PULL

 The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about primal movements and our ancestral predecessors is climbing trees. Though it is a combination of different movement patterns, the emphasis will be on pulling. You use a combination of of muscles in your upper body to lift, or pull yourself up the tree. As many people get older, they have to rely on their pulling muscles more and more to even do simple things like standing up out of a chair (as sad as that is to say). Without proper attention to pulling movements, We cut our ability to do a lot with our lives. A short list of activities that I do on a regular basis includes (but not limited to): Water skiing, rock climbing, using my girlfriend's pulley system to raise and lower her SUP, stand up paddling, tug-of-war, pulling hose, rearranging the garage, moving furniture, even playing with the dogs to name a few. If you start to add your family's activities to the mix, then there are even more activities that you're throwing yourself into. 

One thing that I did to start improving my pulling strength was add pull ups, lots of them! I try to do pull ups every day, even if it is just a few. Start out by working towards 5 consecutive pull ups for 5 sets. You want to take roughly 45 seconds to 60 seconds of rest in between sets. Don't stress too much if things don't go the way you want them to the first time you do pull ups. They are really hard! I think the most I could do when I first started was a whopping 1.5 reps. I was embarrassed that I couldn't even lift my body weight. Just stick to them, do them religiously, and eventually you will build the strength to add them as a staple exercise. 

Another pulling exercise you can try if pull ups are too difficult is a resistance band row from a handrail or door, really anything that will allow you to attach a resistance band to a fixed point. To conduct the exercise, you start with your arms extended, but not so much that your shoulder blades protract. You want your shoulder blades to be engaged and almost pinching together throughout the duration of the exercise. You can do this by trying to lift your chest towards the sky or the ceiling. The movement begins by the contraction of the shoulder blades then pulling the handles of the bands towards the armpits. This will ensure that you are using your back to pull the resistance, and not your arms. Start with 10 reps and work your way up to doing 20-25 reps for muscle endurance. If you  An easy trick to start increasing difficulty will be to hold your body perpendicular to gravity, i.e the closer to parallel to the ground you are, the harder the exercise will be.