EXERCISE

You CAN Do Pull-ups, Push-ups or Bench Press Heavy Weights

Or whatever thing it is that you want to get better at

Photo by Alora Griffiths on Unsplash but I’m not lifting THAT!

I was broken for a few months last year. It wasn’t COVID, though some of the symptoms made me very suspicious of that. One of the more annoying things was that I lost strength. I struggled to do three pull-ups and six or seven push-ups were all I could squeeze out. For me, that was a major diminishment in strength.

Whatever was trying to kill me lost its battle and I began to feel better, so I quickly set about recovering my strength. I’ve used the method I’ll present here many times over my life after recovering from illness or a bout of extended laziness and neglect.

I’ve also used it to help people do things they never thought they could do: a woman who couldn’t do push-ups, a man who couldn’t do a single pull-up, and a friend who wanted to double what he could bench press.

This works and it’s simple. It doesn’t take much time, and you will see results quickly without any need to hurt yourself.

That last bit is important. No pain, no gain? Phooey on that. I never liked that and never did it. I don’t like pain.

So what’s the magic? There isn’t any.

Bench Press

My friend George and I were about the same size and weight. We were members of the same gym and sometimes worked out together. George was astonished that I, a 160 pound guy not packed with bulging muscle, could bench press over 225 lbs.

That might sound like a sissy low weight to you or something unachievably high. For my skeleton, it was a lot. I didn’t even want to do more because I could feel that my joints didn’t want anything heavier. Besides, two forty-five pound plates on each side and maybe a ten on a good day looks macho enough, I think.

But to George, that was surprising, as he maxed out at a little more than half that. So, he asked me to help him do more.

I did, by just showing how I had built up from a similar weight.

First, a good part of strength has to do with your muscles applying the strength they already have. I call that getting used…