The other box contained the chin-up bar, which I also ordered. The chin-up bar represents my first setback in my P90Xploits. First, obviously, is the assembly. It never fails, but whenever I have to assemble something according to the pict-o-gram instructions, I always feel like an inept buffoon hunkered down on the floor, trying to imagine the way it's supposed to go together without it falling apart as I'm trying to get the holes lined up and the screws in place. Finally it was together.
The chin-up bar is one of those doorway contraptions that locks itself into place against a door frame with the aid of gravity, and with the further aid of the weight of a human body. Or, okay, a dog's body, if one could figure out how to train a dog to do chin-ups. With my new chin-up bar freshly assembled, I looked for the ideal doorway in my apartment in which to dangle helplessly while I try to move my weight in any direction that isn't sideways or down.
And?
There isn't one. The chin-up bar is designed to fit doorways up to 36 inches wide. Those in my apartment are, on average, 32 inches. But the kicker is that Every. Single. Damn. Doorway. is butted up against a wall on one side of the door frame or the other, and the chin-up bar doesn't fit in the center, or securely, in any of them.
Well, except one. In the half-bath. At the absolute farthest point in my apartment away from the TV. In the only doorway in my apartment without line-of-sight to the TV.
Once I found where I could do chin-ups, I positioned the bar in the door frame and dangled from it to make sure my assembly was sound (too soon to tell), and to make sure that my weight dangling there wouldn't crack the door frame or cause the apartment building to fracture and crumble to the ground, killing all of the tenants around me...because that would be embarrassing.
And you know what? I did a chin-up! I mean, yeah, wow, so what! But I couldn't do ANY chin-ups while I was working out with George, and I was at my strongest and fittest ever in my life! It was the most frustrating part of my time at Push Fitness. Granted, he had me try them in the middle of my workouts, and maybe I was a little fatigued. And, at my height, I started with my feet on the ground and my arms already about one-quarter bent. But still, I pulled, and I went up! I don't remember the last time I did that. I think I was 17!
The pesky chin-up bar in place.
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