I hate to say it…all of the pull-up advice on this sub is 100% correct

[ashleye23]

@llewyllen Thank you!!

If it helps at all, when I would do them at the gym (I’m also way shorter than the bar there) I would use a band to do the “assisted” pull up until I got to the top, and then I would kick off the band and do the negative.

 

[msucatfan]

@ashleye23 That’s a great idea! I pulled an ab muscle jumping up to do my negatives. Now I’m a little set back, but still working on it.

 

[llewyllen]

@ashleye23 Oh my gosh, that never occurred to me! I’m trying that immediately, thank you!

 

[ashleye23]

@llewyllen Good luck! Yeah it always made me giggle because if you get a thick band, it kind of shoots you up to the top of the bar and then you just have this slow, mildly humiliating drop to the bottom as you do the negative. But it works!

 

[mirager]

@ashleye23 Lol nothing like that line between happiness at your results and saltiness that what others said working like a charm .

Congrats!

 

[ashleye23]

@mirager I’m so mad that everyone was right!

I had so many reasons I was telling myself I just couldn’t do one — didn’t lift heavy enough, hands too small, weight was too much. But it turns out all of those reasons were wrong.

Feeling the accessory muscles in my arms get sore as I practiced made me realize that there’s some muscles you can really only “work” in a hanging position.