September Pull-Up Challenge

The results are a little bit lower in the post. Just click on the image to see all of the details.

Well September is almost here which means it’s time to start doing some pull-ups.  I’m sure we will have people all over the board on this one.  For example, my youngest son can’t quite do a pull-up yet so we will do timed hangs for him with the end goal being to do one pull-up. My oldest can do anywhere between one and three so we will probably set a daily goal of 7 – 10 and multiply that out by 30.  I would think by the end he will be doing 7 – 10 without releasing the bar.  I will set my baseline here in a day or few.  I’ve gotten as high as 15 pull-ups at once but I’m closer to 7 at a time right now so I will probably set my goal somewhere around 24 per day for 30 days which would have me doing 700 for the month and a goal of being able to do 20 at once. I will probably mix up the styles along the way to avoid injury as well add some variety.

Al Kavadlo – This guy will show you how it’s done.. and maybe freak you out a little  Kill it Al.

That’s it for now… hope you’re able to join.

Results

9/1/2011

So, we kicked off today with a lot of pull-ups. I did most of mine on the door-frame pull up bar but did a few commando pull-ups on an i-beam while waiting for an elevator at work. I’ve got to get a picture of that. The kids started doing theirs tonight also. Like everything in our house it became a huge competition with one trying to one-up the other. India ended up being able to do chin-ups pretty well (never knew that). So, we put a chair beneath the bar and he would hang off, do one and get back on the chair… repeat, repeat. I did see him do 3 in row once though.

Hopefully they will mellow out a little bit about it as the month goes forward.

9/2/2011
I’m not a morning person.  I’m trying to be, but I’m still not. So when the boys wake up spirited and ready for some pull-ups it’s hard to participate. They each pulled off 10 good form pull-ups. I did 2 to demonstrate a dead-hang pull-up and I feel like I’m going to puke coffee.  So now, they’re ahead of me in the #’s AND I feel sick.  This could be a long month.

9/3/2011
Well, I ended up getting back on track with the pull-ups yesterday and finished the day with 80 total.. not bad.  The kids are still really engaged and going hard. I’ve got to admit that doing these pull-ups indoors kind of sucks. I’m looking foward to getting out in the world and doing a few.  I’m dealing with a very little bit of soreness in my upper back but it’s just normal muscular soreness.  I can tell that my hands are going to be pretty gnarly looking at the end of the month.  I’ve already started developing callouses on my hands in the area where my palm meets my fingers as well as on the first knuckle of my middle figners. I’ll get some pictures later on… I’m just hoping they don’t start bleeding or anything… or maybe that would be awesome.. who knows, maybe we will get to find out.

9/4/2011

Got in a little more than 50 pull-ups yesterday. Did my fist few plyometric pull-ups which I was really psyched about.. We all ended up paddling about 7 miles on the hooch and when we got home E wanted to catch up to my 40… so he did… and then I did 10 to get ahead and then he did 10 so I did 2 and he did 2 and we both  said that we could stay up doing this all night if the other wouldn’t back down… so we both backed down and fell into a deep sleep… which puts me where I am today.. tired and a bit sore and at 132 pull-ups for the month.

 9/5/2011
We all had a light pull-up day yesterday.. tonight India put in more than 60 and I got up to 200. Was real proud of India as he even stopped himself a few times and said “no, no.. that wasn’t good form, I’ve got to redo that one”. He’s doing 4 – 5 in a row sometimes now which is well… just 5 days ago we didn’t even know he could do one pull-up. This is turning out to be a good challenge.

9/7/2011
Put in 25 over the day yesterday and I’m at 20 as of this writing. I realized something that I hadn’t thought about until today. I’m able to do more pull-ups than I’ve ever done in my life and for the most part they are coming pretty easily.  I’ve upped my single hang repetitions from 7 at a time to 12 at a time in a weeks time (single hang means the number of pullups I can do without letting go of the bar).  While I attribute some of that to the pull-up challenge strengthening my arms I also attribute a BIG part of it to the jump rope challenge and the fact that I weigh about 10 pounds less than I did just a little over a month ago.  So I’m lifting less weight each time.  I know that’s basic math but it hit me out of the blue as I was hitting push-up number 40 in a row..   Well.. enough about me.. I just thought that was amazing.

Echo came home and saw how he was falling further out of second and has hammered out 30 pullups in about 10 minuets. His form is getting stronger and his strength is getting to the point where he’s not only not “kipping” but he’s doing some slow up and slow down pull ups… which are really cool to watch and hard to maintain. Impressive stuff for just 7 days.

9/9/2011
I took yesterday off.  My shoulders were hurting a little and I’m easily on target for 700 this month. Already seeing some pretty impressive results in my biceps as well as with the boys.  I’ve been primarily doing pull-ups but I guess enough chin-ups to make an impact there.  Deltoids are bumping up quite a bit as well.

Have done 31 today already as to 1:35 PM. Echo did 100… now I didn’t see him do it but… I know he could so I’m letting it slide… but have told him to take the day off today.  Hope to get India going again tonight.

9/11/2011
Put in 30 today. Having some pains in the elbow and shoulder blades so I’m trying to take it easy for now in hopes of avoiding a real injury. Echo has said he has some similar pain in one of his should blades also. No new numbers for India. Gotta say, this challenge is just kind of dragging along for me. Pull-ups clearly are intended to be part of a larger exercise routine, instead of taken in isolation like this.

10/3/2011
Well, the rest of the month went pretty much like the beginning of the month. I developed a cold around the 13th and had to work through that which kind of made everything a pain but I exceeded my goal by more than 100 so I’m happy with the results.

Both of the boys also made their goals and they were both really pleased with themselves.

I didn’t notice much of a physical change in myself over the month.  I definitely got stronger as I’m able to do about 15 pullups at once and I started at around 7 in a row. Both of the boys age 7 and 9 put on quite a bit of muscle and were able to make huge gains in the number of consecutive pull-ups they were able to do. I think Echo made it to 11 and Igloo made it to 8 or so.. Both are big climbs but before we started that challenge we didn’t even think Igloo could do ONE so… to move up to 8 is huge.

As for everyone else I was amazed at how many pullups were done. Like all of the previous challenges, consistency plays a big role in making it to the end without injury and if you look at the charts you can see that everyone was on the pullup bar on an average of at least every other day of the month.

As far as variety goes, it seems like everyone did a combination of chin-ups and pull ups…

I think that sums it up.. another challenge for the books.