Unless
you're like Mike Tyson in his prime, you're going
to need muscular endurance to match the power
and strength you're developing with the other
exercises you're doing here.
Proper
training for muscular endurance will develop the
"slow twitch" endurance-oriented muscle
fibers that are designed for that purpose. It
will also help your body better learn how to deal
with Lactic Acid build-up (the burn) so you can
FUNCTION when most people's body's would simply
shut down.
The
Solution: 100 Rep Set of Inverted Rows
To
do an Inverted Row, you essentially set your body
under a bar then pull your torso up towards the
bar, rowing your upper body up as the resistance
rather than rowing a weight up towards you.
We're
going to work this exercise with using a 100 rep
protocol...which is actually a lot worse than
it sounds...
Now,
there is a point to doing 100 rep sets, beyond
working the muscles directly (those slow-twitch
muscle fibers I mentioned) and that is to develop
the microcirculation in your muscles...high
reps push a large volume of blood through the
tiny blood vessels in your muscles called capillaries.
When
this volume of blood gets pushed through for long
periods, the capillaries can burst and create
NEW pathways, improving circulation to the muscle
fibers.
THAT
is what we're looking for. Because these new pathways
mean more surface area for your muscle cells to
get oxygen and nutrients and expel waste, this
helps your body better deal with Lactic Acid build-up,
improving your overall muscular endurance.
You
are changing the physiology of your body to better
support muscular endurance and performance.
So
here's how to do it...
Set
a bar in the rack (or on the Smith machine, or
find something you can grab onto) at about chest
height.
Grab
the bar with a moderately wide overhand grip then
set your feet a little forward underneath the
bar. Lean back and keep your body straight and
stiff.
Now
row your body up towards the bar.
This
is purposefully easy to start with.
The
high bar placement means you're not putting much
resistance on your back on each rep, which is
what's going to allow you to do a LOT of reps
before lactic acid and fatigue kick in.
The
goal here is to try and get as many reps as you
possibly can...ideally 60 or more on the first
go before you have to take a short break.
If
you make it to 100 reps, GREAT! Next time you
do this 100 rep set, lower the bar position a
few inches to increase the resistance.
If
you don't get 100 reps straight through, when
you've hit as many as you can, take 10 seconds
rest then crank out as many more reps as you can.
Repeat this "reps then 10 sec rest"
cycle until you hit 100 total reps.
Do
one set of this at the end of every workout and
you'll start seeing big changes in your endurance.
The Bottom Line:
This
exercise is not particularly demanding on the
body/nervous system since the resistance is so
light but it has serious potential to improve
the endurance of your back muscles which is critical
in a fight lasting more than a few minutes.
And
yeah, when done right, 100 reps sets are brutal...just
thought I'd throw that in there in case you were
thinking it was going to be a breeze...
