Chin-up regression
There’s sort of an unofficial list of awesome exercises that everyone likes to toss around. While other team members, such as deadlifts, almost always make the cut, chin-ups (and their cousins) are far less popular. That’s too bad.
One of the things that gets chin-ups overlooked is their difficulty. You can work upward from a thimble when it comes to selecting the weight you might use to perform an exercise that doesn’t involve your body coming along for the ride. When it comes to chin-ups, that body of yours is hitching along whether you want it to or not. This works out really well for skinny males and far less well for . . . well, everyone else.
So what are we supposed to do (and why are we supposed to care)?
Let’s start with the second part of that question. You’re supposed to care because you want a strong core. You know this. You’ve probably told other people as much. But think about what this means. Is it having a six-pack? No, at this point you should know that visible abs are a function of nutrition. Is it being able to perform the ab exercise du jour? No, because we’re looking for a result not just another method that may or may not work.
Having a strong core means posture. Not just posture at your desk but posture with gravity, weight and movement simultaneously conspiring to rip that posture apart. That’s core strength. It’s meaningful because it exists beyond the confines of a single exercise. It’s something that you can apply to life.
Ask most strong people about the leg press machine and it’s unlikely to go well. The leg press is not meaningful. It’s a game where you press as much weight as you can without any kind of real world carry-over. The leg-press doesn’t teach you to stabilize. It’s doesn’t teach you to apply. Comparing a leg press to a squat is like comparing online pornography to true love. There are people who do it but you wouldn’t want to hang around with them either.
The chin-up is meaningful. You probably don’t expect to find yourself hanging off the side of a cliff or building anytime soon (no one actually does). What makes the chin-up meaningful is the core stability involved in performing it correctly. You must create stiffness through your core. This is applied posture. It’s the kind of stuff that you should be actively seeking out from your exercise program.
A chin-up machine make sense superficially. It allows those who struggle with their bodyweight to de-load things. It makes chin-ups accessible. Unfortunately, it also strips away a key feature of the movement. Having a stable base takes away your need to provide core stability. You may as well get someone to hold your stomach up from the bottom of a plank.
So . . . What it you’re unable to perform a chin-up? We’ve written about band-assisted chin-ups previously so let’s assume that you don’t have access to bands (and haven’t put this article down to order some). What are some other options?
You know what? It’s probably easier to just show you one of our favourites.
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Great article! I am always hearing from people who say they can’t do one chin-up, and want to know how to start without having to have an assisted machine. Good method.
21.07.2011, 5:13 pm