I think fitness videos make things look far too easy. Even when something hard is being performed, the person doing it is clearly doing something that they have practiced many times. 

While the video is an attempt at simplifying things, there is nothing simple about acquiring the skill. It’s going to take months of trying and gradually improving to get better at it. And then you spend months trying to get good at it. And you might move on to another skill. 

The video below is a glance of a client who is a few months into the painstaking process of learning to do a pull up. 

Inverted rowing (the second exercise) is also a crucial step to build capacity to do pull ups. Inverted rows are horizontal pulling. You are dealing with less load than you would be on a pull up. And the row also puts the upper back to work in a different way than pull ups.

Takeaway

It takes a fair bit of time, energy and effort to acquire the skill to do certain things. Strength training is practically a sport. It is a controlled, thought-out way to acquire skill and strength. The beauty of it is the ability to avoid overuse of a few patterns and some semblance of symmetry in acquiring strength unlike most sports.