Upper Body Strength Training part 1: Vertical Movements
“Okay, here we go. We’re going to start with vertical movements first. You should begin here, and this is how you’ll follow the tempo.
Lift them up with your elbows tucked. We’re going to do this one. So, it’s one second up, punch them up. Three thousand, two thousand, one thousand. Right back up. Take two breaths, brace the core. Three, two, one, shoot them up. Re-breathe. Three, two, one, shoot them up. Re-breathe.
Okay, so we’re not holding for any time at the bottom, and there’s no hold at the top. There’s no hold at the bottom. Three down, one up, breathe and reset the core. If you’re spotting from here, it’s from the wrist, so you can help steer, and you don’t want the person to lose momentum.
Okay, we’re going to do six to eight reps. Remember the Golden Rule: lift heavy enough that you cannot exceed what is being asked, in this case, eight. So, if you can do ten with tempo, it’s too light. We’ve got to max out what’s being asked, yet it is light enough that your form doesn’t break.
Okay, then we’re going to do a vertical pull movement here but focus on negatives. So, these first two supersets are vertical movements: vertical push and vertical pull, and we’re going to add tempo to it. Time under tension allows us to break down more muscle fibers because they’re spending more time under stress.
After you do both, take three minutes plus off. Then, spot someone here. We only want to focus on the way down, try and do nothing on the way up. So, if you need a band stretched across and you’re stepping on it, I would immediately just hop over, let the band off, and go down as slow as you possibly can, let go, get back up here, and repeat. If you don’t need the band and you’re tall enough, try jumping over the bar and then come down really, really slow, let go, and re-grip, and repeat.
We’re going to do that for four to seven reps. Take three minutes off and repeat: vertical push, vertical pull with time under tension. That’s some serious strength training.”
