Started regular work out around a year ago. I have never done a chin up before this week and I arrogantly thought I had it in the bag. Turns out I was very wrong. I can hardly do more than 2 chin ups before my arm gave up on me. Any start-up 'cheats' that I can do for my body to slowly gain the ability for it? I used the term cheats because that exactly what I do before I can do regular push ups. Thanks

Train more using lat pull-down machine & your bicep.

Always start your workout with chin-ups or pull-ups as warm up even if its one rep only.

This post has been edited by Amedion: Jan 21 2014, 01:59 PM

anyway u can get support? chair is a good start. use it as support for ur legs when u r about the fail. but of coz dont rely on it too much.

work the negatives. climb up to the top and lower yourself slowly.
that's what I did.

There are no cheats to fast track yourself to doing a chin up. If you can't do a proper chin up my advise would be to start with australian pull ups. check out the link below for tips on doing the australian pull up http://www.alkavadlo.com/2010/01/07/all-ab...alian-pull-ups/

It shouldn't be as hard as a full pull up, as you're not carrying your full body weight. How heavy are you and what previous exercises were you doing?

Thanks . I found working with negatives and chair assisted helped. I still can't barely string 3 chin ups together but at least my form is improving.

Well it's not exactly 'cheats' per se, it's more of a transaction process before i can do the actual thing. I used to weigh 95kg and can barely do push ups to save my life. So I started doing push ups with my leg on a bed and my body on the floor. It's impractical but it did help.

Now I weigh 77kg and still trying to reach optimal weight. I don't have a real set of exercises. Just work out different part of my body like bench press and push up for chest, crunches and leg raise for waist(?), some dumb bell exercise for arm, squats and outdoor sports for leg, and several other work out for shoulder, back etc etc.

Used to do back row exercises for my back but I find that I don't have any real motivation to do it just because I don't feel affected by it. Could be my form is wrong but I just don't bother to find out since. Hence I'm trying chin ups for my back.

This post has been edited by kingvxx: Jan 22 2014, 11:54 AM

You really need to plan out a workout to get the most out of it. If you're able to do push ups from with legs on the bed (it's called incline push up) with out any problem then it's time for you to progress to the next stage. Instead of doing regular full push ups (you are doing that, right? And not wide push ups) try doing diamond push ups/close push ups aiming for at least 2 sets of 20. Forget crunches if you're doing leg raises, i'm assuming you're doing lying leg raises, because leg raises so much better then crunches.

try this workout plan if you want to workout with calisthenics:
diamond push ups 2x20
lying leg raises 2x30
squats 2x50 (or if you feel you can do better the try close squats 2x40)
Australian pull ups 2x30

do them everyday,doesn't matter how many reps you can do
i went from 1 to 25reps in just over a month and half when i started lifting

Go follow a reputable beginner routine. Starting strength, Allpros, ETC.. do fuk loads of reading about nutrients and macros.

Got my answers . Thanks peeps.