Thank you to all the Marines here.

[JamesMShaw]

Thanks to your help and advice my physical fitness has improved dramatically. I have gone from doing zero pull ups to doing six, almost seven. I've gone from thirty eight crunches to having just pumped out ninety five a few minutes ago. My run time was already decent and I think it has improved too. The first IST I ever did I did the 1.5 miles in 10:43. Doing it again recently I did 11:05 however I did it on a course with a lot of hills rather than flat land as it was on the first.

So thank you to all the Marines (and some poolees too) for the help and advice. I ship out on Monday and have no worries as to passing the IST now.

[ecfree]

At a boy Jim....Get er done.....

[SGT7477]

Thank God your improving.

[Petz]

you'll improve more when you got people yelling at you to actually TRY! haha, you'll understand my meaning soon enough.

[thablizzit]

Wow amazing! Like to spill the tips on how you improve your pull-ups? :-P and the progress you saw every week?

[JamesMShaw]

Every time I pass by my pull up bar I do a max set. I was seeing very quick progress for a while, usually advancing one pull up a week or more. However then I got sick, went to the beach for ten days where there was no pull up bar and so it seems like I've hit a plateau. Though if I'm being completely honest I'm sure a large part of it is that I have not been pushing myself enough.

Part of why I can't wait to get to boot, as Staff Sergeant said, I'm sure I'll have even more motivation with someone screaming in my face.

[Petz]

Every time I pass by my pull up bar I do a max set. I was seeing very quick progress for a while, usually advancing one pull up a week or more. However then I got sick, went to the beach for ten days where there was no pull up bar and so it seems like I've hit a plateau. Though if I'm being completely honest I'm sure a large part of it is that I have not been pushing myself enough.

Part of why I can't wait to get to boot, as Staff Sergeant said, I'm sure I'll have even more motivation with someone screaming in my face.

to break a plateau... do a max set then grab a chair and start doing negative reps.... kinda like an arm hang and do that until you practically fall off the bar.

[thablizzit]

Every time I pass by my pull up bar I do a max set. I was seeing very quick progress for a while, usually advancing one pull up a week or more. However then I got sick, went to the beach for ten days where there was no pull up bar and so it seems like I've hit a plateau. Though if I'm being completely honest I'm sure a large part of it is that I have not been pushing myself enough.

Part of why I can't wait to get to boot, as Staff Sergeant said, I'm sure I'll have even more motivation with someone screaming in my face.

Ah okay. I been training for about a month now, yesterday I was 80% close to doing a pull-up [pathetic, I know, lol.] Recruiter told me to take the day off, but I'm still doing my 3 30 min. runs. I have been losing weight and I think that's contributing to success. But thanks for your reply!! I have about 2 more weeks, so...I'm confidant!

[0231Marine]

A good substitute for pull-ups if you don't have a bar while you're at the beach is doing push-ups. It uses the same major muscle groups and if you go slowly both up and down, you'll be working those muscles and shouldn't see a decrease once you get back to your bar.

[JamesMShaw]

My ship date was actually pushed back because I could not do even a single pull up. I would have graduated by now otherwise. Don't let it bring you down too much, just use it as motivation to keep pushing.

Staff Sergeant, are you referring to simply doing negative pull ups? Where I would start above the bar hold for 5-10 seconds then slowly let myself down?

[Petz]

My ship date was actually pushed back because I could not do even a single pull up. I would have graduated by now otherwise. Don't let it bring you down too much, just use it as motivation to keep pushing.

Staff Sergeant, are you referring to simply doing negative pull ups? Where I would start above the bar hold for 5-10 seconds then slowly let myself down?

uh, yeah... but I would say go all all and when you slowly let yourself down... try your damnedest to hold yourself up... don't count it... just keep going... if you can breath while doing it it will teach you a vital breathing technique ... it's called not exhausting your muscles by depriving them of oxygen.

so yeah, start above the bar, slowly start to let yourself down but just as your chin gets in line with the bar, fight it... try to keep yourself up... do it as long as you can, then do it again as quickly as you can.

when you are so exhausted that you pretty much just drop down after a real pull-up, you have completed your pull-up set...

then you'll want to catch your breath and stretch too... get that lactic acid out of your muscles so they can repair themselves.

[JamesMShaw]

Thank you for the advice. I just did a max set, seven pull ups, been a good while since I did seven (it was my previous peak).

[Petz]

well get to those negs.... you'll feel it when you're done... if you can type afterwards, let me know how it worked out.

[JamesMShaw]

I need to get a little house work done and then I will. Two quick questions:

1) Should I simply do one max set of pull ups then start on the negatives? Or do max sets until I can't do anymore then work on negatives?

2) Should I start off a negative by pulling myself up above the bar? Or simply by jumping up above it while holding the bar?

Thanks.

[NoRemorse]

well get to those negs.... you'll feel it when you're done... if you can type afterwards, let me know how it worked out.

That's a nasty variation there, SSgt. Very enjoyable too.

As for the poolee; all of those variations are acceptable; multiple methods to your madness will increase proficiency.

As for pointers, make sure your shoulders are in their sockets when you're in the negative phase and dead hang; you'll be far stronger that way. Pay attention to your breathing like the SSgt said.

As an aside, the weakest link in the chain for most people is in their grip; so tax the crap out of your grip now. Hang a towel over your pull up bar and grab each end of the towel; now execute pull ups until we get tired.

I used to work in Medical Records at a different office and they had some huge file cabinets. You know what that means, right? Fingertip pull ups; ouch! Lots of fun, get something sturdy (most doorframes won't do) and crank 'em out

Of course all of this is really taxing and should have been done months ago. Oh yeah; you'll be Recruit Shaky Hands for the first couple of weeks at boot.