In order for you to get your chin over the bar, i always prefer chest over the bar because i am able to engage my back even more,  there are of course some prerequisites for you to have just for safety sake before moving on to some progression.  I'm not saying don't take risk I'm saying that getting injured is a pain so here are 3 most important ones.

No injuries:
If you do have shoulder pain, back pain or any joint problem especially the elbow its best for you to address the pain! Never my friend let pain decrease your performance as a human being.

Healthy weight and slightly lean:
If you have excess fat, I suggest you focus on a different goals first because trust me pull up is already hard for moderately strong people, having excess weight means you have to work extra harder, its science. I’m not bursting your bubble, you can attempt to get a pull up but its not going to get easy without a certain degree of leanness also extra weight means extra pressure on your joints.

Willing to work for it:
Your not going to get it in one day, therefore keep going until you do if its your goal. 


So here are some progression.

its not a reverse pull up, you should do lat pulldown for a while to develop a basic level of strength in your lats and biceps that will help you with pull-ups down, if your overweight, its best to begin with this for safety , also it teaches you to engage the posterior muscle.

So want to try something more challenging? grab a box and jump up on a pull up bar and slowly lowering yourself down, best to count down to 5 second, do as many as you can until you cannot control your movement because its very demanding,you do want to look after your joints . This was the bulk of pull up practice i did everyday because i couldn't afford bands and there's not many fancy gadgets then!

Today I bump with my very first gym instructor in my gym that I came across when I was 16, back in the days when I got curious about exercises and what others was doing, I kept all my question to my gym instructor, though most of his answers was very straightforward that I thought I already know, I guess I just wanted to hear a magic exercise or a magic repetition to get a certain result.

 I always wanted to do pull ups! I would see all the massive dragonboaters performing them in the gym and I wanted to do just 1! Basically I just wanted to be the first girl in the gym to do a pull up, I’m competitive like that.

Its all hard work that is also why you don’t see many people using the pull up bar but just isolating their upper body to appear more cut or whatever they call it and many of this ripped guys, not all but many cant string 10 proper pull up.

One of the best back exercise along side with heavy deadlifts and row the pull ups are said to be the foundation of a solid back program and hey your bicep would get some work too while pulling yourself up!

According to fat loss expert, let me just quote him :

“Josh Hillis notes that a woman who can do three pull-ups and three dips almost always has her bodyfat issues locked down. Strength in this movement seems to have an odd correlation with a woman being “rockstar fit”, as Josh says.”

 
So will you lose fat while doing pull ups? Most definitely, they are so physically demanding that it requires the effort of the entire body, your core and even your butt is engage when pulling yourself up!

Will you get strongers? If you can bench a decent amount of weight but you cant crank 1 pull up, then you need to readjust your programing unless of course if you are a power lifter. Balancing the amount of pulling and pushing exercise is essential to prevent any injury of the shoulder.

The best thing I love about pull ups, it take so little time to hit so many major muscle of the upper body plus a girl who could do pull up in the gym is always a badass and guys it’s a requirement in the army need I say more.

 

So stay up for part 2 and tips on getting your very first pull up!


photo credit :DS SAY / LEE (FITBODYASIA) 

There's no shortcuts to weight loss, some people lose weight just by taking the stairs everyday and some change their entire lifestyle, but at the end of the day if you can create a calorie deficit on a daily basis, simply put it if your activity outweigh what you consume, lets not go in depth on how different food secretes different type of hormones that increase fat burning blah blah blah.

This 3 tips can be practice year round that have work for me in keeping a healthy weight and maintaining my muscle mass ( this my friend is very important) once you start lifting weight your body becomes a furnace, it burns more fats throughout the day even when your not doing anything, your muscles are helping you burn your fats.

Drink when your thirsty, drink a gallon a day, whatever work for you just make sure you drink up, it keep you full, helps you with your digestion and your body is mainly made up of water.

Every month i would do a food log sheet and save it on my desktop and at night before i sleep i would type every single thing that went in my mouth, some days i would notice that i have eaten more than required some days i could do with more food, therefore writing it down and seeing exactly what i eat help with making tomorrow better and being more cautious with what i am allergic too. 

I am never hungry because i travel with snacks every where i go! i have a protein bar and a bag of nuts , if i have a little more time i would pack some eggs with me! but the idea of having a snack is never keeping your body from starvation because you would eat way more during your next meal to fill the void, never deprive yourself from food, listen to your body if its hungry, feed it even if its 10pm i would eat nuts, yes its calories but i care for my well being and i never want to be HANGRY(angry because i am hungry)