Bob Santana: How to Get to a Chinup

[Mark Rippetoe]

Progressing from Lat Pulldown to Chin Ups | Robert Santana

[tallison]

Progressing from Lat Pulldown to Chin Ups | Robert Santana

Quick question: why, when I use my climbers chalk ball in the gym, do I create a cloud of dust that both gives me away (gym vaguely frowns on chalk) and makes me wonder about the effects of breathing in so much particulate matter -- whereas, in this video, there is none of that? Is it just an artifact of the filming, or is that how blocks of chalk behave or am I doing it all wrong?

Request regarding the main topic of the video: there is a unicorn quality to pull/chin ups for those who have never managed one -- it would be *really cool* if you could film the capture of that unicorn (as it were), here, using your trainee in this video. You already start out nicely by using a full grown adult male -- now, if you could convince us that he cannot currently do one pull/chin-up and then post updates as he continues the training you prescribe and finally his day of triumph as he does one with good form, you would have created something I have yet to see on the Internets (where there is a profusion of advice with very little -- perhaps none? -- filmed evidence of the effectiveness of any particular approach to this training goal...).

[Steve R]

I used a plate-loaded overhead cable a few years back to get my first chinup. Getting to about 2/3 of bodyweight for reps was all it took to switch to chinups and quit the machine.

Doing full bodyweight for reps on a machine with a knee pad sounds kind of nuts to me. If you need a knee pad to hold you down you are ready for the real thing.

Reps and sets with small weight increases works like a charm. Band assistance looks like a time waster to me from what I see at the gym.