For bodyweight strength people - help please?

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knitapeace
knitapeace Posts: 1,013 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I posted the message below in the "You Are Your Own Gym" forum but it's pretty quiet over there. I figure anyone who does progressive strength training, bodyweight or otherwise, might have some advice for me. I'll preface by saying that "Let Me Ins" in the Body By You book are when you open a door, wrap a towel around both doorknobs, hold the one end of the towel in each hand and lean back then pull yourself forward. "Pull Me Ups" are when you lie down under a table edge, grab it, and lift yourself up. With your knees bent you get much more support and the progressions have you gradually move your feet out until you're basically pulling up your body weight. So here's the post:

I'm on Week 7 of Body by You, which doesn't have you start out with the Pull Me Ups but does a Let Me In progression first. I went straight from 2-handed Let Me Ins with 2 second pauses to the Pull Me Ups, and I've been stuck there for probably 3 weeks. I can barely make it through the 3rd set of 10. I have to stop throughout each set and rest. My knees are bent so my feet are basically under my butt giving me plenty of support.

I've always had a weak upper body and I want to get stronger, but it seems like I'm moving really quickly through the lower body progressions and can't make any headway with the upper. (For the Push section I'm up to countertop pushups, shoulder width, 2 second pauses). Should I just keep plugging away at the Pull Me Ups and wait for it to happen? Should I back up and work on the 1-handed Let Me Ins, which I skipped altogether?

FYI I'm eating at a very slight deficit so I know my size isn't growing but I was hoping to at least make some strength gains. Any advice appreciated!

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  • jim180155
    jim180155 Posts: 769 Member
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    You have muscle imbalances (your lack of upper body strength), which is very common, especially for beginners. Keep going. You're on the right track. The idea is to challenge or overload your muscles with each exercise. Don't wait for one group of muscles to catch up before continuing to challenge another set. With any particular exercise, when you can complete three sets of ten with good form, move on to the next progression. And don't worry about the muscles or exercises that seem to be lagging. It'll come if you keep overloading them.

    The alternative would be to double up on the problem areas and do more sets or to add in other exercises that challenge the same areas. But I wouldn't worry about it just yet, both because you're a relative newbie and because most women have more strength in their lower bodies.
  • All4Me2014xx
    All4Me2014xx Posts: 155 Member
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    Ditto what Jim said.

    I'm also weak upper body and it took a month or more before I was able to feel progression in my strength. Give it time. Just keep on going and challenge yourself a little bit. Try moving your feet out just a bit for the first set, so they aren't right below your butt. Then do the other two sets with your feet right below your butt. Sometimes a little push on the first set can help increase your strength.
  • tiggerGlasgow
    tiggerGlasgow Posts: 12 Member
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    You may have a tough time gaining strength on a calorie deficit. I know my strength gains have stalled at the moment while I am eating a deficit, especially my upper body gains. My plan is to get to 85kg preserving as much strength and muscle mass as I can, then eat at maintenance for a while to add more muscle mass before going back to eating at a deficit if I feel that my goals require that.

    Don't worry about not gaining strength rapidly, especially upper body strength. Being female we tend not to gain as much on the upper body as quickly was guys do. Feel free to add me and we can talk strength training from the female perspective.
  • dbmata
    dbmata Posts: 12,950 Member
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    You may have a tough time gaining strength on a calorie deficit.

    I wouldn't worry too much unless the deficit is ridiulously low.

    i'm on a deficit, and have increased my deadlift by 1/3rd, almost doubled my squat, increased bench by 30%, and increased pull ups from 1 to 5 in a set over the course of a hard working summer.

    You may not build mass by a good amount, but you'll get plenty of strength gain, especially for a newbie.
  • knitapeace
    knitapeace Posts: 1,013 Member
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    Truly awesome information, thanks everyone for your input. I'm just going to keep on keeping on...there's definitely a visual difference in my arm muscles that I can see just standing in front of the mirror, but I'm in it for more than aesthetics. I really want to get stronger! My deficit is miniscule, about 250 cals below maintenance (although it's considerably more than that this week since I had a scale hissy fit about 5 days ago).

    I really appreciate your advice and encouragement!
  • dbmata
    dbmata Posts: 12,950 Member
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    If you have some bands to help with assistance in the pull up, use them, but then increase the volume.

    When I'm using a band for help, I'll increase the number of reps per pullup set to 30 or failure.
  • drazani
    drazani Posts: 98 Member
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    Give negatives a try, hold yourself at the top of the pull me up and use the muscles to slowly lower yourself down, then repeat this for a few reps, try doing this for the next few sessions and then try a regular pull me up, hopefully you should see an an increase.
  • AddiesHK
    AddiesHK Posts: 8 Member
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    You can also use something set at a higher level then the object your using now to make it a little easier. Ex. If what your using is set at waist height try finding something about chest height and work your way down and then to extending your legs.

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