Workout Experiment Of The Month: Chain Pull Ups!

I saw these once before on one of those pre-UFC hype videos.  They were getting ready for a fight between Rashad Evans and some other guy.  On the video they showed Rashad doing pull ups from chains with a weight strapped to him.  Where as I don't much care for Rashad (because he loves himself almost as much as my dog loves eating dirty socks...and that's A LOT) I did however like the idea.  So now here I am in a remote location with to many resources and to much creativity to hold in.  So I teamed up with a welder and we created this sad looking junkyard style contraption.

old steel, tow chains, and a pipe a little bigger than a soda can.

At first we thought it would be somewhat easy....like everything else that I have underestimated in my life.  My average of 30+ pull ups turned into about 5 on the chains, then I tried the bar and didn't do much better.  it takes an insane amount of grip strength to pull yourself up on a chain.  The bar having a 7 inch diameter verses the normal pull up bars 2.5 inches, spins when you try to grab onto it.  So in order to do a pull up on this thing you basically have to keep your forearms flexed the entire time and readjust yourself after every 2 pull ups.  Making this the hardest way I have EVER done pull ups. 
      So we sat down and came up with a workout routine for this thing:

• 10 straight chains
• 10 looped chains
• 10 forward grip
• 10 reverse grip
• 10 alternating hands (left forward right back)
• 10 opposite
• 20 alternating sides (pull up on either side)
• 20 on a normal pull up bar

So far we are loving it, this routine absolutely wrecks your forearms and hits your back muscles in awkward angles.  As time goes on and it gets easier we add to it, eventually we want do it with a weight vest on.  The Pros and Cons for this thing are basic. 

Pros:

• Increased forearm strength
• Increased back strength
• Insane grip strength
• Develops/defines your back and forearms
• Makes a normal pull up seem like a joke!

Cons

• Sure, you could fall...
• It might make your fingers hurt.....but that's not manly.

  So if you are into funky new exercises or you are a bored Marine that wants to improve his pull ups give it a shot.  You will be surprised at how hard these things really are.