Last year, I needed to get surgery on my wrist because I tore my cartilage in my wrist after performing weighted chin-ups.
I’m writing this post because I don’t want you to get injured like I did.
I was in chronic pain due to getting this injury, and being in pain every day was tough.
Here’s how my injury occurred.
I was working out at the gym. The workout was a pull day, during which I trained my back and biceps.
I started the workout with deadlifts, then barbell rows, and then weighted chin-ups.
I warmed up for deadlifts, so usually, once I do this, I’m warmed up for my other exercises.
Although to perform weighted chin-ups I attached a 15kg plate to my waist using a belt with a chain ( to attach a weight plate to my body), I was performing six reps with 15kg attached to my waist. Unfortunately, I felt a pop in my wrist mid-set, and the cartilage was torn.
It took me a year to get a diagnosis and to get my wrist fixed surgically.
What To Do So You Don’t Suffer The Same Fate As Me
- Never do weighted chin-ups or pull-ups; only use your body weight. If you can do 20 pull-ups or chin-ups in a row, you’ll have incredible back and bicep strength.
- If you’re not strong enough to perform bodyweight chin-ups and pull-ups, I recommend using the lat pulldown until you can perform the lat pulldown of your body weight for three sets of 10 reps. If you can do that, you should be fine to perform bodyweight chin-ups and pull-ups.
I Stay Away From Doing Chin Ups And Pull Ups Now
This is because it’s easier to control a lighter weight on a lat pulldown than using your body weight straight out of the bat.
Also, warming up for lat pulldowns is easier than warming up for pull-ups or chin-ups.
With pull-ups or chin-ups, you can’t start off any lighter than your body weight during your warm-up sets.
Using the lat pulldown, you can reduce the weight to as little as 5kg or even lower.
Now, I always warm up for lat pull-downs and don’t perform pull-ups or chin-ups.
I recommend that you do the same if you want to reduce your risk of injury.
I also don’t lift ultra-heavy anymore. I won’t do any sets heavier than eight reps ( about 80% of my one rep max).
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