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Even in my younger days, I could NEVER do a pull up. I watched people shimmy and pull their bodies up the rope in high school, I could not do it, EVEN though I was skinny, swam, walked, did ballet.
Now I want to be able to do a pull up, you know, pull your body weight up to the bar, place your chin over the bar.
WHAT can I do to accomplish this? I just tried, and moved an inch. I am not humongously overweight, but overweight.
Help, please. I would like to accomplish this before my 42nd birthday.
Even in my younger days, I could NEVER do a pull up. I watched people shimmy and pull their bodies up the rope in high school, I could not do it, EVEN though I was skinny, swam, walked, did ballet.
Now I want to be able to do a pull up, you know, pull your body weight up to the bar, place your chin over the bar.
WHAT can I do to accomplish this? I just tried, and moved an inch. I am not humongously overweight, but overweight.
Help, please. I would like to accomplish this before my 42nd birthday.
Losing weight will help because you'll have less weight to lift.
Can you afford to go to a gym? If you can, find a gym that has an assisted pull up machine. You can start with a very low % of your body weight and work up.
What BigDGeek says is correct as well. Getting in shape overall and losing excess weight can only help the process.
Google alternative pull ups. Look at some of the ideas. Look at some of the youtube vids. Maybe they will give you other ideas.
Before you get to the point of being able to do a pull up you must eat right, lose weight, exercise doing a cardio and resistance training. If you do that and focus on weights you could do a pull up, but it will take awhile.
No gym here-cardio sounds good. How about push ups etc???? AND why, even when I was skinny could I NOT do a pull up? Do some people simply have 0 upper body strength?
I'm fit for my age and size and I can't do a pullup with my full body weight. At all. So...don't feel bad if you can't do one, it's not a hard and fast indicator of being fit and healthy.
Start slowly and first pull yourself on a door jam. Get in a door way, hold onto the door jam and pull yourself towards it. Once you can do 3-4 sets of ten move onto the next challenge. Find a low bar at a playground or a very stable table and pull yourself up on that. Keep your feet on the ground, body at a 45 degree angle and pull up. Again, work your way up to multiple sets of 10. This may take a few months but your muscles will be ready to try a full fledged pullup.
Great place to train is at a local park that has a fitness course. When I was in between jobs last summer I trained on the local fitness course and was able to stay in pretty decent shape. Most fitness courses have all the equipment you need to do the exercises I gave you. Good luck, about 6 years ago I could barely squeak out one or two pullups and I made it my mission to focus on getting my reps up. Now I usually do 5-6 sets of 5 three times a week after I get done running.
No gym here-cardio sounds good. How about push ups etc???? AND why, even when I was skinny could I NOT do a pull up? Do some people simply have 0 upper body strength?
A pull up, or a chin up, requires strength in your upper ("lats") back and biceps. A push up, though a useful exercise on its own, develops your chest, your shoulders (deltoid), and triceps. Therefore pushups will not help you do a pullup.
You need to increase your power to weight ratio. That means lose weight and get stronger.
You need to do exercises that involve a pulling motion. Rowing type machines could help, especially those that mimic a pullup or have a handle you pull to your stomach.
A pull up, or a chin up, requires strength in your upper ("lats") back and biceps. A push up, though a useful exercise on its own, develops your chest, your shoulders (deltoid), and triceps. Therefore pushups will not help you do a pullup.
You need to increase your power to weight ratio. That means lose weight and get stronger.
You need to do exercises that involve a pulling motion. Rowing type machines could help, especially those that mimic a pullup or have a handle you pull to your stomach.
don't focus too much on doing a pull up, but rather on your nutrition/diet to lose some weight: add some upper body strength training and you will achieve your pull up. good luck!
Some good advice here. In the genreal sense, power to weight is what you want to learn about and focus on.
I'll add that (although it may sound daunting) if you aim for 1 pullup you may get to 1/2, if you aim for 10 you may get to 5. You are capable of more than you think.
Best of luck.
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