From The Archive :
2/23/19
Firstly I don’t find that this manner of training carries over to my upper body barbell work like a bench press much. If all you care about is your powerlifting total stop reading now, close the tab, and go do something else.
Still with me?
Cool, read on :
Once I went about 9 months gymless. I had an 8lb? (I’ve never weighed it) sledgehammer that I couldn’t lever.
9 months of improv training later, when I touched that sledge again I could with both hands.
In that time period my wrist strength went way up.
I’d do simulated 4 directional levering with both dynamic tension and using the opposite hand as resistance.
I was thinking into the exercise very deeply.
The terms are all often confused, and defined differently from person to person. None of this is helped by the uncommoness of dynamic tension and isometric type methods.
Something I like doing for my entire upper body is to flex hard through the motions of what would be a nail bend or other bending style feet of strength.
Really get into to. Make it as real as possible despite the lack of material in your hand.
Another thing I like doing is to flex, not in standard poses, but in poses I choose.
I’ll hit a lot of uncommon angles.
A favorite is this kung fu inspired one I do for the shoulders. Arms to the side, parallel to the ground, hand In the L like you see done in horse stance. I push outward, and often close the fists, fists held vertically, and pull in for the lats as another exercise.
Get creative. Options are as endless as your imagination and discoveries allow.
Everything I’ve described is on the isometric-dynamic tension scale. There’s a whole lot of manners that you can do this type of stuff with and as.
It builds an odd strength, though you can feel it.
Persistence & Tenacity