[alfonsodev]

Actually, I was stuck for years, not being able to do a single pull-up, until I found a youtube video that explained how to progress in pull ups[1] The way was counterintuitive to me, so it would have never occurred to me.

The method consists in actually jumping, skipping the hardest part, then when being on top with the head above the bar, you let your body fall as slowly as you can. It turns out this works because in the eccentric phase your arm muscles are more powerful, but you are still able to progress overall.

The advice I would give is, as you said, embrace confusion but pay attention to where is your next mentor, the one that will show you that little trick or that little piece of understanding that will get you progressing.

[1](spanish)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQxbnI3QFBE

[52-6F-62]

Another way is to work negatively. So in a sense you do a pull up by doing a reverse pull up— that is you start at the top of the pull us and lower yourself as slowly as possible (like in you’re method). Just rather than pulling yourself up you just jump yourself or step up to the top. After so many sessions of that you’ll be doing them without much difficulty.

I’ve found in learning the process can be similar. If I don’t understand something I can only read so much and study so much. I have to get my hands into it. I will pull down a codebase, run it, change it, break it, fix it, try and emulate it from first principles and contrast that with my reading and repeat. The best way I’ve found so far is to couple that with bottom up learning— working and reworking the fundamentals as I capitulate and bounce off the walls of reverse engineering and experimenting. I can’t confirm the benefits of that for anybody else but it works for me and keeps me interested

[__blockcipher__]

Uh, isn’t that exactly what the parent comment just said? It sounded to me like they were doing negatives.

[52-6F-62]

Not to me. But granted— they linked a video displaying supine form whereas I assumed, without watching, they'd shown wide pronate. The latter form is notoriously difficult and I felt like detailing further would be helpful.

The quickest example I could find (of pronate form) is this guy, (but he's right): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLXn2OtQmxo

Wanted to add, off topic but for interested parties of the digression, a good resource— Scott.. from Boston? never checked. But he's pretty good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MogM8PlV1NI

[praptak]

You get the fastest progress if you start the exercise with a weight that you can actually lift a few times in a row. Fortunately there is a way to decrease your effective weight when doing pull-ups - tie a resistance band on the pull-up bar and rest your knee against the bottom part of the loop. Start with a heavy resistance band and progress towards light and finally none.