First, a chin up is one thing and a pull up is another. What is the difference? A chin up is performed with your palms facing toward you. Or, to say it the fancy way; you grasp the bar with a supinated grip. A pull up is done by grasping the bar with a pronated grip, which means with your palms facing away, the back of your hands facing you. So that makes it so we have two different categories.



Now these two categories are broken down further by the amount of time given to perform the maximum amount. Time limits include one minute, three minutes, thirty minutes, and then one hour, six hours, twelve hours and twenty four hours. Although the twenty four hour category has been fulfilled in the 12 hour period.

So, do you think that you could be the next world record holder? If you wanted to be, in the one hour category for instance, you would need to perform 825 pull ups 869 chin ups to beat the current record holder - Stephen Hyland. You would have to obey the following rules:

The chin must be raised above the bar.

Each single chin-up must be started from a hanging position, i.e. the arms must be straight in the "down" position.

You can dismount as often as you wish.

Video documentation must be provided. The camera should be at the height of the bar so that it is possible to decide whether the chin cleared the bar. The full body of the contestant must be visible all the time.

The chin must be raised above the bar level, otherwise the chin-up has to be disallowed by the judges.

Leg kicks and lower-body movements cannot be used to gain momentum in the exercise.

Only a straight bar can be used. It must be made of an inflexible matter such as steel, not of a flexible substance such as plastic or tubing. It may be of any diameter.

The Bar must be level and the height of the hands must be equal in relation and equal in height to where the chin crosses the bar.

The width of the grip can be of the athletes choosing, however hands can not be overlapped.

Are you ready to start training now?

OK, if you can't even do one pull up, or chin up, this means you are really heavy or really weak, or combination of both. What you would need to do in this case is to start by doing some negatives. This means getting up to the bar by way of a stool or bench. Get in the ending position, that is with your chin over the bar, and hands in a comfortable position. Hand position is the athletes choice. Now let yourself down as slowly as possible. This i called a "negative" do a whole wok out of those. Maybe 20 to 30 before quitting. Take a couple days off, and then get back to it again. When you returned, did you gain enough strength to do one complete? I'll bet you even got a couple. See how fast you can build strength!

Even now that you can do some reps, to increase those reps...to the world record even, keep incorporating those negatives. After you've done as many as you can to fail, grab that stool and do negatives until your arms feel like they are going to fall off. Now give those guns plenty of time to rest and recuperate and go at it again, and again.