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.
Have you never done long eccentric phases? It’s the worst. Barring injuries, there’s no worse day after than the day after long eccentrics. DOMS for days!
Yeah I used to do a routine that was composed of very slow movement, so super slow push-ups. It was grueling.
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…
I'd like to see a study of people who do slowed negatives on deadlifts vs just barely controlling it on the way down.
Absolutely - I understand there are some practical reasons for doing it that way but I’m always surprised to see people wasting that lowering portion simply by dropping the weight. Serious control on the way down helps too!
Another way I think about it: the weight shouldn’t bounce on the floor. If it does, slow it down.
I'm in the process of doing that right now. It goes away surprisingly quickly. I'm finding that rebuilding grip strength is crucial
Are you gripping your thumb around the bar? I got to ~18 max set a few years back and found it much easier to go thumb in line with all your other fingers. Another tip is to train wide grip lat pull downs at a gym then do your pull ups with wide grip since it uses more back and less bicep (bigger vs smaller muscle). Last tip is don’t forget to breath :)
Definitely something you can integrate but the wide grip pull-up is less efficient even if it better isolates the back. Again, I’m not saying avoid it, but just that it’s not as much a compound exercise as a normal pull-up.
My rule of thumb is to stick with as much compound work as possible as it’s a more efficient use of time. Single arm isolated work as example is great, sure, but hardly makes use of other muscles in the time you have to perform a workout.
Another variation I use: neutral (palms face each other) grip pull up.
At the climbing gym body builders show up and they're more likely to be worse than the typical sunken chested beginner. Dancers, gymnasts, Martial artists, and calisthenics guys show up and tend to do pretty well at climbing straight out of the gate. They bothered to learn how to move, and the skills translate at least somewhat. When it comes to health and longevity, simply going for a brisk walk on a regular basis w…
Sure but anyone who’s heavy would struggle climbing. Even truly athletic and flexible heavy athletes like football or basketball players.
The main "trick" to climbing is to use good technique and not muscle your way through. Even fat people can climb.
Doing the traditional powerlifting lifts like you mentioned is something can can be sustained long term, and has incredible health benefits. I am a competitive strength athlete, and there are a ton of people in the community that have been lifting competitively for as much as 40-50 years and are still in great shape. Proper form and technique are critical to preventing injury, I have only seen people get injured when…
I'd add overhead presses and weighted pullups and pushups to squats and deadlifts. Bench presses are for impressing other gym rats. Overhead presses are much more beneficial for your shoulders.
If you're seriously training the basic lifts, you also need to do lots of accessory lifts to balance things out, and ideally have a professional teach form. I would argue that both overhead presses, and bench presses are valuable, and complementary for generally becoming strong. The bench press is unique in that it engages more of the upper body muscle in a single, coordinated movement than almost any other lift... some refer to it as the upper body equivalent of a squat. Overhead pressing is also valuable, but isn't a replacement for it, it's just different.
Sure but anyone who’s heavy would struggle climbing. Even truly athletic and flexible heavy athletes like football or basketball players.
There are professional climbers who are 'heavy'. Finger strength, overall strength, flexibility, coordination, balance, and technique all play a massive role as well. I don't know why the bodybuilders I've climbed with seem to be worse than overweight/obese people I've seen climbing for their first time, but I've had this observation as well.
Strong people that start climbing tend to use their upper body strength to get up the wall, fat people don't have that option and naturally fall into using technique and their leg strength to get up the wall.
I will second the endorsement for AthleanX and KneesOverToesGuy. They have both helped me recover from injuries I suffered due to imbalances created by poor training practices. They've helped me improve both strength and mobility (turns out they're related!) and stay healthy. KOTG has been most helpful for injury recovery; Athlean X is mostly just fun. But they both promote learning about your body and the kinetic ch…
If I remember correctly, AthleanX is getting a lot of heat from the science-based fitness community for unscientific advice, though I might misremember here. However, for those interested in practical science for strength training, I would recommend Barbell Medicine's content (by actual physicians) and Stronger by Science, perhaps.
I've personally found that AthleanX has, IMO, good and informative videos but a few ones that sounded to me of looking for the controversy for the sake of views, being the one I remember the most about the "muscle-up being a showing off party trick" which is, based on my years of experience in free running, body building, gymnastics, martial arts and climbing, utterly ridiculous.
From my personal experience, for the majority of people, I would recommend to stay away from classic body building weight trainning. I trainned that way for several years in my early twenties (back then, I was even a certified body bulding trainner) and the overload in my joints was a recipe for disaster + the kind of body I developed was disfunctional for activities other than weights themselves. The excercises I've…
I strongly disagree. Weight training is one of the best gifts you can give your body. It keeps you healthy and event prevents injury if done correctly. What you did wrong was not weight training but following an unbalanced training regimen. No judgement there, I was guilty of the same when I was younger. I think younger/uninformed lifters tend to "ego lift" and focus on size over aspects of physical training. It is e…
Agree to disagree. I guess each body behaves differently. Worth mentioning that I was always cautious with the amount of weigths and strict with the executiom. Never got injured, however as I said, I could felt the load in my joints and also felt how my body became bigger and slower, where, for the activities I perform that was a burden.
Thanks for this tip! I am trying to build upper body strength and pull-ups kill me
> pull-ups kill me To build volume with pullups, complete your sets with negative pullups as gp describes (nb: at least three seconds down from chin over bar to full hang) when you fail the full pull-up (at least two seconds up, from full hang to chin over bar) any more.[1] >> I am trying to build upper body strength 1. Keep a diary recording every session. 2. Stay away from the bench press. Focus on your back chain,…
I wouldn’t focus exclusively on back in isolation. Ideally you want a push/pull combo to keep musculature balanced.
Also, “make sure you get taught proper form” is doing a lot of work here. It can be hard to find someone who really knows their stuff and pays close enough attention to correct subtle mistakes.
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.
Planks are the ultimate simple thing. Everyone can do it, at any age, at any level of fitness. Plank.