Weighted chins VS OAC negatives/assists?

Hello guys

I've been working on my weighted chins recently and at 195lb I can do chin ups with 40kg for 3 reps, however I am due to go home for summer soon and have no access to a gym OR a heavy duty bar.

I have only a door frame pull-up bar for 3 months.

I want to continue getting stronger on chin ups but cannot use added weight.

So I'm wondering, what is your opinion on weighted chins vs oac negatives/assists for overall strength?

I'm worried about losing my hard earned chinning strength without being able to use external weight!!

One arm negatives/assisted will better than simply adding additional weight with poor form.

The negatives will be harder if you go slow enough. 

Some people get the 1 arm chin without training with external weight, and then when doing a strength test are able to do 2x bodyweight pullup, which is a testament to strength gain without additional weight.

if you can do a weighted chin up with 80% of your bodyweight than you will be able to do a OAC. 

weighted chin ups and chin ups bodyweight progressions are both good and you can achive an OAC by using one  of them or by combining both of them its your choice

however i think that weighted chin ups are better becasue they help you keep your body more balanced not like bodyweight OAC progressions when there is allways a stronger side

im not saying that you shouldnt use bodyweight OAC progression because i have seen alot of people get the OAC by doing OAC negatives or archer chin ups but it depends in your goal 

1.you wanna get the OAC

 or 

2.you wanna get stronger and keep your body more balanced

DiTi said:

if you can do a weighted chin up with 80% of your bodyweight than you will be able to do a OAC.

weighted chin ups and chin ups bodyweight progressions are both good and you can achive an OAC by using one of them or by combining both of them its your choice

however i think that weighted chin ups are better becasue they help you keep your body more balanced not like bodyweight OAC progressions when there is allways a stronger side

im not saying that you shouldnt use bodyweight OAC progression because i have seen alot of people get the OAC by doing OAC negatives or archer chin ups but it depends in your goal

1.you wanna get the OAC

or

2.you wanna get stronger and keep your body more balanced

I don't agree about your imbalance theory. I did weighted pullups for years, and then shifted to unilateral exercises like assisted OAC and archer pullups. Guess what I found? During those years, my right arm had been pulling a lot harder than my left, and the left side was consequently a lot weaker. The unilateral drills narrowed this gap, but it's still there.

well there will allways be a stronger side but by doing OAC negatives the unbalance will be alot bigger

DiTi said:

if you can do a weighted chin up with 80% of your bodyweight than you will be able to do a OAC. 

weighted chin ups and chin ups bodyweight progressions are both good and you can achive an OAC by using one  of them or by combining both of them its your choice

however i think that weighted chin ups are better becasue they help you keep your body more balanced not like bodyweight OAC progressions when there is allways a stronger side

im not saying that you shouldnt use bodyweight OAC progression because i have seen alot of people get the OAC by doing OAC negatives or archer chin ups but it depends in your goal 

1.you wanna get the OAC

 or 

2.you wanna get stronger and keep your body more balanced

A true dead hang OAC, in other words, one from a >2s relaxed shoulder dead hang (to kill 100% of the stretch reflex) is way more  difficult than a +80% BW weighted pull IMO and in my experience.

I can see why the 70-80% number is popular, because most people's standards of perfect form is shocking. Too many times I've read "my first OAC!!!" and they started from bent arms, not to mention they were also using a huge stretch reflex. Cannot trust that number with that in mind.

To the OP, you can absolutely do assisted oac variations in replacement of weighted chins, and I would actually recommend it (*for reasons I'll list below). In fact, I did this myself last year. I was doing weighted chins 1-2x per week for 3-4 months (got up to +90% BW 2s dead hang weighted chin) but then decided to switch to assisted oac variations. Initially my strength went down a little bit, but it shot back up within a couple of weeks. In a few months it'll be exactly 1 year since I used weights, so I'll probably test it. I think the result will be really good.

*Weighted chins are a very basic movement, so the transfer to unilateral pulling won't be the same . That's not to say that OACs are neuromuscularly complex when compared with gymnastic elements, because they're not, but a real OAC requires a great degree of scapula control/strength, the type that would be hard to gain via weighted 2 arm variations.

Have you not considered training with tuck front lever pullups and the like?  I think there's plenty of progressions as far as they're concerned that will keep challenging you.

OAC training has been covered in detail elsewhere on the forum as has weighted pullups. I bet you can find several lengthy threads to cover your topic.

DiTi said:

well there will allways be a stronger side but by doing OAC negatives the unbalance will be alot bigger

Based on what?

If you train based on what your weak side is capable of, and don't let your strong side get ahead, the gap will be narrowed.