A blog about my life, fitness and fun! (...and maybe a few cat pictures...)

A blog about my life, fitness and fun! (...and maybe a few cat pictures...)

Friday, April 17, 2015

I Freaking PR'ed!

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This isn’t a running PR. This is a gym PR! 
I haven't run a lot this week, so I spent most mornings lifting.

On Wednesday morning, around 6:20am… wearing two different colored socks… sporting booty shorts and hairy legs… fueled by animal crackers and a chocolate bunny I ate the night before… I DID 6 UNASSISTED PULL UPS!!!!!

My last PR a few months ago was 4 reps, now suddenly, I can do 6!!! I say “suddenly”, but this whole pull up progress really isn’t sudden at all. I attribute the progress to patience and consistency in my lifting program over the course of several years.

I don’t try unassisted pull ups every time I lift back. I probably only try them once every 3 weeks. But I do them with the assisted machine every time I lift back. I have slowly worked my way down to using less and less assistance. On my last gym visit, I did 5 sets of 6 reps with 10lbs of assistance. This boosted my confidence to try them unassisted.

I always warm up beforehand and do about 10 reps with about 24lbs of assistance. This is to warm up my muscles and get them firing for the task ahead. Boy did I feel like the shit when I hopped off the machine, but of course no one noticed my PR. They may have seen me grinning from ear to ear, though!

Luckily, my arms were only a little sore the next day!

Do you get just as excited for lifting PRs as you do for running PRs?

16 comments:

  1. Wow, Megan! That is fantastic. I am so inspired by you. Way to go!!

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  2. That is so impressive! I can't do any unassisted pull ups and I am afraid of the machine so I never work on them at all. I think it would be a really cool goal though if I actually started working on them!

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    1. It would be a cool goal! I was scared of the machine too because no one ever officially had showed me how to use it. But I am such a creeper at the gym. I will just watch people out of the corner of my eye to see what they do with machines. So I did that for a little while and then I tried it myself. Just give yourself a lot of assistance the first time you get up on in so you can simply focus on the use of the machine rather than the strenuous lift. Then when you feel comfortable with how the machine maneuvers, do some sets that are an effort.

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  3. Congrats, nice job! You are such a beast!

    I think I set a blogging PR this week with 4 posts, so that's kind of exciting. But that's probably a "slacker" week to you! ;-)

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    1. Funny, I just read your blog and read about your PR!!! ;) Your posts are longer and more thought out. I could never create content like that every day of the week. I may post every day, but some are short and sweet and "fluffy"! :)

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  4. I can't even do ONE pull-up, so the fact that you did 6 pull-ups on your own makes you my hero. Are you working toward a specific number or goal? Or just improvement in general?

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    1. Thanks! Well, I think doing 10 is a nice round bad ass number. But I can't see myself stopping there. I hope I can continue to improve. Maybe in a few years I will get to the point where I can do 3 sets of 6! Right now 1 set and I am spent!

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  5. Keep at it! I know you are very diligent about your gym sessions. Once you get one, two will come soon!

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  6. Replies
    1. (That's a high compliment, btw!)

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    2. Oh don't worry I take it as a compliment! (As long as you were referring to the pull ups and not the hairy legs!)

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  7. Congrats on your pull up PR! I can't even do one (I have very weak arms) so I can't imagine doing six! That's awesome!!!!

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  8. WooHoo!! 6 unassisted pull-ups is awesome!!! Great job!

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  9. INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!! That is so awesome!!!!!!!

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