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.