Introduction

[nlanza5286]

Hello Marines, Poolees, and wannabe's:

My name is Nick and I am new to leatherneck, I felt that I should properly introduce myself to the community here just first express a great deal of thanks. I have only been a member for a bout a day and have been reading through all of these threads and have found a massive amount of information I otherwise would not have.

My reasons for wanting to the the USMC aren't to much different from anyone else's. I am a former fatbody, (310 pounds currently down to 225 and needs to get to 191.) who is working his tail off to get to BT. I am taking my ASVAB on Thursday and am excited for what this process has in store for me.

Any who, outside of my profile I felt the needed to make a proper introduction to you all and again want to thank everyone for making this great community possible. Thanks for all the info guys and I will keep everyone posted on my journey from disgusting fatbody to hopefully one day a full fledged member of the USMC.

[nlanza5286]

Scored a 69 on my ASVAB today. However, I need to get my pull up count up. Even after dropping weight and working out hard, I still can't do 1 unassisted. Anyone have any suggestions on how to improve in that department?

[SwedishMarine]

Pull Ups are just one of those exercises that require patience and motivation. If you lack the upper body strength to properly pull yourself up, then I suggest you focus on building a strong upper body foundation. Now, I don't mean for you to go and start lifting weights. That will only add more weight onto your body, muscles as they may be. Performing the pull-ups will be easier if you had less weight to hang from. Work on cardio and burning away your fat. Once you've got rid of all that unnecessary weight, you can add muscle weight to it. If performing pull-ups is too difficult, then try building your arms up and getting them used to your weight by doing push ups, instead. Unlike Run Times and Crunches, Pull-Ups take a lot longer to develop due to the fact that you need to adapt your muscles to your body weight. Work on those things first. If you have any further questions, feel free to return.

[nlanza5286]

Pull Ups are just one of those exercises that require patience and motivation. If you lack the upper body strength to properly pull yourself up, then I suggest you focus on building a strong upper body foundation. Now, I don't mean for you to go and start lifting weights. That will only add more weight onto your body, muscles as they may be. Performing the pull-ups will be easier if you had less weight to hang from. Work on cardio and burning away your fat. Once you've got rid of all that unnecessary weight, you can add muscle weight to it. If performing pull-ups is too difficult, then try building your arms up and getting them used to your weight by doing push ups, instead. Unlike Run Times and Crunches, Pull-Ups take a lot longer to develop due to the fact that you need to adapt your muscles to your body weight. Work on those things first. If you have any further questions, feel free to return.

Thank you very much sir for the advice. I have already lost 85 pounds and need to get down to 212 to ship. I am currently 226 but my goal has always been to get to 200. I figured all that weight loss plus doing the jack hammers that my recruiter instructed me to along with alternating sets of negative pull ups might help as well. Once again thanks for taking the time to give me advice. I will keep updating this thread with my progress on my to becoming a poolee/DEPer.

[nlanza5286]

You just gotta keep working at it. There is some pull-up advice from other wannabees on this link here.
http://futurejarheadsfitness.org/pullups/

Thank you for the link. Any and all advice is appreciated. I have never been more dedicated to a goal in my short life.