Fitness on The Wire: Building Strength for Those Arm Muscles
Submitted by Jerry Vance on Mon, 02/20/2012 - 2:19pm
The new fitness student often finds it difficult to complete a pull-up or push-up and may strain for even an inch of lift. There are good reasons why these moves are hard to accomplish.
Muscle strength is the maximal tension produced by a muscle or group of muscles and is measured by the amount of weight that can be lifted with one single movement. Conversely, muscle endurance is the ability to repeat the movement many times at about seventy percent of strength ability. The two different training styles play a large part in whether or not you can develop the ability to push your chin off the floor. Consider whether you have slow or fast twitch muscle fibers. A muscle biopsy can tell you which type you have. Fast twitch muscles are needed for movements requiring strength and these movements are largely anaerobic. Meaning that strength-training movements use anaerobic metabolism and a base of very few repetitions. Slow twitch muscles fibers require aerobic metabolism and are enhanced with repetitive moves. Now look at your training program. Are you using the push up in a repetitious endurance move or as a muscle-strength hold move?
If you are a woman doing pushups or pull-ups, your muscle strength will increase substantially if you use a progressive overload strength-training program. You do not have to have muscular hypertrophy to achieve strength improvement. In fact, without the male hormone testosterone a woman will not build the muscle mass that a man will. A progressive overload program for a woman should be a very gradual upgrading of the muscle strength by adding one repetition of the movement per week, or adding a small addition of weight to the movement. The pushup move comes easy for me, but there does seem to be a limit to how long my muscles will hold my chin off the floor. If you change your training program to mix your endurance and strength moves together, you will find a general strengthening of the upper body that will enhance the length of time you can hold a pushup and the number of repetitions you can complete. Men build muscle mass quicker, with less repetitions, so their training time for accomplishing a push-up or pull-up is considerably shorter than women.
Body structure prevents most women from doing the full “lay-out” push-up. In that case, do your push-ups on the knees or use the cross over push-up. Another method to strengthen arms is to stand and face the wall, lean in and push away. The further from the wall, the more weight you will be lifting. Adjusting arms close to the chest and then out when doing the push-up will build pectoral, biceps and triceps muscles. Hanging from the pull-up bar for short periods of time will also help strengthen arm and chest muscles.
Work logically within your physical capabilities. Your sex, your age, your muscle type and your structural mass all will contribute to the success you have achieving a push-up or pull up exercise move.
— Carson City fitness writer Jerry Vance is a regular contributor to Carson Now
