Seeing that pull ups were easy, I asked if my son could climb these things. Yep. Something else to conquer for me maybe.
"I cannot do pull ups," there I said it. But I would imagine that most of you reading this cannot; albeit a few dynamite ladies. The pull up has always been very difficult for me; even in my younger years I had a hard time getting two out. So today I had an ah ha moment. As I was doing my pull down exercises; both with a bar and rope grip I realized that if I cannot use at least 125 lbs, that I will never be doing a pull up. A pull up requires us to pull our whole body (weight) up to a bar from a straight hang down position. Hmmmmm, so I have to raise my pull down weight. After several sets with 70, 80 and 90 lbs; I did 2 sets of 6 reps with 100. I was impressed with myself and realize that the 125 lb mark will not be far off.
I came home and dove into a few articles that you might like to read.
Breaking muscle - women and pull ups.
Huffington Post - women can't do pull ups.
Recently I hit a school yard with my daughter and son. I tried to do a pull up and failed which I already knew I would. I then thought "what if I had to pull myself up somewhere?" What if you had to save yourself by pulling YOU up to safety? I mean a full pull up style pull; hanging in mid air and just pull yourself straight up. Could you? Not me, I could climb but the actual pull up is illusive. So I have a new goal, I am doing pull ups somewhere in the future. I'd like to do a couple but would be happy to be able to do one without dying.
Of course along with increasing my upper body strength; dropping weight will help. The less I have to lift the better so I'm working on that as well. Not easy but I'm determined. :)
