Campquake Senate

Anybody use these in a workout?

I built a pullup bar, and have been trying t o increase my reps. I can get to about 6, but #6 is a struggle!.

My goal is to get to 10 pull ups, and 10 chin ups. Any suggestions?

I find the best way is to have some one spot you through your reps. When you get to where you cant do it have someone there to help lift your body until your spotter is doing most of the lifting. This will help your strength increase pretty quickly.

No, they don't make any in my size!

[parent-of-young-children rimshot.wav]

The spotter is the best choice. I've always used the pull-down bar on a weight machine, because then spotting is not required. It does help, but you can fail and not hurt yourself.

One method I remember from way back was to put the bar low enough that if you have to use your legs a little to help you out, then you can self-spot.

I've never done that, but I can see how it might be useful.

Death_Dealer[CotC] wrote:I find the best way is to have some one spot you through your reps. When you get to where you cant do it have someone there to help lift your body until your spotter is doing most of the lifting. This will help your strength increase pretty quickly.

Interesting, I have been doing some study on "training to failure", and it appears to be a wide variety of opinion on if this is good or not.

warf wrote:

Death_Dealer[CotC] wrote:I find the best way is to have some one spot you through your reps. When you get to where you cant do it have someone there to help lift your body until your spotter is doing most of the lifting. This will help your strength increase pretty quickly.

Interesting, I have been doing some study on "training to failure", and it appears to be a wide variety of opinion on if this is good or not.

The "antis" have a point - you can hurt yourself if you do it wrong. Especially if you do it wrong without a spotter. Or use poor technique to try and get the last rep in.

When you start getting to weights that can kill you if you drop them on yourself, that's a big deal. While I doubt that you'll kill yourself if you fail the last rep of a lat-pull exercise, it might be possible to injure a shoulder.

Shoulder injuries are hard to recover from... going on 8 years of a rotator cuff issue.

BD wrote:Shoulder injuries are hard to recover from... going on 8 years of a rotator cuff issue.

Weight training can help with range-of-motion issues. If you have crap floating around in there, then orthoscopic surgery could clean it up.

I separated my right should three years ago mountain biking, and it's still not 100%, but it is better after doing weight traing that utilizes the full range of joint motion. The PT wanted to do a bunch of stuff at enormous expense, and I finally talked her into prescribing weight training to help.



I would have never paid what they wanted to get somebody to move my shoulder through the range it didn't want to go, until this last few months.

All I have heard is don't use it... or use it very little. I started working out (using minimal weight on that shoulder... ) it's doing MUCH better.

BD wrote:All I have heard is don't use it... or use it very little. I started working out (using minimal weight on that shoulder... ) it's doing MUCH better.

Yeah, I didn't use mine much, either. Not for quite some time.

But to get range of motion back, you gots to work it.

warf wrote:

Death_Dealer[CotC] wrote:I find the best way is to have some one spot you through your reps. When you get to where you cant do it have someone there to help lift your body until your spotter is doing most of the lifting. This will help your strength increase pretty quickly.

Interesting, I have been doing some study on "training to failure", and it appears to be a wide variety of opinion on if this is good or not.

It is a persons definition of failure that make a big difference here. In weight training failure should be the last possible rep you can do with proper form. You should know a rep or two before you actually fail if you pay attention to your body.

If you have a good spotter this can really help. ie. spot only when you need it not through the whole motion.

Another great way to help with pull-up strength is: Every other time you do them have your spotter help you up and then you very slowly let yourself down pausing for 3 seconds at a couple points on the way down.
You will be amazed at how much this helps.

At my gym there are pull up machines that you can adjust the weight on (i.e. slightly less than you weight) to build up. Here's one for example:

I think I could watch her all day....

The machine would be a good option if you dont have a spotter. The problem with a machine is it is constant help the whole time. A good spotter can vary help as needed.

I ordered one of those machines for the gym at our school. Mainly because the kids in highschool (most of em) could maybe do 1 or 2 reps on the pull up. With the assisted pull up they can get a full set in fully exhausting the muscles. The idea is that over time, you decrease the amount of assistance.

There are 3 variations to pullups and all have to do with which way your palms are facing. Palms facing towards you will work your lats as well as your biceps. This is the easiest way because you are also using your biceps. The second way is with your palms facing away from you. Isolating the back muscles more thus working more back.... hardest way. Then there is an in between grip. With your palms facing each other.

Ya.... Pull ups are a good exercise. Provided that you can do enough to fatigue the muscle group.

I have a new plan....

Every time I get a beer from the fridge, I do five pullups. .

I've heard that pullups are when your palms face away, and chin ups are when you palms face toward you.

Chin ups are way easier.