Two questions here.

1. My friend told me that clenching your muscles for as long as you can, is good for them if you don't have time for a proper workout.
I've learnt by now that friends' advice should generally be taken with a grain of salt, so wanted your opinion.

2. My wrist is messed up from konging badly, and hurts whenever I put pressure on it (ie do a pushup). I've worked around this by moving my hands forwards two hand length, and continuing the pushup like this. Found it puts more pressure on the back and core.
Wanted to check this was a safe exercise, not risking bad back/paralyzation/death/whatever, through straining the back two much.

Thanks in advance. ^^

1. Good for activation work... will it give you good gains? No.

2. Wrist: Rest. Ice. Massage. Then work light strengthening work. Stay off it.
Pushups: should not stress your back.

Uhh... No.


Time for me to suggest something for you to read. Please click here

Upright rows have actually hurt in my shoulders for a good year before the problem became prominent, and haven't done them since. The way the doctor explained what was happening with my shoulders was that since I was keeping them forward, one of the tendons was being put in a bad position and there was cartilage or something that was moving between that one tendon and one of the bones in my shoulder to protect the tendon. And after so much time with my shoulders like that and the job I had ended up causing the cartilage to harden and scrape the tendon. I was told that it would eventually go away, but hasn't yet. It improved to a very liveable level (I could do a lot of things I couldn't do before, like carry things) after the rehab. I'm going to have to get back into what they had me doing in rehab. I don't remember all of the exercises, though.

What do you mean by pulling work? Do you mean like bent and seated rows for my back? Or are you talking about pull ups and muscle ups?

Actually no.

Best thing for muscle imbalances for most peoeple is horizontal pulling so any types of rows except upright.

Bent over rows, cable rows, C2 rower, one arm DB rows, etc.

Well, it's generally known what you're talking about when you refer to "pulling" and "pushing" muscles. You're never going to do pushing with your laterals, for example. As for the biceps, they're used in just about every motion of the arm, pulling or pushing. You'll notice the same thing doing any other pushing motion, like dips or pushups.

That wouldn't include flys for both the chest and back, would it? They both seem like pulling motions to me, but don't exactly fall under your definition of a pulling exercise. Thanks for all the help guys.

1. According to Pavel Tsatsouline tension in other areas of your bodies helps to give you energy while clenching(tensing) your muscle. So he says if you clench your fist while doing a squat the energy from your flexed muscles while clenching your fist actually travels all over your body and can cause you to get that last squat. Example: Try clenching you fist as hard as you can, if you feel your bicep you can tell it's expands as if it's being used, but it's not, there is no movement of the elbow. He also says this applies to glutes and abs as well and can help with squats, pushups, pullups pretty much everything. Hoped this helped and if anyone wants The Naked Warrior(where this came from) I have an e-book copy that you can 'borrow' just pm me

Did you even try it? o.O Cause it works, give me your email and I'll send you a copy if you want.
All from Pavel's book Naked Warrior:
"Tension = Force . The tenser your muscles are, the more strength you will
display and build."

"In a recent study, subjects increased their bicep strength 13
p e rcent in three months by simply visualizing tensing their biceps hard but
doing no exercise whatsoever. The only possible explanation for this stre n g t h
gain is greater tension through increased “nerve force ” ."

Interesting:
"A dirty little secret of bodybuilding is that one of the best ways to build the
biceps is with the powerlifting-style wide-grip bench press. Your bis may fight
your tris in doing skull crushers, but they assist your triceps, deltoids, and
pecs in the bench press or the one-arm pushup. In multijoint, high-re s i s t a n c e
e x e rcises, the antagonists often act as synergists, especially in experienced
athletes. In other words, the “brakes” become “engines.”"

"Hit the deck and give me 5
pushups, comrade! Only 5 but of a
challenging variety—for instance,
with your feet up or on one arm .
When you are done with 5, you
should be able to grind out another
couple but no more than that.
Please do pushups on your hands,
not your fists, fins, or fingert i p s .
That way, you will do a better job
of driving the Naked Wa rr i o r
principles of power generation
h o m e .
Note the difficulty of your first set.
Rest briefly. Do another fiver but
with one diff e rence: On the way up,
grip the deck hard with your fingertips. Don’t go up on your fingertips; just
grip the floor so that your fingertips turn white. Do this only on the way up.
Experiment with whether you get the best results by gripping all the way up
or just at the sticking point.
You cannot help noticing that your arms suddenly received a jolt of extra
e n e rg y, as if your tensing fore a rms sent some juice up into your triceps. That
is exactly what has happened. Whenever a muscle contracts, it irradiates a
‘ nerve force’ around it and increases the intensity of the neighboring muscles’
contractions."

"You will increase your strength in any
upper body exertion by strongly gripping
the floor, the bar, etc. What is truly remarkable is that tightening your fists
can enhance your leg strength, as well!"


Sorry, It's really long but worth it.