ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY CHINUP!!!

So in an effort to (a) improve upper body strength, and (b) look badass, I bought a pullup bar and put it up in my kitchen/laundry area doorway. Now I can't actually DO a pullup, but I figured with enough attempts, over time, I'd be able to get myself pulled up.

Then I attempted a pullup. I grabbed on. And pulled. And pulled some more. And didn't go anywhere. And my arms hurt from the pulling even though I hadn't gone up at all.

To add insult to (exaggerated) injury, the kids decided the pullup bar was their new favorite toy, and spent the rest of the day showing me how easily they could do pullups or at least get closer to something resembling one than I did. I tried and tried but it seemed to take everything in me just to hang on that thing in one position. After being boosted up by a stepladder. Which felt very lame.

But I decided not to give up on my $30 investment. Thinking that perhaps even if all I could do was hold myself there, maybe I'd get better at staying in pullup position and amaze everyone at how long I could hold myself up there before having to let go. Because holding your head above a pullup bar takes effort too, right? So that became my pullup bar workout plan for today: use the stepladder to get myself where I needed to be, grab on, kick said stepladder out of the way, and then see how many seconds I could stay like that.

After doing that once, though, I wondered...what if I just lower myself a little bit? Could I get back up? I let myself maybe half an inch down. And raised myself back half an inch! I tried going about an inch lower. And you know what? My chin went below the pullup bar. And when I raised myself back up that inch or so...it went back ABOVE the pullup bar.

Well, HELLO, CHINUP! I haven't seen you since at least the fifth grade, I'm sure, but you count for something!

I'm not even going to google "chinup" to see exactly how far I should be moving for it to count as a real one. I'm counting any motion down and up as a chinup, and by that method, I can do three of them in a row. A whole THREE!

I am celebrating by using my puny 8 lb weights for 10-rep sets of various lifting exercises. I'm not googling how to do those, either, but I figure lifting any weight in any way any number of times has to be at least somewhat helpful.

But YAY! I now have a chinup bar that I am using as its (new) name intends for it to be used, rather than a clothing rack or indoor children's gymnasium. :) VICTORY IS MINE!