The 4-Hour Body_ An Uncommon Guide to Ra - Timothy Ferriss [140]
Try it yourself:
Keeping your feet together and knees locked, attempt to touch your toes with both feet on the ground. If that’s too easy, attempt to touch the heel of your palms to your toes.
Now test the same stretch again on each side independently. Place one foot on a step or block, and remember to keep your knees fully locked to prevent cheating. Perform on both sides.
On the left: Step 1. One the right: Step 2.
How did you fare? My reach was a full three inches shorter on my right side.
Gray explains the concept: “Imbalance is not just a strength problem. It is a motor control problem. Going from unloaded to loaded and vice versa is the whole point. Reengaging is where the money is, and where you stimulate more neurons.”
But how do you get in the proper position, which requires having the rope in hand at a distance from the machine, without automatically lifting the weight stack? In other words, how do you rest the weight without falling over? You need to extend the cable. The best option involves carabiners, the metal clips used in rock climbing.
First option: use a link of chain from a hardware store and two carabiners to extend the cable. One end of the chain will connect to the cable, and the other end will connect to the tricep attachment. This works. The second option, and the one I prefer, is to use a nylon sling (or “pocket daisy chain”) designed for rock climbing in place of the chain. The nylon sling is a flat strip of material with loops on it. This webbing is light enough to fold up and put in your pocket, but it’s plenty strong enough to hold the weights in the chop-and-lift movements. I travel with this.
If you don’t want to bother with extending the length of the cable, you can train with a partner who takes the weight from you for a second after each repetition, or simply train without unloading, as I did for four workouts, which was enough to correct my largest imbalance.
3. Don’t hold your breath. Once I progressed to heavier weights, I ended up holding my breath on the lifting portion and then exhaling slowly on the lowering. This is referred to as the Valsalva Technique, and though it can be valuable for maximal lifts, it is cheating in the C&L. Do your best to breathe as follows and keep your face relaxed:
a. Inhale a large amount of air at the start of the movement and pressurize your abdomen by tightening all the muscles in your hips and torso. Stiffen and brace your body but stay as tall as possible.
b. Begin the pulling portion of either movement and force air out between your clenched teeth to produce a hissing sound. Continue this slow continuous hiss as you transition into the pushing and reach full extension. Upon full extension, you should still have more than 50% of the air in your lungs. Continue the hiss on the return, using the remaining air, until the weight stack comes to rest.
c. Take two normal breaths, the weight stack resting, and start the next repetition.
4. Make your positioning 100% consistent workout to workout.
Foot placement: To standardize position from one workout to the next, Gray suggests using a stretching or yoga mat, narrow end against the machine, and then setting your down knee approximately one-third of the way from the far end of the mat.
If you own the mat (yoga mats can be rolled up and are a smart investment), use something like a Sharpie to mark knee placement for both movements. If you don’t own the mat, use tape.
Here’s a diagram showing Gray’s ideal placement and what I ended up doing:
I started using a standard stretching mat to prevent mat burn on my knees, not for placement. Then I realized, no big surprise, that using a mat made replicating the exact positions much easier. I placed my down knee at the midpoint halfway from the weight stack, as I didn’t have tape and halfway was easier to visually determine. I then ensured that my hips were approximately in