This is a really good point.^^ Overcoming the psychological hurdles can be tough in any sort of exercise. I had a coach once who had me imagine the weights I was lifting were much lighter, and it helped. Amazing how many of the difficult things are imaginary. :bang:
Pull ups have a huge mental aspect. Everything has been said really, do them daily, anytime you set foot in the gym you'd damned we'll better be doing them before you leave. Mixing grips up can be a good idea to avoid overuse injuries but not essential, I doubt ero or any of the others in bootcamp had that luxury. Also ero et al: chuckled at some of your stories, thanks
I found assisted pullups (by having a chair behind me with the top of my feet resting on it and knees on the floor as the starting position) helped me get from 0 standard pullups to reps of 5 at a time without the chair. It definately helped build up to it. Maybe not much but it did help me improve to the point I found myself the only Dad playing on the monkey bars when I was at the park with my kids...and I couldn't play on them when I was a kid!
Proper form helps a lot too. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XLFjNpxphV0&desktop_uri=/watch?v=XLFjNpxphV0
I can easily do 10 pullups with good form...from there I fail miserabley. In the gym there is a Pullup machine where you rest your knees on a plate and theres a pulley system but I find it helps too much. A stool/chair underneath you to help "spotting" but I tend to only use it when I get stuck halfway through the last rep
Thanks for all the advice guys, feels good to know im not the only one who struggles with them . I did 5 sets of only 2 reps at the gym yesterday but i did proper form with no assistance or swinging or launching myself up so its a start, i have a pull up bar at home too so im going to start doing them daily to see what improvements i can make.
I used to be too fat/weak to do ANY properly. However, I have discovered that I am now able to do them. I put this down to the following factors: 1) Losing a bit of weight 2) My other lifts on Starting Strength helping out indirectly 3) Breathing properly I can only do 2-3 at a time, but at least now I can actually do them unassisted, which is a start. OP, I think you (and I) just need to keep doing them and we will get there eventually.
Ero-Sennin posted some great advice about doing few but often throughout the day. It's a method of volume training called 'Grease the Groove' (Google it).
