Early Saracen Mountainbike

We_are_Stevo":3b2dsylp said:
If you grasp your fingers together in front of your chest and pull in opposite directions and hold it for 10 seconds (isometrics) you'll feel how it works on the main muscle groups - chest, shoulders, back, upper arms... ;)
All I mean is, your chest is the prime mover (concentric contraction) in bringing your arms together in front of you. To move your arms apart, when they start straight-ish, in front of you (assuming there's some resistance), muscles in the rear of your shoulders are the prime movers (concentric contraction).
 
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We_are_Stevo":20vj2gur said:
Pulling works the upper chest, pushing the lower, in exactly the same way incline/decline bench presses do...
It's off topic, really, for this thread, but the difference in angle between incline or decline presses doesn't reverse the involvement of the chest muscles. The chest muscles contract when you bring your arms together in front of you - even if you alter the angle. To open your arms and pull them apart when they're in front of you, involves muscles to the rear of your shoulders (that contract to pull your arms apart when in that plane). Presses, be they decline or incline involve the chest because either involves bringing your arms together in front of you against the resistance of the weight (and in fairness, require significant involvement of the triceps too). In general, pressing movements in front of you, work chest (and triceps, possibly the front of your shoulders), rowing movements (PULLING towards your trunk) muscles to the rear of your torso (and biceps) - (conveniently ignoring exercises in the vertical plane, like shoulder presses, and upright rows).
 
highlandsflyer":28n3c9gg said:
All I want to know is how to get rid of my six pack; no woman will marry me given that and my model looks.
I must be reading this wrong - a scot, who can't get rid of beer?

I've heard everything, now...
 
Thanks for the replies.

Photos and more details now on this

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=197707

We_are_Stevo

I like the Pedal you linked, wrong colour though.
I am going to see if the local bike shop can make the wheel true for now.
A new set of wheels will cost more than I paid for it, and looking at the frame in detail it aint great (rust - I presume - coming through the paint), shame as the parts are hardly worn, inc original brake blocks.
 
mattrixdesign2":1s4n0bhq said:
Thanks for the replies.

Photos and more details now on this

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=197707

We_are_Stevo

I like the Pedal you linked, wrong colour though.
I am going to see if the local bike shop can make the wheel true for now.
A new set of wheels will cost more than I paid for it, and looking at the frame in detail it aint great (rust - I presume - coming through the paint), shame as the parts are hardly worn, inc original brake blocks.

mattrixdesign2":1s4n0bhq said:
but any tips welcome.

Well I was right about it having a Sakae oval tech chainset, that combined with the sun fading threw out my chance at ID ing it

That's original spec! I always though it was Bio Pace on those! but there you go!

It is 100% a Tuff Trax ZERO DOUBT. In your pic of the front of the top tube you can read 'Trax' in slightly less faded paint:)

So it's a great find the Tuff Trax is one of those bikes like the muddy fox courier that really epitomises the very start of the MTB boom in the UK

Anyway I'd clean it first before doing anything else

WD40 and a stiff brush is a good way of shifting thick crud

If you can tell your left from your right, you can true a wheel, look on Youtube and see how it is done
 
Neil":1aq7uyjn said:
We_are_Stevo":1aq7uyjn said:
Pulling works the upper chest, pushing the lower, in exactly the same way incline/decline bench presses do...
It's off topic, really, for this thread, but the difference in angle between incline or decline presses doesn't reverse the involvement of the chest muscles. The chest muscles contract when you bring your arms together in front of you - even if you alter the angle. To open your arms and pull them apart when they're in front of you, involves muscles to the rear of your shoulders (that contract to pull your arms apart when in that plane). Presses, be they decline or incline involve the chest because either involves bringing your arms together in front of you against the resistance of the weight (and in fairness, require significant involvement of the triceps too). In general, pressing movements in front of you, work chest (and triceps, possibly the front of your shoulders), rowing movements (PULLING towards your trunk) muscles to the rear of your torso (and biceps) - (conveniently ignoring exercises in the vertical plane, like shoulder presses, and upright rows).

Each to their own, though there are a lot of gym addicts (myself included, once upon a time...) who would be inclined to disagree ;)

But as you say...
 
We_are_Stevo":1mt5jwlo said:
Neil":1mt5jwlo said:
We_are_Stevo":1mt5jwlo said:
Pulling works the upper chest, pushing the lower, in exactly the same way incline/decline bench presses do...
It's off topic, really, for this thread, but the difference in angle between incline or decline presses doesn't reverse the involvement of the chest muscles. The chest muscles contract when you bring your arms together in front of you - even if you alter the angle. To open your arms and pull them apart when they're in front of you, involves muscles to the rear of your shoulders (that contract to pull your arms apart when in that plane). Presses, be they decline or incline involve the chest because either involves bringing your arms together in front of you against the resistance of the weight (and in fairness, require significant involvement of the triceps too). In general, pressing movements in front of you, work chest (and triceps, possibly the front of your shoulders), rowing movements (PULLING towards your trunk) muscles to the rear of your torso (and biceps) - (conveniently ignoring exercises in the vertical plane, like shoulder presses, and upright rows).

Each to their own, though there are a lot of gym addicts (myself included, once upon a time...) who would be inclined to disagree ;)

But as you say...
Thing is, though, there's plenty of "confused" souls in gyms, their agreement or disagreement won't change facts. And the facts are that the chest muscle contract to bring the upper arms together in front of you. Muscles to the rear of your shoulders contract to pull the upper arms back and apart.

Those are facts and not influenced by peoples' opinions or beliefs.

Now true enough, muscles don't solely fire for concentric contractions, but when we're talking about the primary purpose of particular exercises, that tends to be the emphasis. Even exercises that seem to reggae with that (like stiff legged deadlifts) you could easily argue that the concentric aspect of lower back muscles to raise the weight, and the impact of the exercise on working the lower back is kinda primary.

Regardless, though, and angle of attack for bench presses does not change the fact that it's the pushing with the arms, and as a consequence them moving together in front of the body (yes, even if there's some variance in the angle of the bench / torso) that is what is working the chest in terms of concentric contraction.

I should know, because once upon a time I was an "engineer" where the body, exercise, and gyms are concerned.
 
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