{"id":465,"date":"2008-07-08T20:07:47","date_gmt":"2008-07-09T01:07:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artofmanliness.com\/?p=465"},"modified":"2021-06-01T12:47:59","modified_gmt":"2021-06-01T17:47:59","slug":"pull-ups-fitness-routine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/health-fitness\/fitness\/pull-ups-fitness-routine\/","title":{"rendered":"Do More Than One Stinking Pull-Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Man<\/a><\/p>\n

I’m still haunted by my 6th<\/sup> grade gym class. At the beginning of the semester, all the students took part in a physical fitness test. Part of the test included a visit to the old chin-up bar. I remember standing in line nervously knowing I was about to embarrass myself. You see, I was a fat kid. My mom tried to tell me I was big boned (God bless you, Mom), but I knew I was fat. And looking at that bar, I knew there was no way I was going to be able to pull up my pudgy 160-pound body with my wimpy 11-year-old arms.<\/p>\n

I watched all the skinny kids bust out pull-ups like they were nothing. \u201cYeah,” I thought, \u201cpull-ups are easy when you only weigh 75 pounds.” Maybe God was trying to humble me that day because the person right in front of me in line was a girl. Not only that, she was a prepubescent athletic machine. I stood and watched her crank out pull-up after pull-up. I lost count of how many she did.<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay, McKay,” the coach said, \u201cyou’re up.”<\/p>\n

I summoned all the positive thinking I could at that moment. I convinced myself that I could actually bust out 4 or 5 pull-ups. With my newfound confidence, I jumped and grabbed the bar. It was over before it even started. I put up a good fight, but gravity and my fat middle school body beat me that day. I couldn’t even do one stinking pull-up.<\/p>\n

Ever since then, I’ve made it a goal in life to be able to do pull-ups. Lots of them. To me, the pull-up represents the ultimate test in fitness.<\/p>\n