Calling all trainers...

SquidInTraining

Do you have any advice on how a girl that is still slightly overweight and has little to no upper body strength can ease herself into standard dead-hang pullups?

chgudnitz

Do what are called negative pullups until you get stronger. Put a chair or a stool under you and climb up to the top of the pullup and then focus on controlling yourself on the way down.

questionablemethods

I'm not a trainer, but this might be a good place to start. I'm working on building up to them myself. http://www.stumptuous.com/mistressing-the-pullup

Bleux

Good request, Squid!! I have ALWAYS wanted to be able to do an UNassisted pull-up. I'll have to follow this and see what people come up with!

Tamiash

If your at a gym, some gyms have these different sized rubber band thingy's. You put your knee in the rubber band and it bounce's with you and will help out. They also have the step there to help you get set up.

SquidInTraining

Good request, Squid!! I have ALWAYS wanted to be able to do an UNassisted pull-up. I'll have to follow this and see what people come up with!

Me too! The most I've ever been able to do was three, and that was a looooong time ago, before I had all this extra weight!

debbieruth

I can't even hold up my weight for...very long...xD Hehe, be sure the let me know how it goes Squid!

SHBoss1673

yep, getting a chair that you can stand on to be slightly under the bar is good, mark the location of the chair, and as they get stronger, move it further and further away from them (forward). This gives them less and less support.

Of course, just doing this will not be very useful. This should be one of many routines focused on shoulder strength including lateral pull downs, regular push ups, wide stance push ups, military push ups, decline push ups. Also you should do some kind of shoulder press type routine as well, hit all 3 planes of the shoulder and upper back.

Pull ups or chin up routines should always be paired with push ups or some other perpendicular plain strength routine and presses or some other antagonist group routine to pulling down so you don't create muscle imbalance, which can cause muscle pulls or ligament damage.

jennylynn84

I use a weight machine at the gym. I'm not sure it's technical name, but you climb up and get on a platform that can have an offset weight on it. So, for example, I set it on 115 and that's how much of my 187 it offsets, so I'm actually only lifting about 72 pounds in a pullup. As you pull up the platform comes with you. And you can adjust the weight as you gain strength, lessening the amount of weight you are offsetting.

I started out at 160 offset. Of course, I also weighed the extra 35 at the time, but in the end it is a 10 pound difference!

It's a nifty little machine. Make sure you OVER estimate how much weight you need to offset your first time though (just like with any weightlifting). The last thing you want is to send the platform and yourself plummeting when you find out it's not enough!

It's slow and steady progress for me. I've never in my life been able to do a pull up though, so any progress for me is PROGRESS!

Good luck!

SHBoss1673

I use a weight machine at the gym. I'm not sure it's technical name, but you climb up and get on a platform that can have an offset weight on it. So, for example, I set it on 115 and that's how much of my 187 it offsets, so I'm actually only lifting about 72 pounds in a pullup. As you pull up the platform comes with you. And you can adjust the weight as you gain strength, lessening the amount of weight you are offsetting.

I started out at 160 offset. Of course, I also weighed the extra 35 at the time, but in the end it is a 10 pound difference!

It's a nifty little machine. Make sure you OVER estimate how much weight you need to offset your first time though (just like with any weightlifting). The last thing you want is to send the platform and yourself plummeting when you find out it's not enough!

It's slow and steady progress for me. I've never in my life been able to do a pull up though, so any progress for me is PROGRESS!

Good luck!

it's called the weight assisted pull up machine (sometimes there's a brand name, but that's the generic name)

jennylynn84

I use a weight machine at the gym. I'm not sure it's technical name, but you climb up and get on a platform that can have an offset weight on it. So, for example, I set it on 115 and that's how much of my 187 it offsets, so I'm actually only lifting about 72 pounds in a pullup. As you pull up the platform comes with you. And you can adjust the weight as you gain strength, lessening the amount of weight you are offsetting.

I started out at 160 offset. Of course, I also weighed the extra 35 at the time, but in the end it is a 10 pound difference!

It's a nifty little machine. Make sure you OVER estimate how much weight you need to offset your first time though (just like with any weightlifting). The last thing you want is to send the platform and yourself plummeting when you find out it's not enough!

It's slow and steady progress for me. I've never in my life been able to do a pull up though, so any progress for me is PROGRESS!

Good luck!

it's called the weight assisted pull up machine (sometimes there's a brand name, but that's the generic name)

Haha, somehow I thought it would be way more technical and less obvious than that!

SHBoss1673

Haha, somehow I thought it would be way more technical and less obvious than that!

LOL, gym equipment companies aren't noted for their creativity.

SquidInTraining

Thanks for all the advice -- I've already been working on regular pushups, but I'm going to start adding in a variety of arm/shoulder exercises.. I'm not a member of a gym (unemployed for the last 2 months), but I'm going back to work next Monday, and after my first couple of paychecks I've made it a priority to join.