shoulder blades down, ribs tucked, core engaged, feet forward) before every pull-up!

 

If you want to add hollow body hangs to your challenge routine, try this:

On Day 1, after you’ve ‘maxed out’, take a break, then do 5 to 10 hollow body hangs for about 10 seconds each.