Initially, I thought my pullup days were done. My last attempt to complete a pullup workout a year ago left me with crippling elbow pain after just three repetitions. In retrospect, it did not help that most of my days for 10 months were occupied by holding and rocking increasingly heavy babies multiple times per day, stressing out and building my elbows and biceps specifically, which grew to match my middle aged belly. Considering my health condition, I reluctantly and sadly resolved to cease practice of pullups, replacing them with kettlebell standing rows, which hardly matched half the intensity per repetition with a 70 pound bell.
During this sad time of illness, infection with latent TB, and overwork, I was challenged to match repetitions in deficit pushups with the director of my martial arts school. Since I would not be a man to decline the challenge of a man in his 60's, I have week by week expanding my deficit pushup numbers until I can now complete three slow sets of 20 comfortably, and can finish with a set of 30+. Interestingly, the low range of pushup develops much more than just the anterior pushing muscles of the chest, shoulders, and triceps. By lowering down slightly past the level of the hands, the traps, lats, biceps, and midsection are also greatly taxed by these deep pushups. My improving strength in my back and concern about muscle imbalance prompted me to include high repetition bodyweight rows under my desk at work, which have improved my grip strength as well as mass in the upper back and rear shoulders.
Yesterday, while at the park with my son, he climbed onto the play equipment and it occurred to me I should try to pull myself up using the play equipment. To my surprise and joy, I was able to easily pull my body up using the bars and elevate my chin above my hands provided I started by standing on the ground. Every time he stepped onto the equipment, I did another single repetition, totaling 11 pullups from a standing position over 45 minutes. This alone is not impressive, but I did this with ZERO elbow pain during or after the pullups, which was impossible last year. Now that I have overcome my inability to have a family, by having kids, I have also regained the pullup, which was once the cornerstone of my physical strength development. I will now ensure I keep the pullup against all odds. I took this ability back from death and I'll be keeping it for myself as long as possible while my kids grow, further shaming the bastard.
I also completed a full course of Rifampin. As I understand it, there is no way to know if I have sterilized TB from my system. So all I can do now is to monitor symptoms, avoid starvation, get adequate rest, support my immune function, and hope I'm not one of the 10% for whom the disease becomes active, or the 5% of active infections who slowly die from it.
