[quote]sbmart2 wrote:
Oleena wrote:
sbmart2 wrote:
Oleena wrote:
I wanted to mentioned a workout that I did halfway through last week, which I would like other people to try and tell me if they get results.
Basically, I maxed out on bench press. Then I doubled the weight, and had someone hand it off to me. I held the 200+lbs fully extended for 10 seconds. Then I waited 7 minutes and tried 5 more pounds than I’d previously been able to do on the bench and got it!
Next I tried to apply the same principle to my max squat and max dead. I didn’t improve the maxes that day, but the next leg workout I did was much easier.
On a side note, I got a lot of interested looks when I was loading up the bench press with over 200 lbs.
With where your bench is now, you may get more out of spending your time in the gym doing assistance lifts like close grip bench work. You may not look as cool because you have to use a lot less weight with close grip, but it will be more useful then just holding up a bar full of weight that you are no where near pressing. That kind of stuff is good if you are trying to, psychologically get used to holding heavy weight, maybe to get prepped for a competition, but it won’t actually make you stronger.
Just ask yourself, do I want to LOOK strong or do I want to BE strong.
Just my two cents, take it or leave it.
Whoops. I can see how that whole post must have been confusing. Basically, I was just testing out a theory I’d heard that part of the problem with lifting heavier weights is that your proprioceptors will initially think that you can’t do it. So by holding the 2x1RM weight for 10 seconds, I was basically shutting down a few proprioceptors, and tricking my muscles so to speak.
I’m definitely not sold that this is the best way to quickly up your max, and will always have a day set out per week for better chest work than written above.
I definitely understood the premise behind the training method that you used. There are a lot of different tools that you can use in the gym that serve different purposes. Because proprioception is the sensory mechanism that is used to adjust your body to its surrounding and to help make higher cognitive decisions about what to do about it,this tool, as I said previously would be great for someone about to go to compete in a powerlifting competition. What they are doing is priming themselves so they don’t freak out when they go up to do the lift. I recall Ouroboro mentioning that she did this a couple weeks before her last competition.
As for the lower order proprioceptive responses, those are actually quite quick (way less than seconds). You are able to tell very quickly if a weight is heavy or if you are unbalanced. You can’t actually turn your proprioception off, you can either quickly react to it (this is usually the case. If you are standing on a bus and it moves unexpectedly, your reaction is to find something to hold onto) or train yourself to stay calm and over ride your initial reaction with higher cognitive processes.
All of this to say, I would not have really said anything about you doing this, but you suggested it for other people to try and then get back to you. So that led me to state that time in the gym would be better spent doing accessory work than experimenting with this method!!!
AND if someone still has extra time on their hands they should FOAM ROLL or do MOBILITY WORK. That can also help in getting stronger 
Hope you don’t mind the science lesson invasion on your post. Actually, people (or their parents)have to pay all sorts of money to sit and listen to me say what you just got for free, so consider it a gift!!![/quote]
Thank you. Okay, so I have a question relating to your advice against using this method in the gym on, say, an every other week basis for maybe two to three different exercises. In the one time that I did it, I was able to bench press 5lbs more after 7 minutes than I’d been capable of before holding the 2x1RM over my head for 10 seconds. That seems like a pretty decent improvement for less than 10 minutes. Now I understand that I wasn’t actually stronger; I hadn’t grown more muscle fibers in that span of time. However, since I was lifting 5lbs more than before, wouldn’t that be more effective at making me grow more muscle fibers in the long run than just maxing out at 5lbs less?
PS I don’t consider it a workout, just something to try on the same day when you’re maxing out.
