Jan 16 2011

Exercise Challenge – Pull Ups

Posted by Frederick | In All Workouts, Exercise Challenges, Featured Articles, Today's Workout

Hi BodyRockers,

It seems like everyone has at least one exercise that they secretly dread doing. Usually people find a way to avoid these exercises – they say to themselves – I’ll just go over here to the elliptical machine where I’m comfortable. They do this even if it means loosing out on training a whole section of their body effectively. For a lot of people pull ups are something that they would prefer to avoid, which is too bad because they are one of the very best body weight exercises for the back and whole upper body. Pull ups are even great for you core and abs. Yes they are hard, and yes it can take time to master them. If you are a beginner, you might not be able to do even one pull up – but don’t get discouraged because there are several ways you can practice pull ups that will not only give you the benefits of this amazing exercise, but will also make you gradually strong enough to do them without assistance. If you are a beginner, make it your goal over the next few weeks to work your way up to being able to do 5, 10 or even 15 unassisted pull ups. If you are already an advanced BodyRocker then push beyond your current barriers and see how much you can improve. I am intermediate in this exercise, so after 4-5 regular pull ups I have to use the chair for support. That’s ok, because I would rather use the support and get stronger with practice, then avoid the exercise all together. Think about how powerful it is to be able to pull your whole body weight up like that. If you can do that, you will certainly have the functional strength and confidence to handle any number of physical tasks that come your way. You might not ever be hanging off the side of a building like in some hollywood action movie, but it’s nice to know that you will have the strength and dexterity to do it if you had to :) The is a confidence that comes from knowing that you can handle yourself – that you have trained to be in the best possible condition for life.

Workout Breakdown

Time: ?min.Workout Type: exercise challengeExercises: 2
  • Pull Ups3 sets of 5 pull ups
  • Interval Skipping with Jump Rope20 minutes

Get your gear for this workout here:

instructions:

Our goal for today is to complete 3 sets of 5 pull ups and then our 20 minutes of skipping. You can take your time with the pull ups, but it shouldn’t take you any longer than 10 minute if you take a few minutes of rest in between each set. You can use a chair for support if you are a beginner. You can also use your Dip Station if you don’t have the option of doing pull ups at home. If you don’t have any of this equipment then you can also do rows with a Sandbag.  If you don’t have the Sandbag, use free weights, elastic bands, or water bottles. Below is a picture of me doing the reverse push up (an easier alternative for pull ups) when I didn’t have this equipment. I was using a broomstick and 2 chairs. The key here is to be creative and make it work.

Skipping:

Yesterday we did 10 seconds of rest and 30 seconds of skipping, so today we will do 10 seconds of rest and 20 seconds of skipping for 20 minutes. I make a mistake sometimes with the math and do more rounds then I am suppose to, so I leave the math up to you today :)


  • http://twitter.com/FlaviaRequim Flavia Requim

    Well, I did it!! Today a curious thing happened, I joined the site to see what would be the exercise program for today, and yet nothing had been posted, and then I thought: it would be a good idea to do some pull ups.
    But I thought that zuzana might want to place this exercise ins the shedule for tomorrow, so I didn´t. But then later I went here again and so here was the pull ups!! I was so happy and I felt tuned with you guys!!
    I did the 3 sets of five pull ups in just less than 5 minutes, so I did more 3 sets of 5 pull ups. Then I jumped to skipping exercise without resting. My body has become accostumed to skip after exercising, the body comes up to ask for it! It´s soooo good!! ^^ At the end I´m really happy and feelling my work is well done!! It´s addictive!! =)
    Thanks again and always!!
    Congratz from Rio de Janeiro – BRazil

  • Anonymous

    Hi Zuzana,

    I agree with you about Pull ups! Even beginners can do them if they push up with their foot on a chair or something and try to lower themselves down without aid. They use the same muscle as they lower themselves down as they used pull themselves up and gravity aids them in the negative. So they will be able to do more and eventually can build to doing them without aid as they strengthen their muscles.

    –Chris

  • http://twitter.com/#!/empowart Jessica

    Hi Zuz and Freddie!

    I just completed this workout challenge. I got home around midnight and just wasn’t tired… so I thought that doing this exercise challenge along with some skipping would be the perfect thing to get me tired (well after the initial energy boost). After every set of pull ups I did 5 – 10 minutes of skipping! I found that breaking it up this way made it go by really quick! Thank you for pushing us to move beyond our comfort zones. Pull ups are definitely not easy and definitely not my favourite exercise… but every time I do them I push really hard and am able to see improvement each time!! Thank you!

  • http://twitter.com/#!/empowart Jessica

    Way to go Flavia! You are just a ball of energy! I love how you push yourself when you know that there is more left in you. Your zest is contagious! :)

  • Katie

    Whew! I just got my pull up bar in the mail a couple of days ago and I am glad I did. After one pull up I was realizing that I was pretty weak in this area. I did them all and feel great, did have to use a stool for assistance on all but three, but clearly this is an exercise that I will be working on so I can become stronger. It is interesting to see how strong (or weak) different muscle groups are. I feel great about push ups which I struggled with when I first started bodyrock last June, now I look forward to watching my strength grow on the pull up bar!! Plus I have to admit, new equipment/exercises are fun!

    Katie
    Colorado

  • Babs

    Hi Zuzana,
    this challenge came just in time. You encouraged me to work the next 3 weeks on my pull ups. My goal is at least to make a single one unassisted! Pull ups were the reason I searched the web for, when I discovered your side. I’ll let you know as soon as I managed a unassisted one. The pullup bar will hang in my door for until I got the goal!!

    Babs

  • Irina

    pull ups offers incredible results! For skipping there are 40 rounds of 10 sec with 20 sec of max effort.

    Your new program made already incredible changes into my body composition. Also, It improved my strenght!

    YOu know guys, when i quit the gym in march 2010 for your home workouts, the people looked at me sceptical. They looked me like” oh, poor of you, you’re working out at home”. They thought that the best results it can be obtained only at the gym. And I must tell you, I was training at Worldclass Gym In Romania. I also had personal trainers and worked with them. They made me diet plans. But my body didn’t was where I’ve expected to be.
    And now, I’m in the best shape.So, I was right and they are wrong!I’m very happy that I found you and that I made the right choice! Your common sense principles for diet Rocks and they work amazing for me!!! I have the strongest and the fitest body that I ever had!

    Thank you guys for the incredible work that are you doing!

    hugs,
    Irina

  • Anna-Laura

    Hey Zuzana, Freddy and all the amazing Bodyrockers,

    I guess I need a little help over here. I just did reverse push ups since I left my pull up bar at a friends. That was easy, but regular pull ups are just sooo hard! I’m, following you now for about four month, in the beginning I wasn’t able to do a workout more than twice a week since my muscles were so sore I could barely walk. By now I can do it everyday, though I often need to do the beginner variations.
    BUT my body doesn’t seem to have changed at all. Obviously I got a little stronger, but even though I changed my diet according to your 5 week diet challenge I just look the same :( I still can’t do one regular pull up or push up even though I’m trying it every day a few times in between. Somehow I got stuck. It’s so depressing! What am I doing wrong?
    Zuzana, you are the first person on earth who was able to motivate me to work out. You are both strong and cute, that’s an fascinating combination, just adorable. Somehow you got me. But now I’m afraid I’ll lose all this motivation because of lacking improvement. I don’t want to let this happen, but I just don’t know how to avoid it.

  • Michael

    One little thing to consider when choosing which pullup to use.
    1. Vertically hanging in Your arms and possible using a chair.
    2. Horisontal with feet on the ground.

    1. Will make the big muscle on Your side under the arm (Latissimus Dorsi) grow wide so that Your back becomes / looks wider (much). Some girls may not like this “Body Builder” wide back look but most (well some) guys like this. (See the pictures abovewhere Zuzana wears white clothes)

    2. Will make the muscles around Your Scapula (shoulder blade) and the back of Your shoulder thicker, and You will look less like a “Body Builder”. This is also a better full body exercise than the other and is for both boys and girls. (see the picture where Zuzana wears black clothes and using two chairs)

  • Vala

    I can do 6 pull ups in a row at the moment (unassisted).
    Last thursday I did a fun challenge with my brother and we competed – who did 20 pull ups first :) He beat me with 20 to 16. He could have beat me a bit higher, but not much higher – he waited for me to catch him up, just to do some more in a row when I was exhausted – just the way I would have done it too, lol.
    I trained my pull ups with Negative Pull Ups. If there is no strength left I skip the pulling up and just go on a stair or jump up and only do the negative part by slowly letting myself down. It’s important to do it really slow, as slow as you can.

  • Pstania

    Hi I have finish this change and then I did 60 rounds skipping 10sec rest 20 jump.I like to ask I start to feel payn in my calf(litko) I thing it is from the skipping but I skipping now overe week so can please any one help.Thank you
    And the pull up I did whit support so I did 4 round.

  • http://twitter.com/#!/empowart Jessica

    Hi Anne-Laura! Don’t be discouraged. Everyone’s body changes and evolves differently. I didn’t start to see physical changes till about 3 months after doing Bodyrock 5 times a week, even though I felt improvement and strength after just a month. Keep going and pushing yourself at your maximum effort! What is important is that you ARE getting stronger and your body IS improving! Changes are soon to follow. :)

  • http://twitter.com/FlaviaRequim Flavia Requim

    I´d love to grow my Latissimus Dorsi, I think the V on the back soooooo beautifull!! ^^
    The “2″ exercise is also great..I like to do both exercises!!
    =)

  • http://twitter.com/FlaviaRequim Flavia Requim

    thanks!! ^^
    I push harder because of Zuzana and Freddy and all bodyrockers energy!! we are trully contagious!! its a big energy and before I workout I always come here to check the shedule and it makes me more energized! =)
    thanks a lot for your support, this is certain a big support to never stop!

  • http://twitter.com/FlaviaRequim Flavia Requim

    The secret of pull ups is to contract REALLYY the abdominals muscles and core. This was the most difficult for me to execute… I spent 2 years to complete one pull up! But I didn´t give up!! =)
    It´s great that you´re doing your best every single day.. every single day one more step completed!

  • http://www.facebook.com/angelalistedmia Angela Rodarte

    The wooden dowel between the chairs is so simple but brilliant! I have been trying to figure a solution to not having a dip station. This is Fantastic! Thank you!

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