Dufisthenics

When I was doing my 10K run on Sunday my mind was wandering.  It wandered on to what I thought was good saying for the Bar-barians.  When I got home I found an appropriate pic of Zef and came up with this.  Evidently people liked it, it got a ton of likes and was shared out a bunch of times across Facebook.

I have some ideas of other posters that I will work on when I get a chance.

Ever since I set my personal best in pull up reps several months ago of 25 reps, I have not been able to match it.  The best I have managed were the 23 reps I pulled off at the Barstarzz event in SoBe a couple weeks ago.

Since my left wrist has been hurt I have been doing more pull ups since they are a movement that doesn’t hurt.  I have pulled a couple very high rep sessions during the last month or so, netting 180 pull ups over one lunch hour and 200 reps the next.  Even so, my one set max had not improved.

So on the way home last night for some reason I got it in my head that I wanted to try a max pull up rep attempt.  At lunch time I had already worked my back and scalpula pretty tough working Metins pull day.  I also did a max pull up set while I was there and only netted 20 reps.  To think I laid the groundwork for a good attempt last night would have not made much sense. But, it was in my head.

So I headed out back into the windy weather.  After chalking both my hands and the bar to maximize my grip, I started pulling.  I wanted to try to make sure my form and ROM were solid as I pulled hard and fast.  I managed to get the first 20 reps without pausing, a new milestone.  Then I got rep 21 and 22 in consecutive fashion.  I knew I was in good shape.  I managed to break my old best by not 1 but 2 reps, pulling chin high 27 times.

I was pretty surprised I hit that number based on the situation going in.  I think the biggest  reason I cracked the number was because I imagined myself doing so.  Visualization is an incredibly powerful tool when it comes to all aspects of life.  Neglecting your mental muscle power is a surefire way to failure.

I have used visualization many, many times, sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously to tackle tough obstacles.  Likewise I have seen many people use their minds to derail their goals.  Telling themselves ahead of time, “I can’t do it”, ” I feel like shit”, “I am going to do poorly”.  Without fail, if you are having these type of inner conversations you WILL fail.  Use your mind to help you, not hold you back.

After my pull up set I messed around with a static hold I have seen guys do.  It feels a bit awkward but wasn’t to bad for me to hold for a few seconds.

It kind of reminds me of an elbow planche, looking more difficult than it really is.

I shot a video of the brief hold so you can see how you set up for it.

Yesterday I saw an ad for something called the Shamrock Triple Gym.  Apart from it’s corny endorsement by Ken Shamrock, it actually was quite interesting. It utilizes the same concept as the Iron Gym, using doorways and leverage to create an indoor pull up station with even more.  You can add an attachment so you can have a set of doorway dip bars!

It also comes with a set of cheap straps and handles allowing you to use the rig to do things you would normally do with rings.  The pull up bar actually is unique as it extends above and in front of the top of the doorway, giving you more height to work with than an Iron Gym which has it’s cross bar inside the doorway.

Of course my biggest question would be how sturdy it feels.  Supposedly it’s steel construction will hold up to 300 pounds so I am about 125 pounds in the clear.

I took a flyer and ordered one, it looks like I might be the first video review out there.  If you want to do the same, use this code, “fallfun” to get 10% off.    You can order yours here, or wait until I post my official review in a couple weeks.