8 thoughts on “I can do 4”

  2. I recall it’s something the average american can only do one of, but I couldn’t find a stat to support that. It’s something you do on a bar (although, I suppose one could do it in a bar too…. :))

  4. If it’s chins, are they wide-grip? Close-grip? Palms forward? Palms facing?

    Of course, none of this really matters — I don’t believe I can do more than one. 🙁

  5. Yes. Is there really a difference? For me, grip really doesn’t matter. My current chinning bar prefers a wide palms facing grip.

    Matt’s New Chinning Bar

    Last night I did 5. It’s not as good as the “home-made” one I had years ago, made of iron pipe wrapped in athletic tape, but this one doesn’t require putting lag bolts into the walls of my rented house.

  6. I think there is. I can do more close grip chins (palms facing each other if the bar allows it) because it recruits more biceps. If I’m trying to do what I would call “pull-ups” (wide-grip with my palms facing away from me) I’m recruiting more of my lats and back, and I find that much harder.

    But in any case, progress is always good. Well done! 🙂

  7. Reading into your comments, that means you can do one close grip, and zero of the others?

    Since that’s where I was last week, I submit that if you had a chinning bar and started using it a few times a day (like when you happened to walk by a particular doorway), within a few days you’d see little difference between how you gripped the bar.

    But I might just be wrong about how chin ups effect you. Back in high school , when I could do many dozens of chip ups, people would say, “yeah, but can you do it with your hands like X.” I’d always oblige them and hold the bar however they’d like, and keep on chinning away.

  8. Well, actually — the last time I worked out (a couple of weeks ago, as I’ve had a sinus infection which sapped any desire to do much of anything physically taxing) I was able to do 7, 6, 5, and 5 close-grip chins/pull-ups over four sets (about a minute and a half break between). Wide-grip pull-ups are another matter; I’ve never done more than two in a row. But I can’t disagree with your thinking — I’m sure both would improve over time, regardless of which type was used predominantly.

    (My suggestion that I couldn’t do more than one was referring to what I think of when I think of a chin-up, that being the wide-grip, palms facing away variety. I get pain in my shoulders pretty quickly doing much of anything overhead. Too many years of baseball/softball, tennis and volleyball.)

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