Skip to main content

Exercise bleg

Image
By
One of the things I do to stay sane is a bit of simple strength training, usually just push-ups (both one-handed and standard) and pull-ups. I've had great success with push-ups; before I went on this last vacation and completely failed on my routine, I was over 70 normal push-ups in a row. My goal is to hit 100 before I go home, and so long as I don't get too lazy, I reckon I've got a good chance.

With pull-ups though, it's a different story. My goal is 30 in a row. I have never in my life done more than 23, and for basically the whole of my service I've been stuck around 20. I usually work out four times a week, and I've done three sets to failure, added weight, tried "greasing the groove," all to little effect. (All those things, by the way, worked quite well for push-ups.) I rather suspect I'm not eating enough protein. Any thoughts out there?
Labels:

Comments

  1. Noah PrescottMay 12, 2011 at 10:29 AM

    Option 1 inspired by science -
    Steroids seem to help people in this area

    Option 2 inspired by Interstella 5555 -
    Put on Daft Punk and let the beats give you god-like strength

    ReplyDelete
  2. RyanMay 12, 2011 at 11:40 AM

    Also, creatine. I tried that one time for awhile, and by gum, it works wonders. Makes you gain about 10 pounds of water weight though.

    I should try the Daft Punk too, I usually listen to lectures on Roman history. Not the best pump-up soundtrack.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousMay 15, 2011 at 5:07 PM

    I know this post is a bit old, but I just read it so I figured I'd chime in. You're probably onto something about not eating enough protein - it'll probably help to try and get protein levels to ~1 g/lb of bodyweight (if possible), though I've found I have better strength levels at ~1.5g/lb BW.

    As for exercises... Do you have access to any thing you can use to do horizontal rows? Maybe a low-set bar that you can do inverted bodyweight rows on? My pull-up #s got considerably better after focusing on horizontal rowing for a while. You can also try weighted eccentrics (sets of 8-10). As a side note, do you know which muscle is the weak point (i.e. what tires our first - hands, lats, biceps, etc)? I had weak lats, and focusing on them has really helped all my back exercises, including pull-ups.

    Bear in mind that I'm also at the same point you are of being able to do ~20 pull-ups, so take that for what it's worth. Also, on a total side note, your blog has come a long way - it's a pleasure to read while I'm procrastinating in lab.
    -Steele E. Dan

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Free will, part II

By
This post is dedicated to Mark Bedau , my philosophy professor at Reed, a great guy and a wonderful teacher, by far the least pretentious philosopher I've ever met. He is responsible for this post only insofar as he sparked my interest in the subject; its many shortcomings are mine alone. Who's ready for some unqualified philosophical rambling? I'm not going to do much more than summarize, as this is probably one of the five biggest problems in philosophy and the material quickly gets out of hand. Anyway—let's start with some terms, appropriately hefty philosophical ones. (I'm going to steal shamelessly from Wikipedia, as the free will article is very good.) Free will is "purported ability of agents to make choices free from constraints." Some call it the "ability to have done otherwise," but that definition runs into problems which I'll describe later. Determinism is the view that all events are caused by previous events, while indet...
1 comment
Read more

On Refusing to Vote for Bloomberg

By
Billionaire Mike Bloomberg is attempting to buy the Democratic nomination. With something like $400 million in personal spending so far, that much is clear — and it appears to be working at least somewhat well, as he is nearing second place in national polls. I would guess that he will quickly into diminishing returns, but on the other hand spending on this level is totally unprecedented. At this burn rate he could easily spend more than the entire 2016 presidential election cost both parties before the primary is over. I published a piece today outlining why I would not vote for Bloomberg against Trump (I would vote for Sanders, Warren, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, or Biden), even though I live in a swing state. This got a lot of "vote blue no matter who" people riled up . They scolded me and demanded that I pre-commit to voting for Bloomberg should he win the nomination. The argument as I understand it is to try to make it as likely as possible that whatever Democrat wins t...
4 comments
Read more

RIP Stephanie Chance, Niger Peace Corps volunteer

By
Our Peace Corps family has been suffering some tragedies lately. Stephanie Chance, a volunteer in Niger, has died of what appears to be natural causes. My thoughts are with her friends and family. Below I'm posting a letter from Director Aaron Williams. I am deeply saddened to write that Municipal Development Volunteer Stephanie Chance, an admired member of the Peace Corps family in Niger, died on Thursday, October 7, 2010. Stephanie, 26 years old, was found in her home in Zinder, and, at this time her death appears to be from natural causes. Her sudden passing is mourned by the entire Peace Corps community, including her fellow training group members, who were recently sworn in together as Volunteers on September 23, 2010. Stephanie was a native of Phoenix, Arizona, and she had arrived in Niger for training in July 2010. She had just arrived at her site in Zinder and was busy getting to know the community to help local officials better coordinate local government servi...
9 comments
Read more