Bruce Lee Fitness and Exercise Forum

[El OchoCinco]

10 NEGATIVE CHIN UPS - jump up to chin up position and see how long I can take to lower with the goal to take 30 seconds. Right now I did 3 at 10-12 seconds each. Looking to improve time before failure until I hit 30.

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.

 

[Frederick Foresight]

There was also dumbbell squat and dumbbell hammer curls and bench press and tricep extensions. Basically choose which ones you are most comfortable with and to be honest any exercise with a clear negative can be turned into a 30-10-30. (except Olympic lifts obviously).

I am not really sore but i still feel my shoulders and arms muscle soreness. Today I will do some more back perhaps.

The trick is finding the right weight, that took me a few attempts until I think I got the right weight. If I did the 30-10-30 no problem i increased weight and did it again. If the weight was really challenging and could only do 30-10-20 then I will stay at that level until I easily hit 30-10-30.

First goal is to double the weight for each exercise, however long that takes so you have to personally keep track. The thing that burned my shoulders at the end were the Lee Presses (my own name ha ha). If you don't have pulleys then obviously just use dumbbells and press straight out 3x10.

EDIT: I did pushups in this workout because I was alone and did not want to do a bench press version but will maybe use dumbbells lying on the floor for next time.

EDIT: Also you will notice Exercise 5 - 7 hitting front, lateral and real delts. I really like hitting my shoulders so broke them down. For back and chest and legs I will still try regular workouts to hit them.

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.

 

[El OchoCinco]

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.

 

[Frederick Foresight]

My schedule has changed too much, travelling more. I just don't have the time to make it 3x a week to the box. Invested in equipment for the house and taking different approach.

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

 

[Frederick Foresight]

The Lee Presses are actual presses, not holds.

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

 

[El OchoCinco]

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.

 

[Frederick Foresight]

The negative is giving me a better muscle pump without overburdening my joints right now.

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?

 

[Frederick Foresight]

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.

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?

 

[El OchoCinco]

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?

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

 

[CaptainObvious]

Tonight's Workout

Working on negative resistance pulled from a few workouts I did the 30-10-30 approach:

30 seconds negative rep
10 smooth full reps
30 seconds negative rep

Pick a weight that is 70-80% of normal 3x10 or 3x 6-8 workout, whichever you do.
Can do 20-10-20 if weight is really challenging until you get used to movement
1 set per exercise, short rest then move on to next.

I added some additional exercises. Below is using home gym dumbbells, complete home pulley work station

Below is the workout and each is 30/10/30 or 20/10/20 unless otherwise noted. Actual weights left off because not important.

1. LAT PULLDOWN

2. TRICEP PRESSDOWN

3. BARBELL CURL

4. PUSH-UPS

5. DUMBBELL SHOULDER PRESS

6. LATERAL SHOULDER RAISE

7. HIGH REAR DELT ROW

8. LEE PRESSES 3x10 - adapted exercise from discussion of Lee pressing barbell straight out in front. Used pulleys at lowest height setting and pressed straight out (cable pulls down on pulley handles at 45 degree angle providing constant downward pressure creating a negative contraction on delts and lats while I press straight out in front.) Works more shoulders than chest as weight is less than I would press normally due to downward pull on shoulders. Feels great afterwards.

9. LEE DUMBBELL HOLD - Dumbbell held out with both hands for 25 seconds. (starting really low on this as I wanted to test shoulders). Will start increasing weight to get to 45 lbs. @ 25 seconds at some point which is target. I only did this once tonight but will try to increase to 3 x 25 seconds.

10 NEGATIVE CHIN UPS - jump up to chin up position and see how long I can take to lower with the goal to take 30 seconds. Right now I did 3 at 10-12 seconds each. Looking to improve time before failure until I hit 30.


Each exercise takes about 1-2 minutes and about 1 minute rest in between for equipment set up/water.


Whole upper body nice and pumped and I often do basketball test to see how arms are. I try to shoot a basketball and if I can barely get it up over my head let alone shoot, i done good. I was definitely barely able to shoot the ball out of my hands. Still feeling pumped and like I hit a lot of muscles. Will see tomorrow how i feel to see what I can work 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.