But I did. These guys have been a great help and encouragement through some tough times for me and they probably don't even realize it. - Pagangoddess
We both went through 6 weeks of the beginner version of "truth about 6 packs abs" and she has built a strong enough core to do deadlifts and squats.. I've found ways to make her do inverted rows, which was my problem last week(with knee bent and flat feet, she got 4 reps)
But she has a problem holding on to bars in a high intensity pulling movement, like deadlifts and pull/chins.
The problem is, about 4 months ago a dog bit her hand and she need to stitch her fingertips afterwards, the wounds are pretty deep, and she always uses gloves and straps when doing deadlifts, which now she says doesn't hurt her fingertips as much as without straps.
Now, it's a problem making her do chins/pulls, she couldn't bear the weight of her own body (abt 150lb), the pain is on the fingertips with stitch marks on them, and those fingers only.
I've tried using rack chins, putting her feet on a chair, and let her lift up half her body, but she also says that her stitched fingers hurts when hanging and trying to pull, but she could admit that if they didn't hurt, she should at least be able to do 1 or 2 reps in that position.
I even told her to try and hold herself hanging on a pullup position for 10 secs, and she can barely stand 4, not the strength, she says her fingers are killing her... now I don't know if this is merely a "fear" based pain, because she once deadlifts 70kgs like 8 reps with straps on, and never once complained about her fingers, but last week she tried to deadlift 40kgs without straps, (half-gloves only)
and later at night, I saw that she can pull some skin off her stitched fingers, they're tiny, but enough to make me to tell her to use straps for DLs.
Is there a sub for pull/chins? or is there another way I can do it? I currently tell her to do lat pull downs at 3xF to sub chins, with straps too... she can do like 4 reps on 8 plates (idk what the weight is, maybe about 10lb each?). But I've read the FAQ and understands that it cannot be the subs for pullups, I'm at lost here guys.
Oh, and I'm not sure whether her form on the OHP is correct or not, she's struggling at 22,5 kgs currently, and the video on stronglifts.com isn't very clear for me, any link for a good form OHP? and btw, my girlfriend cannot hold a bar with her wrists streched out like at front squat position, she says it hurts, Idk where, but she usually uses the crossed hand position if doing front squats in the past.
Thanks a lot.
Marcel.
