Warming up for chins / pull ups?
Discussion
Since quitting the gym I've been doing a body weight circuit twice a week, problem I have is when i get to chins or pull ups, I can only manage 6-8 reps and for the first set get a pain in the inside of my elbow, sort of where the forearm meets the elbow, second set is a bit easier, I think I really need to stretch / warm up this area before I do myself some damage, any suggestions?
As I understand it (I'm no medic), when you do any form of weight bearing exercise (weight lifting, rock climbing or even yoga) the ligaments and tendons strengthen along with the muscles but they get stronger at a much slower rate so you may experience soreness and even pain (not the good type of pain - ie DOMS). Warming up can help - for pull ups, swing the arms back and forth to warm up the shoulders (50 times), then swing the forearms so the elbows bend (50 times), perhaps do some light shadow boxing (ie not fast nor snapping at the end). You'll look like a moron but you're at home, anyway. And I'd rather look like a moron than have to spend 6 months out of training due to injury - that's how long it can take (up to 800 days, I read somewhere) for a ligament injury to heal.
Edit: add finger wiggling (imagine typing really quickly) and wrist rolling (circle the hands) to your pull up warm up routine - half your body weight (40kg?) is suddenly going through your finger joints and wrists as well.
Edit: add finger wiggling (imagine typing really quickly) and wrist rolling (circle the hands) to your pull up warm up routine - half your body weight (40kg?) is suddenly going through your finger joints and wrists as well.
Edited by Hoofy on Saturday 26th May 09:55
That's a mobility warm-up Hoofy, not a pre-exercise warm-up. It will get your motor-units and synovil fluids going but that is about all. Still worth doing but it's not going to help massively toward being up-to-speed as it were.
A warm-up is intended switch your body into exercise mode. This means raising your heart rate. It will instigate many physiological changes such as shutting down your digestive system from stomach to bladder, blood shunting, vasodilation and stroke volume (blood pressure), exercise hormone releases (such as adrenaline and noradrenaline/epinephrine and norepinephrine etc.), muscle temperature, sarcoplasmic reticulum activation etc. etc. google it for a good list.
So a good warm-up for chin-ups/pull-ups, especially given that these are compound exercises involving large muscle groups that will get you breathing hard anyway, is 5 minutes of CV. Get you bpm to at least 120 and preferably around 150. This is the sort of rate 12 pull-ups is going to induce, so match it with CV.
As a matter of habit you should always do a 5 min CV warm-up before any gym exercise for the reasons I list above, regardless of what some hardcore or self-taught people may claim.
A warm-up is intended switch your body into exercise mode. This means raising your heart rate. It will instigate many physiological changes such as shutting down your digestive system from stomach to bladder, blood shunting, vasodilation and stroke volume (blood pressure), exercise hormone releases (such as adrenaline and noradrenaline/epinephrine and norepinephrine etc.), muscle temperature, sarcoplasmic reticulum activation etc. etc. google it for a good list.
So a good warm-up for chin-ups/pull-ups, especially given that these are compound exercises involving large muscle groups that will get you breathing hard anyway, is 5 minutes of CV. Get you bpm to at least 120 and preferably around 150. This is the sort of rate 12 pull-ups is going to induce, so match it with CV.
As a matter of habit you should always do a 5 min CV warm-up before any gym exercise for the reasons I list above, regardless of what some hardcore or self-taught people may claim.
Hoofy said:
Thought he was more interested in pain avoidance.
That's the only reason I do warm ups. I can see the reason for the CV work but I'm not bothered by it. That's how I roll.
Cowboy! That's the only reason I do warm ups. I can see the reason for the CV work but I'm not bothered by it. That's how I roll.
Edited by Hoofy on Saturday 26th May 12:10
A 5 min CV warm-up will also aid pain avoidance. Not just with avoiding injury, but also with repetitve exertion (AKA exercise!).
I know for myself and many clients, that without a CV warm-up, I/they are hopeless in their first few sets. When I used to go to a gym before training to be a PT, I used to get shooting pains in my arms when trying resistance exercises. I was also useless with my first set, didn't matter what muscles I was exercising. I thought it was over-training, but since learning about the exercise response and the anticipatory rise and CV warm-up cured that issue without fail, 100%.
If you haven't tried a 5 min 120bpm+ warm-up before, give it a go. It should quite literally, "put you in the mood..."
mattikake said:
Cowboy!
A 5 min CV warm-up will also aid pain avoidance. Not just with avoiding injury, but also with repetitve exertion (AKA exercise!).
I know for myself and many clients, that without a CV warm-up, I/they are hopeless in their first few sets. When I used to go to a gym before training to be a PT, I used to get shooting pains in my arms when trying resistance exercises. I was also useless with my first set, didn't matter what muscles I was exercising. I thought it was over-training, but since learning about the exercise response and the anticipatory rise and CV warm-up cured that issue without fail, 100%.
If you haven't tried a 5 min 120bpm+ warm-up before, give it a go. It should quite literally, "put you in the mood..."
At my age, I'm afraid of running out of energy. It's like a power bar... I can almost see it slowly heading into red as I use up energy.A 5 min CV warm-up will also aid pain avoidance. Not just with avoiding injury, but also with repetitve exertion (AKA exercise!).
I know for myself and many clients, that without a CV warm-up, I/they are hopeless in their first few sets. When I used to go to a gym before training to be a PT, I used to get shooting pains in my arms when trying resistance exercises. I was also useless with my first set, didn't matter what muscles I was exercising. I thought it was over-training, but since learning about the exercise response and the anticipatory rise and CV warm-up cured that issue without fail, 100%.
If you haven't tried a 5 min 120bpm+ warm-up before, give it a go. It should quite literally, "put you in the mood..."
Hoofy said:
Funny you post that. I was tempted to suggest doing the first set as assisted pull ups (the feet push off something with the legs fairly relaxed so some weight goes through the arms) but I have not tried this so cannot confirm if it's useful or a waste of time...
This sounds a good idea, will give it a go.Hoofy said:
mattikake said:
Cowboy!
A 5 min CV warm-up will also aid pain avoidance. Not just with avoiding injury, but also with repetitve exertion (AKA exercise!).
I know for myself and many clients, that without a CV warm-up, I/they are hopeless in their first few sets. When I used to go to a gym before training to be a PT, I used to get shooting pains in my arms when trying resistance exercises. I was also useless with my first set, didn't matter what muscles I was exercising. I thought it was over-training, but since learning about the exercise response and the anticipatory rise and CV warm-up cured that issue without fail, 100%.
If you haven't tried a 5 min 120bpm+ warm-up before, give it a go. It should quite literally, "put you in the mood..."
At my age, I'm afraid of running out of energy. It's like a power bar... I can almost see it slowly heading into red as I use up energy.A 5 min CV warm-up will also aid pain avoidance. Not just with avoiding injury, but also with repetitve exertion (AKA exercise!).
I know for myself and many clients, that without a CV warm-up, I/they are hopeless in their first few sets. When I used to go to a gym before training to be a PT, I used to get shooting pains in my arms when trying resistance exercises. I was also useless with my first set, didn't matter what muscles I was exercising. I thought it was over-training, but since learning about the exercise response and the anticipatory rise and CV warm-up cured that issue without fail, 100%.
If you haven't tried a 5 min 120bpm+ warm-up before, give it a go. It should quite literally, "put you in the mood..."
And it doesn't even have to be a hard CV session. 150bpm is moderate. 120bpm is light.With a CV warm-up you won't be using up your precious small reserves of Creatine, especially if that CV warm-up is using your legs - jog/cycle etc.
Doing a first set as a warm-up, is to throw half your Creatine reserves away. Save the Creatine for your best and most effective sets.
And that's why I do windmill impersonations. Also, it focuses on the joints that will be taking the strain. Cycling won't really help even if it does do everything else you said. All I know is that when I don't warm up as I've described before a climb, I usually end up injuring whatever I forgot to warm up!
gareth h said:
Hoofy said:
Funny you post that. I was tempted to suggest doing the first set as assisted pull ups (the feet push off something with the legs fairly relaxed so some weight goes through the arms) but I have not tried this so cannot confirm if it's useful or a waste of time...
This sounds a good idea, will give it a go.Gassing Station | Health Matters | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff