Work it: Bodyweight style

One of my goals for the year is to do one pull up. I've always wanted to do a pullup ever since elementary school. I've decided that this is my year.  Last year I improved my pushup, where I can do multiple legitimate pushups in a row. Basically I did modified versions until I got my strength up. But the pull up is a different beast. I think it requires a lot more resolve because it is just so much harder.

Once a week I strength train my upper body and I've been focusing on pull movements. Today I decided to give the dumbbells, bars, and cables a rest and just rely on bodyweight. I think it is so badass to see people do all kinds of exercises just using their bodyweight (ala pull up - video).

I've been relying on this article for progression advice. I've also done a lot of googling around for different exercises to try. Today before my workout I looked around online for my workout plan and wrote it on a sticky-- I have the same easy going approach to exercise planning as I have for meal planning. My main guidelines for upper body strength day is that I try to hit 2 exercises each of: chest, tricep, back, and bicep (and a lot of the exercises hit multiple areas). I also sprinkle in some ab work.

Here's what I did--

#1. Negative pullups. I used my gym's trx jungle gym and a high step to get to the pull up bar. The first one felt really good. I stayed at the top for a couple of seconds and felt in control. I was able to lower myself down. I tried to see if I could pull myself up at the bottom, but I couldn't. I only did seven of them before I tuckered out and my form petered out.  I still have a long way to go.

#2. A superset of equalizer pullups (video), equalizer tricep dips (video) with legs elevated on a small step, and equalizer knee ups (similar movement video)

#3. A superset of equalizer horizontal pushups (video), equalizer tricep extensions (video), and equalizer ground rotations (similar movement video)

#4. A superset of decline pushups on bosu ball, one-legged v-ups (similar movement) on bosu ball, and tire flips

#5. I finished the workout with 30 battle rope swings (alternative waves) on the minute for 10 minutes.

*whew* that seemed like a long time, but I got my workout in just under 55 minutes. And it was a great workout. I feel my arms already getting stronger.

That's me really really flexing by the way.