why are chinups hard from a deadhang ?

Hi !

When I tried to do vertical pulling ( chinups in this matter )  the right way - almost no momentum and from a clear dead hang to top and pause at the top for 1-2 sec - I noticed that they were very hard, or on the other hand I am very weak. 

Have you guys experiencing the same when you started with proper vertical pulling ?   (chinups, pullups )

Or maybe I need to work on the movement patterns of the pullup so i get used to the movement.

Chinups from perfect dead hang are hard because your arm has a pretty small width, so lever arms are small, and the force needed to bend the elbow is very large (if your arm were a line, you'd need infinite force to bend it, but only from dead hang!).

Are you initiating the pull by bringing your scapula down as far as you can before trying to pull at the elbow? Sometimes people have trouble because they try to do the whole movement with their biceps.

SImply because is a proprioception matter:  when you stop a movement after the eccentric phase you are creating zero reflex stretch, usually this reflex activates more muscles fibers resulting in more force production. slow down to zero this reflex and you will see how strong you are REALLY.

Zach Armijo said:

Perfectly normal when things are done properly and with no outside assistance. They are hard because you are weak in this movement. But keep at it and the gains will be more than worth it.

alex87 said:

SImply because is a proprioception matter:  when you stop a movement after the eccentric phase you are creating zero reflex stretch, usually this reflex activates more muscles fibers resulting in more force production. slow down to zero this reflex and you will see how strong you are REALLY.

What should I do to not be weak at chinups ? I thought of doing sets with low reps to keep my form steady the whole time so I get better at the movement patterns. is that good? 

To be better, simply perform the pullups from a dead hang every single rep. Your body WILL adapt, and it will become easier over time.

I assume you are following F1? If not make sure you are exposed to a variety of pullup variations, starting from easy to hard, and/or do weighted pullups.

You could also do scapula pullups, to get a feel for how to properly initiate the movement.

What ravn said. Before you do scapula pull-ups become good at hanging on the bar for long periods if time in both relaxed and tensed shoulder positions. Don't overlook the importance of the hang.

The bottom of the pull-up is hard because you have less muscle mass to initiate the scapular pull. After this you are able to full engage the lats and biceps and even the pecs and serratus.

You could try negatives. My roommate in university couldn't do a single dead-hang chin when I met him. He started by doing a negative every time he walked into my room by jumping up to the top position and slowly lowering himself down, and eventually got to the point where he could do 8 full dead-hang chins by "greasing the groove" Pavel style.

Ravn said:

To be better, simply perform the pullups from a dead hang every single rep. Your body WILL adapt, and it will become easier over time.

I assume you are following F1? If not make sure you are exposed to a variety of pullup variations, starting from easy to hard, and/or do weighted pullups.

You could also do scapula pullups, to get a feel for how to properly initiate the movement.

Yup, i am following F1, I just wanted to test out if I have gotten better at pullups ( But never before i have done them from a complete deadhang without any kip ) I guess the importance of practicing the movement itself is a very important thing. Because after not doing them for quite a while they seemed so uncomfortable and strange but I guess doing sets with low reps to train the movement wont do any bad

MrPuppeh said:

 

 

Or maybe I need to work on the movement patterns of the pullup so i get used to the movement.

As said above focus on the first part of the pullup.

Pracitse the first part by pulling yourself up with striaght arms, this way you are forced to let your stronger backmuscles do the job.

I made a video of this some time ago.

Mats Trane said:

As said above focus on the first part of the pullup.

 

Pracitse the first part by pulling yourself up with striaght arms, this way you are forced to let your stronger backmuscles do the job.

I made a video of this some time ago.

 

Thank you! Always good to learn something new