I suppose that title is stating the obvious really…but shhh!

I suppose the more accurate term for these would be lower downs, but it doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as well and sounds less hard than it is.

and you never want to make an exercise sound easier than it is, how are you ever going to impress people with your amazing powers if you do that!

Ok…that is probably not the reason people do negative pull ups…

impressing people with…”I can jump up and lower myself down again really (or quite in my case) slowly” does not sound that likely…

But they should be impressed because it is really hard!

The idea is (or this is the way I do it) jump (and pull) up into a pulled up position, or as close to it as you can get with out banging your head on the kitchen doorway. Then as slowly as you can, control your descent back to the floor / a full hang.

this is how military fitness puts it…click for more info

I didn’t actually hold myself in flexed am hold (which I am assuming is the up position) for 10s…I managed about 1s but it is a start!

I am working on the principle that if I alternate these with assisted pull ups, one day, I might actually be able to do a real genuine pull up! but probably not one day soon!

anyway, this wasn’t the only thing I did on Tuesday evening, I set myself a couple of circuits designed around kettlebells, leg strength and shoulder strength:

Circuit 1 (repeat 3 times, no stopping between circuits)
10 x double handed kettlebell swing
5 (per arm) x kettlebell clean and press
5 (per arm) x kettlebell snatch

Circuit 2 (repeat twice)
10 x squat
5 (per leg) trx assisted pistol squat
5 (per leg) trx lunge thingy

Circuit 3 (repeat twice)
5 x negative pull up (once overhand once underhand grip just to see what the difference was)
5 x pike press up (once set on the trx , once set not as trx made it really really hard!)

After all that I decided a nice relaxing lie down was in order…on my foam roller…It turned out not to be that relaxing, but good in the long run!

Day 292 complete 😀