My knight in shining armor jokes all the time about how I couldn’t pass The President’s Challenge Physical Fitness Test. Ok, so he’s right. However, in my defense I couldn’t do them when I was a child either. I don’t know if you remember having to do “The Mile” in gym class. I always walked it. Or else the shuttle run, that I dislocated my kneecap doing in 8th grade (it got me out of having to do them again). The only one I was ever good at was the V-sit reach. Mostly because it didn’t require any athletic ability, only flexibility.

Well, I can do all of them now, except a pull-up. Some women think it doesn’t sound that hard and they can do it, but when was the last time you really tried? You might surprise yourself as they’re super difficult. For men it’s easy because they naturally have upper body strength. In March I declared that I would be able to one pull-up by my 30th birthday, on May 10th. At that point in time my knight didn’t even believe I could do a push-up, much less a pull-out. However, I’ve proven him wrong on that. Mostly. I still can’t touch my chin like he wants to, but I can do them. And not on my knees, like I’d like to be able to.

My 30th is now just over a month away and I’m realizing that may be a more far fetched goal than I’d hoped. Thankfully, there is a machine at the gym to help you learn how to do a pull-up. You put in the weight of resistance that you want. Now, it’s backwards to what you’d think. Let’s say if you weight 150 lbs, you might start with the machine at 150 lbs so that there’s no resistance  Then you gradually add less weight, which means that you’re lifting more of your weight rather than the machine doing it for you. So, you grab a hold of the bar at the top, stand on the platform (which lowers and makes you feel self-conscience), and then pull yourself up. It sounds simple, but it’s really not. I’m realizing how much of a wuss I am and that maybe my 31st birthday might be more realistic. I’ll keep you posted!