How to Improve Your Chin Ups | 9 Tips

Are you ready to improve your chin-up strength, reps, and technique?

In this post, I’m going to share with you my 9 BEST coaching tips and cues that I use myself and with my clients to help you level up your chin-ups!

Let’s get into it!

Tip 1. BRACE + BREATHE

Core bracing with breathe.

When your core is engaged and stable, you can maintain a straight line from your shoulders to your hips. This prevents energy leaks, making your chin-ups more efficient and improving your performance.

How to:

• Exhale fully, then inhale through your nose.
• Engage your core and hold your breath.
• Exhale at the top of each rep, then repeat.

2. CREATE LAT TENSION

Creating lat tension helps you engage your back muscles, teaches you how to use your back instead of just your biceps which is key for a stronger chin-up.

How to:

• Stand on a stable surface or plates to help you reach the bar if needed.
• Slightly bend your knees during your setup. This helps you feel the stretch and tension in your lats.
• As you grip the bar, focus on feeling a stretch in your lat muscles (the large muscles on the sides of your back).

3. PULL YOUR SHOULDERS BACK

Focus on shoulder position. Keep them back and down.

This encourages a more efficient vertical pull path and a stronger back posture by cueing you to keep your chest up, avoiding shoulder shrugging or dumping at the top.

Keeping your shoulders back and down creates a more vertical pull path, a stronger back posture and a more efficient technique.

This efficiency minimizes loss of power and enhances chin up performance.

How to:

• Think of pulling your “shoulders back” behind you.

4. SHOULDER BLADE INITIATION

This builds scapular awareness, control, and strength, ensuring the movement starts with your back muscles instead of your arms maximising muscle engagement.

How to:

• Pull your shoulders back and down when initiating your chin up.
• You can also practice with scapular chin-ups by pulling your ears away from your shoulders.

5. EYES UP, CHEST UP

Where your eyes go, your body follows. Keeping your eyes and chest up encourages upward movement and a stronger back posture which can make the difference between a successful or failed rep.

How to:

• Gaze at the bar and imagine a string pulling you up from the top of your chest.

6. SMOOTH MOVES

Smooth reps demonstrate control, reduce stress on joints and tendons, and maintain tension for muscle growth and strength.

This is great for increasing reps, progressing to weighted chin-ups, and more advanced pulling movements.

If you’re beginner your reps might not be smooth yet, but make it a focus point and remember progress not perfection!

How to:

• Work at an intensity that allows good form.
• Aim to make transitions between reps smooth, BUT this doesn’t necessarily mean slow.

7. REST BETWEEN SETS (REST UP)

Adequate rest allows your energy systems to recharge, ensuring you can hit target reps and subsequent sets with good form.

How to:

• Rest for 2-5 minutes between sets.
• Use a timer to track rest times.
• I rest for 3-4 minutes and longer on testing days if needed.

8. TRAIN SHY OF FAILURE (SMART TRAINING)

Training shy of failure can lead to better progress because it allows you to get in quality reps and sets that will increase your strength and skill.

How to:

• For the majority of your training, aim to leave 1-2 reps left in the tank per set, and when training to failure do this when testing - aka be intentional.
• Use RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion) to gauge intensity.
• Train the majority of your sessions with 6-8 RPE, 7-9 RPE, and some at 10 RPE

9. ADD WEIGHT

Progressive overload is key. Once bodyweight chin-ups become too easy, start adding weight to ensure continued muscle growth and strength gains.

How to:

• Once you can perform 3x3 bodyweight reps with strict form, start by adding 1-2.5kg.
• Work in rep ranges of 3x8. Increase weight and drop back to 3x3 as you progress.
• Or once you can perform 3x8 weighted reps with strict form, decrease reps across weeks, and add 1-2.5kg per week.

If you implement even one of these tips into your chin-up training, you’ll see improvements in no time.

If you want to achieve your first chin-up, check out my other post that will take you from zero to one!

Next Post: How To Get Your First Chin-Up FAST & SAFELY (Beginner Friendly Guide).

If you’re currently struggling with chin-ups reach out to me on Instagram, YouTube, or Reddit.

I’ll catch you in the next post - peace!