[kenneth]

I haven't been on this site in quite some time. But in the past, the people here have always been extremely helpful.

I have fallen out of the fitness world for about a year, due to many personal problems, and injuries. Right now I'm trying to get back into the weight lifting world. When I had stopped, I was in the middle of steady progression with the 5x5 program. I'd go right back to using that since I've had so much success with it in the past, but I had a knee injury and it still doesn't feel 100%, so I don't want to risk re-injurying it with all those squats. Obviously if I can't squat, I sure as hell can't do the 5 x 5, hell it's going to be tough to progress with anything until I feel my knee is ready to squat again.

Aside from the knee injury that is keeping me from squatting, I have lost tremendous strength where pullups are concerned. Sadly, and surprisingly, the last few times I did pullups I was only able to do 2 full reps. That's with a shoulder width grip. My question is, does anyone know of a substitute for pullups that is actually worthwhile? I don't see how I'm going to progress when I'm only capable of doing 2 lousy pullups right now. I need something that will work on strengthening my pullup ability without actually doing pullups, unless you guys think I can actually start with 2 reps and slowly build up using legit pullups.

I'm coming back into the game really slow for a few weeks, I don't intent on getting hardcore for about 3-4 weeks of training. I've really fallen apart over the past year, my current stats are 5'11, 182.5 pounds, with a disgusting 22.3% bodyfat. Hell, I'm not sure if I want to concentrate on putting some muscle mass back on, or burning away some fat first. That may be a coin flip. I started back up a week ago and made a weight lifting plan based on single factor training, for now. Any opinions on whether I should worry about burning off some bodyfat first, or bulking up a bit first would be appreciated. I'm kinda leaning towards knocking off like 4-5% bodyfat before I worry about strength and size, mostly because after I knock off a few %'s, obviously in turn that will help solve my problem of not being able to do pullups.

If my post is long winded, I apologize, but usually it's hard for people to give good advice without a solid backround on the person, and hard to receive legit advice if the person giving it does not have enough information.

Any and all responses are highly appreciated!

Ken