Grab Best Fitness Blog Feed... By Karli Taylor
Now that you have forever banished on-your-knees push-ups from your workout vocabulary, the next obstacle standing in your way from being a total fitness buff is that pull up bar… The pull-up has been haunting many of us since grade school fitness testing, and surprisingly is equally as hard for men as it is for women. By adding the following moves to your weekly fitness routine, you will be seeing the view from above the bar in no time.
First things first- get used to holding your body weight up off of the ground. Simply practice hanging from a bar with straight arms, hands shoulder width apart and palms forward. Until you can hang tight for 90 seconds, this is as far as your pull-up training should go.
Once you have mastered the bottom half of the move, it’s time to work on the top. Stand on a bench or a chair that is high enough to place your chin just above the bar. Grab on to the bar slightly wider than shoulder width with your elbows bent by your sides. Step off and hold yourself up over the bar for as long as possible. Once you can hold for 30 seconds, it’s time to progress!
Sometimes a little negativity is a positive thing- in motion that is, not in attitude. Start in the same position that you have been practicing, but this time, allow yourself to drop to a straight arm hang. Control the movement and try to fight the pull of gravity all the way to the bottom. Once 5 or 6 repetitions of this gets easy, it’s time to move to the final step!
Starting from the bottom, there are a few techniques that will get your body used to the pull-up. If your gym has an assisted pull-up machine, you are in luck. Set the weight to a little less than half of your body weight and do 5 or 6 repetitions. If you do not have access to an assisted pull-up machine, have your workout buddy or trainer assist you on each upward pull. Once you can get 6 done with ease, you should be able to do a real pull-up or two on your own!
