Getting Back into It

Although the Marine Corps decided to delay the requirement for females to do pull-ups for another year, I am still working to be able to get 8 for this year's PFT. Backtrack for a second - I could do 10 pull-ups (dead hangs) when I finished my last deployment in August 2012....then I came home and got LAZY!  I broke my foot in January 2013, which would have been a perfect time to get them back - hey, I couldn't run - but nope, I used that as a reason (aka excuse) to do NOTHING. Then came school in July 2013. I arrived in Kansas with great intentions to incorporate workouts into my daily schedule. However, with school requirements and working on my thesis, I kept finding reasons to do nothing. So, now we have arrived in March 2014 and I'm all ready to get back on track!

Through talking to lots of people, I've realized that there are at least a hundred different ways to train for pull-ups. They all contradict one another, so you have to find one that works for you. So, after talking to someone who has been lifting weights and doing strength training for 25 years, I've committed to doing pull-up training only ONCE per week - does that sound crazy?

As of last Monday, I can do 2 strict dead hang pull-ups. On Monday, I will head back into the gym and see where I'm at this week. Here's the plan -

1) Start with as many strict dead hangs as I can do (goal is to always do one more than last week)
2) Do weight-assisted pull-ups until total muscle failure
3) This week I'm incorporating bent-over rows

Fingers-crossed I'll be at 8 by the PFT in May!