Chin-ups

Who it's for

Climbers who want more pull than pull-ups alone give them, and anyone whose elbows prefer palms facing in. The biceps take a bigger share here, which is useful for steep, compressed climbing and for building up to lock-offs. If you're currently sore on the inside of the elbow, this is the wrong week to start.

Common mistakes

• Treating them as easier pull-ups and skipping the pull-ups. They're a different pull, not a substitute. Most people want both in a block, not one instead of the other.
• Letting the shoulders ride up to the ears. Down and away, as the catalog says, for every rep. Shrugging is what turns a chin-up into a neck exercise.
• Not going to straight arms. The bottom is the position climbing actually asks for. Cut it and you've trained the easy half.
• Doing volume through elbow pain. Inner-elbow soreness after chin-ups is common and worth respecting. Back off the reps, and if it keeps coming back get a physio to look at it.

How to progress

Work up to four sets of eight clean reps with 2 minutes rest, then add weight and go back to five reps. If five clean ones aren't there yet, band-assisted sets are the way in, and dropping band thickness beats adding reps on a thick band. One session a week is enough if you're also doing pull-ups.