The general consensus among my family is that there is something wrong with me. I woke up and i had a strong workout - and I just feel GOOD. No aches or pains. My allergies are ok. I have energy and I’m happy. My anxiety - which has been sky high the last 8-9 months - is very low. I have no idea why. I’m certainly not at ease with the state of the union or pandemic. But for some reason it’s not bothering me as deeply today. I have no idea what’s wrong with me, but I will take it and will enjoy it! 
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My daughter worked hard for an entire year to do a pull up. They are very difficult
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The way that I train people to do pull-ups is using resistance bands. You tie the resistance band around the pull-up bar and then fit your foot through bottom of the hanging resistance band. The thicker resistance bands will give you the biggest boost and the thinnest resistance bands will give the least boost.
You start pulling for one. You make attempts, maybe 5-10 attempts. Once your arms get stronger, then you’re shooting for 3-5+ sets of attempts and/or successes.
As the progressions become easier, you will hopefully go from the thick bands to the thin ones. And maybe not even need them once you’re able to get your first non-assisted pull-up.
The other thing that I’d do is practice just hanging from the bar. Might only be a couple seconds at first. I always hang from the bar to stretch everything out first. The hanging will also improve your grip, the strength in your fingers, etc.
Also, if you can access a lat pulldown machine, then that will help too.
Always make sure your shoulders and the muscles surrounding the shoulders are warmed up and stretched before starting.
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Yesterday I walked and tried new Fitness Blender, possibly the one @jackief does (?) - Daniel’s favorite back rehab/core.
Today I suited up for a 30 degree run. My son’s old Northface hiking shorts atop a pair of pocketless leggings ($4 from Walgreens a few years ago, end of season sale) worked great. By the end, it was warm enough to take off my ski hat and the headband under it.
New toy - progressive glasses/sunglasses, ordered last month to take advantage of my eyeplan benefit before year end. They were still a splurge ($115 copay), paid for from my HSA debit account. I have always avoided progressives since not good for driving, but these days I spend a lot more time running and hiking.
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Saturday morning soccer- 90 minutes, ~7K steps, 3 goals and at least 1 assist.
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@Colorado_mom I have worn prescription sunglasses (progressives) for years and almost always when I run.
I realized that my post above said that I ran .3 miles - I meant to type 7.3 miles. LOL.
Today’s plan is a treadmill run while streaming church service on TV than 261 group this afternoon.
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@Colorado_mom yes that “favorite back rehab/core” is the one I do with DH. Then he usually leaves and I do the “upper body strength for people who get bored easily” skipping the warm up and (this is bad) the cool down. So the 1.5 videos together are about an hour.
I’ve trying to get this in 3x/wk, sometimes in addition to a walk, sometimes instead of.
I also have progressive sunglasses which I love.
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I didn’t exercise much during the week, but I did 2 hours/34 on my bike yesterday, and I’ve already done one hour/17.? Miles this morning. I am now eating breakfast, then I plan to do another hour.
I did do some weights and stretching a night or two, and I rode at least an hour for 1 night, maybe 2. I’ve already failed at my “goal” of tracking my riding. I was hoping I could sync my bike to an app, but it’s not as easy as I was hoping. I will figure it out eventually.
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@1214mom you need to get yourself an Apple watch like you got your husband! I find it easy (after developing the habit) to lift my watch and “start” a tracking app just prior to starting my fitness activity.
There are also apps like RunKeeper (not just for running - I track my walking, cycling, strength training, etc.) on. It’s free and I can also set goals - I do 6 month goals - I like that because I can see some progress at the end of each exercise session (it shows for instance the % of your way to that fitness goal).
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I’m thinking about an Apple Watch as a retirement present. I am used to wearing very small faced watches, but people seem to love the Apple Watch (even my husband, who hates change, adjusted to it very quickly). I’m hoping COSTCO or somewhere has a sale soon.
Oh yeah - I came on to post that I got my other hour in, so 2 hours, over 34 miles. It’s noteworthy this morning because I barely slept last night. I will do some weights and stretching today also.
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We had about 4 inches of fluffy snow last night, but it had compressed to about 2 inches by the time I got out to the trail on cross country skis. It’s been many years since I used them… had to do a test run in back yard and retrain myself to get in and out of the bindings. Mostly they were used in 1980s, before kids - they are OLD but thankfully worked fine. My form was awful, but I sloowly did 2.6km and had a lot of fun.
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Today we did 4 miles of walking in 4 separate 1 mile chunks (to/from hair cut place and to/from dinner)
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I love living in a neighborhood with lots of good walking options. There are enough streets that I think we can do a different route just about every night.
Tonight, we did 3.8 miles. We tried to add little loop to get to 4 but mis-estimated
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Our neighborhood walkability score is 10 (of 100… car dependent). But I’m still glad to have places we can walk sometimes, including Walgreens and the supermarket and GreatClips and a few eating places a mile away. We should take advantage of it more, like @jmnva06 does.
If you are curious to check your address or elsewhere -
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My neighborhood is a walkability score of 39. Not bad.
Did one of the Fitness Blender videos this morning before work. More floor work than I like and I think I’d like some music next time - I’ll be trying some other ones along with Hasfit.
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My neighborhood has a walkscore of 23. I could walk to a cafe and pizza place, well if there wasn’t a pandemic going on, a couple small markets, a church, and a post office. All more than I had in my last house, so a big improvement. But the best part is I can walk to two beaches 0.3 and 0.4 miles away, and nice routes along the water. Here is the sunset from the other night when I got out later than usual for my walk.
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I know the city in general is low, but my neighborhood scored a 55. My area does have sidewalks and my street has a bike lane. But what can I really walk to? There is a shopping center 1/2 mile away. We occasionally walk there for a few groceries, but I don’t like the store. It’s dirty and blech. And while it’s been better the last couple of years, for awhile there were several shootings/murders there a year. And other than the grocery store, there’s a McDs, Subway, Dollar Store, and an ABC store, and vacancies. If I walk 2 miles each way downtown, I can get to a couple more restaurants. I might do it, but no way would H go for that.
All those good happy feelings from the weekend appear to be gone. My workouts are still the best part of my day though. Yesterday’s video was P90X chest and back. I’ve done better. I’ve done worse, but I was pretty tired. Today was Asylum’s Upper Elite - i.e. lots more push-ups! I was surprised I did OK with it. It was a lot of fun and the hour flew by.
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My neighborhood has a walkability score of zero. I love it here. We live in the woods, on the most-protected river on the east coast (they are STRICT!). I’ve walked and run many, many miles here over the years. 
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@jackief walking to a nearby beach is an enormous WIN in my book!!!
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My neighborhood has a score of 53 which feels about right
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