Achieving a longtime goal: This is how I managed to finally do a pull-up

Pull-ups take a lot of determination, as seen in my face. Photo: Stephanie Ip.

I first met with Vancouver-based personal trainer Joanne Soh at West Georgia’s Steve Nash Fitness World in December.

My No. 1 goal was to build enough strength to do a pull-up – and by early March I was able to do it unassisted.

Mind you, I can only do one at a time (currently working on getting to two), but I still consider this an incredible achievement – and so does my faithful trainer.

“Women generally have weaker upper body muscles,” said Soh, explaining why it’s difficult for us to do the exercise unassisted.

“You’re in a different category – you are fairly conditioned and you have good neuromuscular skills,” she said, stroking my ego, but also explaining why it took me only a short few months to build up to it. “You have enough upper body stability that we can progress you a lot better than I would someone else.”

(Come on, how could I not include those quotes?)

It also helped that I don’t have any upper body or shoulder injuries, she said.

(I’m still shocked by my own strength.)

My awesomeness aside, let’s take a look at how I got here.

THE WORK:

We basically worked on strengthening my entire upper body.

We fired up and strengthened my lats – the biggest muscle in the upper body.

“You want to use them rather than your rotator cuffs,” said Soh.

We did this with lat pull-downs and assisted pull-ups – whether on the pull-up assist machine, or with a band or bar under my leg on the pull-up bar.

It also took a lot of shoulder mobility drills, especially stabilization. For example, holding kettlebells above my head for about 10 seconds at a time.

“If you’re not able to stabilize and hold weights overhead, you’re not going to be able to pull up your body,” said Soh.

We strengthened triceps through dips and also extensions on the TRX.

We used the TRX a lot – for chest press, push-ups, rows (again, for lats)– because it taught me how to manage my body weight, which is important for a pull-up.

We did a lot of core work too, because those muscles (including the glutes) need to be engaged. We did this with planks, side planks – either on the TRX or Swiss ball – dead bug, but absolutely no crunches.

“I disapprove of the traditional crunches, I think most people torque their spine and you end up with a lot more injuries,” said Soh.

A SAMPLE WORKOUT:

Here’s some exercises I’d often do while working towards/maintaining my pull-up:

• Dead-bug with the Swiss ball (opposite arm and leg extends)
• Lat pull-downs: Close/underhand grip and wide/overhand grip
• Assisted pull-up: Subtracting weight from the machine to make it harder with each set (doing as many as I can with good form)
• TRX rows (slowly inching lower to the ground with each set)
• TRX for triceps
• TRX T and Y raise for shoulders
• TRX push-up/chest press
• After completing some of these reps throw in a pull-up (rest lots between attempts – it actually makes a huge difference)
• Single arm shoulder press (on the ground in a lunge position rack a kettlebell and press it overhead)
• Static overhead press (rack two kettlebells and press them overhead, holding it there for about 10 seconds. Sometimes Soh forced me to walk a few steps with them above my head.)
• Throw in another pull-up here
• Side-plank on the TRX, or more deadbug