Since I’ve been working out with Brody, we’ve really been concentrating on the weakest part of my body, the upper back. I have always had bad posture. Up until recently, I’ve told myself that the reason I slouched was because of my moobs. If I rolled my shoulders and hunched, then I talked myself into believing that they looked smaller. But now, my moobs are gone. They’re replaced with pecs and it feels awesome.
I think it’s because I’ve been hunched over for 20 years, Brody thinks it’s because of my weak back. It’s probably a combination of the two. So we’ve been working on strengthening my back. In fact, we do about twice as many exercises on my upper back than we do on my chest because my back muscles pull my shoulders back while my chest muscles can pull my shoulders forward. And my posture has definitely improved since the beginning of the year. But also, I’m stronger.
I’ve been haunted by one particular exercise, the pull up, for as long as I can remember. Twice a week in high school, we had a pull up test. I couldn’t do any! The test was graded on improvement and on the honor system. The whole baseball class would run under the football bleachers, do their pull ups, and run back to the coach to report the total. I totally lied. Every other week or so, I would increase my total by one pull up. I never got caught, but I never got stronger either. To this day, I carry feelings of guilt about it.
Pull ups are hard. They take consistent practice in order to see any progress. And if you’re carrying around a lot of extra weight, they’re even harder. If you’d like to get better at doing pull ups, here are some suggestions:
- Do pull-ups!—Really, the only way to get better at them is to practice them.
- Do negatives—Negatives are the opposite of pull ups. I like to call them “let downs.” Basically, get yourself to the top of the pull up position with the help of a chair or a partner and then let your arms extend your body back to the ground as slowly as possible. This builds the muscles in your back, arms, and core. Keep doing these and you’ll be able to do pull ups in no time. Well maybe in a little bit of time.
- Use an assisted pull up machine—The assisted pull up machine basically pushes you up while you pull yourself up. You can very the amount of pushing that the machine does to make it harder, or easier for you to get to the top. The trick here is to use only the amount of weight necessary to help you pull up in order to maximize your workout. Also, you should aim to decrease the amount of help that the machine gives you so that you can wean yourself off the machine.
- Do lat pull downs—Lat pull downs also work the pull up muscles with one big exception. In a pull down, you’re pulling weight down instead of pulling weight up. They are a great all around back exercise though, and will help you achieve your goals of doing pull ups. Good form is key here so that you isolate your lat muscles.
Yesterday morning, I was talking to Brody about things that I’ve never done in my life. One of those things was an unassisted pull up. Brody dropped everything, told me to get on the bar and do one. AND I DID IT! And, I could have done more! All my life, I’ve hated pull ups, but now I feel like I want to do more of them and incorporate them into my workout routine whenever possible. I better be careful what I wish for in public. Brody may take me up on it.
Do you have an exercise nemesis? Have you conquered it yet? If not, what are you doing to get over it?
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh, God… I remember the special hell of pull-ups for the Presidential Fitness test when I was in middle school. I think I managed one. Passed everything else with flying colors but that one exercise just didn’t happen for me.
Another thing you can do to improve your upper body strength is rock climbing. Nothing high and dangerous if that’s not your thing, but the low work called bouldering can do wonders for your upper body strength.
.-= Sayre´s last blog ..Gingerly, Back in the Saddle =-.
Pullups have always been tough for me, though my back has gotten a lot stronger from regular rowing. The main limitation right now is lack of a suitable pullup bar at our house (made more difficult by the fact that I’m 6’5″, so vertical space is an issue. I’ve been thinking of places to put one, but haven’t found the right spot. Maybe in our workshop out back, though I’m not crazy about doing pullups in there on sweltering summer days.
.-= fit36.com´s last blog ..How Many Calories Did I Really Burn? =-.
That’s a great story. You liar! Just kidding. I think it is amazing to be able to do things as adults that we couldn’t do growing up. What a break through! I actually think running was my nemisis. I never did it until my 40s b/c I just thought it was too hard. What I realized was that I was going about it the wrong way. I would go out and sprint for a mile after not have run for months. I would get tired and frustrated and decide it was too hard and I wasn’t cut out for it. What I didn’t know is that there is such a thing called pacing and working up the mileage and speed. It took a training group to teach me that when I was 42! Off to do pullups….(which I’ve never been able to do either)
.-= ShutupandRun´s last blog ..Colorado Marathon Race Report – Part One =-.
we had to do our pull-ups in front of the whole class!
I have never been good with pull-ups. That is one of my goals to get better with them. The p90x is definitely getting me there.
.-= seth @ fitwithapurpose´s last blog ..My First 5k! Crazy Runners. Satisfaction. =-.
And if you can’t afford or don’t have access to an assisted pullup machine you can get these bands (http://www.roguefitness.com/store/product245.html). You can knot them over the top of the pullup bar and stick your foot in them, their elasticity helps pull you up, while you are still pulling some of the weight. Same deal as the machine though, you need to work on going down in size so you can eventually stop using the bands.
.-= Bekka´s last blog ..Monday Night Mission! =-.
I despise pull-ups. I think it’s because when I was a gymnast I was forced to do hundreds a day and if we didn’t make it all the way up we had to start over. I get depressed how that I can’t even do one. Your so right, practice is key to get better.
.-= She-Fit´s last blog ..15 minute Workout =-.
I hated pull ups. They were my nemisis for as long as I was bodybuilding. The funny thing is that I was never able to do many at all (nor very well) until I started swimming competitively.
These days my chief issues are simple balance exercises but the ability to run is a close second. 4 years of casts and foot surgeries kept me from running around at all and atrophied the stabilizers. Martial arts are helping a lot but, like you mentioned, Mac, the results come only with time, patience, and perserverence.
.-= Ted Hessing´s last blog ..Kim & Kyle: Lawyers No More! =-.
Ted–Now that I can do 1, 2 for sure, maybe 3, I’m really interested in seeing if I can get better. I even bought a pull up bar for the house!
She-Fit–Hundreds in a day? Wow, I’m in awe. Now that’s an athlete.
Bekka–Thanks for the link and that’s an awesome idea.
Seth–How many could you do on day 1 and how many can you do now? Are you using a chair for help during the p90X workouts?
fit36–6’5″ is tough for pull ups in the house. Maybe we should cut off your lower legs? Think how easy the pull ups would be too!
Sayre–Ugh, the Presidential Fitness Test…That’s another post for sure!
You have inspired me to give pull-ups a try. We have an assisted pull-up machine at the gym. I have always dismissed this machine simply because it was not part of my routine. In addition to staying trim, I strive to enable my body to operate as the physical being I am. Pulling myself up is one of them.
Pull-ups have definitely been my nemesis since I was a teen. Sounds like my experience was very similar to yours, though I never got the *opportunity* to lie about it (if it makes you feel any better, I am sure that I definitely would have done that too in the pressure cooker of being “husky” in gym class
).
I was recently talking to a good friend who owns a climbing gym, and he was excited because he’s finally able to do 7 sets of 7 pull-ups. And, he’s in his 50′s. It inspired me to start working toward being able to do a few pull-ups as well, so I’ve been doing my version of the 100 push-up challenge as a starting point (up to 70 last night!). So, THANK YOU for writing this entry – I’m really inspired to keep going!
.-= Metroknow´s last blog ..On the upswing =-.
My nemesis is in fact pushups an it’s a goal of mine to do 100 of them in a row eventually. I’ve been focusing on dropping the pounds as I figured that would help more at first but now that I’ve dropped a lot I think I’m going to get started working on my first pullup.
I’ve never in my life done one so I have a ways to go. I think negatives would work best for me, I’m gonna pickup a pullup bar this weekend to hang in the basement.
Thanks for motivating me man!
.-= Sean (Learn Fitness)´s last blog ..A Weekend Of Food Wars =-.
I hate pull ups with a passion. I have awful memories from school when we used to have to do them each week too. Blech!
.-= Tishia – No More Plus Size ´s last blog ..I Have a Dilemma =-.
I’ve been focusing on pull ups over the last 18-months now. Its amazing how difficult it can be to lift your own body weight…
.-= Greg´s last blog ..Effort vs Talent – Teaching Your Kids To Be Successful =-.
Thanks for the tips Mac. Pullups is definitely one are I want to improve on. It’s been a long time since I’ve even tried to do a pullup. I’m hoping to get one of those portable pullup bars that hangs in a doorway so I can work on them at home. The “let downs” definitely sound like a good way to start if you can’t do any pullups to begin with.
What are the posture exercises? I have terrible posture (reason: probably genetics; all the women in my family are tall with bad posture.) But I would really like to fix it. Can you do a post about posture?
I was one of those who could do maybe one in gym class….
sometimes none, on a bad day, sometimes two, if I was feeling
energetic, and didn’t go down too far between the two.
(I also usually did over 3:00 in the 600 yard run, blush)
Now that I’m grown up, I’ve tried to work on pull ups, with perfect
form, since I’m doing them for exercise. On a great day, I can
do eight, palms forward and eight palms back. (six,
more often). I still don’t really
like them, but recognize that they are good exercise.
I just order a pull up bar today (prior to reading this). I’ve never done one either. I’m honestly committed to being a pull up machine.
.-= Micah´s last blog ..Mexican Pizza =-.
I’m currently trying to do an unassisted pull-up. I use an assisted pull up machine at the gym. The process is very slow but I’m sure it will be worth it!
.-= Lexie´s last blog ..Does your job make you fat? =-.