do a pullup

I asked my trapeze teacher for advice on this, and she told me to work on push-ups and to do shoulder shrugs on the pull-up bar. So tonight I started on those. They’re really hard!

I have a pull-up bar, and currently I can bend my elbows a little bit, but that’s about it. (It’s progress though!) Currently I’m concentrating on push-ups as a way to build upper-body strength, as a stepping-stone to my goal of being able to do pull-ups.

So I’m fairly physically active. (I ran 5.5 miles yesterday without stopping!) I like to hike, run, bike, and swim…but apparently this isn’t enough!! I CANNOT do a pull-up. In fact, I have only done 1 in my entire life. That was in the second grade and I have no idea how I managed it for the annual physical fitness test. I’ve been using the pull-up assist machine at the gym, but I’m just not seeing results when I try it alone! Anyone consider themselves in good shape, but can’t do a pull-up? What gives??

I’m trying to talk my husband into getting a chin-up bar for the doorway. It would be really great if I could accomplish this goal by 2010.

For the physical fitness test in gym this year, I figured I ought to try to do a pullup before resorting to the flexed arm hang. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could do a pullup! Maybe it wouldn’t be counted as a proper pullup in the real world, but it counted in phys. ed.!

Well, I’ve started throwing a basketball at a hoop (wouldn’t exactly call it ‘playing’, which seems to build up my arm muscles some)...

In elementary school I was the queen of the endurance pull-up suspension. That was billed as essentially the girls model of a pull-up. You get up there however you like, but you have to hold that chin dutifully over the bar until your arms fall off. Well, dang it, I want to do what the boys do! Bring it on you frisky old arm flexer!! These pipe cleaners welcome the challenge!

but there are only so many exercise-related goals I can focus on at one time.

We have our physical fitness tests in phys. ed., and I didn’t even attempt a pull up. Just went for the flexed arm hang—very easy now. Maybe in the fall?

I started being able to do pullups in 2007. Today is may 2008 and I can do plenty! I even have a bar up in my doorway.