What’s A Good Number of Chin-Ups? (For Men & Women)

Chin-ups have become something of an iconic gym exercise.

Heroes are seen doing them in movies, the big bodybuilder types are seen doing them in the gym, but everyday, normal people, like most of us, are commonly seen doing them too.

Not only are chin-ups a highly effective muscle building exercise, they’re also a way that people use to determine how fit or how strong they are.

As chin-ups involve lifting your bodyweight, you can usually get a good idea of how you compare to others of a similar age, fitness level, or gender.

While comparing your fitness to others isn’t always beneficial, it can give you an idea of how much progress you’re making from time to time.

In this article, we discuss what’s a good number of chin-ups for different people.

We look at things such as gender, age, and fitness level as well as considering ways that you can get better at chin-ups.

Context Is Important

Probably the most important thing to remember when working out what’s a good number of chin-ups for you is that everyone is different.

There’s no one-size-fits-all number that suits everyone of a specific group of people.

There are so many variables that can impact your chin-up ability that you should keep in mind.

For example, if you’re comparing the number of chin-ups you can do to the average number other people your age can do, you may find that you’re a little higher or a little lower than the number you find.

That doesn’t necessarily mean you‘re better or worse than others, it simply means that due to your current and past situations, you can only do the number of chin-ups you can.

Things such as your fitness goals can play a part.

If you’ve been training for a specific goal where chin-ups haven’t been included in your workout plan, then it makes complete sense that you might not be able to do the number of chin-ups other people can.

Equally, if you’ve been doing chin-ups for a while, then you’ll probably be able to do quite a few more than others.

Your current fitness level will also have a big impact on the number of chin-ups you can do.

You may be fitter than you’ve ever been before and can do hundreds of chin-ups.

However, you may have had a hard time lately resulting in your fitness levels declining.

This needs to be considered when comparing yourself to others’ chin-up capabilities.

It’s also worth remembering that lots can happen in your life and many things can impact your training.

You might be recovering from an injury, you might have been sick lately, maybe you’ve had to spend more time with your family, or maybe work has been extra busy.

Whatever the reason, life can be extremely busy sometimes, so trying to fit in exercise can be difficult.

If you haven’t had the time or motivation lately, then don’t be disheartened if you can’t do as many chin-ups as you like.

Once life settles down again, you can build your chin-ups back up and do even more than you thought you could.

What’s A Good Number of Chin-Ups for Beginner Athletes?

If you’re just starting out on your exercise journey, chin-ups will likely be an extremely hard exercise to do.

Building up to 2 – 3 sets of 3 – 5 reps will be a great starting point.

However, to begin with, just do 1 set of however many chin-ups you can do.

These might have to be assisted chin-ups but that’s fine. Getting started and doing however many chin-ups you can will help you increase your chin-up ability.

What’s A Good Number of Chin-Ups for Intermediate Athletes?

If you’ve been training for a while and consider yourself to be an intermediate athlete, a rough guide to the number of chin-ups that could be considered good for you is somewhere between 6 – 10 reps.

If you can do 6 – 10 chin-ups over 2 – 3 sets, then you’ll likely be making some good progress toward your fitness goals.

Once the number of chin-ups you’re doing increases though, you need to be extra careful that your technique is correct and that you’re allowing enough rest time between sets and between sessions.

What’s A Good Number of Chin-Ups for Expert Athletes?

There are some expert athletes out there who can do a huge number of chin-ups.

If you can do somewhere between 10 – 20 chin-ups for 2 – 3 sets, you’re very likely to be considered an expert athlete when it comes to chin-ups.

This amount of chin-ups will be extremely challenging and can take a long time to reach.

However, with the right training plan and good levels of motivation and dedication, many people can potentially get to this level.

What’s A Good Number of Chin-Ups for Men?

Between 6 and 10 chin-ups will likely be a good target for most men to aim for.

As they’re a tricky exercise, rep and set numbers will probably be a bit lower than some other exercises, but they’ll still bring you lots of benefits so chin-ups are still well worth doing (even if you can’t do many to begin with).

What’s A Good Number of Chin-Ups for Women? 

Somewhere around 7 chin-ups will be considered good for women.

There are many women who can do a lot more than this though but a good goal for most women will be around 7 chin-ups.

What’s A Good Number of Chin-Ups for Teenagers?

1 – 5 reps will be a good number of chin-ups for teenagers.

This will obviously depend on their current fitness levels, health, and genetic makeup but, as a general rule, 1 – 5 chin-ups will be a suitable goal for teenagers.

Is X Chin-Ups Good?

Asking whether the number of chin-ups you can do is good or not is a very tricky question to answer.

Without knowing your history, your fitness level, your current health status, your training experience, and a whole load of other information, it’s almost impossible to say whether you’re good at chin-ups or not.

It’s probably better to compare your current chin-up number to your chin-up number from around 8 weeks ago.

If you can do more than you could back then, the chances are the number of chin-ups you can do is good for you and that’s the main thing that matters.

How To Get Better At Chin-Ups

Negative Reps

Jump to help get yourself to the highest point of your chin-ups before slowly lowering yourself down.

This can help build strength in the muscles needed for chin-ups.

Practice

Perhaps the best way to get better at chin-ups is to practice doing them as much as you can. 

The more you do them, the better your body will get at doing them and the number you can do will likely increase.

Conclusion

In summary, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer to a good number of chin-ups as there are many factors at play.

That’s all for this article, but do chin-ups stunt growth? Or perhaps you’re wondering why you experience elbow pain from chin-ups?

Hope this helped!

Sources

How To Get Better At Chin-Ups