The Cheat Chin Up

The chin up is one of the greatest exercises ever thought of. It is seen as one of the greatest upper body exercises and can be done almost anywhere where there is something strong enough to hold above your head.

There are various grips to use when doing chin ups and are thousands of websites available that give good valuable information on this so I won’t bore you. Instead I would like to tell about a special cheat way of doing chin ups for added strength. Normally a chinning movement involves gripping a bar overhead and whilst completing repetitions going up and down, the feet are always off the floor. I have noticed that this is great for building gripping strength but a lot of energy is wasted at the end of each rep when you are hanging from the bar. This energy could be used for a few more reps which will create that little bit more strength in your upper body muscles. To tackle this problem I always do my chin ups on a bar that is high enough for me to be standing relaxed with my feet on the floor at the end of each rep. This enables me to pause and rest for a second before each rep, allowing me to focus all my strength on the pull of each chin up. Alternatively if the bar is to high, I place a box, a board or anything on the floor that will take my weight at the bottom of each rep. Grip strength is worked on other exercises like shrugs and deadlifts so I don’t worry to much about losing out on this when doing chin ups.

Marks