Three years ago I road-tripped to Southern California with my three sons for for what turned-out to be back-to-back Holiday vacations on the Muscle Beach(es) -Venice and Santa Monica. My two older boys wanted to see a well-known EDM DJ at a club in SF the night before, which was fine with me, they just needed to be ready to roll at 3am! Ha! They were ready, so we rolled down The 5.
Five hours later we landed and secured a prime parking spot just a block away from the beach. Absolutely perfect timing. Driving for long hours like that wreck havoc on my body, so I was thankful that I was near the beach and could recharge with some grounding and dipping into the cold Pacific waters...but first, basketball! Yes, 8am basketball on the hollowed courts of Venice Beach made famous by Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes in "White Men Can't Jump." I'm a bit of a basketball freak, so took my barely awake body to the edges of the court to see if I could borrow a ball to take some shots. A couple shots quickly turned into a 3 on 3 match-up. Now I was thick in the basketball pudding, launching 3's, distributing dimes and blocking-out for the rebounds. It was a tough match-up, but my rag-tag squad won out in the end. It was nice to know that this 50-something year old body could still hang with the 30 year olds. That being said, I was one and done. My body just wanting to relax a bit..feeling the long drive a bit more throughout my body.
We slowly strolled from Venice Beach to Santa Monica Beach. An amazing array of exercising options awaited. Pull-up bars, ropes to climb, swings, rings and monkey bars to brachiate on. While my boys played around, I took a seat under a palm tree and just took it all in. Thankful for the incredible weather deep into December. My eyes scanned the scene and I noticed a man in a bucket hat doing some very slow and controlled chin-ups on the monkey bars. He would do two or three, then rest for several minutes before repeating a few more times. It was then that I realized who this person was...it was Pavel!
Pavel (Tsatsouline) is the face of Russian Hardstyle Kettlebells in the United States. In 1998 Pavel introduced the ancient Russian strength and conditioning tool to the American public in his subversive article, Vodka, Pickle Juice, Kettlebell Lifting, and Other Russian Pastimes. The article was published by MILO, a magazine for tough hombres who bend steel and lift rocks. I got to learn from the best as he was present at my initial RKC certification in 2011, then next year at my EasyStrength cert in Reno and then the year after at my StrongFirst certification in Salt Lake City. Needless to say, while I'm his elder (ha!) it was great to cross paths with him on that day and introduce him to my sons.
What Pavel was doing that day on the monkey bars, was "greasing the groove." You'll hear me say this phrase from time to time. It's the act of becoming intimate/practicing and having total control of every rep you take. You can practice this with squats, push-ups, pull-ups, pistol squats, etc. It's mindfully owning the movement and feeling where the weak linkages are in the pattern and firming those up. You keep the reps on the low end so that you can periodically do them all day long, without losing strength. By keeping the reps low your nerves become superconductors, so you're able to maintain your strength throughout the day, which translates into you getting stronger!
So, if you're having problems getting a push-up or your first pull-up. The the general rule of thumb is that you need to up the frequency as to how often you try. These kind of movements require a diligent practice. Try one at the end of each hour...instead of once every time you go to the gym. I think you'll notice that you're gonna make more progress if you increase the frequency of your attempts versus, "many at one time," approach.