Close grip Chins for Biceps?

[Skinnyrunt]

Hi,

Sorry if this has been answered else where, but was wondering if its OK to use Close Grip Chin Ups and Close Grip Pull Downs as my biceps exercises so to give my back extra stimulus, or would this be overtraining my back?

I read else where that its OK to use things like Dips and Reverse Bench Presses for Triceps so to give your Chest extra stimulus, so thought it might be OK in this case too?

Thanks.

[CJ Hartley]

at one point do to injury that is all I could do for biceps. I think its fine to do for your Biceps exercise IMO.

[mentalflex]

I'm going to add to the above: Really concentrate on the negative. At least for me, when I do close grip underhand chins, that is when I really feel the greatest tension on my biceps.

What are your back (width and thickness) exercises?

[Skinnyrunt]

I do wide pull ups, palms facing medium width pull ups, and wide pull downs for width.
Do bent over barbell rows, reverse grip bent over rows, and floor deadlifts for thickness.

I was doing for biceps underhand grip chin ups, underhand grip pull downs, and overhand narrow grip pull ups.

Think that works ok then with those exercises for bis?

Thanks guys

[mentalflex]

I would do this (just looking at your back and Bi exercises):

A1) Wide Pull-ups and Bent Over BB Rows
B1) For Biceps - Close Grip Chins (underhand) - Focus on the negative

A2) Neutral Grip Chins and Underhand Grip BB Rows (might also want to consider a cable row here or move the UH BB Rows to A1 and do T-bar rows here)
B2) For Biceps - Underhand Close Grip Pull-downs - Focus on the negative

A3) Wide Grip Pull-downs and Floor Deadlifts
B3) Olympic BB Curls

I don't think the close overhand grip pull-ups would suit your purpose best and at least having one direct biceps exercise will keep things balanced and avert cutting the blast short due to overtraining your back.

Let me know what you think of that.

Experts, does what I am suggesting sound about right? I'd like to ensure I am on the same page and that I am not off base making suggestions.

[trucelt]

@mentalflex

Quit deferring to the "experts", you know what you talking about.

[Sammich]

I would be a little careful using close-grip chins to focus on biceps, as that anatomical position can put a lot of stress on the tendons and muscle attachments.

[Jared Ragsdale]

i would be a little careful using close-grip chins to focus on biceps, as that anatomical position can put a lot of stress on the tendons and muscle attachments.

*snap*

[Skinnyrunt]

Looks good thanks (providing that my tendons don't snap lol).

On another note, I'm really struggling with the notion that on weeks where my workouts are B, A, B, I'm only doing 1 set for Chest that week and nothing else! I know people get angry when you start challenging the setup of DC training so I'm apologising in advance, but I can't accept in my head that this is enough stimulus for my Chest to grow in that particular week.
For that reason, what would be wrong with swapping Triceps with Forearms, so that you move Forearms to the end of the A workouts, and move Triceps to the start of the B workouts so that your Chest will always be getting sufficient stimulus no matter what?

Sorry again if this is a stupid question, but is something I'm really sturggling to overcome mentally.

[Sammich]

Looks good thanks (providing that my tendons don't snap lol).

On another note, I'm really struggling with the notion that on weeks where my workouts are B, A, B, I'm only doing 1 set for Chest that week and nothing else! I know people get angry when you start challenging the setup of DC training so I'm apologising in advance, but I can't accept in my head that this is enough stimulus for my Chest to grow in that particular week.
For that reason, what would be wrong with swapping Triceps with Forearms, so that you move Forearms to the end of the A workouts, and move Triceps to the start of the B workouts so that your Chest will always be getting sufficient stimulus no matter what?

Sorry again if this is a stupid question, but is something I'm really sturggling to overcome mentally.

How much do you weigh, how tall are you, how old are you, how long have you been lifting, what's your body fat percentage?

[homonunculus]

Looks good thanks (providing that my tendons don't snap lol).

On another note, I'm really struggling with the notion that on weeks where my workouts are B, A, B, I'm only doing 1 set for Chest that week and nothing else! I know people get angry when you start challenging the setup of DC training so I'm apologising in advance, but I can't accept in my head that this is enough stimulus for my Chest to grow in that particular week.
For that reason, what would be wrong with swapping Triceps with Forearms, so that you move Forearms to the end of the A workouts, and move Triceps to the start of the B workouts so that your Chest will always be getting sufficient stimulus no matter what?

Sorry again if this is a stupid question, but is something I'm really sturggling to overcome mentally.

Skinny Runt (I've been wanting to call someone that since seeing the Hulk in the Avengers this weekend - and now I can without being offensive LOL),

Funny you should say it that way (see bolded), and this also applies to your desire to do CG Chins for Biceps, IMO.

If you're ready for DC and doing DC training the way it should be, the stimulus comes from your head, i.e. from an unrelenting desire to push each and every damn set (safely) to an unmistakable end. It's your mind that can erase any doubt about getting enough stimulus b/c your mind powers the stimulus you create when you're getting after it in the gym.

A quick perusal of your posts (e.g., http://www.intensemuscle.com/showthr...783#post943783) tells me that you might not yet be capable of putting the effort into the sets of the regular DC training program for it to constitute enough of a stimulus for you. (So, you're right in a sense.)

You nailed it right here (in the above linked post), when you said, "especially since my calves along with the rest of me isn't growing anyway, so guess it's pointless!" I don't know if you've remedied that, but get you diet in order, find a program that suits your experience level (run a search on here for about 5000 threads on that topic) and you'll get to growing and see where you may actually need to tweak exercise selection to match resistant muscle groups.

So, I'd rather see you eating to gain about a pound or so a week, getting ridiculously strong on all exercises (including more standard biceps exercises) and then maybe thinking about upping the stimulus for your back when you're doing rack chins with 100+lb on your lap, pulling 500 from the floor for 6-8 and doing pulldowns with the stack.

(This is not to say that DC training is concerned with exercise selection and feeling the targeted muscle - not at all. However, the bread n' bones of this program is making yourself into a large BB'er by progressively becoming a strong BB'er, and it's easy to get those things a bit mixed up given focus of many programs.)

-S

[Skinnyrunt]

Thanks a lot for the honest input - and yeah a lot of people seem to like my screen name haha!

I understand what you're saying, though I must point out that I'm certainly capable of generating maximal effort to reach complete positive failure on each set (the others at my gym can verify this since I rarely ask for a spot, and they watch in horror as I often fail to make it out the hole for my last rep of squats, but the safety bars on the rack catch the barbell while I land on my ass on the floor!).

Anyway, yeah I guess I have bigger issues to worry about like simply gaining weight to start off with, let alone modifying my programme. I admit that I am getting progressively stronger (I do floor deadlifts with 405lbs for 6, so not too bad since I weigh 174lbs), but yeah since you brought up my diet issue, this does continue to be an issue for me since I'm still struggling to maintain weight let alone put on weight.

So all in all, advice noted, sort my bigger problems first and then worry about smaller things!

[liftweights]

Eat big, lift big, get big.

[homonunculus]

Thanks a lot for the honest input - and yeah a lot of people seem to like my screen name haha!

LOL

I understand what you're saying, though I must point out that I'm certainly capable of generating maximal effort to reach complete positive failure on each set (the others at my gym can verify this since I rarely ask for a spot, and they watch in horror as I often fail to make it out the hole for my last rep of squats, but the safety bars on the rack catch the barbell while I land on my ass on the floor!).

Actually, if you're really doing this, this suggest you're not really able to train safely to failure. Sure, you're safe using the safety bars, but you shouldn't be falling on your butt each time you fail on a set of squats if you're really executing the lift safely. Just my opinion, but I'd not allow a trainee to make a habit of that in the least.

Anyway, yeah I guess I have bigger issues to worry about like simply gaining weight to start off with, let alone modifying my programme. I admit that I am getting progressively stronger (I do floor deadlifts with 405lbs for 6, so not too bad since I weigh 174lbs), but yeah since you brought up my diet issue, this does continue to be an issue for me since I'm still struggling to maintain weight let alone put on weight.

So all in all, advice noted, sort my bigger problems first and then worry about smaller things!

Indeed!!! First things first. You can do all the fancy program re-arranging but if you're not eating enough to grow, well... then you're not gonna grow...

-S

[Skinnyrunt]

Thanks again bud. For the last few weeks been trying Chris Aceto's carb cycling offseason strategy. Still continuing to tweak it to try and make it work for me so we'll see how this goes! Cheers!