When I first joined the Marine Corps, I could barely do 1 pullup - on a good day. Up until that point, I had never really needed to. Even the PFT (Physical Fitness Test) standards didn't require women to do pullups at that time; we did the 'Flex Arm Hang'. (Looking back, I actually think hanging on a bar in a chin-up position for 75 seconds is worse than pumping out a few pullups.)
Prior to women being allowed in combat roles (2015), the USMC conducted an experiment to evaluate if women could perform in these military occupation specialties (MOS). Along with some other awesome women, I attended training at the Infantry Training Battalion. During this time at the School of Infantry (SOI), I had a particular Staff-Sergeant that changed my view of pullups forever. For SOI, the minimum requirement was 3 pullups - I barely did it. Later on in the course, my Staff-Sergeant asked me, "Do you know why women do the Flex Arm Hang instead of pullups?" I didn't. He said, "So they can hold themselves up until a man can come to help them."
From that day on, I had a reason to improve my pullups, but it was more that just being a "strong independent woman". I didn't want to be the weak link; it didn't matter if I was surrounded by men, women, or in any other capacity for that matter. As time went on and throughout my career, every PFT we took, I refused to do the Flex Arm Hang. In the beginning, I didn't get as many points, and I always scored a lower than if I had done the Flex Arm Hang. It was pretty ugly most of the time and painstakingly slow to improve - but I did. Over time, the female standards began to change and soon required pullups; I was already ahead of the game. I worked for nearly 3 years until I peaked on the PFT - 20 pullups.
Reaching that goal was frustrating, hard, embarrassing, and SLOW. I sucked at pullups. Actually, I've sucked at just about everything before I make a decision to get better. If I let these obstacles stop me, I might still be hanging on a bar waiting for someone to help me to this day.
Become comfortable being uncomfortable.
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