Ladies who can do a chin up - how did you get there?

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sparkle5k
sparkle5k Posts: 3 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
This is my new year's resolution but I am not making good progress. I can do 1 assisted chin up with a 30 lb assist. I can do about 10 with a 60-70 lb assist.

How can I build the muscles I need to do a chin up? I would just like a list of specific exercises and reps that I need to do each week, and when to increase them... anybody know of a plan like this?

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  • Jillyfish99
    Jillyfish99 Posts: 34 Member
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    Bump.
    I've never been able to do one without an assist.
    I know it has a lot to do with you core muscles and Lats.
  • kdiamond
    kdiamond Posts: 3,329 Member
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    I wouldn't do them on an assisted machine.

    I started doing them by using a Smith machine bar to hold on to, set low, and putting my feet up on a bench in front of me so I have some body resistance, but not my full body.

    Check this link - and look at picture #2 where it says Level 2.

    It defintely took a lot of time and even now I can only do about 5. In addition to doing 5 sets of 5, I also do cable rows, bent over barbell rows, and lat pulldowns to build up my upper body strength. You should do this for a while to build up strength, eventually you'll be able to do one unassisted.
  • MissPeppers
    MissPeppers Posts: 302 Member
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    I got myself a door gym with a chinup bar and started trying for a complete rep whenever I passed the door it's mounted in. Today I almost did three unassisted ones!
  • Emtabo01
    Emtabo01 Posts: 672
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    NROL4W, stage 6 focuses specifically on that, I'm just finishing it up and did two for the first time in my life.
  • sparkle5k
    sparkle5k Posts: 3 Member
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    @kdiamond - Your link did not show up, but are you talking about the Nerd Fitness site? I had to image search Smith machine, but yeah there is one at the gym so I will have to check and see if I can set it up like that. I feel like that would be too easy, but maybe just increase the reps if it's easy. How long did it take you to do a chin up, and how long did it take you to go from 1 to 5?

    @misspeppers - I have a door chinup bar and I've had it up since Jan 1. I did a really good job of trying to do chin ups at first but eventually just fell off the wagon since I wasn't making progress. I will make a renewed effort to try it a couple times a day, and maybe do some negatives (where you jump up and let yourself fall down slowly.)

    @Emtabo01 - NROL4W... I had to google that too. Looks interesting.

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