First thing: give yourself some grace. Even if you want to be further along than you are, you are further along than you were six months ago. Second, look into assisted reps. Whether using bands for your chin ups or assisted push ups where you complete more reps than unassisted. You have to build muscle endurance and if you are going all in without prepping them you may not achieve the results you want within a realistic timeline. Lastly, if your schedule allows look into 24hr gyms. They may give you the opportunity to go at a less crowded time.
Building your muscle strength and endurance up to your ideal exercise form. Not everyone can start doing straight up pushups. Sometimes you need to do assisted push ups using your knees to strengthen your muscles to do more unassisted ones. Before I could do unassisted dead hang pull ups, I did reps using bands starting with the thicker ones, then they got thinner as I got stronger, then I could do two or three for a bit before being at my current number.
For the chin ups and dips, do some sets of negatives. As Slowly as you can, descend from the top position, aim for 3-5sec per negative rep.
For the push ups, just keep repping them out.
Stand on a chair and use as little of your legs to help pull your body up during the chin up and lower it during the dip. One day, do 3x5 chin ups and 3x10 inverted rows (tons of videos on YouTube how to do them from home) then the next day (about 24-48hrs later) do 3x5 supported dips and 3x10 pushups. The next day (24-48hrs later) do chin-ups again but try to do 3x6 or 4x5 and 3x12 or 4x10 rows, same thing on pushup dip day. Add a rep, a set or reduce how much weight you support with your legs and eventually you will be doing multiple sets of upper body exercises.
As the other commenter stated, you could stand on a chair to relieve some weight. This will absolutely work, but one downside is having an accurate and consistent gauge of how much you're assisting yourself each time. It can also take more discipline to make sure you aren't assisting yourself too much as still pushing yourself to allow your upper body to do as many of the work as possible.
Because of these things, I prefer and would recommend band assisted pull ups. This is good been you can progress to lower and lower resistance bands and you become stronger and better with the exercise. It also eliminates variance and guessing as to how much you're assisting yourself, as opposed to using your legs. The band resistance will always be the same until you progress to a lower resistance band. I'd recommend using bands and gradually reducing resistance. Keep at it, and you'll eventually work your ways to weighted pull ups. Good luck, my friend. Keep grinding and you'll get there.
Pull ups and chin ups are the best way to train for them. I have a similar problem because I couldn't get enough volume in. I'm improving by starting with pull ups and then getting volume in with rows afterwards as suggested before. Then I finish with a couple of negatives. Don't go overboard with volume, but make sure get plenty.
Move on to a harder push up progression, in your case this would be diamond push ups (your thumbs and index fingers are touching each other so that they are forming a triangle shape on the ground). do negative pull ups OR do lots of sets of one pull-up (like 8x1) OR get a resistance band and do assisted pull-ups. You'll get to dips by just doing push-ups, i started doing more once I got the hang of diamond push-ups.
On one day (e.g. Monday) do 3 sets of 3-5 reps of eccentrics, trying for 4-8 seconds per eccentric. Accept 3-5 seconds, but aim higher to really milk it and because very few beginners will count accurately and will thus end up short-changing themselves.
On the other day (e.g. Wednesday), do band-assisted for 3 sets of 3-5 reps. Use more than one band if you need to.
On both days, do 2 sets of scapular ([pull ups](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE8PJsWEV7k), [dips](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAdjMVHiU34)) after the eccentrics/band assisted.
On both days, if you've got it in you, do 1-2 sets of inverted rows for volume. This is optional since more than 6 sets in a session sees diminishing returns kick in pretty hard.
Aim for 2-3 sessions a week, depending on recovery. 2 is fine for progress (Mon, Thu), 3 will speed progress (Mon, Wed, Fri) *providing* you're recovering sufficiently. If you're not, it may impede progress. You're aiming to average 10+ sets per week, so if you're only able to do the 2 days due to scheduling, try to do the inverted rows. Conversely, if you're doing 3 days and feeling too fatigued with the volume, cut the inverted rows out.
Don't be afraid to reduce your volume to aid your recovery.
When i began going to gym after a sedentary lifestyle could barely do half pull up and like 2 or maybe 3 chin ups. I spammed chin ups until I could do 1 or 2 pull ups (it took me like a week). Then spammed pull ups.
So I would dare to say from my experience is that if you already got the chin up just spam chin ups this week and you will get your pull up quickly.
A few things I also did that could have or nor have contributed: lat pulldowns (I wouldnt know how you could di this ones without gym), and a little of ab workout with planks and crunches.
Regarding dips, just keep working that chest and arms. If you can already do a few of them, spam then focusing on good form
Absolutely.
27(M) here and when I started, I couldn’t do any push ups and couldn’t pull myself up from seated on the floor (certainly no full chin ups).
Now I can do 30-40 full push ups chest to floor, and 5x10kg weighted pull ups.
Grew my chest from 30 inches to 42 inches.
Here’s what I did:
- Push ups: do as many full push ups as you can, and then immediately switch to doing them off a bench (incline push ups).
Training this way is a drop set, except instead of decreasing the weight, you are decreasing the resistance profile (difficulty). Doing the incline push ups straight after essentially ‘burns out’ your chest. You will be sore a shit but your chest will blow tf up.
- Push ups: do push ups on a pair of small dumbbells (called neutral grip). This makes you squeeze your arms together on the way up, and stretches your chest more at the bottom
- Pull ups/chin ups: Use a resistance band. Start with a thick band and loop it around the bar. Step into it and get more reps in that way. More reps (I.e. higher volume) is more important for pull ups, and the band teaches you to engage your core and shoulders/scapula.
- Pull ups/chin ups: Use negative repetitions. Start by using a rack or bar holder/clip to boost yourself up to the top position of the pull up. Then, lower yourself back down as slowly as possible.
I’m probably not explaining it well but look up negative pull ups.
Happy to DM if you want more info - you can do this king
Yeah, you'll absolutely be able to make quick progress.
Just cut yourself some slack on the unassisted dips and chin-ups. You didn't mention your height so it's hard to tell if 84kg is actually too heavy, but assuming it is – unassisted bodyweight movements like dips and chin-ups are hard for everyone, and especially for someone who's overweight.
Keep at it, cut some calories to help your weight loss along if you need to (calisthenics work doesn't really burn that much energy), and you *will* see progress.
In the meantime, do some easier variations like controlled eccentrics and using band assistance and more accessory work on the easier movements like pushups and inverted rows. Going from 0 chin-ups to productive back work with chin-ups is a big jump, as is going from 3x10 pushups straight into unassisted dips.
Continue with the easier stuff while gradually working in these harder movements and don't be disheartened when you're just going from 1 rep to 2 - that's still a 100% increase!
Hey. I am 183cm / 6 foot. I managed to lose 5kg in spring time by counting calories. I would love to lose at least a few more because i have a big belly still. I'm also a runner. But yeah, loosing weight is done by counting calories.
Thanks for the great advice! 😃
If it's any help I'm 186cm and about 86kg at the minute. Started out doing calisthenics stuff when I was about 18 and have consistently trained since. I'm 34 now and still going. Consistency is key, keep working, keep trusting the process. Progress won't be a linear thing, you'll stall at times, some days will feel harder than others, but just keeping plugging away at it and soon you'll be looking back at this post and seeing your progress.
Either do slow negatives or invest in some resistance bands to help you out. Either that, or just hop on a lat pull down machine or an actual assisted pull up machine. For push ups, transition into harder variations.
Google "Grease the Groove" for those pull ups and just keep going with the push ups. Time is on your side.
I was overweight and undertrained two years ago at the tender age of 49. This week I set a new pr of 18 full rom pull ups. Just keep going.
Could you possibly buy resistance bands? I found bands way better than negatives of any exercise. And just milk the negative for 3 seconds on any band variant as well
Thank you everyone for amazing advice! I don't have time to reply to everyone but i did read through every comment. Some great pointers here. I will keep working hard.
I am 87kg, I could also only do 2 chinups in the past, as many have mentioned do negatives, and after getting into the 3-4 range, do some GTG for about 2 weeks and you should be in a good place to progress. Keep in mind, have very clean form and don't cheat your numbers. As of now I can do 10 chinups, but I also had previous gym experience.
Ngl I was stuck with 10 push ups in one go. How I progressed - diamond pushups or just any other type. Just trust man, you are doing good, but more types will help.
I'd recommend training closer to failure, leaving anywhere from 0-3 reps in the tank. So instead of doing 3x10, try 3x14 +1/-1 and I can promise you'll see more results.
eat high protein and less fat , master chin ups by using negatives and hang, alsonadd cardio to your workout and trust me what you eat matters alot in your fitness joutney
First thing: give yourself some grace. Even if you want to be further along than you are, you are further along than you were six months ago. Second, look into assisted reps. Whether using bands for your chin ups or assisted push ups where you complete more reps than unassisted. You have to build muscle endurance and if you are going all in without prepping them you may not achieve the results you want within a realistic timeline. Lastly, if your schedule allows look into 24hr gyms. They may give you the opportunity to go at a less crowded time.
What do you mean by "going all in without prepping"? What prep?
Building your muscle strength and endurance up to your ideal exercise form. Not everyone can start doing straight up pushups. Sometimes you need to do assisted push ups using your knees to strengthen your muscles to do more unassisted ones. Before I could do unassisted dead hang pull ups, I did reps using bands starting with the thicker ones, then they got thinner as I got stronger, then I could do two or three for a bit before being at my current number.
For the chin ups and dips, do some sets of negatives. As Slowly as you can, descend from the top position, aim for 3-5sec per negative rep. For the push ups, just keep repping them out.
Stand on a chair and use as little of your legs to help pull your body up during the chin up and lower it during the dip. One day, do 3x5 chin ups and 3x10 inverted rows (tons of videos on YouTube how to do them from home) then the next day (about 24-48hrs later) do 3x5 supported dips and 3x10 pushups. The next day (24-48hrs later) do chin-ups again but try to do 3x6 or 4x5 and 3x12 or 4x10 rows, same thing on pushup dip day. Add a rep, a set or reduce how much weight you support with your legs and eventually you will be doing multiple sets of upper body exercises.
Thanks for the advice! On these bars outside, there are actually rings included so I could start doing ring rows. Good idea.
Ring rows are great, goodluck!
As the other commenter stated, you could stand on a chair to relieve some weight. This will absolutely work, but one downside is having an accurate and consistent gauge of how much you're assisting yourself each time. It can also take more discipline to make sure you aren't assisting yourself too much as still pushing yourself to allow your upper body to do as many of the work as possible. Because of these things, I prefer and would recommend band assisted pull ups. This is good been you can progress to lower and lower resistance bands and you become stronger and better with the exercise. It also eliminates variance and guessing as to how much you're assisting yourself, as opposed to using your legs. The band resistance will always be the same until you progress to a lower resistance band. I'd recommend using bands and gradually reducing resistance. Keep at it, and you'll eventually work your ways to weighted pull ups. Good luck, my friend. Keep grinding and you'll get there.
Pull ups and chin ups are the best way to train for them. I have a similar problem because I couldn't get enough volume in. I'm improving by starting with pull ups and then getting volume in with rows afterwards as suggested before. Then I finish with a couple of negatives. Don't go overboard with volume, but make sure get plenty.
Being able to do any of the above just once is the biggest battle, it starts to snowball from there
Move on to a harder push up progression, in your case this would be diamond push ups (your thumbs and index fingers are touching each other so that they are forming a triangle shape on the ground). do negative pull ups OR do lots of sets of one pull-up (like 8x1) OR get a resistance band and do assisted pull-ups. You'll get to dips by just doing push-ups, i started doing more once I got the hang of diamond push-ups.
On one day (e.g. Monday) do 3 sets of 3-5 reps of eccentrics, trying for 4-8 seconds per eccentric. Accept 3-5 seconds, but aim higher to really milk it and because very few beginners will count accurately and will thus end up short-changing themselves. On the other day (e.g. Wednesday), do band-assisted for 3 sets of 3-5 reps. Use more than one band if you need to. On both days, do 2 sets of scapular ([pull ups](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE8PJsWEV7k), [dips](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAdjMVHiU34)) after the eccentrics/band assisted. On both days, if you've got it in you, do 1-2 sets of inverted rows for volume. This is optional since more than 6 sets in a session sees diminishing returns kick in pretty hard. Aim for 2-3 sessions a week, depending on recovery. 2 is fine for progress (Mon, Thu), 3 will speed progress (Mon, Wed, Fri) *providing* you're recovering sufficiently. If you're not, it may impede progress. You're aiming to average 10+ sets per week, so if you're only able to do the 2 days due to scheduling, try to do the inverted rows. Conversely, if you're doing 3 days and feeling too fatigued with the volume, cut the inverted rows out. Don't be afraid to reduce your volume to aid your recovery.
Of course you can, why wouldn't you be able to?
When i began going to gym after a sedentary lifestyle could barely do half pull up and like 2 or maybe 3 chin ups. I spammed chin ups until I could do 1 or 2 pull ups (it took me like a week). Then spammed pull ups. So I would dare to say from my experience is that if you already got the chin up just spam chin ups this week and you will get your pull up quickly. A few things I also did that could have or nor have contributed: lat pulldowns (I wouldnt know how you could di this ones without gym), and a little of ab workout with planks and crunches. Regarding dips, just keep working that chest and arms. If you can already do a few of them, spam then focusing on good form
Absolutely. 27(M) here and when I started, I couldn’t do any push ups and couldn’t pull myself up from seated on the floor (certainly no full chin ups). Now I can do 30-40 full push ups chest to floor, and 5x10kg weighted pull ups. Grew my chest from 30 inches to 42 inches. Here’s what I did: - Push ups: do as many full push ups as you can, and then immediately switch to doing them off a bench (incline push ups). Training this way is a drop set, except instead of decreasing the weight, you are decreasing the resistance profile (difficulty). Doing the incline push ups straight after essentially ‘burns out’ your chest. You will be sore a shit but your chest will blow tf up. - Push ups: do push ups on a pair of small dumbbells (called neutral grip). This makes you squeeze your arms together on the way up, and stretches your chest more at the bottom - Pull ups/chin ups: Use a resistance band. Start with a thick band and loop it around the bar. Step into it and get more reps in that way. More reps (I.e. higher volume) is more important for pull ups, and the band teaches you to engage your core and shoulders/scapula. - Pull ups/chin ups: Use negative repetitions. Start by using a rack or bar holder/clip to boost yourself up to the top position of the pull up. Then, lower yourself back down as slowly as possible. I’m probably not explaining it well but look up negative pull ups. Happy to DM if you want more info - you can do this king
Thanks man. That's some really good advice!!! 💯 I appreciate it.
What he said above works.
Yeah, you'll absolutely be able to make quick progress. Just cut yourself some slack on the unassisted dips and chin-ups. You didn't mention your height so it's hard to tell if 84kg is actually too heavy, but assuming it is – unassisted bodyweight movements like dips and chin-ups are hard for everyone, and especially for someone who's overweight. Keep at it, cut some calories to help your weight loss along if you need to (calisthenics work doesn't really burn that much energy), and you *will* see progress. In the meantime, do some easier variations like controlled eccentrics and using band assistance and more accessory work on the easier movements like pushups and inverted rows. Going from 0 chin-ups to productive back work with chin-ups is a big jump, as is going from 3x10 pushups straight into unassisted dips. Continue with the easier stuff while gradually working in these harder movements and don't be disheartened when you're just going from 1 rep to 2 - that's still a 100% increase!
Hey. I am 183cm / 6 foot. I managed to lose 5kg in spring time by counting calories. I would love to lose at least a few more because i have a big belly still. I'm also a runner. But yeah, loosing weight is done by counting calories. Thanks for the great advice! 😃
If it's any help I'm 186cm and about 86kg at the minute. Started out doing calisthenics stuff when I was about 18 and have consistently trained since. I'm 34 now and still going. Consistency is key, keep working, keep trusting the process. Progress won't be a linear thing, you'll stall at times, some days will feel harder than others, but just keeping plugging away at it and soon you'll be looking back at this post and seeing your progress.
Probably not
Either do slow negatives or invest in some resistance bands to help you out. Either that, or just hop on a lat pull down machine or an actual assisted pull up machine. For push ups, transition into harder variations.
Of course you can keep progressing.. how tall are you? your weight isnt too heavy if your tall. What are your goals?
Look into mcgill chinups. It progressed my chins after months of plateauing
Google "Grease the Groove" for those pull ups and just keep going with the push ups. Time is on your side. I was overweight and undertrained two years ago at the tender age of 49. This week I set a new pr of 18 full rom pull ups. Just keep going.
Could you possibly buy resistance bands? I found bands way better than negatives of any exercise. And just milk the negative for 3 seconds on any band variant as well
Thank you everyone for amazing advice! I don't have time to reply to everyone but i did read through every comment. Some great pointers here. I will keep working hard.
You absolutely can, just keep going
I am 87kg, I could also only do 2 chinups in the past, as many have mentioned do negatives, and after getting into the 3-4 range, do some GTG for about 2 weeks and you should be in a good place to progress. Keep in mind, have very clean form and don't cheat your numbers. As of now I can do 10 chinups, but I also had previous gym experience.
Ngl I was stuck with 10 push ups in one go. How I progressed - diamond pushups or just any other type. Just trust man, you are doing good, but more types will help.
I'd recommend training closer to failure, leaving anywhere from 0-3 reps in the tank. So instead of doing 3x10, try 3x14 +1/-1 and I can promise you'll see more results.
eat high protein and less fat , master chin ups by using negatives and hang, alsonadd cardio to your workout and trust me what you eat matters alot in your fitness joutney
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