Nerdy Girl's Guide to Finally Getting Your Pullup

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to do a pull-up.

Selfie pullup

I've never been able to do a pull-up.

I've been going to gymnastics and occasionally we do pull-ups for conditioning. And I could do assisted pull-ups. I felt like I almost had the strength to do one (rock climbing muscles) so I decided to work on it. (Also, motivator: My husband has to be able to do four pullups as part of the test to get on the SWAT team. I secretly wonder if I could pass the physical, the timed run, etc.  Minus the shooting. I hate guns.)

I did the usual:

1) YouTube how to a Pullup. That helped.

2) Assisted pull-ups.
I made a point to work on assisted pull-ups every week at  my tumbling class. This usually meant Coach Megan would help me up and down—holding some of my body weight—and making me hold it at the top and counting slowly on the down part of the pull-up.

3. Resistance bands.
Coach Megan or her personal trainer boyfriend (I can't remember whom) told me to try pull-ups with resistance bands. I got a three-pack on a deal with Groupon, and started to work on my pull-ups at home (without someone holding my feet or back). Wrap the band around the bar. And then put your feet (or one foot) or knees (or one knee) in the band. It will hold some of your weight so you can gradually build up strength and work towards a pull-up.

I got three bands, big, medium and slim. The biggest band holds the most of your weight. I started with that one, got up to few reps, then worked with the medium band until I was strong enough to do a few reps on the slim band. And finally a pull-up!

I've had a few almost-pull-ups. I kipped up one night at tumbling this summer. I've done a few with Megan, where she swears she wasn't holding me but I was sure she was.

My problem is the up: I could get 1/4 of the way up, and then I'd stall.

And tonight—I did one. I got all the way up.  I did another one to film it and ended up making four videos for four pull-ups in all. And it just kept getting easier. I finally got the motion. I heard it would be like that. I didn't have one last week—but tonight voila! five.

I did a happy dance. I was way more excited than I should be. Hooray for getting a pull-up.

Now, I think I need a "strong is the new thin" shirt.

The gun show

This week I've been resting my knee—which has translated to more arm work at the gym.

I've been doing circuit training this week and avoid the circuits with jumping. My knee doesn't need the added strain. And the teacher has been giving me arms to do.

Skip TRX shootouts. Climb the rope instead. 4x. Skip cardio step-ups, do TRX I-holds instead.

Tonight my workout included rope climbs. Four of them. I got all the way up the first time. The second and third times I got about half-way up and the last time I got 3/4 the way up. The next station had 60-second TRX X-holds. And then 60-second intervals of battle ropes. The burnout was 4-straight minutes of plank holds with your feet in the TRX straps. There were some pendulum swings and bringing your knee to your chest and back, but it was a murderous workout. I was dead afterwards. So so dead.

The instructor said he was glad he wasn't doing it with us. Thanks.

But here is the result of my troubles—muscles.