Pullups

L

luvmydane

0
female 5''5' 121 lbs, good muscle tone, weight training 5 days a week.

I suck at being able to do a pull up! I cant do even ONE...i tried the other day cuz i usually use the assisted pull up machine every week.. i think it says that i use 28 lbs of assistance or something..

On lat pull down, I am starting to pull down 125 lbs 8 times.

On bent over DB rows, I can do 25-30 lbs each side 8-10 times.

On biceps I curl 20 lbs 8 times.

Of course I work all other muscles, but I tell you all those exercises cuz I figured those are the muscles MOST used for a pull up (i think) so just trying to give yall an idea of where I am at there.

Everyone always comments that my back and shoulders and arms are cut, so it suprised me when i couldnt even do one UNassisted pull up..:eek:

How can i get there?
Thanks in advance..:)
Emily
 
ya.. i suck at chins also (i can only do 4 ><)but its wierd that you cannot even do 1...

by the way y do u weight train 5 times a week

have you ever heard of overtraining???

please update me on your goals; whether you aim to just stay slim or if you have muscle gaining goals.

thanks
 
My suggestion is that you may want to try this- get up assisted then bend your legs at the knees and lower yourself down very very slowly. Do that as many times as you can. rest and do it again. Just because you can do other things with a decent weight means nothing. And if you really want to make strength gains lower your reps and heavy things up. aim for 6 reps- so curls as an example- hit 25lbs do as many as you can then hit 20lbs to finsh the reps you couldn't get. Just my suggestions. If you can pull 125lbs on a lat pull down with perfect form you should be able to get at least one pull up out. Recheck your form. and Proteinboy I used to workout five days a week too, now I do 4. It depends on the person, if her body can handle it and she is doing a split then she should be fine. If not she'll crash and re work her workout routine and days. Good luck with the pull ups.
 
Women usually have a much harder time than men with anything involving upper body. I was watching FitTV and they were having a pullup contest and the men were doing pullups and the women were doing the hangs instead. Even the trainers on the show couldn't do them! So don't feel bad, that's nothing out of the ordinary. Whenever you do your pullup, lean back a little bit, that will work the lats as well. Try kind of cheating at first as you do them, like "kick" to get up.
 
you don't need to be big to be strong...just keep slowly lowering the assisted pull up machine until at bodyweight and you should get close
 
Women not being able to do pullups is a load of crap!!! I can do them just fine and I know plenty of men that can't!!! Big muscles do not equal strength or I'd be hugh. Pull ups are challenging and like I said if you do the assisted up and slowly lower with your body weight you'll be surprised how nicely you'll be able to do them at body weight in a few weeks even if its only a couple at first. Go check out annie at cross fit she is awesome at them! :p
 
hey, i got a big question

some people tell me to just do 5 sets everyday (chinups) and i will get bettter

some tell me just to overload my muscles on workout day

which is the better way???

ps:which brings better muscle growth???
 
Proteinboy said:
hey, i got a big question

some people tell me to just do 5 sets everyday (chinups) and i will get bettter

some tell me just to overload my muscles on workout day

which is the better way???

ps:which brings better muscle growth???
Click to expand...


Weekly frequency will do much more than blasting the muscle once a week and letting it go for seven days.

I wouldn't do it every day though. Muscle grows at rest, not in the gym.

I'd recommend 3x/wk, with a varied set/rep scheme:

Day 1: 8x3
Day 3: 5x5
Day 5: 3x8
 
im planning on doing my max next time in sets until i get up to a total of 25 total reps. i hope that this will spark my body into being able to handle it next time when i try for 30 reps.
 
Jenn: Yea, I didn't mean women couldn't do pullups at all, it's just harder. I think everyone can work their way up to just about anything.

Proteinboy: Do 3 sets of pullups, and 3 sets of pulldowns. You can maybe make some more sets out of either narrow or wide grip. Wide grip helps you get that nice wide back.
 
Wide grip is just having your hands far apart on the bar. Maybe all the way to the ends if you like. The bars at my gym are straight across and curved a the ends, I just put my hands where it starts to curve, usually.
 
Also, working your biceps will help quite a bit, I recommend doing a lot of curls. I used to hate them, but I started to love them after doing them a lot with full extension, it gives you a nice burn and builds your forearms a lot too. Now I added 21s into my routine. You can either use a curl bar or some dumbells and take a weight that you can do 10 reps of with both hands. Say you can curl 25s in each hand, drop it down to 20s and do 7 reps going halfway up and stopping in the middle. Then 7 more starting from the middle and going to the top. Then 7 full curls. I love those!
 
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