Yeah, it’s true, I am not able to do a pull-up yet but it’s sort of necessary for the Tough Mudder race! I will need to be able to pull myself up and over a wall, climb a rope, swing from one to ring to another, and several other similar movements…all of these which involve upper body strength that is in what I call “transition” at the moment!
So, here’s the funny part…with how much I love fitness and I love working out I had this ridiculous misconception that I needed to strengthen my arms to do pull-ups…Go ahead and I laugh! I did, after I started looking into training for pull-ups! Yeah, um, how about strengthening my lats and upper back muscles in addition to my arms. It’s like that commercial “Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids” but in my case it would be “Silly lady, lats are for pull-ups!” So, obviously it’s a good thing I am looking into this further.
I’m sure you’re not surprised the outrageous amount of articles and videos about “pull-ups” and training how to do them. Clicking along I became a little overwhelmed with the advice. A lot of the articles out there seem to be pretty technical with a combination of deadlifts/weight lifting, special bands and training with your own body weight. Women’s Health was a breath of fresh air with more layman’s terms and awesome pictures for the beginner puller-upper however there was no reference to weight lifting that is probably something that shouldn’t be overlooked.
With my new knowledge I am ready to put together my pull-up training plan of action!
Here are the Four Steps to Pull-Ups En Fuego Style that I will put into action.
1) Push-ups before bed (not sure how many I can do the traditional way but will work up to 30 traditional in one set by the end of the month
2) Hop into and hold myself in the chin-up position with my chest close to the bar (start at 5 seconds and move up to 15-20) also known as “Isometric Chin up”
3) Hop up and hold myself in the chin-up postion and then slowly lower myself down shooting for 5-10 seconds, lower myself back onto the stool I jumped from, let go and the do it again. (this one is called the Eccentric Chin-up)
4) Dead lifts and bent over rows with three sets of 10
I am going to give myself 6 weeks and if I am a puller-upper flop then I will revisit my strategies and add a tweek here and there until it happens! Happy Pulling-Upping!
