I'm starting Waterbury's ABBH and on day 5 I'm meant to do 5 sets of 10 dips and chins at 60% of my 1RM. Now, I might just be able to do 10 bodyweight dips once, but certainly not 5 sets worth. I can't do 10 bodyweight pull-ups. Is there a some way that I can take the load off? Or are there different exercises I can perform instead? Bear in mind that I only have a barbell, bench and rack to perform these exercises with.

Thanks

For dips, you can do decline barbell or dumbbell bench press. For both pullups and dips, you can mix in 'negatives' until you're strong enough to complete everything with your bodyweight : use a chair to get yourself into the 'up' position of a pullup, and lower yourself slowly.

As well as the above suggestions, you could do those dips where you put your hands behind you on a chair and have your feet at some height (experiment with your feet lower or higher) and then dip down with your arms behind you. You can have your fingers pointing out to the sides or towards you. You dip down below the chair. You don't sit on it. It will target the muscles in a different way to the normal dips, though. It puts more stress on the lats than on the pectorals.

You could do pull ups with your legs bent and your feet on a chair to take as much of the weight as you need to take off your arms. You could put the chair further away as you become more proficient.

You could do pull ups with your legs bent and your feet on a chair to take as much of the weight as you need to take off your arms. You could put the chair further away as you become more proficient.

I was wondering about doing this. If this works and I can take some of my weight on my legs then I could surely do this with both dips and chins. I'll experiment with it later.

Thanks all for the tips.

I'm starting Waterbury's ABBH and on day 5 I'm meant to do 5 sets of 10 dips and chins at 60% of my 1RM. Now, I might just be able to do 10 bodyweight dips once, but certainly not 5 sets worth. I can't do 10 bodyweight pull-ups. Is there a some way that I can take the load off? Or are there different exercises I can perform instead? Bear in mind that I only have a barbell, bench and rack to perform these exercises with.

Thanks

Resistance bands can do wonders for this.

Honestly, I'd just do the pullups and dips anyway -- even if you can't do 10 reps every set. Those are two of the best upper body exercises around, and the only way you will get stronger at them is to do them. :nod:

Honestly, I'd just do the pullups and dips anyway -- even if you can't do 10 reps every set. Those are two of the best upper body exercises around, and the only way you will get stronger at them is to do them. :nod:


I've considered that but I'm starting ABBH and I thought one of the points was to not go to failure. I think if I was to do them unassisted in some way I'd be going to failure every set except maybe the first set of dips.

I'm mean't to be doing 5x10 of each in total. If I went to failure I can imagine my pull ups would be something like 7/5/3/2/2 which is quite a long way off 50.

I really don't know what to do now. Any advice? I'm starting my work out in about an hour and a half.

Go a couple of reps short of failure? :)

Well, I just had this workout. I tried dips unassisted at first and managed 10 then 9. After that I put a chair in front of me and stuck my legs on that and then managed another 10, 10, then 9. So even that was too much for me.

I didn't even bother with unassisted pull-ups. It would have been futile. So instead I rested my ankles on my bench and pulled myself up to my barbell. This is I managed 10, 10, 8, 8 and then on the last set I rested my legs up to my knees on the bench and still only managed 9.

I tell ya, when it comes to bodyweight exercises it's not easy being a 6'3" / 185lbs weakling. :doh:

Resistance bands can do wonders for this.


I've never heard of these. Whereabouts do you find them? Do they come in different resistances?

You seem to be doing quite well.

You probably have long arms. Difficult to do pull ups with long arms. And dips.

You seem to be doing quite well.

You probably have long arms. Difficult to do pull ups with long arms. And dips.

Thanks :)

Yeah, my arms are long. They span about 73". I don't find dips so bad, but pull-ups are definitely hard work.

I realised a while back that the whole leverage thing was going to mean I couldn't lift as heavy weight as someone with the same strength but shorter limbs but that shouldn't make any difference to the progress, we would still be exerting the same amount of force to lift the different weights, right? I just have to accept that I'll never be breaking any records in the future. I think I can live with that ;)

I've never heard of these. Whereabouts do you find them? Do they come in different resistances?

Here is an explanation of how to use them. (http://www.trinewbies.com/StrengthTraining/strength_training.asp)

These guys (http://www.ironwoodyfitness.com/fitness-bands.php) sell an assisted pull-up package of resistance bands.

Here is an explanation of how to use them. (http://www.trinewbies.com/StrengthTraining/strength_training.asp)

These guys (http://www.ironwoodyfitness.com/fitness-bands.php) sell an assisted pull-up package of resistance bands.


That looks quite interesting, I may have to invest in some of those. Do you have any idea how much assistance they give? For example I'm 186 lbs at the moment, would it be like I was lifting only 120 lbs or something?