AboutJoe Gunn Expertise Anything related to strength training, long distance running, speed development for all sports, and weight loss issues.
Experience Over 30 years as a personal trainer of athletes as well as average individuals.
Organizations Certified strength and Conditioning Specialist with the the National Strength and Conditiong Association. Certified Club coach with the United States Weightlifting Association. Certifed Level II long distance coach with the USA Track & Field.
Education/Credentials M.S with majors in exercise science and psychology
Expert: Joe Gunn Date: 7/27/2007 Subject: Pull-Ups/Shoulders
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 Hey Dave, chins are kind of like lat pulls with your body weight. I suggest doing lat pulls with a weight for your desired reps and as you get stronger you can get your chins up to those reps. Bench press works frontal delts and many back exercises also work portions of the delts. I suggest you do exercises for the front, medial, and posterior delts...the bench covers the anterior delts, lateral raises for the medial delts, and bent rows for the posterior delts.
