M2M Day 283: Today was painful, but I made a breakthrough
This post is part of Month to Master, a 12-month accelerated learning project. For August, my goal is to complete one continuous set of 40 pull-ups.
This morning, like every other morning this month, I woke up, meditated, and then consumed my liquid breakfast.
For the first time today, the shake didn’t sit quite right with me. My body spent the rest of the day trying to decide which direction the shake should exit my body (it still hasn’t made a decision).
This wasn’t the best day to have digestive problems: Although he typically comes on Fridays, Matt, my trainer, came over today to train (since I have family visiting this weekend), so I had to fight through the bubbly stomach feeling while trying to have my best workout of the week.
To add to the challenge, my left elbow was still bothering me (as it has been for the past few days). Matt thinks my overworked muscles are crowding/pinching a nerve in my arm, which apparently isn’t too unusual.
Despite the stomach and arm problems, I actually had a very successful day today: For the first time, I felt what a good pull-up feels like.
Up until this point, I’ve relied too heavily on my arms (hence my problem), and not enough on my back. Today, I realized that, if I point my chest at the bar, and pull my elbows down, instead of around, I can shift most of the work from my arms to my back.
While I wasn’t in the best physical state to train with this new form, mentally internalizing what I’m “supposed to do” is a big step forward. I’m hoping that the improvement in my form will result in at least five incremental pull-ups.
I failed to capture a video of my new pull-up form, but here’s a video of my first set from today (where I’m pulling too much with my arms and resultingly approaching the bar in an arced motion).
Once my left elbow is healed, I’m excited to get back on the bar with this new approach.
Read the next post. Read the previous post.
