Expert: Linda Erwin, M.S. - 7/27/2007

Question
I was wondering what's the best way to incorporate pull-ups/chinups into a workout routine, especially if you can only do a few reps.  Say for example, you're doing upper body.  You pick to do pull-ups/chinups for your back exercise.  Say your workout calls for doing something in the 6-12 repetition range for all exercises, but on the pull-up/chinup you can only do 1-3 reps.  How do you incorporate this, especially if you are doing higher reps with "all other" exercises?  Will you still build muscle if you can only do 1-3 reps?  I thought pull-ups/chinups are supposed to be one of the best all-around upper body exercises for building muscle.

One other issue I have is with shoulder exercises.  In my upper body workout I do bench presses first in my workout.  Then I do a back exercise.  Then I do a shoulder exercise, usually overhead presses.  Problem is, when I get to that shoulder exercise, I can't do a lot of weight, or as many repetitions as I'm supposed to be doing.  My shoulders are either weak, or they are too fatigued.  I get so mad at myself because I can't crank out the repetitions that I'm supposed to be doing.  It's not like I'm not trying.  What's going on here and how do I correct this?  Is this normal?  Thanks very much for your help.


Answer
Hi Dave,
Have you thought of incorporating pull ups on your cardio days?  You don't mention doing cardio but on the days you don't do weight training you might want to do the pull ups and see if you can do more than 3.  

For overhead presses, why don't you mix it up and start with those one day a week and do the other routine the other day.  That way you can fatigue and challenge your muscles doing it a little differently.  The whole point is to fatigue your muscles and you do want to mix up your routines because your body gets used to the same thing.  
Good luck!
Linda