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A key question is: How much? DOES A STUDENT DO AS MUCH WORK ON THE WAY
DOWN AS ON THE WAY UP?
1) The subjectively measured, constant-speed muscle force that I
apply is the same halfway up and halfway down.
3) Long before exhaustion, power is probably the key
agony-determining variable; the faster work is done, the more it
"hurts". ("Agony" and "hurt" are not the right words, here; I'm
trying to be cute. But I don't quite know what words do describe the
subjective experience of doing a pull-up.)
4) When the upstroke and downstroke are completed at the same
constant speed, it's remarkable how similar the agony levels are.
5) The turn-around motions at top and bottom are neither
energetically negligible nor equivalent. At the top of a pull-up,
the muscles involved have the least leverage, so the top turn-around
motion requires more muscle force and work than the turn-around at
the bottom.
6) Psychologically, the top turn-around is something to be dreaded
much more than the bottom turn-around (for the physical reasons cited
in #5). So the upstroke is subjectively experienced as "bad but
getting worse," while the downstroke is "bad but getting better."
Strangely, I think assertion #6 may offer the best explanation for
why the upstroke is "harder" than the downstroke in constant-speed
cyclic exercises like pull-ups.