Need advice about strength and body weight

B

Buk Sing Bunny

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I'm 25, female. I'm very active, work out a lot, and VERY strong. However, I simply suck at exercises that involve lifting my own bodyweight...e.g. pushups (can only do about 20), and pullups (can do about 2! haha). So why is that?

I've very heavy....76kg (5'8 height)...however my build is slim to athletic. I'm definitely not overweight. So why am I so bad at supporting my bodyweight? What can I do to improve?

Oh and if someone can shed some light on why I'm so heavy when I'm not overweight, that would also be good. lol
 
First, 20 pushups is respectible. That said, pushups and pullups use a lot of muscle groups and stabalizing muscles. Many people focus on isolation exercises which neglect all of the stabalizing muscles needed to do pushups and pullups. Keep pushing youself on the pushups doing multiple sets and have some one assist you with your pullups by holding your ankles. Do as many as you can with multiple sets. In no time you will be doing 3 then 4... on your own.

I'm afraid that I'll get struck by lightening if I answer your last question!
 
Training is all about specificity, if you don't train by doing pushups or pullups on a regular basis, then you will not be able to do many of them. If you want to be able to do them, you need to consistently incorporate them into your workouts.

As for your last question, people are simply built differently. It's not as simple as using your weight and/or BMI to really say whether someone is overweight or not. BMI tables and all of the other tools out there that we use work for most, but not all of the population. Some people naturally have more lean mass contained in a larger than average bone structure and more muscle mass than others. People also carry fat mass differently. For some, fat is evenly spread all over their body, making it much less noticeable. For others, most of their weight might be carried around their abdomen. You can take 2 people of the same gender, age, height, and weight, and depending on their genetics, one may look perfectly healthy while the other may look overweight.
 
When I was younger and could not do a single pullup, I put a chair under my pullup bar. I would get into the finished pull up position and lower myself as slowly as possible. I was basically doing negative pullups. This got me strong enough to do full pull ups correctly.

Pull ups are by no means easy. I can lift a LOT of weight and do 250 lb pull downs on the lat machine with ease and yet I struggle to do 15 pullups and I'm only 175 lbs or so. But, every day that I can do even one extra pull up, I feel like I climbed Mt Everest. :)
 
There are generally 3 things that contribute to weight: bone structure, muscularity and fat. Some folks natually have heavier bones, muscles weight more than fat and obviously fat people weight more. So if you are in great shape and have very dense bones you will weight more. What is really more important is how you look and how you feel about your body. You are "very active, work out a lot, and VERY strong" Focus on these aspects of your life and forget about the scale.

Did I hear thunder?
 
SXIPro said:
When I was younger and could not do a single pullup, I put a chair under my pullup bar. I would get into the finished pull up position and lower myself as slowly as possible. I was basically doing negative pullups. This got me strong enough to do full pull ups correctly.
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That's a great method
 
PLBFitness said:
That's a great method
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Thanks. My Dad taught me that after I totally flunked the Presidential Physical Fitness test when I was a fat little kid. That day in gym when I could not do one single pullup was THE defining moment in my life as far as getting me on the road to fitness.
 
SXIPro said:
When I was younger and could not do a single pullup, I put a chair under my pullup bar. I would get into the finished pull up position and lower myself as slowly as possible. I was basically doing negative pullups. This got me strong enough to do full pull ups correctly.

Pull ups are by no means easy. I can lift a LOT of weight and do 250 lb pull downs on the lat machine with ease and yet I struggle to do 15 pullups and I'm only 175 lbs or so. But, every day that I can do even one extra pull up, I feel like I climbed Mt Everest. :)
Click to expand...

I'm loving the negative pullups idea! I've been in sports almost my entire life and have been in pretty good shape...and yet I've never been able to do even one pullup! I've tried, but after many failed attempts I've always just moved on and forgot about them.

I'd love to try out negative pullups for a while! How do you start out? You stand on a chair and start out in the full "up" position right? Then, you slowly bring yourself down until your arms are almost fully extended or you can't hold it anymore? Do you try to do a specific amount of sets each time with like 30 seconds rest between each set? Like do it ten times with 30 seconds rest between them. Then do that every day till you are able to pull yourself back up?

Thanks for the tip. I can't wait to start working on them.
 
Daven said:
I'm loving the negative pullups idea! I've been in sports almost my entire life and have been in pretty good shape...and yet I've never been able to do even one pullup! I've tried, but after many failed attempts I've always just moved on and forgot about them.

I'd love to try out negative pullups for a while! How do you start out? You stand on a chair and start out in the full "up" position right? Then, you slowly bring yourself down until your arms are almost fully extended or you can't hold it anymore? Do you try to do a specific amount of sets each time with like 30 seconds rest between each set? Like do it ten times with 30 seconds rest between them. Then do that every day till you are able to pull yourself back up?

Thanks for the tip. I can't wait to start working on them.
Click to expand...

I started at 3 sets of 10 because that is all I could do. I had 2 things going against me. I was fat and I was weak. Yes, start at the top position and lower yourself as slowly as you can.

After the 2nd week or so, try a regular real pull up at the beginning, while you are fresh. One day, very soon, you'll surprise yourself and up you'll go. Then you will be adding reps pretty consistently. Have fun.
 
Try a Resistance Band and Horizontal Pulls

Try some horizontal pulls using a lower bar where your feet are on the ground. Build up your strength this way. The other option if you want to continue doing vertical pulls is to get a resistance band and loop that around the top bar, then put your foot in it. This will give the help you need to get a few more reps out. My girlfriend stated this way and has built up to 10 bodyweight pull ups.
 
Start with doing assisted pull - ups. Here is a great routine that can help you develop strength in 10 days. It's like a 10 day program. On even days do 50 assisted pull- ups with a chair ( do 10 or 15 at a time with rest of about 2 minutes. On odd days do 50 assisted pull ups through out the days.
If you can only do 2 pull ups, then add those 2 regular pull ups to your 50 assisted pull ups every day. After 10 days take a 3 day rest. ( I was in Fitness my whole life, as a figure stater and aerial acrobatics, my trainers tough me a lot of tips and trick to get strong.



Tatianna
 
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