One arm chinups—
Originally posted to a personal blog March 2012 and updated near the end of 2018
Now that I can do full OACs with either arm, I think I’m allowed to write on this topic….
I wanted to do OACs basically since I started training, so I guess I trained directly or indirectly for about 3 years, give or take. When I started I could do about 5 full chins, it took me a little over a year to get to 20-straight strict pullups.
A while after that I began doing weighted chins, after some time working with sets of 5 I was able to do a single with +80lb. After that, working with triples (mostly 3×3 with a weight, when I could do all 3 triples with a minute 30 in between I’d increase the weight). This led to PRs of +70×4 and +105×1 (underhand chinups) at a bodyweight of 145.
After quite a long time off from focusing on chinning (~8 months) I started up again with high frequency, low volume sets of 8-12. I worked on this for about 4 months, working up to +45×10 chins and +35×10 pullups with a very wide grip, at a bodyweight of 140. Finally, I spent about 4 months doing 1 or 2 sets of 1 to 4 reps, 2 or 3 days per week.
At this point I was comfortable using +80 or so with very good control and an overhand grip and began thinking of going for a full one arm chinup. I’d spent some time training for the OAC with the ‘towel’ method over a year earlier, holding onto a towel with my ‘non working’ arm and gradually moving down the towel to provide less assistance, but that ended badly–only able to do 15 consecutive chins at the time, I simply was not ready. That was the first and only time I got bad elbow tendonitis.
The final 3 months leading up to the OAC were when I began doing specific exercises.
At first, I felt weakest at the top of the movement, so I started pausing my weighted chins at the top to take away all momentum and get comfortable at holding myself there. I also ended my sessions with a two-armed bodyweight-only hang either at the halfway point, or with my chin over the bar for 1 or 2 sets of 30 to 45 seconds. Both of these additions helped a great deal and soon I was able to ‘lock off’ with one arm, chin over the bar, for 5 seconds or so without trouble. However, the bottom of the movement had now become my main weakness.
To solve this new problem, I began doing my weighted chins with an extra hang at the bottom between rests, pausing for a full second or two and relaxing my shoulders. I had to work into this one slowly to avoid shoulder pain/injury but it did pay off with increased lat/rear delt power off the bottom and increased chest (serratus/pec) recruitment. The other technique I used in the final month or so before the OAC was a one-arm isometric, pulling up from the bottom of an OAC as hard as I could with my lat/bicep and bending my arm as much as possible. I also did a lot of dead-start partials, either 1/2 or 2/3 range of motion on the OAC, for about 6 weeks before the OAC to maintain my specific strength in the upper range of the movement.
In the middle of February I learned that there would be a bodyweight training event on the 25th of March to commemorate Jasper Benincasa’s passing. I decided to try and get the OAC with each arm by then; at the time I was able to do 2/3 reps with each arm and had chinned +90×2 (normal style, no extra pauses). This final month, as aforementioned I did a lot of weighted chins paused at the top and bottom (working up to +90×3 this way), partial OACs (standing on stacked barbell plates beneath the chin bar), isometrics, and finger-assisted full range OACs.
I got my first OAC with my right arm on the 12th, which at the time was probably the best personal record I’d attained in all my training.
Summary:
-be able to do at least 20 consecutive strict pullups from a dead hang (many different methods of achieving this will be outlined in future blog posts)
-add weighted chins, cycle between 3s and sets of 8-10, alternating between a top set and 2-3 sets when progress stalls
-When you can chin about +2/3 bodyweight with full range and good control, begin working on specific stuff
-Partial OACs, slowly adding ROM were my biggest specific helper.
-Pausing weighted chins at the top, and bodyweight chinup holds at the top helped strengthen my ‘finishing’ portion of the chin.
-Isometrics and ‘relaxed’ hangs between reps of weighted chins strengthened my ‘starting’ portion.
-Lots of reverse curls reinforced my brachialis. I did not get tendonitis though my elbows still do hurt for a day or so after a hard OAC session.
…Nearly 6 years later, I cannot at the time of writing do full strict (from a dead hang, straight arm, to chin over the bar) one arm chinups or pullups. I did however, maintain that ability with relative ease until mid-2016. How:
-did not increase in bodyweight
-Had a phase a couple times each year in which I did a relatively high volume of bodyweight pullups (100+ reps in a training session) 2-3 times each week
-in general, maintained upper body pulling with 20-30 total reps in sets of 4-6 of weighted chinups or pullups, using varied grips and weights in the 6-10RM range, once or twice weekly.
-did loads of grip work. At one point, in fact the time that OACs felt the easiest to me, I was doing one arm kettlebell swings with 40-48kg bells multiple times each week as well as working on some progressively heavier bottoms-up kettlebell presses. My hands and lats felt super strong, any pullup bar felt tiny compared to the thick bell handles and I was able to do multiple strict reps of OACs with both arms for the first time ever.
I will add that I definitely wish I had done more rotator cuff and rear delt work, more external rotation and end range shoulder mobility work (in both flexion and extension) in general while pursuing these more advanced upper body pulling goals. However, I’m confident that in the future I’ll be able to achieve those previous levels of performance without any detriment to shoulder health.
