chin ups and pull ups

[langknow]

Hi guys,

I just started doing 5x5 Stronglifts.

Chin Ups and Pull Ups are 3 x F.

HOwever, I can't even do one. So in the meantime, I've been doing negatives.

How many negatives should I be doing?

Also, my gym, has a weird chin up bar, as it's not horizontal as like this [------ ] , the chin up bar is like two small bars and you hold it like you're holding to bottles of beer, and you chin up on it.

Can I still do that ?

[22Alpha]

I believe that's called narrow neutral grip bars.

[holvoetn]

I believe that's called narrow neutral grip bars.

Neutral grip for sure but narrow you can not know without seeing the bars

@langknow
Neutral grip is fine too. No need to alternate between chins/pulls then

[coreJack]

Neutral grip is fine. It may even be easier on the shoulders than pronated (overhand) grip.

[jpez]

How many negatives should I be doing?

Do as many as you can per set.

[bkklift]

Another good tactic is to put a bench in front of you, rest your feet on the bench and try to do pullups that way. Similarly, a friend does pullups in a power rack, with his feet behind him, hooked around the bar. Both tactics take some weight off making it easier to perform reps. My friend went from not being able to to a single pullup, to about 4 reps within the space of a few weeks.

[sgtrock]

Reduce Weight, Increase Volume

I put a bench in front of a smith machine, put my feet on the bench and let my hips fall below my feet. This put my body below the bar and ensured I wasn't pushing up with my legs (well, I cheated some on the last couple of reps) but still took weight off. I was able to go from "I can only do (maybe) a single damn pullup after 4 months!" to "holy cow I just did 2x2!" in a few weeks. And that was with me not even doing those modified pullups very much. I believe it came down to volume -- with the modified I could do 5-6 on my first set at least, vs 1 at most of regular pullups. The first day I did that, my back felt it bigtime later. It made all the difference.