@pablob Because you weren't just fat, you were also weak. What you consider weightlifting is probably very off the mark. How much can you deadlift?
Contrary to what others are saying, it's not the long arms. You should be able to do at least one pull-up as a dude at that weight, no matter the arm length.
@pablob I recommend you do band assisted pull-ups and eccentric pull-ups. In Calisthenics when an exercise is too hard, you can do the movement in reverse and work on the eccentric part of the movement until you get strong enough to actually do the movement in question or a progression of it. To work on the eccentric part of a pull-up, you get on a bench or anything high enough so your eyes are facing the bar. After that, you grip the bar about shoulder width (I prefer 1.5x) and you try to hold yourself as much as possible during the time you are going down (4-7sec is ideal).
@pablob There’s a different kind of strength that’s required for bodyweight exercises. Relative strength is a measure of how strong you are in relation to your bodyweight (push ups, pull ups, etc.) Maximum strength is a measure of how much force your muscles can exert in a given movement (barbell squat, bench press, etc.) Both bodyweight and weighted exercises can have strength carry-overs for each other but it’ll never be super significant. If your goal is to do a pull up, then you need to practice actually doing pull ups. I’d recommend picking a pull up variation that’s suitable to your level and working your way up through progressions, and you can supplement this with other weighted exercises to assist if you want (but it’s not required). Start small and get comfortable just hanging with your bodyweight on the bar. Then you can move on to harder exercises like scapula pull ups, pull up negatives, band-assisted pull ups, etc. As long as you put in the work and make sure to get enough rest, you’ll definitely see results. Hope this helps my guy
