Do More Pull-Ups or Push-Ups, Spreading Them Out Throughout the Day
Do you have a simple exercise that you would like to do more often, but you always have problems? Doing mini workouts throughout the day can help you finally get more reps. Think of five push-ups every hour, or pull-ups every time you walk through the door you hung the bar on.
This technique is often referred to as “groove lubrication” and is attributed to Pavel Tsatsulin . His theory was that repeating the exercise throughout the day teaches your brain, nerves, and muscles to work together more efficiently. Basically, you practice it like a skill.
But maybe that’s not all. After all, this is still an exercise and you still do a lot of it, so just like any other workout, you get stronger by doing a lot of reps.
This is how it works:
- Choose an exercise in which you can do at least a few reps, but would like to do more. You also need to be able to do this at home or work, so nothing that requires the equipment that is in the gym. Push-ups and pull-ups are classics. You can also choose another bodyweight exercise, such as squats or a difficult yoga pose.
- Find out how many reps you can do and cut that number in half. So if you can fight three pull-ups, you can only start lubricating the groove with one.
- Do this short, easy approach as often as possible. For example, you can set a timer to remind you every hour during your workday.
- Remember how much work you are asking your muscles to do. Do not exercise during normal workouts and throughout the day; choose one or the other. And don’t feel like you have to do mini workouts every hour on the first day. Start with three or four sets and add more the next day.
Since the sets never get hard enough to tire you, the exercise will never be hard. But since you do a lot of them, over time you will make progress and be able to do more reps. This technique is worth trying if you are trying to do your second, fifth, or 10th pull-up.