LoA - Prior Service

[tkdtn50]

Good morning/afternoon,

Back in late-September, my family back home received a Letter of Assurance, stating I will be officially appointed to the Class of 2020 contingent upon my Candidate Fitness Qualification, and I was as well as given a specific hard date for the result to be submitted by. At the moment, I'm still working working on improving my pull-ups. Any tips on improving my pull-ups in a very short period of time? I've been practicing it for months and I finally got to improve from doing just 3 to 7-8.

 

[frenzymando]

Take a big breath before the first one and then exhale as you pull yourself up and inhale on the way down. Breath rhythmically not erratically.

 

[WannabeGonnabe]

I got this set from Stew Smith's articles online and it's helped me a lot. I do it every other day or so.

1-7-1 pull up pyramid:
1 pull up
Rest (try to keep under 30sec or so)
2 pull ups
Etc.
(1-2-3-4-5-6-7-6-5-4-3-2-1)

When I first started I could only do maybe 3 or so pull-ups, so I did 2x1-3-1 pyramids then increased over time.

Other tips:
Look up scapular pull-ups. These will help with shoulder stability and form, making sure you're activating all your back muscles too.

Controlled drop on the down during the test. Gravity is your friend!

Grip/forearm exercises were my biggest obstacle. I could do pull-ups but hanging onto the bar long enough to do the pull-ups was hard. I fixed this by doing flexed arm hangs-about 3 for as long as I could, with a minute or so rest in between.

Hope something in there helps! Good luck!