can anybody here do 1-arm chins?

[jprc10]

why listen to you?   I am pointing out the risks of an exercise that really has no real value. Ask any bodybuilder who has had a serious Bicep or shoulder tear if it effected their training..Dorian Yates for example. Seems a high risk for no real value.

The OP can choose to listen to whoever he wants.

ANY and every exercise has risks if done improperly.
1 arm chins definitively have value in training.

Would you advice against squats just cause they have back, knee and hip injury risks and say they have no value just because you can replace them with other movements? (lunges, split squats, leg press, etc.)
What about the bench press? It has serious shoulder injury risks if done improperly and can easily be replaced by other movements. Still you cannot say they have no value or are too "risky" for others.

No disrespect, but you're just biased.

[Donny]

i donīt see it as disrespect but i am not biased...ask Mr yates if it caused him trouble...

[dj181]

Thing is, most people treat this exercise (and others too) as an ego lift, just trying to see how many reps or how much weight they can lift without really caring about muscle stress, when the most important thing is to put the most tension on the muscles as possible while doing it.

agree fully with this statement, but one needs progressive tension overload to get bigger muscles and that's just fact

i've never increased the size of my muscles without adding weight to the bar never

if someone can actually get bigger muscles without progressive tension overload then i'd like to see it

and as far as form is concerned, yes it is very important, and my form on chins is spot on as i start each rep from a dead hang and i pull myself all the way up till my chin is well over the bar and i pause in that top position for a second or two

[jprc10]

@ dj181, I agree that progressive overload is important, but never at the expense of form. Adding weight or reps is also in my opinion the only way to get bigger. Some people claim volume or "muscle confusion" principles work too, but they never did for me.

@ donny, you know Yates tore his bicep while doing rows right? What does that have to do with 1 arm chins?
Furthermore, he tore it not cause of the rows themselves, but because he was doing them improperly and going beyond failure few weeks out from a contest (something he said should have never done).
NO relation to the exercise being discussed in this thread.

You also haven't answered the questions about the bench press or squats.

[Donny]

@ dj181, I agree that progressive overload is important, but never at the expense of form. Adding weight or reps is also in my opinion the only way to get bigger. Some people claim volume or "muscle confusion" principles work too, but they never did for me.

@ donny, you know Yates tore his bicep while doing rows right? What does that have to do with 1 arm chins?
Furthermore, he tore it not cause of the rows themselves, but because he was doing them improperly and going beyond failure few weeks out from a contest (something he said should have never done).
NO relation to the exercise being discussed in this thread.

You also haven't answered the questions about the bench press or squats.

of course i know he did them rowing and TWO handed.. my point ..if you think about it for a moment is..if he did this with two hands donīt tell me putting a high amount of stress with one hand is not more risky. i suggest you speak to a Sports Doctor or Physiotherapist.

[Donny]

also you write you are still working on standard chin ups and have better development than with curls. I agree you will get bicep development but you will never work the biceps like with curls...

[Mr Nobody]

agree fully with this statement, but one needs progressive tension overload to get bigger muscles and that's just fact

i've never increased the size of my muscles without adding weight to the bar never

if someone can actually get bigger muscles without progressive tension overload then i'd like to see it

and as far as form is concerned, yes it is very important, and my form on chins is spot on as i start each rep from a dead hang and i pull myself all the way up till my chin is well over the bar and i pause in that top position for a second or two

Agreed. Full contraction and full extension no momentum or jerking, that's where you get injured. To progress add weight when your rep range has been surpassed. Not rocket science.

[jprc10]

of course i know he did them rowing and TWO handed.. my point ..if you think about it for a moment is..if he did this with two hands donīt tell me putting a high amount of stress with one hand is not more risky. i suggest you speak to a Sports Doctor or Physiotherapist.

The reason he tore his biceps was not because of the stress placed on it only. He tore it mainly due to form issues, Yates himself said he trained too explosively at times, and he tore it specially because he was going to failure while being highly depleted few weeks out from a contest.
1 arm chins would not present any problem, no matter how much stress they place on the muscle. Note that stress must be on the muscle, not the joints, tendons, etc. Again, good form is important.

And to repeat myself, one should do 1 arm chins when they are strong enough for them. An injury could happen if someone does them from the start without being ready yet. Imagine being able to squat 225 for 8 reps at the most, but somewhat trying for 405 all of a sudden. What do you think would happen? A tremendous injury obviously. Same concept with the 1 arm chins, you need to ease into them.

[Donny]

The reason he tore his biceps was not because of the stress placed on it only. He tore it mainly due to form issues, Yates himself said he trained too explosively at times, and he tore it specially because he was going to failure while being highly depleted few weeks out from a contest.
1 arm chins would not present any problem, no matter how much stress they place on the muscle. Note that stress must be on the muscle, not the joints, tendons, etc. Again, good form is important.

And to repeat myself, one should do 1 arm chins when they are strong enough for them. An injury could happen if someone does them from the start without being ready yet. Imagine being able to squat 225 for 8 reps at the most, but somewhat trying for 405 all of a sudden. What do you think would happen? A tremendous injury obviously. Same concept with the 1 arm chins, you need to ease into them.

well you train how you feel.. donīt need to repeat yourself Son. i do not recommend one arm chins and i do not agree chins give better bicep development than curls. I am not against them because i did them today in an arm workout WITH curls.

[Donny]

The reason he tore his biceps was not because of the stress placed on it only. He tore it mainly due to form issues, Yates himself said he trained too explosively at times, and he tore it specially because he was going to failure while being highly depleted few weeks out from a contest.
1 arm chins would not present any problem, no matter how much stress they place on the muscle. Note that stress must be on the muscle, not the joints, tendons, etc. Again, good form is important.

And to repeat myself, one should do 1 arm chins when they are strong enough for them. An injury could happen if someone does them from the start without being ready yet. Imagine being able to squat 225 for 8 reps at the most, but somewhat trying for 405 all of a sudden. What do you think would happen? A tremendous injury obviously. Same concept with the 1 arm chins, you need to ease into them.

can't agree with what you wrote ..that it does not matter how much stress you put on the biceps...you understand biceps are small ...or maybe you don't.

[jpm101]

Anyone mention the outstanding development of biceps that most gymnast have. Not too bad at all, including triceps. They don't seem to spend too much time on curls with BB, DB or cables. All bar & ring work. Gymnast have been know to do one arm work in training.

Back in Yates day there seemed a lot of bicep, pec, etc muscle insert injuries. A little secret was that a overuse of certain drugs (or combo of) was responsible.  Yate was using the curl grip row, if I remember correctly, when snap went the bicep. This movement is one of the better lat builders, though offering quite a lot of stress on the biceps.

Still puzzling why such an over reaction to this one arm chinning exercise, from one person. The more he post  his fuzzy logic, the more suspect he becomes as to his motives. Sure he may be  great guy, meeting him in person. But something happens to a few who come on the internet, the whole persona seems to change for the worse. Good Luck.

[dj181]

i never got shit out of iso moves, ever

compounds crush isos

[Yev33]

Personally I have never really tried one arm chins. I attempted them once and was able to get half way up. Then after watching some videos of people doing them I realized that this lift is as much skill as strength. I was trying to do them like a regular chin up when I should have been trying to corckscrew (best way of putting it) my way up.

In my opinion it's a neat trick to be able to do but it's not as productive as regular weighted chin/pull up variations.

Now to my favorite part, this quote: AJ once said "once you can do 10 full-range 1-arm chins then your arms will be as big as they are ever gonna be"

This would all depend on your BW wouldn't it? What about tricep development?

This is one of the many examples of why you gotta take everything AJ said about training with a big grain of salt.

[Donny]

We'll some people jpm can't take any critical comments and react with sarcastic comments. A bit stupid really.

[Donny]

Personally I have never really tried one arm chins. I attempted them once and was able to get half way up. Then after watching some videos of people doing them I realized that this lift is as much skill as strength. I was trying to do them like a regular chin up when I should have been trying to corckscrew (best way of putting it) my way up.

In my opinion it's a neat trick to be able to do but it's not as productive as regular weighted chin/pull up variations.

Now to my favorite part, this quote: AJ once said "once you can do 10 full-range 1-arm chins then your arms will be as big as they are ever gonna be"

This would all depend on your BW wouldn't it? What about tricep development?

This is one of the many examples of why you gotta take everything AJ said about training with a big grain of salt.

100%,correct

[dj181]

Personally I have never really tried one arm chins. I attempted them once and was able to get half way up. Then after watching some videos of people doing them I realized that this lift is as much skill as strength. I was trying to do them like a regular chin up when I should have been trying to corckscrew (best way of putting it) my way up.

In my opinion it's a neat trick to be able to do but it's not as productive as regular weighted chin/pull up variations.

Now to my favorite part, this quote: AJ once said "once you can do 10 full-range 1-arm chins then your arms will be as big as they are ever gonna be"

This would all depend on your BW wouldn't it? What about tricep development?

This is one of the many examples of why you gotta take everything AJ said about training with a big grain of salt.

agreed about the importance of weighted chins over 1-armed chins

and also agreed about your take on the AJ statement

remember, AJ had outstanding biceps but his tris were just above average

there's a pic somewhere of him standing behind casey v both of them flexing their bis, and AJ's bis are as big as casey v's

[jprc10]

can't agree with what you wrote ..that it does not matter how much stress you put on the biceps...you understand biceps are small ...or maybe you don't.

You must've missed the part where I posted that one must be strong enough to try 1 arm chins in good form, then and only then will stress on the muscle be actually productive.

I'm still waiting for an answer on the squats and benches example....would you agree with someone recommending against them?

[jprc10]

well you train how you feel.. donīt need to repeat yourself Son. i do not recommend one arm chins and i do not agree chins give better bicep development than curls. I am not against them because i did them today in an arm workout WITH curls.

Its fine if you don't agree man, but curls never did a thing for me. Chins on the other hand, made my biceps (and lats) grow better than any other movement.
Actually, direct arm work never did much other than give a nice temporary pump, progression on compounds is where its at.
But apparently curls do work for you, that is great, we're all different, no problem. To say that 1 arm chins are a no no because they are "too risky" and of no value is nonsense though.

[Donny]

But you cant Do them..so why are you saying they are so great? How can you know? Because aj said so?

[dj181]

progression on compounds is where its at.

yep

[Donny]

I agree but curls are important too ...try preacher curls with your chins.

[Donny]

Remember bill pearl told me on the phone to do some preacher curls too ..because I too just did chins . He said you need to do a curl ex and asked if I could do preacher curls..but everyone does their own thing

[Donny]

Anyway enjoy your training... 

[Mr Nobody]

Remember bill pearl told me on the phone to do some preacher curls too ..because I too just did chins . He said you need to do a curl ex and asked if I could do preacher curls..but everyone does their own thing

If you have weak biceps I agree.

[jprc10]

But you cant Do them..so why are you saying they are so great? How can you know? Because aj said so?

Well, let's say you can bench 100 lbs, wouldn't working your way up to 200 lbs be great? Same thing with chins, the 1 arm version is just a way to add more resistance to the muscles, progressing in a way if adding external weight is not available.