Quest for the One Arm/Hand Chin-up

If I didn’t have a previous commitment, I’d be there.

Pump-n-go registration form.

One of my favorite pieces of home exercise equipment is the door gym. I’ve had one of these for almost a decade, and it’s great for when you can’t make it to the gym and want to get in a quick workout. I’ve also been using it for my one arm chinup training by doing alternating one hand come downs on it as well as Frenchies and just plain chins. It hasn’t damaged a door frame yet and I’ve used it in several. Set up takes all of a second, and it doubles as a great place to hang clothes. Never feel guilty about not making it to the gym again when you have the door gym at home. Take it apart and take it with you on vacation so you won’t lose a day of training.

While doing the one arm chin alternating comedowns, I thought I would try to pull myself back up after going down about halfway. I wasn’t able to do that but I was able to come to a complete stop during several reps. Who knows, maybe in another month I might be able to pull myself up just a little bit.

I got this one from the beastskills site and they’re called Frenchies.

Take two handed grip – go up to top of chin up – hold five seconds

Go all the way down – go up to 90 degrees – hold five seconds

Go all the way down – go up to 135 degrees – hold five seconds – go down – repeat

Those were tough and good for you.

I also tried some handstand pushups with my feet touching the wall for support. Did four of them. I imagine they are tougher without wall support.

I found this website on the one arm chinup/pullup, http://www.beastskills.com/OneArmPull.htm, which gives some great training tips. The interview with Jack Arnow was very fascinating. I decided to try to judge my progress with some weighted two handed chins. I strapped on 75 lbs to a dip belt and did one with a little struggle. So I strapped on 110 lbs and made my way up to the chinup bar. I would hate to fall or slip with 110 extra pounds strapped around my midsection/hanging between my legs. It just doesn’t seem like the odds are in my favor with that much weight hanging on me.

Despite the risks, I gave it a shot and lowered down. With my initial pull, I quickly realized that we were dealing with a lot of weight. And I mean a lot of weight. So I pulled like my life depended on it and got one with 110 lbs strapped on. So 60 more pounds and I might be really close. I need to find another way to add weight because hanging it from a dip belt isn’t safe and comprimises your lower back. Anyhow, it gave me a good impression of what kind of pull will be needed to do a one hander later.

Well I did something that I’ve never done before after a Pump and Run, I went running 2 days later. The training continues for next year. I’m going to make it a year round effort this time.

In one hand chinup training, I’m feeling a lot stronger in the right arm but the left arm feels like it is falling behind. I may up my training on this to a couple times a week.

Lord’s gym in Cincinnati is sponsoring a pump and run race for the first weekend in May.

I was working out last night thinking about the possibility of a one hand chin up and wondered if doing two handers with weight strapped around my waist would help. It would take out the balance necessary for a one hander but would help build the brute strength necessary to do a one hander. For example, if you go to the point where you could strap your body weight on and do some two handers, I imagine a one hander wouldn’t be too far away. I may send an email to my friends over at dragondoor.com and see what they have to say.

Arnow and Lechner at dragondoor.com say that youth and less bodyweight are the keys to success with the one hand chinup. I’m not exactly young at 37 and not really light at 175 but maybe I can drop five pounds more and aid my cause. Arnow in his 60’s and Lechner weighing in at 205 lbs. still did ‘em so I have a shot.

A week and a half until the Arnold Pump and Run and my bench press workouts haven’t been too great recently. I did the workout below except just did two of 260 and 1 of 270 and skipped 280 altogether. Some days you just don’t have it. Will report more on one arm comedowns part 2 soon.

I’ve been kind of training for a one hand chin up for quite some time now. Unfortunately, my training has been all wrong. I thought that I could train for such a feat using the Gravitron 2000 (a machine used for chin ups, pull ups and dips that allows you to subtract weight from your body weight). Most people use the Gravitron 2000 to do assisted chin ups or dips with two hands. I was using it to do assisted one handed pull ups. Actually my grip was between that of a chin up and a pull up (palms would face each other if doing a two handed chinup). I was able to do a one hander with just 10 pounds on the Gravitron 2000, but the Gravitron requires you to stand on a platform. Doing so allows you to cheat a little bit. If you bend your knees at the bottom, you get a little momentum going back up. As I learned later after stumbling upon this site, the Gravitron doesn’t require you to develop the balance necessary to do a one hand chin up either.

By the way, this is a TRUE one handed chin up. The other arm dangles completely free and doesn’t hold on to anything.

As Jack Arnow and Alex Lechner recommend in their site, I revamped my training by doing the alternate one arm come downs. These are basically negative reps of a one arm chinup. Arnow and Lechner give a detailed description of these on their site so suffice it to say that you pull yourself up with two arms; let go with one arm; and lower yourself as slowly as possible. Pull yourself back up again; let go with the other arm; and lower yourself as slowly as possible. Of course, I did a good warmup of 3 sets of 10 for wide grip pull ups beforehand. These one arm come downs are absolute hell. If you don’t believe me, try one and see if you can lower yourself longer than one tenth of a second. Or try one and see if you don’t rip your arm right out of its socket.

These things are brain synapse deleterious. You lose the mind power to even count what rep you are on when you do them for the first time. I can see how you can either build enormous strength from doing these or simply end up in a nursing home before age 40 as a result. Well, hopefully nobody else will be dressing me any time soon. I had to laugh at Arnow and Lechner’s advice to not even bother doing curls to build arm strength at the same time. After one session, I can see that they were exactly right. Surprisingly, two days later, my triceps and shoulders are the most sore.

I’ll try another session of the amputee makers in a few days and report again with my findings.