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When I was in my prime at 18 years old I could do 3 chin ups. Now that I'm 47 I can still do 3.

I read a great article in Men's Health talking about how the chin up is the ultimate exercise for overall upper body fitness. I agree. At the age of 47 I am embarking upon a mission to get to 10 chin ups.

I installed a chin up bar in my garage. After a few weeks of steady training I can do 4.

Since becoming vegan I've noticed that my aerobic stamina has increased greatly. I am now putting the vegan diet to the strength training test. So far so good. I'm stronger than I have ever been.

There is a chin-up bar in my house, and my roommate showed me how to work up to doing one chin-up. (Though I haven't tried it yet!) The trick is to start UP by standing on a chair or something (though make sure it's enough out of the way for when you lower down), and lower yourself down slowly, using your muscles. This is easier than lifting yourself up. After doing that once a day for a couple weeks or so, then you have built the muscle to do a chin-up.

Supposedly. Like I said, I haven't done it yet. Maybe I should take up this challenge...

good idea and makes sense. That is what they use to do to us gals when they tested us in elementary school. I was weak then. My shoulders and triceps really aren't that great.

Here is the link to the Men's Health Article. It tells you how to build up from where you are at even if you can't do one pull up at the present time.

http://www.menshealth.com/cda/article.d ... 281eac____

If the link doesn't work just Google "The Chinup Plan for Everyman" and it will be the first hit.

Hmph. My roommate's method doesn't require any special equipment, and isn't just for every MAN.

I guess I've actually gotta do one now to prove it to that testosterone-centered article.

They tested us in junior high school and I was always totally weak in pull ups and bar dips, basically shoulder muscles and triceps. I was OK at push ups and sit ups and pretty good at running.

I like pullups/chinups because they engage so many muscles all at the same time. Even Dr OZ on Oprah talks about doing chin ups.

They brought a bar out on the stage and he cranked out a few reps. He didn't even come close to pulling his chin to the bar. They were basically a bunch of half reps. It's the spirit that counts though and he was enthusiastic about maintiaining strength. If you've ever seen him you know he is enthusiastic about everything. He is great!

The last half is the hardest. The last quarter where your chin gets up to the bar takes the most strength. Did you read the Men's Health article?

One important thing is to wait a couple days between chin up workouts. Your muscles need time to recover. If I do a workout on Sunday, I wait until Wednesday or Thursday to do my next workout. The article says to do your workout twice per week.

Doing these chinups is really hard for a weakling like me. Sometimes I feel like bagging it and going back to doing high reps with light weights. I'm going to stick with it however. It will probably take me at least a year to reach my goal, but nothing in life is easy right?

I'm doing a modified version of what the article says. Since I can do 4 I do sets of 2 with 60 seconds rest in between. I do 3 sets of 2 and then I do sets of 1 until I can't even pull myself all the way up. I usually do 8-9 total reps.

Carroll
I think you did great. If someone left me hanging I'd immediately be down. I wouldn't have to wait until I started lowering.

I'll have to watch for a bar at a yard sale.

Good job! I haven't tried to do my max number of reps lately. I know I can do 3 pretty easily, so I think I can do 4. It is cool how our muscles get stronger without us really noticing. I've noticed escpecially the muscles for hanging from the bar have gotten a lot stronger. I can also see back muscles in the mirror that I've never had.

I'm glad you made your post. It's inspiration for us to keep going. Congratulations! I'm just about to head down to my garage AKA, "The Torture Chamber" of my own creation.

Update. After about 8 months of not so consistent training. I did five pull ups. I did them on an apparatus that I set up in my garage. I have two free hanging handles, similar to the hanging rings in gymnastics. The handles rotate 360 degrees so at the beginning of the motion my hands are in pull up position and at the top they switch to chin up (palms facing) position.

Pull ups using free hanging handles are harder than on a stationary bar, because your muscles have to overcome the lack of lateral support. I'm happy with my progress since five is more than I could ever do and I'm 48 years old.

It's all fueled by plant protein so I don't believe the myth that vegans can't be strong. My goal is to do ten.

good for you. Just seeing the progress is motivating I'd imagine. I keep looking for someplace to start working on chin and pull ups.

3/1/09 I could only do two full dead hang chin ups. Now, six month later I can do three sets of six. That’s eighteen. Before March I tried standing on a step stool and lowering myself down slowly. I tried lots of sets half way up. Nothing worked.
Then my brother told me about these: http://ironwoodyfitness.com/fitness-bands.php
Look at the 41” pull up bands. You loop them around the bar and put your foot in them and they reduce the amount of weight you are pulling up.
The largest one takes off 115lbs. then 90, 55, 30 and then 10. I just finished my two months of the one that takes off 30lbs and now I can do three sets on six without the bands. I have the last and easiest band to go and I think after that I will be able to do three sets on eight without them. My goal was to be able to do three sets of ten after one year of training and I think I can reach it.
These are the only thing that has ever helped me to do chin ups. Now after my goal I’m going to use them to do pull ups. I can’t even do one . But who knows. In a year of two I might be doing thirty of them. I tried to do both chin ups and pull ups when I started the bands but it was too hard on my upper body. So that’s the reason for the wait for pull ups.

Thanks for inspirational post. I just did a set of four, two sets of three and one set of two yesterday. My gym has the pull up apparatus that allows you to choose a counter weight to make the movement easier.

I really like my set up of rotating handles, it's the same as Perfect Pull Up handles. I've realized that at the start of the movement hands in pull up position is the most efficient to start the upward pull. This engages the back, shoulder and forearm muscles. Halfway up the hands naturally turn 180 degrees and then the final movement happens with palms facing, to fully engage the biceps.