Descending Sets, Statics and Negatives Arm Workout

I decided to shake up my arm workout recently and have been trying the following:

Chin-up (weighted) - 20 second positive, 25 second static hold (nose level with bar), 30 second negative.

Dips (weighted) to failure and then continue to failure without weight.

Barbell curl with 2 descending sets.

Pulley pushdown with 2 descending sets.

Chin-up as described above but without additional weight.

Dips as described above but with less weight on first set.

For other body parts I did rear neck raise, barbell shrug and cable lateral raises.

I got the idea of combining a slow positive, static and negative from Brian Johnston and have found it very useful. Does anyone else have some ideas/views on similar approaches?

Oukeeeey… And? Where is the discussion for everyone?

So to be clear… You’re completing 1 chin up rep in about 85 seconds? With added weight? How much do you weigh, and how many of these can you do?

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I wish I could amaze you with some great feat of strength but l only weigh about 155 lbs and add 35-45 lbs to a dipping belt. My goal with the chin-up is to do 30 seconds positive, 30 seconds static and 30 seconds negative. Each time that is achieved, I add more weight. The surprisingly difficult part is the static. I deliberately do the static hold with my nose touching the bar and then pull back up to the chin over the bar position before starting the negative. It would be relatively easy to do a 30 second static with your chin over the bar because you are basically “hanging” on your joints. By lowering slightly for the static part of movement you keep the muscles involved firmly under tension. I only do 1 x 80-90 second repetition because in terms of time under tension that’s already a reasonably long single set.

I’ve never really experimented much beyond the chin-up but you could, of course, try this on other movements (e.g. leg extension).

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That’s incredibly impressive at any bodyweight. Well done!

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