One Armed Chin / Pulldown

Training Bodybuilding
22

[quote]CU AeroStallion wrote:
accentuated eccentric chins have always worked pretty well if you hit it hard once a week for 2 weeks, about 135% of 1RM for 5x5 or 8x3 or 4.

Another cool technique that works nicely is isometric holds. Strap up bunch of extra weight onto a dip belt and just hold yourself at different positions in the ROM, especially where you find yourself weakest at. Doing holds of 5-10 seconds then rest 30 seconds, go again for about 10 sets each position.

Also, try and split up the iso holds, as in monday do the full hanging portion of the chinup. Weds you could do the end of the range of motion (with your chin over the bar) and then on friday you can go somewhere in between. If you split this up, and don’t do the accentuated eccentrics it might be a good idea to up the volume by doing either more sets or longer holds.

Just hanging from a bar with more weight on you will also help your grip strength a ton!

good luck dude[/quote]

I have been working them, a 3 x 5 with one arm and a pinky, having worked down from 3 fingers in about 3 months. If I can’t complete a rep of a set I do controlled comedown for that rep. This has definately helped the top part of my pull.

Once I can do the full 3x5 on my pinky without substituting comedowns I think I will be very close to getting a one-armer. I can do about 1/3 of one now so the top part is definately still my sticking point.

BTW I am at a bodyweight of 205.

23

Ah…
the one arm chin.

Last summer, I could nearly do it with my right arm, but had to take a training break.

This summer I will definately manage it.

This is what helped me.
I. Chin/Pull hard.
This one is pretty obvious and has been already discussed.
Do Ladders. Do not train to failure when upping your reps. Throw in all kinds of chins. Try all grips & angles. Pronated, supinated, commando, mixed, with towel, behind neck, L-pullups, BJJ chins, “the running man”(youtube: thug workout), clasping (give it a try), behind the neck pull-ups etc.

II. Chin often, but smart.
For example:
One day for reps, where cheating/kipping is allowed.
One maximal effort day, where you try the hard variants : chins with a towel (look up push’s post), excentric chins (very important!), isometric holds at the peak; stick the chin over the bar and hold, eventually try to do this with one arm while the other is lower/gripping the towel.
One loose day where you just chin for technique. No failure, but also no records. Try new variations and have fun.
Also, try different bars. Check out your local playgrounds. Thick bars, octagonal bars, ropes.
IMO, you definately need to chin at last two times per week, while three to four times would be ideal.

III. Strengthen your weak points
First and foremost, you need a good grip. For that, I trained with doorframe chins. They seem impossible at the beginning but with practise you will eventually cheat you way up. After that comes form. I did them always when I went to the the bathroom just for one or two reps. Helped me a lot.

I also had to implement some isolated biceps exercises, because mine pretty much sucked.

IV. Hang in there!
You need to be able to hang with just one arm. Try to brachiate like a monkey. If that’s no problem, try to set new records with one arm and no momentum, starting with one two seconds. The pain is very annoying, but you’ll get used to it.
Likewise, improve your hanging time on the doorframe.

V. Important: Let’s not forget that when aiming for a certain feat you have to compromise. You probably won’t bulk/set a new PR on the bench/while shredding fat on your abs.

Good Luck!

BTW, I’m around 80 KGs.

24

Am I the only one to realize that this thread was originally started nearly A YEAR AND A HALF AGO, and has recently been resurrected for no particular reason?!?!

With that said, I am somewhat curious to know if Vroom reached his goal of a 1-arm chin.

25

Nope.

Wasn’t really going for the full one arm chin as much as trying to bust a plateau though.

I must say I was surprised to see this thing back in the list…

26

Almost two years ago, I started a quest for a one-armed chin. I think it took me over eight months to finally get a smooth rep on each arm. I probably can’t do one now, though. I haven’t really tried since my fascination and the novelty wore off. Plus, I’m like 20 pounds heavier now.

On a side note, I don’t really even understand the lat pull down. I weigh 220 and can do 15-17 chins, yet I can’t hit 10 reps on the lat pull down with 220 pounds. Any thoughts on this?

27

Another tool you can use to prepare for full-blown 1APU’s is as follows:

  • Grasp pullup bar in left hand
  • Grasp left wrist in right hand
28

[quote]vroom wrote:
I was looking forward to trying out the recent one arm chin advice. I’ve been doing chins now for quite a while and they have hit a plateau big time. Hopefully this might let me bust through!

However, being a mere mortal with no hope in hell of supporting my weight with one arm or massively rearranging my commercial gym, I had to adjust it a bit.

It occured to me that you can do this thing on the lat pull down if you get the right handle on it. I’m figuring I can really up the tension by using the other hand to assist on the pull but using only one arm on the release.

I expected as much, but my left arm is a fair bit weaker than the right arm - failing on the grip sooner and working harder in general. Whats cool is that I know I’m upping the effort level as I’m doing more than half my bodyweight.

I wonder, maybe the same principle could be used benching on the smith machine? Let the second arm assist on the way up and go very heavy on one arm on the way down.

I realize the smith or the pulldown aren’t the same and don’t carry across directly, but hopefully the ability to overload will help make up for it. Since I don’t have a training partner it at least makes it feasible.

Sound reasonable?[/quote]

Definitely, I use this when doing calves to really load them on a leg press machine, 2 up 1 down slowly so I really feel the stretch, and definitely increased the strength as well.

29

[quote]HOV wrote:
Another tool you can use to prepare for full-blown 1APU’s is as follows:

  • Grasp pullup bar in left hand
  • Grasp left wrist in right hand[/quote]

Vroom

This IS the way to do it. Try it. If you can do 8-10 pull ups with both arms, you can probably do this.

Let me know!

30

[quote]malonetd wrote:
On a side note, I don’t really even understand the lat pull down. I weigh 220 and can do 15-17 chins, yet I can’t hit 10 reps on the lat pull down with 220 pounds. Any thoughts on this?[/quote]

Many people fail to realize that those are two completly different movements. While there is some carry over being good at one does not equate to being good at the other.

That’s why whenever I read about people claiming that those who want to become proficient at Chins (one or two arm) perform reps on the lat machine, I get a chuckle.

31

[quote]ZEB wrote:
malonetd wrote:
On a side note, I don’t really even understand the lat pull down. I weigh 220 and can do 15-17 chins, yet I can’t hit 10 reps on the lat pull down with 220 pounds. Any thoughts on this?

Many people fail to realize that those are two completly different movements. While there is some carry over being good at one does not equate to being good at the other.

That’s why whenever I read about people claiming that those who want to become proficient at Chins (one or two arm) perform reps on the lat machine, I get a chuckle.
[/quote]

I guess I just assumed with the way people discredit the lat pulldown, that it would be easier to go heavier. My weighted chin max is much heavier than I can go on a lat pulldown, not that I lose much sleep over it.

32

It seems pointless to train with a lat pull down. I mean the movement is not really as smooth as a chin up. Beside the best way to train for a one arm chin is to do this.

This is how Chris Lind trained for his:

Basically do weighted pull-ups

For chins, try to hold yourself on top of the bar with one hand, try to be able to hold for max amount of time, as soon as your strength fades switch hands and do the same thing. 3xmax hold should do it. Try to build up to a minute of holding yourself at the top, and then when you can hold yourself at the top with one arm for 1 min, try doing a one arm chin, if you still don?t have the strength to do one start doing negatives. Basically that?s the best way i can see of doing them, and just think of the strength you will gain!!!

33

Well then I guess I’m going to have to be the one to ask…
Vroom, did it work?

34

[quote]mrl179 wrote:
It seems pointless to train with a lat pull down. I mean the movement is not really as smooth as a chin up. Beside the best way to train for a one arm chin is to do this.

This is how Chris Lind trained for his:

Basically do weighted pull-ups

For chins, try to hold yourself on top of the bar with one hand, try to be able to hold for max amount of time, as soon as your strength fades switch hands and do the same thing. 3xmax hold should do it. Try to build up to a minute of holding yourself at the top, and then when you can hold yourself at the top with one arm for 1 min, try doing a one arm chin, if you still don?t have the strength to do one start doing negatives. Basically that?s the best way i can see of doing them, and just think of the strength you will gain!!!
[/quote]

This is close to how I got up to it. I have always done chin-ups and lat pulls, though. The summer of my eight-grade year I built a Lat Station on tree in my yard with a pipe and some aircraft cable. I did every variation you could think of, and I was able to do the Two-hand One-Arm PU by the time football started. I did a lot of hanging. one arm and two, and I think that helped. I didn’t try real OAPU’s until years later, though.

35

NeilG recommended doing one arm wide grip pullups.

36

[quote]ZEB wrote:
malonetd wrote:
On a side note, I don’t really even understand the lat pull down. I weigh 220 and can do 15-17 chins, yet I can’t hit 10 reps on the lat pull down with 220 pounds. Any thoughts on this?

Many people fail to realize that those are two completly different movements. While there is some carry over being good at one does not equate to being good at the other.

That’s why whenever I read about people claiming that those who want to become proficient at Chins (one or two arm) perform reps on the lat machine, I get a chuckle.
[/quote]

so are you saying that if you can substantially increase the weight on a pulldown, it won’t help your chinup? or are you saying that there’s some carry over? make up your mind.

I think it’s obvious that they’re different movements, there’s different contractions being performed to stabilize your body when pulling it up as opposed to when sitting down doing a pulldown. There’s also the “lean back” factor on pulldowns and the “leg momentum” on chinups.

[sarcasm on] then again, I’m sure that increasing tricep strength doesn’t help the bench press. and increasing hamstring strength doesn’t help squatting and deadlifting; so obviously, a movement similar to the pullup, the pulldown won’t help that out either. [sarcasm off]

I typically agree with a lot of the views you express with training, but this one well… thanks for a completely worthless post

37

Icreasing chins week by week - real simple.

Do them 2x-3x/week as the first exercise in your training. Perform 3-5 sets, depending on your work capacity/remaining workout. Rep out(as many as you can) but not to failure. The rest periods should be long - 3-4min.

Perform pull-ups(pronated) in most of your sets - these target the lats better. Even if you barely do any chins (supinated) at all your numbers in them will grow by doing more pull-ups. You’ll always be able to do more chins than pulls.

Another method is to do 1-2 sets in the same manner 6x/week with a different variation every day.

Both of these work and you don’t need to be a 150lb stickman to do chins.

38

[quote]CU AeroStallion wrote:
ZEB wrote:

Many people fail to realize that those are two completly different movements. While there is some carry over being good at one does not equate to being good at the other.

That’s why whenever I read about people claiming that those who want to become proficient at Chins (one or two arm) perform reps on the lat machine, I get a chuckle.

so are you saying that if you can substantially increase the weight on a pulldown, it won’t help your chinup? or are you saying that there’s some carry over? make up your mind.[/quote]

There is no contradiction! You should reread my post.

Let me break it down so that you can fully understand it.

If you want to have a bigger squat, You can get stronger on a leg press machine. But, it will never be as good as performing squats. And it should never be performed at the exclusion of the squat.

You with me yet?

Oh my you’re becoming sarcastic. And of all places on the Interent. What’s this world coming to? Lol

The fact is there is a great amount of skill involved in performing a one arm Chin. Obviously a great amount of strength as well.

Sure you need strong triceps to have a bigger bench. But many on this thread are talking about Pulldowns instead of actually performing Chins (in any capacity). And they are recommending this IN PLACE of chins. I would not recommend pulldowns even as an assitance movement much less in place of the actual movement that I want to become better at.

And as I have stated in the past, performing pulldowns will give you only some carry over. The muscles worked can be done more efficiently by actually working on the Pull-up bar.

Would you work your triceps at the exclusion of training the Bench Press, to get better at the Bench Press? And also keep in mind the discussion is not about working one particular assistance muscle. It’s about performing one particular movement which in my opinion is inferior in accomplishing the task at hand.

You with me yet?

It’s about HOW you train them (see above) and also it would not be good if you left out actually performing the squat.

Now go turn your sarcasm button off you nut.

:slight_smile:

You can do pulldowns, but NOT at the exclusion of the actual Pull-up. As an assistance movement for a good Chin/Pull-up it’s only okay.

Furthermore, there are a variety of assistance movements which are far far more benificial than the pulldown for increasing your one arm (or two arm) Pull-up strength.

Here are some that I have had great success with:

  1. Working with bands. Depending on your goal bands can be used to either place some resistance at the top of the movement, or actually make you lighter so that you can perform more reps with your own body weight. I have used them in both ways.

  2. Proper negatives (if they are not performed properly you can easily overtrain or become injured with this movement).

  3. One arm Pull-ups with one arm “rope assisted.” This gives you a very gradual feeling of exactly how to perform the one arm.

  4. Adding weight in several different ways.

A. Weight that is not reduced during the set.

B. Weight that can be reduced while in the middle or at the end of a set.

Each can be used, it depends upon your immediate goals.

  1. Partner assisted Pull-ups. A partner can be used to either add or take away weight. I’m not as fond of this as it is not as easily measured. Sometimes a partner may make it too easy or too difficult, it depends. However, even so, this is still FAR superior to the lat pulldown machine when attempting to get better at Pull-ups.

  2. Pull-ups on a bar where your feet are touching (floor or chair) making you lighter than your bodyweight. I have suggested in the past that a smith machine bar can be used (adjusted to height) for those trainees who have not yet reached their first few Pull-ups.

  3. Pull-ups performed on a fat bar. (While this will not directly increase your reps it will help strengthen a weak grip which will lead to increased reps).

…I could go on and on. And it’s not just a matter of knowing what technique to use, but when and how much to use it. What level of development you are currently at, and what your immediate goals are determine exactly which assitance movements you use and how you use them.

However, whatever your level of development Pulldowns are at the very bottom of the list when it comes to assitance movements to increase your chinning power.

You with me yet?

[quote]I typically agree with a lot of the views you express with training, but this one well… thanks for a completely worthless post
[/quote]

Glad you agree with me most of the time, that’s better than my wife, who only agrees with me a little over half the time.

:slight_smile:

And sorry if you didn’t get anything out of my original post. It was not meant to be instructional. I just wanted to make a single point which might be helpful to those who have not yet attained a one arm Chin.

Hopefully this clears things up a bit. If not write back and insult me and I will try to do even better…this is the Intnernet right?

Take care.

Zeb

39

[quote]Majin wrote:
Icreasing chins week by week - real simple.

Do them 2x-3x/week as the first exercise in your training. Perform 3-5 sets, depending on your work capacity/remaining workout. Rep out(as many as you can) but not to failure. The rest periods should be long - 3-4min.

Perform pull-ups(pronated) in most of your sets - these target the lats better. Even if you barely do any chins (supinated) at all your numbers in them will grow by doing more pull-ups. You’ll always be able to do more chins than pulls.[/quote]

This looks very familiar!

Glad you read my original post.

:slight_smile:

40

Why are people pulling up all these old posts?

41

[quote]Zap Branigan wrote:
Why are people pulling up all these old posts?[/quote]

Because if they start a new thread they will be flamed and told to use the search function.