Bruce Lee Fitness and Exercise Forum

I will try and ramp these up and maybe do as many as I can until failure, failure being where I cannot even hold the initial negative chin up. So ump up and so how long I cna take lowering myself until failure with 30 seconds as the goal. Initially try and do 5 x 15 seconds minimum. I don't have lat/arm strength yet for pull ups this way and like the chin up bicep pump I get as well as upper back.

Open to hear any one else's experience on negative chin/pull ups.

When I get my arm strength up I am going to add Bruce Lee's hanging ab crunch hold. Hang from bar and lift knees up and hold parallel until failure. First goal is 30 seconds. He did it with legs straight out but I ain't got those kind of abs.

 

Just a couple of observations, if I may. You'd probably be better off focusing just about entirely on compounds rather than doing single joint movements like curls, tricep extensions, and so on. Also, your "Lee Presses" where you hold a meaningful weight in front of you for any length of time are probably not going to do your shoulder health any favors. In fact, I'd be interested to know how your shoulders fare over time if you seriously pursue this particular exercise.

 

The Lee Presses are actual presses, not holds.

 

I understand, but you're going from one extreme to the other. There's a lot of middle ground in between. Just saying.

 

I must have missed it. My mistake. So what is the movement, exactly?

 

Well the middle ground for me now is starting off with lighter weights. With this approach right now I am not heavily loading. Also using the pulleys has been helpful to reduce some of the strain on my joints. The negative is giving me a better muscle pump without overburdening my joints right now. I always had some shoulder pains when I do power cleans or overhead presses but yesterday only muscle soreness and not even a twinge on the shoulder. (shoulder issue from years of basketball, flag football (QB), racquetball and softball).

Going to take it slow for next 6 - 8 weeks. I don't want to do the Olympic lifts anymore.

 

Actually, negatives require a heavier weight (or slower rep speed), all else being equal, because you are stronger on the negative than you are on the positive. So I'm not quite sure how this relieves the joints, again, all else being equal. While I like to accentuate the negative, somewhat more so than the positive, I guess I don't fall in with the group that does strictly negatives. Are you planning on incorporating positives in due course, or will you just do negatives?

 

Okay, but you're also comparing different exercises here, and not only tempo. Pushing vs. pulling, no? Apples and oranges. What are your negative-only pushing exercises?

 

Back, Legs and Chest for the most part are still going to be normal push/pull exercises mixed in.

 

Good luck with your new routine. Sometimes we have to change things up to get that spark back. My only suggestion is treat your shoulders with due respect, otherwise you'll end up with one like mine which sounds like captain crunch when I rotate it.