Road to pull-up. This week I want to highlight one of our athletes, Coleen. She has been a DGF member for over three years and about a year ago she wanted to be able to do a pull-up. If I were to choose the hardest exercise, pull ups would be it. Requires tremendous amount of upper body strength.
First, you need strong fingers to be able to hang onto the bar. Then, in order for the body to move upwards, it needs activation of the lats, biceps, and forearm muscles. All these must be strong enough to move the body up. If you don’t have any strength, then you go no where.
Initially, Coleen started using a heavy resistance band to help her do a pull-up. In the beginning, five repetition was a challenge. This went on for weeks. Then, the rep count went up to 10. As it got easier, a lighter band was used so there’s less support. In addition to this exercise, lat pull down was incorporated to gain strength.
Turn on the lats.
Months and months of the assisted pull-ups and lat pull down didn’t get allow her to do a pull-up. Then, I added more technique exercises that helps with proper lat activation. When people hang, they let their body drop. In order to turn on the lats, there needs to be a slight pull where the chest sticks up. Immediately you feel the shoulders turn on and this is what muscle you need for the pull-up.
I watched her do her routine after exercising for a hour. That’s AFTER one hour of exercising; the body is tired and definitely not even close to being 100%. However, she kept with it and stayed diligent. And this is the key to success. Being CONSISTENT. There are going to be times where you are NOT going to see any results. “I still can’t do it. I’m not seeing any progress.” These are words she mentioned at times and I reassured her to keep up with it. Flash forward one and a half year later, she was able to do A PULL-UP last week. Yes ladies and gentlemen, ONE AND A HALF YEAR LATER.
The moral of the story is, if you want to ACCOMPLISH something, stick with it and RESULTS will follow. The road may be bumpy and long, but as long as you keep up with it, you shall get to your destination. Here is the video of when she did her first pull-up. Hope you enjoyed this week’s blog. Stay tuned for more next Wed……………………Kei