Push Ups and Pull Ups

[Alastar Eridani]

My greatest enemy and yet I wish to conquer them!

 

I've never been able to do a pull up. I weigh roughly 200 pounds, so that's no small task to lift. I have a standard doorway pull up bar. A couple months ago I just started to hang myself from it and dangle. At first, it hurt my hands like heck. I was surprised at this but realized 200 pounds was a lot to spread out on the surface of my hands too. Gradually, the hand pain got better. The muscles in my back and shoulders got stronger. Instead of just hanging stiff for five or ten seconds, I could swing a little bit and lift my body up to where my elbows were bent at about a 140 degree angle (as opposed to 180). Just a couple days ago, I started using a chair to balance myself and help pull myself up.

 

My Pull Up question : Are the chair assisted pull ups effective for graduating to an unaided pull up?

 

I've never been amazing at push ups. I've been told to do the girly ones (knees down) but I can do about 100 of those before I need a break. As for push ups, I can do about two with impeccable form, and then all goes south in the form department.

 

Question 1 : Should I continue doing the two-three greatly formed push ups, listening to my body when it can do four, ten, twenty, and so on?

 

Question 2 : Is there a middle ground exercise between knee push ups and genuine push ups that I am missing in order to help prepare myself for actual push ups?

 

In the midst of all this my sit up form is great. Thanks for responses!

[CalvinHobbes]

I think these articles by Steve will answer your questions, here's one for push-ups and one for pull-ups.

[Alastar Eridani]

Thank you lots!<3