Fast Running Blog

The Saturday before Mother's Day I was hanging out with the extended family at a park in Ogden and to my amazement I was able to do two pull ups in a row, granted the second one I was kicking my legs to get up, but I did it. 

So I propose we see who can do the most pull ups out of the ladies and out of the men on the blog.  I am hoping I can get to 3 in a row.

I did 12 in a row with the hands facing forwards a couple of weeks ago.  I haven't practiced in years, but back in the day....

Cody's avatar is Homer.  Mine is Hulk.  Do I even need to say that Hulk can do more than Homer?

My avatar is Superman, but unfortunately all the pull up bars I try must have some Kryptonite in them.

Well now that I mention my avatar, I realize its not there anymore.  Have to check on that later I guess.

Just checking to see if I got my avatar back.

Darn it.  Still not there.  But I did get my second "star" with all of this useless banter.

I always do mine with my hands facing backward. 

Because I can do more that way and then I feel better about myself!

Cheater

Homer, er, Cody, can only do twelve cause then the box of one dozen donuts he puts at the top of the bar as his incentive is empty.

Are you allowed to swing the legs to gain a momentum before the pull up?

sasha, if you do that, it's not a pull up. on a true pull up you should keep your body in line with the only movement being at your arms/shoulders lifting you above the bar- no kicking.

I don't remember the last time I did pull-ups. But I used to workout with this climber that could do 25 1/finger per hand pull-ups, they (climbers) are true physical wonders.

Ok, let's have two divisions. Pull your chin above the bar whichever way you can without your feet touching the ground, and a true pull up with your body straight.

A true pull up is one with the palm of your hand facing away, body strait (you can bend at the knees) but no swinging to get momentum, and you go all the awy down so your arms are straite before you start a new one.  I use to be able to do 10 of these.  But I would be suprised if I would be able to do 2 right now.  I will have to find a place to see....

Mine were faced away, and I think its fair to swing on your pull ups after the first, so long you start your first straight, you don't ever touch the ground and you do go straight after the first.  At least, that's how I got to two.  I'll get to the park this week and see if I can't make it three.

If you work at it with the same dedication as running, it is not that tough to build up to a large number of pull-ups. A few years ago I was in a climbing phase and was able to go from about 15 to about 35 after 2-3 months of training. Really not that much different from a new runner cutting their race times significantly after just a few months of training.

I can do 15 right now. Last summer I went from being able to do one pull up to twenty over two months.

I guess I'll be the ref and judge everyone else's pullups rather than embarrass msyelf further.

Total Pullups: 0. This isn't surprising since I've never done a single pullup in my life. lol They were always the reason why I could never get presidential in the Physical Fitness Test. :(

When I was a kid I was a gymnast and I once did 50 pull-ups.  Hands facing away, but I probably kicked a little.  Now I doubt I could even hang from the bar for 50 seconds.  I'll have to try it out and see.

So Benn, if you are the ref can I kick? 

Boy, you guys are weak! I can do 22. Palms facing away, open hands, no kicking at all. My goal is to do 35 in 30 seconds. Once I can do that I will try out for the American Gladiators.

My kids love American Gladiators.  The boobie prize with that show is that you have to (I mean GET to) be a Gladiator at the end, a lovely job I am sure, but not something I'd fancy doing.

I have a secret fantasy is to be on American Gladiators, but I want to compete against my husband so I can kick his butt.

I always wanted to be on Nikelodeon GUTS (with Mike O'Malley), climb the Aggro Crag, and do a victory lap with my flag.

I even had a dream about it once where I was practicing on the school monkey bars, just like they would show on the "how the kid-athletes trained at home" segement. It was sweet.

I did three in a row for the first time last night :))))  Minimal swing help too!

Reaping the benefits of that one pound weight loss to 121. ;-) When I hit sub-130 lbs last year (down from 145), I was magically able to do 15 chinups.

Anyone know if you use the same muscles for pushups as pullups? I can do a lot of pushups now, but haven't thought about attempting a pullup. Even just being able to do 1 pull up is a lifegoal of mine. Yes, sad I know, but a goal nonetheless

If its a lifetime goal then go out and attempt one.  My guess is you'll be able to do one or get close.  If not, then you'll see how far off you are.  I have no idea how to build up the muscles to do them.  I know for me, its a matter of getting rid of some of my excess weight, since a big butt does nothing for me when I'm trying to lift my body weight with my arms  ;D

It probably depends on how you do the pullup.  They still use mostly your biceps, trapezoids, deltoids and even your lats some.  Think of it as being similar to pull-downs on a nautilus machine when your arms are close together instead of far apart.  The same muscles you would use to do the pulldown would be the ones you would use for the pullup.

It depends how well the ref is paid ;) I don't know about that one. Our gym teacher always threw a fit if someone kicked and didn't count them but never told them they weren't counting them until after the person was done. One of my buds did 22 or 23 pullups a school record only to find out 15 of them didn't count because he kicked. In my opinion kick as much as you want. As long as you're not kicking off of something and besides looking rediculous it doesn't affect how many pullups you can do :) If anything, it's wasted energy!

I can do 3 and a half true pullups (are we counting halfs?!) ;).  Trust me that half pull-up is ugly.  However, I can do 100 push ups (true "Army" push ups, under 2 minutes).  So there, I can say I am MACHO at something.  Never mind that it has no practical value whatsoever but I can at least push in the upward (or is it downward?) direction very efficiently!

We ought to have a pull-up and push up competion at one of the marathon's next year!  Now as for sit-ups...let's not go there.

I can do about 25.


But i'm a rock climber and that's what i do.

Actually, runners should be at least a little concerned with upper body strength. My son who is way into fitness recently cancelled his gym membership telling me he can almost get a complete upper body workout with pull-ups, push ups and dips-- and he can do them all at home for free. He's right, push-ups are probably better than bench press, pull ups are better than lat pull downs and dips are better than extensions. Those three exercises cover most of your major upper body muscle groups and if you did as many as you could every day you run, you'd probably get just what a runner needs in minutes. I think Michelle's onto something here.

BTW, I can do seven pull ups, 32 push ups, and 0 dips (bad shoulder), but I'm a Clyde. That's my excuse, but I'll get better. Check back in 30 days!

I'm good for 25 pullups (proper style, with the palms facing away). Having a history of rowing training helps enormously... I can't think of any other sport aside from swimming that develops the lats and rear delts like that.