Quite a while ago, when I had hit a stubborn plateau with my counter-weight assisted Chin-Ups, I decided to replace them - at least for a while - with "gamified" Timed Static Contraction (TSC) Pull-Downs and Pull-Overs as per Drew Baye's book "Timed Static Contraction Training", since it had worked very well for me with my gamified TSC Squats.
Above, you can see my combined rig for the Gamified TSC Pull-Downs and -Overs. The Phidgets' load-cells are the same as I use with my Squats, as are the off-picture bridge to my laptop. The DIY handles (PVC pipe, chains, and carabiners) I use with a underhand grip for the Pull-Downs are old ones from another, ancient project. I added the webbing loops for the Pull-Overs (left in Swedish is vänster and right is höger, hence the V and H - they need to be marked as if they are switched, they won't be level with each other, due to differences in the hooks and chains...).
Only this week, I also got around to craft myself a piece of webbing for Chest-Presses - yepp, I've kinda-sorta hit a plateau with my Dumbbell Bench Presses lately...
Only this week, I also got around to craft myself a piece of webbing for Chest-Presses - yepp, I've kinda-sorta hit a plateau with my Dumbbell Bench Presses lately...
It was tailored to be of the right length for Baye-style TSC Chest-Presses but - by sheer luck - it also work for me for his TSC Compound Row. I wonder if that is generally true for the majority of people or if it is more specific to my anatomy?
On the photo, you can also see my newish Phidgets Wheatstone Bridge and Vint Hub taped together with silver tejp. My old bridge, that could be connected directly to a computer, was dead as a Dodo one morning workout (not a good workout, spent waaaay to long trying to revive the Phidgets bridge...). The new Vint Hub also forced me to upgrade to the Phidget22 library and - since it doesn't have any official Ruby support - hunt down a third-party integration in order to adopt my existing Ruby script to work with the new Phidgets library version and hardware. On the plus side, it seems like the new ones are a bit more stable.
With equipment to do gamified TSC Squats, Pull-Downs, Compound Rows, and Chest Presses, I'm only lacking one for Standing Presses - then I would be able to do a complete Big Five workout of the Doug McGuff/John Little "Body By Science" variety but in a Baye:esque TSC interpretation. Perhaps I should dig out the old sewing machine again? ;-)
