I cant do a pull up!!!

kinda lost

Hi there ive been training my self in the gym since last augest and working on my upper body strenght cause when im surfing my arms get very fatigued while paddeling. A part of my training program is to do pull ups but i cant even do one.Chin ups are easy but i can not for the life of me do one pull up.Can any one help.:o

joejoem

kinda lost wrote:

Hi there ive been training my self in the gym since last augest and working on my upper body strenght cause when im surfing my arms get very fatigued while paddeling. A part of my training program is to do pull ups but i cant even do one.Chin ups are easy but i can not for the life of me do one pull up.Can any one help.:o

Does your gym have a chin/pull up machine? Some gyms have a machine where you can rest your knees on a pad which helps push you up

Otherwise ty lat pull downs, its where you sit into a machine with your knees clipped down and you pull on a bar down towards your chin.

Also target your bicep with weights

Dont be ashamed by the way. I remember not being able to do any

kinda lost

been using those machines alright and my upper body streght has got alot better but still no closer to the pull up,what bicep exersise would be good.

amazingemmet

Do negatives, jump up inot the top of the pull up position then lower yourself down as slow as possible. do three sets of eight a coule of times a week and you'll build the strength quick enough

Kinetic^

joejoem wrote:

I remember not being able to do any

Me too, actually I still can't do any.

Chin ups are easy compared to pull ups, the require alot more upper bosy strenght.

joejoem

kinda lost wrote:

been using those machines alright and my upper body streght has got alot better but still no closer to the pull up,what bicep exersise would be good.

Put some weights on a V-bar and with your elbows at your side bring the weights from waist height to shoulders. Try not to move your elbows much.

put your hands on the \ / parts of the bar so -/\

---

/\-

I would also keep trying for the pull-up, even if your not getting it you are hitting the muscle. If you can get it a third of the way it will build it up gradually.

I just started doing wide grip chin-ups for my shoulders. A few weeks ago I could only get 2, now I can get around 8

base2

Keep at lat pull downs until you build your strenght up. Pull ups are good, you are also very restricted in the weight you do them at ( unless you like to have 20 plates hanging around your waist like keys)

kinda lost

Cheers lads ill try those anyway and see how i get on thanks again.

surfin

Hi Kinda Lost,

I surf too, my arms used to get really tired out there too until i took up rock climbing brill for overall stregnth and lots of fun too.

You could try indoor walls to begin or a club, i notice you are in Waterford, there is an indoor climbing wall in the hall in Rathgormack.

I also Kayak on flat days, this helps with arm stregnth.

If all else fails, do like i do, grab hold of BoyF leash and let him drag me out the back!!:D

t-ha

kinda lost wrote:

Hi there ive been training my self in the gym since last augest and working on my upper body strenght cause when im surfing my arms get very fatigued while paddeling. A part of my training program is to do pull ups but i cant even do one.Chin ups are easy but i can not for the life of me do one pull up.Can any one help.:o

Hey there kinda lost,
First off, although I'm happy to see anyone hit the gym and do great exercises like the pull-up, I should mention that getting a few reps on a pull-up bar won't do much to off-set muscle fatigue when surfing, as this is more endurance related.

Anyways, the fact that you can do chin-ups easily but can't do pull-ups sounds like your biceps are disproportionately stronger than your back. Obviously all the suggestions about assisted pull-up stations or lat pull-downs are fine, but just to chime in another option;
If you can do chin-ups, then start doing them with a wider and wider grip. Essentially, if you place your hands beside each other for a chin-up, you'll notice that your biceps take the vast majority of the load. The wider you make your grip, the more you tranfer the load down through your shoulders to your lats (which is what you need to build for the pull-up) and the rest of your back. Obviously don't go nuts on this as opening your shoulder up too much and sticking a load through it often spells rotor cuff problems. That goes for wide-grip pull-ups too.

Another particular area of weakness besides your lats could be your traps and posterior delts. Although the wide grip chins should hit these, if you want to hit them more directly you could try face/neck pulls.
http://www.abcbodybuilding.com/exercise3/facepulls.htm

Also, if you've got a bit of chubb on you it's obviously helpful to shed that;) - or wear lighter shoes:D

kinda lost

Also, if you've got a bit of chubb on you it's obviously helpful to shed that - or wear lighter shoes

LOL:D No chubb on me thats whats so annoying ive always had weak upper body anyway.

But what i find interesting is what u said here

I should mention that getting a few reps on a pull-up bar won't do much to off-set muscle fatigue when surfing, as this is more endurance related.

The fatigue i notice most is in the musecls around my shoulders and neck thats why i thought pull up would be great.
What would help muscels around the top of my shoulders and around the back of my neck????

t-ha

Yes, you're definitely hitting the right spot with the pull-up, the trouble is how you're hitting it. Training the body is quite a specific business, so low reps with a near maximal loading in the pull-up will make you more powerful/stronger (and given that you can't even do one and you're not fat I think you should continue with this endevour regardless of my next piece of advice;) ) but won't impact alot on aerobic endurance.

Improving your endurance means that you want these muscles to be able to function over a period of time with a non-maximal loading. This means they have to work efficiently, which means they have to use the least amount of oxygen to perform, and generate the lowest amount of lactic acid in return for their performance. Lactic acid is broken down into lactate (which is a good fuel source for heart and other muscle tissue) and H+ ions (which are bad and makes your muscles feel bad ). The key is to make your total body endurance better. This involves your lung gas-transfer efficiency, cardiovasular system and of course your muscle's efficiency at aerobically breaking down glucose.

As far as I know, the best way to do this is to train slightly below your VO2max. VO2max (maximum volume of oxygen) simply means that there is a level of intensity of training (say running for example) where you're using up more oxygen than at any other intensity. I.e. Your body is at it's aerobic limit/threshold. If you go faster, you're sprinting anaerobically (only possible to do for short distances) - and if you go much slower, you feel like you could run all day (only for lazy people). The key is to find that level of training where it's hard, but you can do it for 20/30 mins.

Now, that's the required itensity defined, but running isn't going to specifically help your surfing, as you want to specifically get the upper traps and medial and posterior delts working with high aerobic efficiency. The best way to do this, off the top of my head, would be swimming. Go to a pool and swim (either over-arm or breast-stroke should do it - actually pretty much all strokes will have a good cross-over to surf paddling) with reasonable intensity for 30 mins. One way you could progress would be to build up the time you swim for, and then the amount of laps you complete within that time.

If you have a compliant g/f then a massage that evening will really help loosen out the muscles and speed recovery time. If not, a hot water bottle will widen the blood vessels and speed up recovery a bit too. Some people find that creatine supplementation helps.

I'ld hang on to your weights routines though too, strength + endurance is a more complete approach to performance than taking one over the other.

Good luck with it anyway - incidentally, endurance training isn't really my thing so you could always ask some cyclists or any distance athletes what their training & recovery protocols are like.

p.s. apparently HIIT training is good for aerobic capacity too (is there anything it can't do?!? )

because_I_can

kinda lost wrote:

Chin ups are easy but i can not for the life of me do one pull up.Can any one help.:o

I presume by chin ups you mean palms towards you and by pullups you mean palms away?

pullups is called the "squat" of the upper back by a lot of people. Its an excellent exercise. do lat pulldowns til you're close to bodyweight on the stack and you'll be fine then

t-ha

isn't the squat the "squat" of the upper back?

joejoem

t-ha wrote:

isn't the squat the "squat" of the upper back?

lol

kinda lost

Ok lads thanks for all the advise ill let u all know when im actuly able do one. :v:

Prior Of Taize

amazingemmet wrote:

Do negatives, jump up inot the top of the pull up position then lower yourself down as slow as possible. do three sets of eight a coule of times a week and you'll build the strength quick enough

This sounds good to me. Would you mind sharing why this would work?