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How to do Your First Full Body Chin Up
Looking to get your first chin up?
This is a great goal to have but to many women, it seems like the impossible.
But it’s very possible…
To master a real chin up, you need to ditch the assisted pull-up machine and adjust to the challenging movement pattern.
Coaches Daisy and Amy have put together some exercise regressions below, that will help you build the foundations towards a full rep.
Start with exercise 1, and when you’ve mastered that move to 2 and then 3.
1. Bar assisted chin up:
Start upright with your body directly underneath the bar on your toes.
Use your upper body as much as possible (your feet are only there to support).
Keeping your abs tight and shoulder blades down and squeezed, focus on pulling the bar down with your arms driving your elbows down to the floor, your chin must come over the bar before you lower yourself to the start position.
2. Isometric holds:
use a step / box to jump yourself up to the top of the bar and hold for 5 seconds (again keep shoulders down and abs tight).
Then practice a dead hang (with straight arms at the bottom).
And finally try and do the same hold half way down (so your elbows are at 90 degrees).
These holds will not only strengthen your muscles, they’ll also improve grip strength (something which many struggle with when starting out)
3. Slow eccentrics (lowering phase of the chin up):
Use a step / box to get yourself to the top of the bar and get right in the top position (abs engaged, shoulders back and squeezed).
With as much control as possible, lower yourself down as slowly as possible, until you reach dead hang and hold for a further few seconds there.
Once you can do an eccentric chin up for 15-20 seconds you should be able to get your first one!
Chin Up Tips
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