Yesterday I had one of those aha moments that’s hard to explain unless you’ve been chasing a skill for a long time. For the first time, at 62, I felt my lats fire up and do most of the work in a pull-up, the way they’re supposed to.
I started training for pull-ups at 60, basically just hanging from the bar. I was coming out of a partially torn rotator cuff.
Over the past two years, I’ve had to dial things back more than once to avoid messing up my shoulder again. Then I had to work around and recover from lifter’s elbow, which came from too much overhead lifting in BodyPump class. So progress has not been a straight line.
I could do pull-ups before yesterday, but I’d bring my knees up into my chest and help myself that way. Yesterday I got 3.5 without doing that. For the first time, I truly understood and felt what it means to pull with my back.
The strength was already there. I just didn’t know how to access it. I knew it in theory, but I hadn’t felt it. Like standing in front of a door with the key in my hand, but not knowing how to unlock it. And then, suddenly, I did.
My next goal is 5 pull-ups. For the first time, that feels less like wishful thinking and more like something I can actually get to.
It made me think about how often this happens in life, too. We keep working at something, adjusting, getting frustrated, backing off, trying again… and then one day something clicks.
Have you ever had that happen? With Exercise, work, creativity, Relationships, anything?
#pullups #pullupsafter60 #thisis62
