Women can you do pull ups?

I have been doing cross-fit this year after my last Tri.  My main goal is to be able to do a real pull up.  Now I can only do 10 or so with the assist of the machine at the gym.  None without the machine help. So I'll be so excited if when I can do one with out the help.

Chris

My FAVORITE thing about the CrossFit affiliate that I visited recently was a list written on the whiteboard at the end of the room:  "Women's Pull-Up List (consecutive)" - beneath that was a list of women's names, each with a number after it, ranging from 1 to 15.

I plan to start doing CrossFit regularly come January, with an eye to making that list. 

Well, one magical day I did 3, just like that. Then I went and did some other exercises, came back and did 3 more. But on any given day, I can do one at a time several times. It doesn't really matter which way my hands face (but ONLY BECAUSE I trained both ways! Underhand used to be easier.)

The key for me was doing some EVERY workout. If my workout (I crossfit) required a lot of pullups, I did jumping pullups. If it didn't call for any, I did lots of slow negatives (lower yourself down) in my warmup.

trainer has me doing 3 different varieties this month - today was with the v-bar. Now he is making me do them UNASSISTED so I got 3 the first set then 2 the other 2 sets.

wide grip I think I got one.

with the big rubber band assist thing I can do over 10.... 

Well I'm glad to see I'm not the only one that has this goal.  At the Y I was told lots of guys aren't able to do them either.

It feels so good to work hard to do something new and then finally you get it. When I worked on push ups first on my knees, then a bench, then a smith machine getting closer and closer to the floor. Then I could do one, in a couple weeks sets of 10. I find it fascinating to see how quickly I gain strength when I work on stuff. I'm my own little science experiment.

Another issue I struggle with at times, is the weights I can lift doing different things doing the strength things isn't the issue, but my hands are the weak point. Where I train most women only use really light weights. As your strength increases to keep challenging yourself you need to up the weight or the reps.

HAAAA! I have said that if I were hanging by my hands over the edge of a bridge whereby if I fell I'd fall 500 feet into hot lava (think movie scenes)---that I'd likely plunge into the lava long before I had the strength to pull myself up onto the bridge. I just CAN NOT pull myslef up. I can't really even do that hanging below monkey bar thing where you traverse using your hands while your legs dangle.

Guess I'd better look into that assisted pull up machine myself just in case I ever get to Kona and cross a bridge going over lava! HA!

Right now....nope =)

At my best about 2.5 years ago, I could do several sets of 4 (palms facing away from me).  Of course at that point I was rowing, so I was spending several hours a day pulling on an oar.

Those of us on the team who couldn't do pull ups (myself included, at times) did let-downs.  Either jump up or use a step to get to the top of pull up position, then slowly lower yourself down to hanging.  We used to aim for 10 seconds or so, but it's pretty tough to keep it controlled.  It's a different motion than normal pull ups, but I think it helped me get strong enough to do regular ones.

Ahh, how I miss my days of upper body strength... 

Yes, I can, but I quit doing them last year.  I pulled some little something in my wrist and decided it wasn't worth it. It took forever to heal.  We used to have a pull up contest about once year in my husbands family.  I won one year doing 10 which should tell you alot about the men!

The real key is underhand or overhand? OH is far harder IMO.

Being able to do one is a secret goal I've harbored for a while too, like KathyG.  But I haven't been doing anything about it.  Partially because I dn't have a gym and thus have no access to an assisted machine, and don't really know how else to practice.  (tips?  first - I need to be able to do real pushups again, but alongside that?)

When I was 13, weighed 100lbs, and could do ~50 flat as a board nose touch the ground pushups without much problem, I still couldn't do a pullup.  I have never done one in my life . 

You know how you are doing those push ups on the smith machine...well, flip around, back is facing the floor, chest is facing the ceiling. Do body weight rows!

Practice those often, along with your push ups.  Use the assisted pull up machine in the mean time, and every once in a while, walk over to the bar and see if you can pull yourself up.

body weight, body weight, body weight