The chin-up is one of the best upper body exercises that exists but an elusive exercise to many.
It can be very hard to do your first chin-up and still hard to build your max number of reps.
It is an important exercise for fat loss too, because it builds the large back muscles which in turn burn plenty of fat.
The more muscle you have, the more fat you burn even at rest. And ladies don’ worry, you won’t bulk up and turn into a monster.
If the chin-up is something you want to master then you need to practice it.
One of the biggest obstacles with people who can’t do one is where to start. The video’s have some great tips but I’ll share some of mine too, and mine are real simple.
Hanging is the easiest way to start.
If you can’t hang from the bar, you surely won’t be able to pull yourself up.
So practice hanging daily and your grip will improve, as well as your back strength.
Once you are getting quite good at that, keep up the hanging but start pulling your shoulder blades down and lifting your head slightly. This is the first part of the chin-up.
If you need to practice this with your feet toughing the floor, do so with only your heels down so your legs don’t help too much.
Hanging in the top position with your chin over the bar is your next move to master. You can jump up to the top or fins a step to get you up there and just hanging with your chin over the bar for as long as possible.
Once your strength starts to fade, keep pulling yourself up even as you are dropping below the bar. The force you are using to pull you up, though not enough to get up, will build strength fast too.
Use bands to help you do the full range of motion. Some of you have been practicing this with us at our evening sessions, but I urge you to do some at home too.
Start with a heavy band and work your way up to a light band with little resistance. It will take time, but it’s worth it once you get there.
To build more reps, practice doing low numbers of reps in a lot of sets. If you have a bar at home you could do 2-3 perfect reps then go do something else and come back and do some more.
This can carry on throughout the day for as much as you can handle. I once tried a challenge to do 100 total reps in a day while working at a gym in 2005. I succeeded, and I was very sore.
If you have gymnastic rings they throw another dimension into the practice too.
There are so many ways to get better at them. You just gotta get out and practice!
Now, here’s a gluten free burger recipe.
Aussie Beef Burger with The Lot
Ingredients
Paleo buns
100 g butter, melted.
150 g (1 1/2 cups) almond meal.
2 teaspoons gluten-free baking powder.
6 eggs, beaten.
Beef patties
300 g beef mince (to make 2 x 150 g patties).
1/4 red onion, finely diced.
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard.1 garlic clove, diced.sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil.
Fillings
1 avocado, cut into thin slices.
1 raw beetroot, grated.handful of mesclun salad mix (or any salad greens you prefer).fresh or fried pineapple (optional).
1 large tomato, cut into discs.
Lime and Chilli Aioli
40 g (1/2 cup) cashews, soaked for 2-6 hours or overnight, then rinsed.
60 ml (1/4 cup) water.juice and zest of 1 lime.
1/4 red chilli, finely chopped.
1/2 teaspoon salt flakes.
Directions
1. Let’s start with the Paleo buns. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius.
2. Put the melted butter, almond meal and baking powder in a bowl, add the whisked eggs and mix well. Put the batter into hamburger moulds or muffin moulds, then cook for 15–20 minutes until puffed and golden. Turn out onto a rack to cool.
3. Next up make the patties. Put the beef, onion, mustard, garlic and seasoning in a bowl and mix everything together. Shape into 2 equal-sized patties about 1–1.5 cm thick.
4. Pour the olive oil into a frying pan over a medium–high heat, pop the patties in, and cook for about 4–5 minutes, then flip them over and cook the other side for another 2 minutes. Set them aside to rest on a plate – but you want to be collecting the juices, that’s where there’s loads of flavour, so don’t drain the juice off.
5. To make the lime and chilli aioli, put everything in a blender with 60 ml (1⁄4 cup) of water and give it a whizz.
6. Now it’s time to assemble. Cut the buns in half, pop some avo on the bottom layers, then a layer of grated beetroot, then place a pattie down on each, then the salad greens, and then – if you’re having it – add a pineapple slice (see Tip) and the tomato discs.
Finally, spread lime and chilli aioli on the top half of your bun. Pop the top on and there you have it – an epic Aussie burger with a paleo bun!
– See more at: www.iquitsugar.com/recipe/
That recipe looks amazing and I look forward to trying it. And you can eat treat foods and drop fat, just as long as you don’t overindulge.
Hope you’ve gotten something out of our newsletter this week.
I highly recommend the 7 minutes of hanging for 30 days challenge for those that want their first chin-up.
And if you start our training programs, we’ll be helping you progress your chin-ups too.
