The rude awakening.

John Baker

John Baker

Final Approach
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John Baker
Yesterday, I went down to Ocean Beach Hardware and bought a bunch of assorted pipes and fittings in order to make myself a pull-up bar out in my garage. I spent the bulk of today working on it, along with a few trips back to the hardware store to pick up fittings that would actually work for my project. As an ex paratrooper, about fifty years ago, I could at that time, easily do fifty pull ups without hardly thinking about it.

I even joked down at the hardware store about them being able to hear me cussing and screaming for half an hour all the way down to their store, then finally hearing me yell out...or croak out...... "one"

So I completed my project a few minutes ago. The bar is hanging nice and solid just above my reach. I'm thinking I had better take it easy at first since I haven't done a pull up since my Army days, so I'll just do around five or six of them for now.

I skillfully leapt onto the bar and started to pull...nothing....I could not pull myself up even an inch. It was a real WTF moment for me. I do twenty to thirty push ups every morning, this should not have happened.

Now I'm thinking that I just threw away forty dollars on pipes and fittings, along with wasting pretty much my whole day installing it. So I decided that this can not be, and I gave it another shot. I think I felt myself moving upward a slight fraction of an inch, but it could have been my imagination, I'm not sure.

Frustration began to slither in to my normally happy and confident self. I waited a few minutes and gave it a third try. Along with a few colorful adjectives, I pulled myself up, I guess two or three inches, before an incredibly painful jolt tore through my left arm and shoulder, so I gave it up for today. I am encouraged though, and I feel that if I work at it every day for a month or so, I just might make it to "one."

Perhaps my money and time has not been wasted after all.

-John
 
Stack up a couple of old Coke cartons and stand on those until you can do the full Monty.
 
Maxmosbey said:
Pretty hard to drop the weight down doing pullups.
Click to expand...

You can have a partner hold your feet as you bend your legs back. This will subtract the weight of your legs at least. If you don't have a partner, you can stand on a stool and vary the amount of weight you are supporting with your legs as you pull up, squat down, pull up, squat down... Trying every day to jerk your body up to no avail isn't going to get you to 'one' very well.
 
John,

I tried pull-ups at the fitness section of the local golf practice range, thus saving myself the time, effort and futility of building one at home. My advice is to pull as hard as you can with one arm while reaching over with the other to feel the firm and powerful muscles that are still there and only need a little practice before returning to their past glory. Or something like that.
 
I told myself that if I'm going to go the PPL route, that I also HAD to join a gym and workout. I started both (gym and ppl training) in mid to late april. I also could not do 1 single pull up/chin up, whatever u call em. my gym has an assisted pull up machine, which I started doing quite often. started with a lot of weight (the more weight the more it assists you) and would do 5 sets of 10, having to increase the weight each time cause it got harder. then finally one day I said 'aight, lemme see what I got', so I went to the big boy chin up station and BANGED OUT THREE of em! THREE! it's funny because there were these 2 dudes working out and while I was doing my chin-ups I heard one of them say "see, THAT's what I want to be able to do". I was pumped! I told them it was only about 2 months ago that I couldn't do 1.

so, keep at it and soon enough you'll be bangin' em out!
 
You can also use free weights to work out many of the same muscle groups.
 
And don't feel bad,

I just wandered down to the basement dangled myself from a beam and gave it a shot...


2 pull ups followed by a single chin up was enough for me, at 27
 
I would start doing cardio with light weight ,you have to work up to a spot that you will be comfortable with.the older you get the harder it gets if you don't keep with it.Like to go to the gym before flying makes me much more relaxed.
 
Get a Jump Stretch band - a large (approx. two feet) heavy rubber band (a quarter inch thick) and loop it around the pullup bar. Put your feet on the bottom of the loop and use it as a boost. Start with the medium (green) band. They are available from a lot of sources; just Google "jump stretch".
 
somorris said:
Stack up a couple of old Coke cartons and stand on those until you can do the full Monty.
Click to expand...

:yes:

Number one reason for injuries and demotivation is trying too much too fast. Start EASY by using your legs (bent knees to 90+ degrees, extending your legs on the cartons as much as you need to in order to do a pullup). Do a couple using your legs, call it a day and enjoy the small victory. Two days later, do one set of 3, take a 2 minute break and try 3 more using your legs. Once you can do 5 sets of 5 using your legs (take a good 1 or 2 minute break between each set), start to use less and less leg motion. Over time you'll stop using your legs all together. At that point you start over. If you can do 1 without legs, do 1, take a break, then do another one. The next time, try 2, take a break, and try 2 more.

It's more about consistent progress and the mental motivation it gives you than anything else. Just start light and you will see progress. Start too heavy (full body weight) and you'll get frustrated and quit the whole effort in no time at all, not to mention you'll probably hurt yourself. It's the tortoise and the hare thing.
 
Pull ups are not-surprisingly, one of the big parts of the popular and expensive "P90X" workout videos. They're incredible for working the crap out of certain upper body muscle groups.

Grab a chair and put it under the bar. Put one knee on the chair. Use one leg to push just a little and alternate legs so you don't have a giant leg on one side and a small leg on the other. The point here is to work the arm and back muscles to exhaustion without tearing yourself up.

Slowly work up to where you can do it without the leg on the chair. You'll want to anyway, using the chair and a leg is awkward.

Losing weight helps too. Of course. Ha. Easier to pull up a skinny dude than a chubby dude.

Another higher tech way to get there is to buy one of those long stretchy workout bands. Hang it on the pull up bar. Sit on the floor. Start pulling. Eventually you can move from the floor and the bands, to actually hanging from the bar.

I got to where I could do some a while back. Then I lost interest. It's not often I find myself needing to scale the racks in the datacenter hanging on by my fingertips.

A similar workout if you're bored, is find some radio tower climbers who need help and get hired. You'll be doing the equivalent of thousands of small pull ups per day. In all sorts of weather. Don't look down. :)
 
When I was in the Army, it was sit ups, push ups, squat thrusts, and pull ups, and of course a whole lot of running and walking. For the last several months I have been doing sit ups and push ups, and walking every day. I weighed 170 lbs (6'1") when I was discharged, I now weigh 184 lbs and am still 6'1"

When I first tried push ups a few months ago, it was pretty much the same thing, except I could do one, now I'm up to 30.

Yesterday, after reading the above responses, I tried starting at the top from a step ladder, I was surprised at just how much of a dead weight I have allowed myself to become over the years. I did OK at lowering myself about half way, taking my time, but then I was at the bottom due to the pain and weight.

I tried a chin up from the bottom a while later and made it about 75% of the way to the top, so chin ups are easier. Later I tried another pull up from the bottom and pulled myself up about five or six inches, but could get no further. I did not get the jolt of pain that time.

I figure if I screw with it every day, I will have it wired soon. If you exercise every day, you are building strength, I do know that, which is why the Army worked us every morning. If you work out every other day, you are building bulk, and of course strength, but not the "cowboy strength" that is really what is needed.

I look at old photos of us in my army days, and none of us were bulked up like the kids of today, but we damn sure had the strength needed for any job though.

I was not in the below attachment photo, but it was taken at the Recondo School at Ft. Campbell,KY right around the time I went through the course in 1962.

-John
 

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That $30 is gonna seem cheap compared to getting a rotator cuff repaired....Take 'er easy.
 
John Baker said:
When I was in the Army, it was sit ups, push ups, squat thrusts, and pull ups, and of course a whole lot of running and walking. For the last several months I have been doing sit ups and push ups, and walking every day. I weighed 170 lbs (6'1") when I was discharged, I now weigh 184 lbs and am still 6'1"

When I first tried push ups a few months ago, it was pretty much the same thing, except I could do one, now I'm up to 30.

Yesterday, after reading the above responses, I tried starting at the top from a step ladder, I was surprised at just how much of a dead weight I have allowed myself to become over the years. I did OK at lowering myself about half way, taking my time, but then I was at the bottom due to the pain and weight.

I tried a chin up from the bottom a while later and made it about 75% of the way to the top, so chin ups are easier. Later I tried another pull up from the bottom and pulled myself up about five or six inches, but could get no further. I did not get the jolt of pain that time.

I figure if I screw with it every day, I will have it wired soon. If you exercise every day, you are building strength, I do know that, which is why the Army worked us every morning. If you work out every other day, you are building bulk, and of course strength, but not the "cowboy strength" that is really what is needed.

I look at old photos of us in my army days, and none of us were bulked up like the kids of today, but we damn sure had the strength needed for any job though.

I was not in the below attachment photo, but it was taken at the Recondo School at Ft. Campbell,KY right around the time I went through the course in 1962.

-John
Click to expand...

Man the fact that you have only gained that much weight since your army days is excellent!!!!!!!
 
John Baker said:
If you work out every other day, you are building bulk, and of course strength, but not the "cowboy strength" that is really what is needed.
Click to expand...

Not exactly true, so don't think you have to work out every day to build strength vs bulk. One of the most widely known strength and conditioning coaches in recent memory was Bill Starr, who used a 5x5 approach (5 sets of 5 reps) to training athletes. This is centered around doing just a handful of core exercises 3x a week to develop raw, athletic strength, not bulk. It works amazingly well. Bulk vs strength is primarily a result of diet, not training frequency.

And do take it easy on your shoulder. It sounds like you probably need to work on balancing the muscles of the shoulder with rehab type exercises before jumping into full weight exercises.
 
John,

Start with a two two pound potato bags. Hold them straight out for one minute.

When that is comfortable, move up to two five pound bags and hold them out for two minutes.

Work up till you can hold them for five minutes, then change to two ten pound bags.

When you have no trouble holding two ten pound potato bags straight out for five minutes,
Then add a potato to each bag.
 
Florida Cracker said:
John,

Start with a two two pound potato bags. Hold them straight out for one minute.

When that is comfortable, move up to two five pound bags and hold them out for two minutes.

Work up till you can hold them for five minutes, then change to two ten pound bags.

When you have no trouble holding two ten pound potato bags straight out for five minutes,
Then add a potato to each bag.
Click to expand...

Finally, a challenge, if I work hard, that I might just be able to pull off......it's gonna take time though.

-John
 
wabower said:
John,

I tried pull-ups at the fitness section of the local golf practice range, thus saving myself the time, effort and futility of building one at home. My advice is to pull as hard as you can with one arm while reaching over with the other to feel the firm and powerful muscles that are still there and only need a little practice before returning to their past glory. Or something like that.
Click to expand...


Place one hand on the bar and one on the hydraulic jack handle, pump it about twenty times and yell out ONE, I truly think that as we age God must turn up the gravity knob.
 
Last edited:
Just work at it in managable bits. 2.5yrs ago I was 230# (6'2"), most of it belly area. I didn't like what I saw and how I felt. I made a wholesale change in what I eat and how I exercise.

For the last 1.5 years I've been very steady at 172# and feel great. Last physical was great, 120/77bp, 154 total cholesterol, 66 HDL. Doc loves all of my numbers, says keep up the good work.

It is truly nice to be in the best shape of my life as I enter the 50's.

You can do it, all you have to do is decide to do it and stick with it.
 
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