So in our country’s military you are asked to perform a basic fitness test. One of the tests consists of holding yourself in the highest position of a chin up for as long as you can. It is allowed to press your chest against the bar. The test is over when your chin is no longer above the bar. Chalk is allowed and you don’t have to pull yourself up, you stand on a box which is then dragged away under your feet.
My girlfriend wants to take this test again to better her time. Her best ever is 1:30+ minutes. However she had to deal with long periods of being ill and injured and when she took the test last week, she was down to 46 seconds.
She has about 4 weeks to improve her time.
A problem she has is that she doesn’t get her back involved and only feels this exercise in her forearms and biceps.
Do you have any ideas for her to improve her time in this short time?
Leaning back slightly might help with feeling the back more prominently, if that’s allowed.
I would say lots of subbmaximal sets, like 10 sets of 20 seconds once to twice a day for a week, then up the hold time to 25 seconds, or increase the sets, or decrease the rest. If performance needs to improve quickly, dedicate a lot of training energy towards it.
Also, practicing more difficult variations could make the test itself feel much easier. Maybe fat grips, hanging from towels, doing some chin ups before the hold… Or anything else to increase the difficulty a bit.
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Thanks for your input @brady888 . I passed it along.
honestly, assuming that your girlfriend is wanting to join the marines, I’m pretty sure were the only branch that does the flexed arm hang(for women), they’re now required to do pull-ups, not the flexed arm hang as of this year. so if thats the case, crank out them pull ups. normal, band assisted, buddy assisted. she’s just gotta get on the bar and work hard. a good trick that always helps, put one of those iron gym pull up bars in your bathroom/ kitchen doorway, something like that, every time you walk through you do a max set. again if she can’t do any yet, help her. get her on the bar, stand behind her and assist her by lifting her from her back. don’t do it for her, but ASSIST.