For about the past 6 months I’ve been working towards a one arm chin-up. I’ve been doing a lot of weighted chin-ups and rows. My back has made great progress, but I think it does most of the work leaving my biceps untouched and now I feel my lack of biceps stength holding me back. Does anyone have any advice on strengthening them?
Curls…
Curls?
hmm how about curls?
Curls!
Heheh. I see I was beaten to the punchline.
Squats… Er, curls.
Heavy curls?
Heavy curls?
I have the same goal as you…and I am almost there.
I do close grip chin-ups to get the biceps stronger, without weight, with weight, and explosively from a dead hang (still close grip) without weight (trying to pull myself so far up I hit the bar to my lower sternum).
I have also been doing one-arm negative pull-ups (pull-up with both arms, let go one arm and descend as slow as possible). It seems to have worked very well.
I tried curls but found they were too segmented a movement for this particular goal.
curls will help,but one who said that you should do negative chins is right.also you need do give your biceps a little rest.try changing from week to week with some more sec in the middle of the chin up position
Barbell curls and reverse barbell curls are the only things necessary for strong biceps
To get a one arm chinup, practice your chinups - afterall, that is your goal.
If you want to strengthen your biceps, then god-damn work them directly. Barbell curls as bignate above said.
if only there was some magic excersize to build up your bicep size and strength
but ya do some curls. slow negative ones to would help, not just the traditional curling motion
hooray!
Do weighted chinup isometrics too, and 1-arm eccentrics and isometrics when you get strong enough.
how many close grip chins do you guys find you can do compared to a medium, wide, or hands facing each other pullup?
[quote]mmllcc wrote:
I have the same goal as you…and I am almost there.
I do close grip chin-ups to get the biceps stronger, without weight, with weight, and explosively from a dead hang (still close grip) without weight (trying to pull myself so far up I hit the bar to my lower sternum).
I have also been doing one-arm negative pull-ups (pull-up with both arms, let go one arm and descend as slow as possible). It seems to have worked very well.
I tried curls but found they were too segmented a movement for this particular goal.[/quote]
Curls won’t do shit for your chin strength.
I am also training for the one arm chin and like mmllcc says the one arm negative chins are the ticket. Do the negative super, and I mean super fucking slow.
A side effect of this, is these blow up your fucking biceps. Seriously. I currently don’t anything else for biceps.
I’ve always shied away from curls because of a fear of becoming one of those guys with 20 sets of isolation exercises for each muscle. I’m already doing a ton of weighted chins and pull-ups, but the only thing that seems to be growing is my back. I think some bicep strength would help me at the top… What sort of curls do you suggest? How many sets/reps?
[quote]actionjeff wrote:
hooray!
Do weighted chinup isometrics too, and 1-arm eccentrics and isometrics when you get strong enough.
how many close grip chins do you guys find you can do compared to a medium, wide, or hands facing each other pullup? [/quote]
I rarely do unweighted chinning, but I can do a weighted pull-up (medium width with 100lbs and a close grip chin with 110lbs. The fact that I can’t lift much more with a chin-up grip (which is normally a good bit stronger because of more assistance from the biceps) is one of the main reasons I feel my biceps are lagging. The other being that I am 6’3 with 13.5" arms (and most of that is triceps).
[quote]mmllcc wrote:
I have the same goal as you…and I am almost there.
I do close grip chin-ups to get the biceps stronger, without weight, with weight, and explosively from a dead hang (still close grip) without weight (trying to pull myself so far up I hit the bar to my lower sternum).
I have also been doing one-arm negative pull-ups (pull-up with both arms, let go one arm and descend as slow as possible). It seems to have worked very well.
I tried curls but found they were too segmented a movement for this particular goal.[/quote]
How far are you from a OAC? I can get it with 25 lbs assist on the right side and can do 2 OAC+a pinkie (which in my case is good for about 40lbs of assistance).
Ive been wondering what do classify as a one arm chin, because ive heard them describes both ways
a) one hand holds the other wrist while you do a chin
b) one arm does the chin and the other arm just rests by your side