The 2011 competition season was the longest one to date. The Open Sectionals started in March and for 7 weeks we competed on workouts to determine which individuals and teams would advance to the Regional competition. Due to the extremely strong women in our gym and the help of some strong men, our gym placed 17th in the region and qualified for the team competition.

There are a lot of people that struggle with getting their first pull-up. There are also a lot of people that have managed to get a kipping pull-up but still cannot manage a good strict pull-up. Kipping pull-ups are great but it is of utmost importance that strength be acquired in the connective tissues of the shoulder before we go swinging on the bars like monkeys. Although I have given a lot of general tips on how to get pull-ups, I figured I should come up with a more concrete plan. This is a little upper body strength program designed to get you from zero pull-ups to one pull-up in a short amount of time.

Instead of leaving everyone to their own devices, we are going to go ahead and formulate some resolutions for the gym en masse. As a group we stand a greater chance of successfully making positive changes in our life. If we are all working towards the same goals then we can help pull each other along.

You need to warm up. Period. A proper warm-up can increase the blood flow to the working muscle which results in decreased muscle stiffness, less risk of injury and improved performance. Additional benefits of warming up include physiological and psychological preparation.