Over the Bar

One of my first goals in Crossfit was to be able to do pull-ups. I had seen videos of women doing them and then saw women in my gym doing them. From the start, I always had the feeling that I could do them too with consistent effort. Like most, I started working on them with bands, but tried to use the lightest band possible even though that meant fewer reps at a time. I took every opportunity at the gym to practice, as well as on a pull-up bar at home. After about nine months or a year, I had a few unassisted chin-ups and a pull-up or two. I was so proud to be able to get my chin over a bar. It became one of my most cherished accomplishments.

Having reached that initial milestone, I fell in love with the bar. It became like a magnet. It felt like the air was better above than beneath, and I could not resist wanting to breathe it in. I continued to increase my reps, and also to add in mixed grips, one handed hangs, L-sit hangs, and even an L-sit pull-up or two. But then, I wanted to be able to do kipping pull-ups in order to handle the number of reps needed for most WODs. My first attempts weren’t particularly successful and I was getting a bit frustrated since I felt that it was not a matter of strength but problems with technique. So I scheduled an individual session with one of my coaches and we discussed a number of areas where I needed to improve, including kipping pull-ups. During that session, my coach and I went to the bar. He reviewed kipping basics with me and gave me some pointers. A few minutes later I had my first kipping pull-up. I was ecstatic.

But one kipping pull-up doesn’t get you very far, so more work followed. And more work continues, i.e. chest-to-bars, weighed chin-ups and pull ups, and more and more reps of everything. My latest infatuation is pull-ups on the rings, mostly because I know where that leads. I have seen women in videos doing strict muscle-ups on the rings. I feel like I could do them too with consistent effort. And I imagine that the air is even sweeter above the rings than anything I have ever breathed before.