How common are single arm chins?

[elVarouza]

I'm surprised nobody else has seen a legit one-arm chinup. I know two serious rock climbers who can do 2-3 reps each arm. The third guy I know was a college roommate who decided he wanted to do one arm chins and trained at it for a couple years while also running some bastardized version of the SS progression. It was almost laughable watching him do normal two-arm unweighted chinups for his warmup, he could pull so fast his hips would slam the bar.

That said, everyone who I've seen do one has been < 165lbs. Really strong guys though. One of the rock climbers pressed his BW with no warmup. I've still never pressed my BW lol (although I'm much heavier). The other guy has benched 350 at 150lbs BW.

[tertius]

This guy can do several per arm, on a ring:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izSRjdYln8E

This skinny asshole (he appears to be a sort of performer?) can do multiple as pull-ups (not exactly, due to rotation around the arm) + weight on his strong side, as well as single finger variants:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HBQRYO105g

I would guess they are far more common in the small subset of people whose livelihood (and occasionally lives) might depend on them being able to haul themselves up with one arm: gymnasts, circus performers and other aerialists (I'm sure many trapeze artists can do them), and pro climbers.

I don't think anyone else really has all that much incentive to develop the skill.

[Joe Tandy]

These aren't circus tricks, FYI.

[idlehands]

So, you've seen one video of a guy almost do it.



I know hundreds of people squatting 500 now, and I've never seen a clean one-arm pullup. So, there you go. Are these circus tricks somehow important?

I've seen a ton of videos of people doing them. I took this video a month ago or so of a friend. So yah I know a guy fairly close to getting a one arm chin.
Silly human tricks are a fun way to put strength into perspective. Like closing a captains of crush 3 or picking a 45 up by the hub or any number of strength feats. My father had one where he'd take a vertically loaded bar with 225, tip it onto his back , squat some reps and then put it back.

No argument here that it's a human trick. In the 5 gyms i go to in this area I know of 3 500 lbs squats (one in wraps) and 1 guy closing in on a 1 arm chin.

[perman]

You think 500-pound squats are a remarkable achievement, and that one-arm chins can contribute as much to athletic performance as heavy squats?

That would depend on the sport to be fair. Relative strength is more important than absolute strength in a number of sports after all, even though you could make the argument that a 500-pound squat is generally more useful. I'd hazard a guess that that the one-arm-chin-up guy would usually be overall more athletic in the sense of running fast and long which is required in many sports.

[sika]

It's not uncommon for climbers to manage a one-arm pullup.
Multiple one-finger pullups are less common:

[TedB]

A man who can squat 500 pounds is obviously strong. But a 500 pound squat alone doesn't tell us a thing about relative strength (what if he weighs 300?!) or about upper body pulling strength in general.

Rip, I am not sure whether you think I shouldn't have bothered you with this question, but I don't see what this has to do with crossfit or how a single arm chin is a circus act. In my opinion it is a great accomplishment actually and proof of tremendous relative upper body pulling strength, which is important in a lot of sports.

[UberBabs]

World class climbers do one arm pullups and levers.

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=...electedIndex=0

[climber511]

How many people do you know that can do one?

I probably know a half dozen who can do it - but they are all rock climbers and very light in bodyweight - plus climbing is all about pulling in a motion similar to it.

[Mark Rippetoe]

No argument here that it's a human trick. In the 5 gyms i go to in this area I know of 3 500 lbs squats (one in wraps) and 1 guy closing in on a 1 arm chin.

At what bodyweight?

Relative strength is more important than absolute strength in a number of sports after all, even though you could make the argument that a 500-pound squat is generally more useful.

A large number of sports? Climbing, bull riding, gymnastics. What else?

I'd hazard a guess that that the one-arm-chin-up guy would usually be overall more athletic in the sense of running fast and long which is required in many sports.

I'd guess that the only thing a one-arm chin predicts is a light bodyweight. I'm interested in why you think it predicts athleticism. Running fast and long is required in soccer, distance events, and what else?

World class climbers do one arm pullups and levers.

Duh.

I probably know a half dozen who can do it - but they are all rock climbers and very light in bodyweight - plus climbing is all about pulling in a motion similar to it.

So, what we seem to agree on is that it's uncommon, climbers can do it, and that skinny people can do it. Wonderful.