Topic: Clenching muscles and Alternate push up

[Zombehs]

I meant to say something along the lines of "This isn't exactly what you are talking about but it is what you can do with clenching your muscles". I don't believe that random flexing(clenching) will build gains but it does help when working out, on a side note clenching your abs helps with your posture as well as giving you added energy while doing exercises. Also I don't believe that the people who visualized tensing their biceps has anything to do with how long you've been working out or how strong your biceps are because as your strength increases so does the 'nerve energy' that's produced, it's all proportional.

[Chris Salvato]

I don't believe that random flexing(clenching) will build gains but it does help when working out, on a side note clenching your abs helps with your posture as well as giving you added energy while doing exercises.

What do you mean by building gains?  I am having a very hard time following.

Clenching muscles, that is, flexing muscles during particular movements, helps a lot in terms of performance on certain movements - particularly strength skills like the bench press, pushups, pullups, dips, etc.

Flexing your abs during certain movements does help but it hinders other movements.  For example, if you need to arch your back for a walkover then clenching your abs will hurt your performance but if you clench your abs tight just before setting for a front flip then it will help the movement a lot (actually, this is called the hollow position.)

Also I don't believe that the people who visualized tensing their biceps has anything to do with how long you've been working out or how strong your biceps are because as your strength increases so does the 'nerve energy' that's produced, it's all proportional.

It doesn't help people who are experienced because their muscles are already "wired" better than most people...but hey, if you want to think about clenching your muscles in hopes that it will help you then go for it.

[Zombehs]

I mean by flexing your arm you aren't going to see it get bigger :/ you have to do work for that. And I prefer what Pavel said about clenching the bar and stuff. It worked when I did the pushups and he goes on to describe how he tested it. But I trust Pavel because what he said worked and also because I did the Pavel Fighter Pull-up plan and it worked, I went from doing 3 pullups to 8 in four weeks. http://www.dellanave.com/files/the_fighter_pullup.pdf if you wanna check it out

[Chris Salvato]

I don't think you are actually reading what I am saying.  Am I misunderstanding something here?  Third party care to join in and clarify what I am missing?

[Dan Frank]

I don't think you are actually reading what I am saying.  Am I misunderstanding something here?  Third party care to join in and clarify what I am missing?

Well, the problem here is that you don't have a degree in gibberish.

Also, 4 pullups to 8 in 4 weeks? Isn't that kind of a long time? I might be missing something, but I recall making gains on unweighted pullups much faster than that when I started doing them.

[Zombehs]

Well, the problem here is that you don't have a degree in gibberish.

Also, 4 pullups to 8 in 4 weeks? Isn't that kind of a long time? I might be missing something, but I recall making gains on unweighted pullups much faster than that when I started doing them.

I'm not sure but it was fast for me, it was 3 to 8 btw. I had trouble gaining reps with pullups. When I started out I couldn't do one even. I could barely do bodyweight rows. But then I got one and built up to three then 8 so it was fast for me

[Spencer B]

In a month...?

I went from zero pullups to a solid fifteen. I didn't train anywhere near like what you are talking about or even what I should have, but it was consistent training. Everybody's different but if you train for something, you'll eventually get there/better at it/more reps, w/e.