Fit Villains: Selfish, Shameless, Sassy, Fitness.

How does a woman get to be the world record holder for pullups?

By doing ONE at a time!

Crystal West is the reigning pullup queen. 36 consecutive pullups earned her that title (a video on her site shows her busting out 39 in the gym).

And the most amazing part? She started with 2. And she started in her late 30’s. And she had no other motivation except to do one more than she had done before.

Bad. Ass. Motivation.

Think about Crystal’s journey next time you feel like your workout bubble’s deflated! The only competition you have is with YOURSELF.

Crystal West, On Her Pullup Journey

I started trying to do pull-ups four years ago.  I was feeling lethargic and like I needed a new challenge and since I think I am an ATHLETE… I thought well, I will do wide grip pull-ups.  So, I went in expecting to knock out ten to fifteen..I did TWO ummmm…just barely..hmmm.. OOPS..

I was embarrassed and went home and was disappointed and thought about not doing them at all REALLY..but then I thought oh what the heck, what if I look whimpy? Who cares?  So, I went to the gym the next day and my plan was not  to use the assisted pull-up machine, although I do think this is a good way to get your strength up, but my plan was to ask someone for a spot.

It turns out, I am not kidding, I asked the meanest, crabbiest, most negative person I have ever met for a spot.  He looked at me and said why do you want to do pull-ups?  I said uhhhh I just do…he said snottily no one does pull-ups… I said well uhhh are you gonna spot me or not…so he did and it was a terrible spot and after that I told myself that I would keep doing pull-ups every other day until I could do ten in a row by myself.  I have the journals where I did three and then four and so on..  I am so competitive with myself that I would literally get nervous before I did them because I wanted to do better each time VERY BADLY (I know… it’s a personality defect:).  Long story short I did do ten and then by the time I could do 15 I realized I was above average at doing pull-ups, and then when I started looking up the pull-up routines for Olympic athletes and mine were more difficult,  I realized that I MIGHT BE BETTER THAN PRACTICALLY ANYBODY AT PULL-UPS….WHO KNEW. 

So, the moral of this story is you might be either better than you think you are, OR BETTER THAN ME….and you might train for two years and kick my ass.

By the way if this happens, I won’t complain if you are younger, I won’t complain you are a guy (if you are), I will give you a hug or a virtual hug and a high five and say doesn’t it feel awesome?  But then of course, I will train harder to try and crush you (competitively speaking) the next time around, nothing personal… :)