hm. well, in my defense, except 4 pull-ups which i cant do, ive been already doin compounds: rows, dips and deadlifts...
anyway, i dont mean to be naive but do chin-ups and pull-ups differ in terms of target muscle, or do they just differ in grips?
my chest: developing like crazy, my biceps: thin and left out.. HELP!
- Thread starter sigh_hwatalyf
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hm. well, in my defense, except 4 pull-ups which i cant do, ive been already doin compounds: rows, dips and deadlifts...
anyway, i dont mean to be naive but do chin-ups and pull-ups differ in terms of target muscle, or do they just differ in grips?
I find...and someone can disagree with me on this, that Chin Ups work your biceps more than pull-ups do because of the position your hands and wrists are in.
Bro if anyone on here disagrees with that statement then they probably train in a mini-skirt.
I mean, Chin-ups are majority of the biceps IMO. When your hang fully extended what do u use to start your body moving up and about 2/3 of the lift...Your biceps
Pull-ups, if you look at the same scenario, when hanging fully extended you use you dont really use your biceps at all....its all Lats to start the movement and pull you a good 2/3 of the way up.
Remember that your TRICEPS make up 3/5 of the muscles in your upper arm so if you are looking to add girth and tighten your shirt sleaves for babes you need to be doing more than "curls for the girls." 
You also don't want to focus strictly on your biceps because you risk creating a muscular imbalance which can lead to strength regression or joint injury (elbow, shoulder and wrist).
I don't know if you already put what type of split you are doing but the recommendation someone put above about doing a dedicated arm day is sound, especially if you allow adequate rest from them getting taxed during compund exercises and as long as the rest of your body is progressing well.
Perhaps try a split similar to this:
Monday -- Chest/Triceps/Shoulders -- perhaps only one Tri isolation exercise and let them get hit on the compound chest and shoulder work.
Tuesday -- Back/Biceps/Abs -- same note as above for the biceps.
Wednesday -- Rest (or Legs)
Thursday -- Legs (or Rest if not on Wed)
Friday -- Triceps/Biceps
Saturday -- Abs
Sunday -- Rest (or Legs if you are hardcore)
For your dedicated arms day try these routines:
FOR STRENGTH: (Sets X Reps/Reps/Reps)
BB Curl 4 X 4/4/6/8
Close-Grip Smith Machine Bench 4 X 4/4/6/8
Smith Machine Drag Curl 4 X 4/4/6/8 -- at Smith Machine bar touching your body, curl up keeping the bar in contact with your body the whole time. Elbows will move back removing the capability of cheating with your shoulders.
Seated Overhead Cable Extension 4 X 4/4/6/8
Hammer Curl 4 X 4/4/6/8
Straight Bar Pressdown 4 X 4/4/6/8
FOR MASS:
BB Curl 4 X 6/8/10/12
Lying Tricep BB Extensions 4 X 6/8/10/12
Preacher Curl 4 X 6/8/10/12
Bench Dips (w/weight) 4 X 6/8/10/12
Incline DB Curl 4 X 8/8/10/12
Close-Grip Bench Press 4 X 6/8/10/12
High Cable Curl 3 X 8/10/12 -- at a double cable station, upper arms parallel to the floor, curl in toward your shoulders.
Straight-Bar Pressdown 3 X 8/10/12
I've had nice progress with the mass routine and plan on alternating the two. You can also extract either the tricep or bicep exercises and do them alone...I just combined them as a "push/pull" type workout.
One last thing to keep in mind...as your delts, pecs, and lats develop, your arms (from head on) may appear skinnier when in fact they have actually grown and your delts are just popping out more thus creating the illusion that they are "skinny." I felt the same way until my wife said "Your guns are getting bigger." :jump1:
You also don't want to focus strictly on your biceps because you risk creating a muscular imbalance which can lead to strength regression or joint injury (elbow, shoulder and wrist).I don't know if you already put what type of split you are doing but the recommendation someone put above about doing a dedicated arm day is sound, especially if you allow adequate rest from them getting taxed during compund exercises and as long as the rest of your body is progressing well.
Perhaps try a split similar to this:
Monday -- Chest/Triceps/Shoulders -- perhaps only one Tri isolation exercise and let them get hit on the compound chest and shoulder work.
Tuesday -- Back/Biceps/Abs -- same note as above for the biceps.
Wednesday -- Rest (or Legs)
Thursday -- Legs (or Rest if not on Wed)
Friday -- Triceps/Biceps
Saturday -- Abs
Sunday -- Rest (or Legs if you are hardcore
)For your dedicated arms day try these routines:
FOR STRENGTH: (Sets X Reps/Reps/Reps)
BB Curl 4 X 4/4/6/8
Close-Grip Smith Machine Bench 4 X 4/4/6/8
Smith Machine Drag Curl 4 X 4/4/6/8 -- at Smith Machine bar touching your body, curl up keeping the bar in contact with your body the whole time. Elbows will move back removing the capability of cheating with your shoulders.
Seated Overhead Cable Extension 4 X 4/4/6/8
Hammer Curl 4 X 4/4/6/8
Straight Bar Pressdown 4 X 4/4/6/8
FOR MASS:
BB Curl 4 X 6/8/10/12
Lying Tricep BB Extensions 4 X 6/8/10/12
Preacher Curl 4 X 6/8/10/12
Bench Dips (w/weight) 4 X 6/8/10/12
Incline DB Curl 4 X 8/8/10/12
Close-Grip Bench Press 4 X 6/8/10/12
High Cable Curl 3 X 8/10/12 -- at a double cable station, upper arms parallel to the floor, curl in toward your shoulders.
Straight-Bar Pressdown 3 X 8/10/12
I've had nice progress with the mass routine and plan on alternating the two. You can also extract either the tricep or bicep exercises and do them alone...I just combined them as a "push/pull" type workout.
One last thing to keep in mind...as your delts, pecs, and lats develop, your arms (from head on) may appear skinnier when in fact they have actually grown and your delts are just popping out more thus creating the illusion that they are "skinny." I felt the same way until my wife said "Your guns are getting bigger." :jump1:
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I thought this was a weight training forum. This is bodybuilding garbage. Lets blast the guns, my man!!!! Cut out half that work and lift as heavy as you can for working sets of 3 sets of 5. After that last set you should be lying on the ground. Squat, deadlift, powerclean, bench, overheadpress, chins and pullups with weight, until you can't move up in weight or reps. Don't flex in the mirror until you can't ad weight or reps to none of your lifts for 2 weeks. Now look in the mirror. Now you should look and feel strong as hell. Now change your routine and add curls and that other crap. Check out Starting Strength. Go to bodybuilding for that crap. So what, I don't have washboard abs. I can pick up a 120lbs sandbag and put it overhead for reps. My arms will get big when they feel like it. If you don't think that sandbag thing is hard, make one and try it. If you lift heavy and concentrate on performance you might not care about your guns until one day you notice that they are huge.
this makes no sense to me... While I too feel the biceps getting worked more in a chin up than a pullup I wouldn't say a chin up is mostly biceps work. Look at the movement. There is pretty much an equal amount of elbow flexion and shoulder extension in both of the moves. (comparing close grip chins and pullups here since they are the most similar, wide grip pullups would be a lot of adduction also, but you usually don't go wide on chin ups) shoulder extension can't be done by the biceps. I think what makes you feel it in biceps more is just because of how the biceps is attached to the forearm.
You could also argue that you don't really have to "actively" flex your arm in any of the exercises. The forearms would naturally stay perpendulicar to the floor as your humerus extended without the biceps actively flexing them. Now, most people (if any) won't do it like that (no active biceps involvement at all, except maybe stabilizing, etc, please don't nit pick this) when they do chins, but there are ways to minimize using the biceps like that in pullups/chinups and rows.
What I think is that in the chin up the biceps is more likely to flex the elbow more actively than in the pullup because when the forearms are positioned that way the biceps is in a good position..
That was kind of messy, but do you catch my drift, Excder, James..?
Yes that does make sense. I mean its kinda hard to explain stuff and how it works over typing. And i was trying to say what you said just simplified and to the point
This is an exercise that helped me a lot. Choose five pairs of dumbells and set them in a straight line, from heaviest to lightest. Start with the heaviest, do as many reps as you can, and when you can't lift no more, your spotter will help you do another 3. Drop the first pair on the floor and go straight to the next heaviest pair and do the same for all five pairs. By the end of it, the lightest dumbells are gonna feel like the heaviest ever. So, when you finish working with the lightest ones that's the end of the first set. Do three sets, you will be begging for mercy and you will see results. Just make sure you do this one as your last exercise before you finish in the gym. Give it 3-5 min between sets and good luck with your shower afterwards.