So totally not what you're asking but.... The Mister called me into the other room and asked if I could do a pull up. I laughed and said No. BUT! I actually surprised myself when I did not 1 but 2! WOOT Not even sure how that happens. Haven't been working on them specifically.

marylynndrake wrote: »

Wondering- for you who do pull-ups- why do you do the pull-ups, when did you add them, what have you noticed about your fitness after adding them? Thanks!

i wish i did do pullups but not yet.

how they got into my life had nothing to do with me really. i belong to this group of women who lift that meets once a month or so, and a lot of women really wanted to do 'at least one' because it was their big "badass" move. so the facilitator/trainer scheduled a pullup-101 type workshop and i was at it. that was around a month ago and i made it a slow extra project.

in terms of badass factor, i still don't really see them as all that sparkly. i'd much rather be able to do a good barbell clean from the floor, myself. but i'm on the bandwagon and working towards them for a couple of reasons:

- main one was how compound they were. huge core turn-on. i got into them because it's like a plank with afterburners, on super-premium gas. i was sore for days afterwards.
- because i hate rows. i hate, hate rows and have never felt like i was getting any benefit from them. the pullup thing turned on so many lightbulbs about 'engaging' and turning on upper-back and shoulder muscles that i've never really made the connection about before then.
- i love the whole lats factor. i want me some lats.
- shoulder health. i'm just doing accessory/beginner stage exercises with the pulldown bar still, but i really feel it's been huge in terms of adding extra stabilization muscle and protective 'bulk' around my shoulder joints. it's a big deal for me and i'm really feeling the benefits in terms of finding bench and ohp not nearly as twingey/impingey as i was before. it's pointed me what direction to go for getting my rhomboids and traps in on the act, which helps a huge amount with posture and keeping my shoulderblades neutral.
- left/right equalizing. you should have seen how most of us corkscrewed towards our dominant side while we were pulling ourselves up to that bar ;-) this has always bugged me and been something i'm trying to minimize. guess i like how a pullup actually shows you what's going on there, so i'm finding it gives a better change at correction and making the lazy side work too, compared with just trying to figure out if a barbell is following a level path.

Canadianlbs what an awesome list thank you!! I usually try to do some work on the assisted pullup machine at least once a week and now I definitely want to keep that up.