Pull Ups are Hard

On the advice of Doug Swensen, that was reinforced by Carl, I decided to get a pull-up bar. It came in yesterday, and I excitedly forced Brad to stop playing XBox long enough to put it together for me.

I was curious about how good I'd be at pull ups. I wasn't good at them back when I did them in school, and I hadn't tried since then, so I didn't have high expections. However, I do have more strength than I've ever had before in my life, and I was curious how much of that would carry over. Not much.

The purpose of doing pull ups is to do the exact opposite of a vinyasa to keep the muscles balanced. Balanced muscles is a very good thing. I tried as hard as I could to do a pull up until I realized that I wasn't able to breath very well while trying. Not breathing is bad. I ended up dangling from the bar figuring that my muscles could use the practice in simply holding me up. Then I lifted my knees to my chest. Oooooh that works my abs nicely too.

Today I'm a little sore. Not miserable like I overdid it, just a little like I used my muscles in a new way. That's the whole point, and it means that my dangling is worthwhile as I gradually build up to more. I'm content with danging and lifting my knees as long as I do it consistently every day, and continually try to do more as long as I can still smile and breathe.

One thing that's neat and unexpected, but makes sense is that my hands are sore. The muscles that grip things. Either they're pretty weak because I don't grip things that much or I white-knuckled it a little too much. hmmmm