The illusive pull up

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.  :)