Mar 22 2012
Guide to Doing Pull Ups – Phase 2
Ok so you have been working on your partial pull ups at home just like I showed you a few weeks ago, right? Here’s phase 2!
Want to make your waist look smaller? Do pull ups!
Want to feel like a bad ass? Do pull ups!
Want to improve your posture, be proud of yourself, feel strong and empowered? Do pull ups!
This is phase 2. The next phase is doing real, unassisted pull ups! You’re almost there and if you keep working at this… you will be doing pull ups on your own in no time!
Yes… pull ups are hard!
Pull ups can be an intimidating exercise, but small changes and improvements over time will yield amazing results! Stay consistent and you will be successful!
But if you can’t even do one, how do you start? If you aren’t quite at phase 2 yet, what do you do then?
Go back to phase 1: Can’t Do a Pull Up Yet? Here’s How to Build Up.
If these two routines help you to finally do a pull up, I want to be the first to know! Post a comment here and tell me all about it!
xoxo ~ Cori
Guide to Doing Pull Ups – Phase 2
Guide to Doing Pull Ups – Phase 2
Workout Breakdown
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Time: As long as it takes. |
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Workout Type: Building up to pull ups. |
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Workout Exercises: 2. |
Get your gear:
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No gear needed. Just your own body and a decision to get it done. |
Buy the same nutrition products as me:
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PROTEIN Get your protein here |
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SUPER GREENS Get your super greens here |
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Peanut Butter Get your PB2 here |
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EGG WHITES Get your egg whites here |
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Tea Get your tea here |
Guide to Doing Pull Ups – Phase 2
No matter where you are starting from you CAN do pull ups. Whether you’re a guy or girl, you CAN do pull ups. You WILL do pull ups.
When you do finally do a pull up, I want to be the first to know! When you get to your first set of 10, tell me! Post a comment here and tell me all about it!
Warm Up:
Always warm up with a dynamic warm up and rotator cuff exercises for any upper body work.
Assisted Pull Ups (Modified with Both Feet Behind You):
10 x 5
Pull your shoulder blades back and down as you’re going through the movement, and focus on pulling your chest up to the bar. Don’t let your back round at the top. Squeeze your lats, meaning you squeeze the muscle on the side of your back toward your armpit. Keep your chest WAY up.
Make sure you have your feet anchored behind you. This stops you from being able to push off too much with your feet and allows your back to do the work so it can get stronger, defined and sculpted.
Assisted Pull Ups (Modified with One Foot Behind You):
10 x 5 right
10 x 5 left
Same as above, but now you are pulling up more of your own body weight because you only have one foot assisting you. Build up to this. If this is too challenging at first, do an additional 10 sets of 10 reps with both feet on the ground. As you get stronger, try a few with only one leg. Before you know it, you will be doing all 5 sets on just one leg, then switching and doing 5 more.
Where to Do Pull-ups and Rows
Think you can’t do pull ups because you don’t have a pull up bar? Don’t have a high set of chairs or closet rod like I use in the video? Here are some other options:
- Outdoor gyms. During the 1980s, many parks installed outdoor gyms along jogging trails. The idea was that you could get a complete strength workout while jogging. Usually a pull-up bar or row bar is at one of the stations.
- Playground. Remember when you were a kid and you swung across the monkey bars with ease, pulled yourself up to climb to the top of the slide, and just had fun? There are always a lot of bars for pull ups and rows at playgrounds. Usually there are several different heights so you can modify as necessary.
- Indoor gyms. Smith machine. Just like in the picture. Enough said.
- Get some bars for your house. The last, and most convenient option, is to buy a set of bars that you can use for assisted pull ups and rows. When the bars are right in your house, you really have no excuses. Each time you walk by them you can try to get a few in.
Doing Wide Grip Assisted Pull Ups at the Gym
If you are truly serious about completing your first pull up, you need to start by getting your diet under control.
The more you weigh, the more you have to lift in order to complete a pull up. There is no mysterious, magical diet. If you want to lose bodyfat you need to eat a fair amount of lean protein and A LOT of green veggies at every meal. Not red veggies. Not orange veggies. Not yellow veggies. Not white veggies. I said green veggies. Actually, I said A LOT of green veggies.
Cut the sugar (even fruit and red veggies). Cut the processed foods. Not just a little. Cut them.
You know what to do. Now it’s time to just start doing it!
Let me know when you complete your first pull up, or knock out first set of 10, 20, 30, 40, or 50! 
Follow Through
I like to post something about cardio and nutrition at the end of every post because it is important.
Cardio and nutrition are going to be two of the most important parts of achieving your results, no matter what what your goal is. You can not work off your nutritional decisions with exercise. What? You can’t eat a donut, then just do 2 hours of cardio and *poof* it will be like it never happened? That’s what I’m saying. Come on. No. You can’t.
Your body doesn’t work like a simple addition or subtraction problem. It is not calories in vs. calories out. What you eat has a chemical effect on your body. Even if you do cardio to ‘burn it off’ the chemical effect is still present. Different sugars have an affect. Different proteins have an effect. Different fats have an effect. When you take a vitamin, you understand that it has an effect in your body that cardio will not ‘work off,’ right? Food works the same way. Different foods have positive and negative chemical effects within our body. You can’t just work them off.
You have to unlock and unleash the body fat by working with your body in every aspect. Your body works in harmony like a symphony. When one instrument is off, the entire song doesn’t sound right. A good steady drumbeat can’t make up for a guitar that’s out of tune. 2 hours of cardio cannot make up for a donut. Or pizza. Or macaroni and cheese. Or wine and a baguette. Got it?
Cardio
I do a minimum of 45 minutes of stairs with intervals as cardio each and every day. When I’m trying to lose fat I usually do two separate 45 minute cardio sessions a day. Even while I have been recuperating from the car crash, I have still been able to do at least one session of my daily cardio. I love my cardio and I like to stay conditioned. I personally prefer to do a little more cardio than the average figure competitor, then also eat a little more. It takes more time and effort, but I feel the pay off is well worth it. The pay off is that I feel awesome. I feel energized by cardio. I love it.
Post Workout Nutrition
When I was trying to gain muscle I finished every workout with a protein shake, animal protein, and some complex and simple carbs. These are healthy choices for gaining or for performance. These are not the right choices for me for trying to lose fat, define and sculpt muscle. Trying to define and sculpt muscle is different from gaining muscle. This means I need to eat something different.
When I am trying to lose fat and sculpt muscle, I am much more strict with my diet. Only true food sources. No protein powder.
I finish up every workout with lean protein from true food sources (a little red meat, white chicken, white fish and egg whites are best) and some dark green veggies or Super Greens mixed with water only. Again, no protein powder. If you are a vegetarian you would most likely need to supplement with protein powder. If you are not, let me say again that true food sources work best for losing body fat.
Even when I am trying to lose fat, I still FEED my body.
Want more information about nutrition? Check out BPM.tv Nutrition 101.
You can also look at my current personal fat loss diet in order to get ideas on how to develop your own nutrition plan.
You can click on the link to my fat loss diet to get details about what works for me, but here is the basic breakdown.
This is my meal plan while I am trying to lose fat and define muscle. My carbohydrates come from complex sources only and are kept to about 100 grams per day.
My sugar is kept at about 18 grams per day. That’s it. That is less than what is in one banana. That means fruit is not in my fat loss nutrition plan. My sugars come from minimal amounts that naturally occur in veggies and in the complex carbs I eat each day. No matter what your goal, I highly recommend you watch your sugar intake, even ‘healthy’ sugar like fruit, and moderate it to a minimum based on your own personal goals.
My protein is kept at about 250 grams per day and comes from high quality, organic, free range (or wild) lean animal sources. My fats are kept at about 40 grams per day and come from my protein and complex carbohydrate choices (not additional plant sources like olive oil, coconut, nuts, or avocado).
That equals about 1800 calories per day. I don’t drop it much lower than that.
I eat natural, organic, whole foods that I cook myself, or if possible I eat them raw. I drink 1 to 2 gallons of water and a couple cups of either coffee or tea. There is no mysterious, magical diet. If you want to lose bodyfat you need to eat a fair amount of lean protein and A LOT of green veggies at every meal. Period.
Did you like this post? Tell me in the comments!
Please share your thoughts and questions in the comments. Don’t be shy! Your comments may help to inspire another. Your questions may help someone else who has the exact same question, but is too shy to ask. I love hearing from you!
Try to come up with a way to make the exercises even more challenging! Try to have better form than me! Let’s inspire each other.
Mar 23, 2012 @ 03:43:53
I am loving this pull up series Cori. I will do at least five unassisted pull ups by the end of the summer
Mar 23, 2012 @ 06:58:03
Awesome Lynn! I want to hear about it once you get there!
Keep me updated!