161–170 of 219 posts
I used eccentric muscle contractions to gain enough strength to do pull-ups when I was too weak to do even one. I stood on a chair to get into the top position, then lowered myself as slowly as I could. The exercise was effective, and after a few weeks I could do full pull-ups without the chair.
I’m going to re-add eccentric focused movements back into my pull-up routine.
As is often the case with these sorts of studies, I'd be wary of over-extrapolating. The study specifically looked at the dumbbell curl only among untrained individuals. If you did a similar study on trained individuals, or on a compound movement like a squat or a bench press, I'd expect to see different results. (In fact, it's effectively impossible to only perform the eccentric portion of a squat or a bench press u…
Maybe if you are alone, but you could easily get spotted for a bench press and put low effort into raising the bar each rep.
Has anyone else had a complete lack of success with any kind of weight lifting? I find that whenever I try to lift, it starts well, but after a few weeks, the amount I can lift over time begins to decrease and I start getting pain in my tendons. I've tried low reps low weight, high reps low weight, 1 day a week 3 days a week, etc. had my form checked by a personal trainer and there doesn't seem to be any obvious reas…
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I'm in the process of doing that right now. It goes away surprisingly quickly. I'm finding that rebuilding grip strength is crucial
It also comes back surprisingly quickly, unless it's been decades.
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For good climbing, I'd have thought you need to be able to do muscle-ups (pullups that end with you balanced over the bar, pushing down to support yourself).
Climbing is less about upper body muscle and more about body positioning and squats, actually. Your legs have more muscles than your arms, and being super buff limits necessary flexibility to perform maneuvers like swinging your foot up on a perch and pulling up with your leg, often more effective than the same maneuver with an arm.
How effective are push-ups as an average Joe's muscle exercise?
Lot of a average Joe's can't do them. I'm probably in good company to say you really only need 6 exercises. From light to heavy: Chinups, Shoulder press, Rows, Bench, Squat, Deadlift Or, roughly, in calisthenics: Chins, shoulder push-ups, pull-ups, push-ups, squat, sit-ups. Probably the most useful of these movements is deadlift, nothing will make throwing office furniture around more fun than the strength you can tr…
As is often the case with these sorts of studies, I'd be wary of over-extrapolating. The study specifically looked at the dumbbell curl only among untrained individuals. If you did a similar study on trained individuals, or on a compound movement like a squat or a bench press, I'd expect to see different results. (In fact, it's effectively impossible to only perform the eccentric portion of a squat or a bench press u…
That’s true for all movements, unless someone is resetting it for you. If you don’t move the weight to the top, you can’t lower it again.
I used eccentric muscle contractions to gain enough strength to do pull-ups when I was too weak to do even one. I stood on a chair to get into the top position, then lowered myself as slowly as I could. The exercise was effective, and after a few weeks I could do full pull-ups without the chair.
I assume this works for push-ups too? Lower yourself then reset and lower again? That’s amazing. I guess it makes sense. If the research in the article holds true this makes strength building much simpler and a lot less grueling.
Has anyone else had a complete lack of success with any kind of weight lifting? I find that whenever I try to lift, it starts well, but after a few weeks, the amount I can lift over time begins to decrease and I start getting pain in my tendons. I've tried low reps low weight, high reps low weight, 1 day a week 3 days a week, etc. had my form checked by a personal trainer and there doesn't seem to be any obvious reas…
That is the case if you don't give your body enough resources (food, rest) to recover from training. Your tendon problem reminds me of my own tendons :) They just need more time to recover and adapt and are the first thing to "break". For my wife its the opposite. Never ever has she had any problems with her tendons, but other things in her legs give her regular trouble. The muscle is really the most forgiving part of the machinery.
And it does not matter if others have no problems with the same stuff that you do. People are horribly different and the majority of the result is predetermined by genetics. You can't even out-PED genetics.
Source: We have both been competing in powerlifting on the national level (ok, Switzerland is small and everyone competes on the national level) for a couple of years now