We’re going to piggy back our blog from last week about earning your first Pull Up or Chin Up. However, today’s message can be applied to Presses, Deadlifts, Squats or any other exercise you’re aiming to achieve more reps or increase weight.
When a person has earned their way to performing Band Assisted Chin Ups, they get all fired up to do as many as possible every single session. What ends up happening is they plateau quickly and get frustrated with little progress.
Where you’re starting out using the band to assist you to the top, you want it to almost be “easy” so you can get a lot of quality reps with exceptional technique.
By building up your technique with high volume, you’re allowing your body to adapt to the movement and develop strength.
t’s ok to use a bigger band when you’re just learning the full movement and aiming for more reps. We use lighter kettlebells when we’re performing higher reps and this can apply to your Chin Up training as well.
Everyone makes the common mistake of trying to hit a personal record every time they do a set of Chin Ups or Pull Ups, every single time they come in to train.
Do you attempt a PR every time you Squat, Deadlift or Press during every session? No, that would be ridiculous, exhausting and mentally debilitating.
Train your Chin Up and Pull Up the same way.
When we see members exert to their limit or ceiling every single session, no matter the exercise, more common than not, we begin seeing them experience tweaks and twinges and lots of mounting frustration.
It’s helpful to have an idea of what your technical rep max is (TRM = the most reps you can do in a set with great technique) because that’s a great number to start working your programming around. You have a guideline or baseline to follow and very often 70-80% of that is an ideal target.
However, aiming for that rep max every single session is not the way to train any exercise if your goal is to get stronger.
For certain movements and programming styles, 6-10 reps total is all you need, and maybe that took three total sets or six total sets to hit that rep target range. This might look like:
• 6 sets of 1 rep
• 4 sets of 2 reps
• 3 sets of 2-3 reps
• 5 sets of 2 reps
For other styles of programming, 15-25 reps total might be the target and that could also take three total sets to up to 10 total sets. This could look like:
• 4-6 sets of 4 reps
• 3 sets of 7-8 reps
• 5 sets of 4-5 reps
• 8 sets of 3 reps
• 10 sets of 2 reps
Both can get you to your goal, you just have to be smart and honest with yourself getting there. The variables involved are your training frequency, current strength, your ability to recover neurologically and metabolically, and your unique goals.
I highlighted the 3×7-8 rep scheme because that has been a sweet spot for us progressing our members to the next band down to remove some of the assistance for their Band Assisted Chin Ups. In the past we worked 3 sets of 5 reps before we progressed them to a lower band. What we have found this past year is that when someone can achieve 3 sets of 7 reps, they are far more prepared for the next band that offers less assistance getting them more prepared for their goal of a body weight Chin Up.
Don’t put your focus on the maximal number of reps you can achieve every set of every session with your Chin Ups. Break your sets and reps up so that you hit the total volume target using exceptional technique each rep and you will get closer and closer to accomplishing your first body weight Chin Up or Pull Up.