Need Help With PullUps/Dips

[The Red Dragon]

It's a rather embarassing problem but I can't manage to get a single pull up rep without mechanical/spotter aid. How can I go about getting a rep on pullups? Intense trashing of the lats?
I feel like I'm missing out on a lot of great lat/back development by not being able to do them. The same goes with dips .

 

[Mike_Rojas]

It's a rather embarassing problem but I can't manage to get a single pull up rep without mechanical/spotter aid. How can I go about getting a rep on pullups? Intense trashing of the lats?
I feel like I'm missing out on a lot of great lat/back development by not being able to do them. The same goes with dips .

I improved my chinups by starting out with negative only chins. Use a chair or something to get to the top position, and lower yourself down slowly under control. Don't do too much, though.. you'll be sore as hell. You can do the same thing with dips. Just my 2 cents

 

[Lord_Suston]

do lat pull-downs for sets first in your back workout. when you can equal your own weight on the macvhine you will be able to do some reps on the chinup bar

 

[The Red Dragon]

Seems logical, thanks

 

[JJFigure]

Personally, I believe the only way you can master a pullup or a dip is practice. Negatives are a great way to get used to maneuvering your bodyweight through the movement. Start doing a few sets of negatives, then your third or fourth workout, begin with a full rep and finish with negatives, and before too long, you'll be doing full reps for sets. And just ignore the people around you - after all, how many of them are even making the attempt?

Good luck!

 

[Peckz]

I agree that negatives are the way to go. I know some people who are stong at doing lat pulldowns yet suck at pullups.
I could only do one pullup when i started but it didnt take more than two months before i could do 10. I did pullups three times a week to get the feel for it.

 

[megad]

My gym has a great machine by nautilus that is basically weight assisted chinups/dips. I actually still use it when doing 2x8 for chinups. With it, you can simply subtract the weight from your body. For example, if you weigh 200 pounds, you could subtract 50 pounds and do them as if you were a 150 pound person. If your really serious about it, I'm sure that a gym in your area has this machine.

 

[natedog]

Pull-ups and pull-downs are not the same. At 265, I can do 10 pull-ups (without using legs/abs at all), but I'd be hard-pressed to get a single rep at 265 on a pull-down machine.

The best way I've found to increase the number of pull-ups you can do is to do them every day, even twice a day. When you get to where you can do a few in a row, break them up into sets. Do a set of 2 or 3, then do as many as you can on the next set.

 

[The Red Dragon]

Yeah I have several of those machines in my gym but I don't really like relying on machines. Negatives seem like a great idea and so are pulldowns . Thanks guy. I'll try them two out of the three days I work out as opposed to just doing them on back days.