Mastering something can take time. In my case, it took me about 18 months to get to the point where I could do a set of 10 Lever Pull-ups.
I’m not a motivational speaker like Matsuoka Shuzo, but I would like to share this with you. When I first got P90X 2 I tried doing lever pull-ups, but they were impossible. I couldn’t even do a single one properly. Even though I could do regular pull-ups just fine, the levers were really tough because of the core strength they require.
But I kept at it. On and off. For 18 months. I couldn’t get my body horizontal, but I kept at it. As Tony Horton would say, just showing up is better than sitting on the couch eating potato chips. So I just kept practicing. Once a week. Doing those poor failed attempts at lever pull-ups.
I couldn’t tell, but every week I was getting just a little bit stronger. I don’t know when it happened, but one day after about 18 months I realized that I was actually able to do 1 good rep. Then a few weeks later I did 3 or 4 good reps. Then I think the very next week I was able to go to 10. Now I’ve gotten to the point where today I could go to the gym without any warmups and ask the attendant to take a video of me for this blog post.
I hope you realize that this post isn’t a humblebrag. I just want to share with you that sometimes some things can be really hard, but the same formula still holds: Practice, practice, practice until you get good at them. It may take you 18 months or longer, but if you stick to it, and don’t give up, you’ll get there.
See you tomorrow (for a wrap-up post).
This is the 30th of my 30 days posts.