Pullup Attempt

Daily Quote: "To me, life is in the struggle. I never feel more alive than when I'm struggling." --DEAN KARNAZES, AUTHOR OF ULTRAMARATHON MAN

Today is my first attempt to conquer the pullup! I haven't tried to do pullups since high school gym class when I couldn't even do one; I was embarrassed and ashamed in front of the whole class. Last week an article in Men's Health (March 2008, pg 132) called "Master the Pullup" reminded me how I gave up on weight lifting due to that particular fiasco, something that I'm not very proud about, today I attempted the pullup again. I've been lifting weights routinely and should be stronger than I was as a teen, which gives me confidence to try. This section of that article is what inspired me on my new quest:

"The key to limiting fatigue, says Casey, (Mike Casey is the owner of Bullet Gym in Missoula Montana)is relaxing your hands and pulling your shoulder blades back and down. Here's a trick: Focus on hooking your fingers over the bar rather than squeezing it, and apply pressure with your middle finger, ring finger, and pinkie. Then squeeze your shoulder blades down and think about pushing your elbows down into your lats instead of pulling up with your arms."

Amazingly, I accomplished three whole pullups today!!! I know it isn't much, but its a huge feat for me! I'll continue to do three pullups for the rest of the week and will strive to do four pullups next week.

9:00 a.m. Warm up: Elliptical machine for 10 minutes. Weight Circuit Training for 30 minutes, first attempt of pullups and accomplished three pullups. Immediately jumped to my aerobic part of today's exercises:

Cross training: Life Fitness Cycle. Workout: 10 minutes easy spinning as a warm-up, alternate resistance between PE level of 4 (Level 4 is Hard. Noticeable increase in breathing; difficult to talk in full sentences.) for 1 minutes with 4 minutes of fast spinning at a PE level of 1 (Level 1 is Easy. No increase in breathing rate; can go all day.) Repeat this six times. Finish with 5 minutes easy as a cool-down. I was literally bored out of my mind with cycling today, nothing on the television and was forced to listen to two women endlessly chat about their husbands lack of enthusiasm for exercise.