My brother-in-law, knowing that I am currently on a quest to complete one-arm pullups, so thoughtfully bought me an over-the-door chinup bar for Christmas. Being that I’m returning from a little hiatus from my current routine of heavy one-arm negatives (joint soreness management), I figured that this situation would be a good time to experiment with a little synaptic facilitation.
Pavel popularized this theory of synaptic facilitation in his writings on GTG training (“grease the groove”). In short, the theory goes, “To get better at doing something, do it as much as possible while remaining as fresh as possible.” This was probably derived from Eastern Bloc weightlifting, where the athletes perform heavy lifts throughout multiple workouts just about everyday – in essence, performing as many lifts as possible while staying “as fresh as possible.”
I know, you’re thinking, “This sounds eerily familar. Is he talking about specificity again?”
You’d be right. I tell ya, you can’t get away from this concept of specificity in athletics – it just keeps popping up over and over again.
So the task I’ve made for myself is to perform a pullup everytime I walk through my office door (where the bar is located). Results soon to follow.
