I was reading Pavel’s Naked Warrior, but I did’nt completely understand everything. So
what is with this whole body tension, butt cheek squeezing and some corkscrew thing he was talking about. And what can help me bench in the book and maybe do some more pull ups?
I didn’t read The Naked Warrior but I’m very familiar with Power to the People and a bunch of Pavel concepts…
Check out an article on this site called “The Bench Press Battlefield” by Thibaudeau. Like Pavel’s stuff it’s about manipulating your CNS to get a little extra strength on your lifts, the BP in this case. Squeezing the barbell as hard as possible, clenching your butt cheeks tight and hardening your abs will all serve to increase the amount of force your muscles can produce. It’s called “irradiation”. For increasing pull-ups Pavel likes ladders and generally “grease the groove” methodology, where you do lots of pull-up sets throughout the day but never go to failure. Hope this helps.
I’d check out dragondoor.com
If you have the book that probably best describes the corkscrew method.
For pullups try GTG–i.e. do 1/2 your max pullups throughout the day. Try to get in at least 8-10 sets. Never consecutively–just keep banging out 1 set whenever you can
For benching (using PTP) do 2X5 real often–like up to 5X week. Start the cycle low. i.e. If you can do 225 for 5 start with 175-180 for first set. 2nd set do 165-170. Adding 5-10 lbs every few days. Once you’re struggling start a new cycle–this time at 180-185.
Maybe once you’ve read (past tense) it, you will understand it. It’s pretty self explanatory.
Basically - Tense up your whole body, flex your lats pulling your upper arms closer to your torso and rotate your arms in an “outwardly” direction… there’s pictures in the book to show you man.
Yep, sounds like you just need to read the book and do the little exercises as it goes.