When the customer feels involved in the evaluation and programming process, they feel important and lead to better adoption and better results.
Put yourself in the shoes of your potential customer. Why should you spend a lot of money training with someone you barely know? Or how do you hold them back when they become customers? The answer lies in the buy-in.
Do customers buy what you sell?
Continue reading
When the customer feels involved in the evaluation and programming process, they feel important and lead to better adoption and better results.
Put yourself in the shoes of your potential customer. Why should you spend a lot of money training with someone you barely know? Or how do you keep them coming back as customers? The answer lies in the buy-in.
Do customers buy what you sell??
Continue reading
Rack pulls are considered a variation on the classic deadlift that works your lower back muscles efficiently. They also target your hamstrings, quads, traps, and some upper back forces. It is considered a partial deadlift because its range of motion is shorter than that of the traditional deadlift.
T.They are full body exercises and help to increase your physical strength to a great extent. This exercise also strengthens your hips and builds more muscles in your back. In addition, this exercise will help you increase your grip strength and reduce the load on your lumbar spine.
Below is the ultimate guide on how to effectively perform rack pulls to promote overall body strength.
1. First you need to adjust your rack to a suitable height. If your holding position is below your knees, consider placing the rack directly below your knee. With your trap above your knees, you'll want to align the rack with the bottom of your quadriceps. Stand with your feet hip-width apart. This is your starting position.
2. Now support your back and bring the bar closer to your body.
3. Inhale and grab the floor with your feet by twisting your toes outwards a little.
4. As you ride your feet through the floor, push your hips forward to raise the barbell from your knees to level with your hips.
5. After raising the barbell to hip level, hold it down for a second.
1. Always remember to add weight, not rack height, as you continue to pull the rack.
2. Your hips should be fully locked as you lift the barbell from your knees to hip height.
3. If you want to increase your grip strength, try holding the weight for a few seconds or as long as you want.
If you're comfortable with the traditional rack pull, there are always some variations that you can try:
This variant of the rack requires the use of a barbell or handles, which increases the diameter (thickness) of the barbell. This calls into question the strength of your palm's grip. This exercise is considered to be more rigid and therefore there cannot be any bending of the bar.
With this variant, the lifter places the barbell under a pair of safety stoppers. Here the person lifts the barbell as tightly as possible. This exercise is also very useful for increasing physical strength and intensifying motor recruitment.
This variant of the rack pull proves to be beneficial for increasing your grip strength and getting used to lifting heavier weights. The resistance bands are stretched at the beginning of the lifting process in order to lift the weight upwards. The straps then reduce the amount of support as the person gets more acceleration while pulling the rack. This is done to increase the rate of force production in the upper half of the power.
1. What is the point of rack pulls?
By practicing rack pulls regularly, you can increase overall body strength as it targets different muscle groups.
2. What is the significant difference between rack pulls and deadlifts?
The main difference between rack pulls and deadlifts is that rack pulls a shorter range of motion than deadlifts.
3. Are rack and pinion trains a great substitute for deadlifts?
Yes, rack and pinion hoists are considered a great substitute for deadlifts because you can achieve the same strength with a partial range of motion.
4. How many rack pulls should I do?
When you're ready to hone your skills, consider doing at least 3-4 sets of 4-6 reps. If you want to build your muscles, you should do 3-5 sets of 12-15 repetitions. When you're ready to gain strength, aim for 3-5 sets of 3-5 reps.
Have you ever said anything about your bench press?
"I was almost there, I just grooved the elevator wrong."
"I'm always pinned to the bottom of my bench."
"I can touch that weight and walk, but when I stop my bench I'm so much weaker."
"My overhead press and other bench accessories all got stronger, but my bench stayed the same."
These are comments I hear a lot from people who are having trouble increasing their bench press.
The good news is that they can be easily fixed by identifying the underlying problem and implementing effective solutions to address it.
When people fail, their bench pushes a few inches away from their chest for one or more of these reasons.
When the bar contacts your chest, your pectoral muscles are stretched and are in a favorable position to create force and reverse the load.
However, in the same lower position, your shoulders and triceps are at a disadvantaged leverage point.
Their main contribution is closer to the middle area and upwards.
This is generally the point at which we see the elbows feel like transferring the need for stress from the pecs to the shoulders and triceps to complete the lift.
I'll provide an overview here, but if you need to work on your own specific goals or have other issues, just contact me on Stacked Strength.
When a lifter improperly creases a lift directly from the chest, it often indicates weak chest muscles.
Because the pecs can't generate enough force to push the weight up, the elbows flare excessively to shift the load demands on the triceps and shoulders.
As mentioned earlier, at the bottom of the repetition, the triceps and shoulders are in a disadvantageous mechanical position to push the weight.
Therefore, weak pecs are usually the culprit when an athlete fails a rep a few inches from the chest.
However, this is often accompanied by an inability to effectively take the load and maximize the strain reduction cycle. If the athlete lowers the bar, and the eccentric and isometric strength is insufficient, then he will not take the load, which will lead to a decrease in elastic energy.
This energy, if not lost, would be used to quickly reverse the weight of the chest.
Another important factor in failure is bad technique.
However, there are several articles and how-to videos on how to optimize the bench press technique based on your levers and experience.
Therefore, technique will not be the focus of this article as it is assumed that technique is not the limiting factor.
Here, I'm going to teach you a simple strategy that addresses these two main problems so you can start developing new PRs.
But let's talk first about who this is for. As mentioned earlier, if you fail your chest, or if you lift incorrectly or struggle with paused reps, assuming your technique is decent, then you likely have weak pectorals.
Also, you likely lack the specific eccentric and isometric strength to both absorb and reverse the weight.
If this sounds like you, this strategy can help. The people who mainly have these problems are beginners and advanced learners.
Advanced athletes are a bit more complex, which can make the solutions equally complex. But I digress.
Below is a video demonstration of an effective exercise in fixing the above issues.
The strategy I am discussing can be implemented with great success with various urgent exercises and is not limited to the demonstration below.
An additional benefit of using Tempo while eliminating its mechanical advantages is the following It places higher demands on the target muscles and connective tissue without producing the same level of fatigue.
This is because, while the exercise feels challenging, the absolute load is less than if you were doing a full powerlifting setup and choosing an load with the same relative intensity.
For exampleWith a proper powerlifting setup, you can do a set of 8 at 100 lbs, but when you're doing a set of 8 at 70 lbs at pace, it might not feel any easier.
Same relative intensity, but less absolute stress.
This reduction in absolute stress reduces the stress on your body. This allows you to do more productive workouts within a micro cycle without exceeding your ability to recover.
Have you ever said anything about your bench press?
"I was almost there, I just grooved the elevator wrong."
"I'm always pinned to the bottom of my bench."
"I can touch that weight and walk, but when I stop my bench I'm so much weaker."
"My overhead press and other bench accessories all got stronger, but my bench stayed the same."
These are comments I hear a lot from people who are having trouble increasing their bench press.
The good news is that they can be easily fixed by identifying the underlying problem and implementing effective solutions to address it.
When people fail, their bench pushes a few inches away from their chest for one or more of these reasons.
When the bar contacts your chest, your pectoral muscles are stretched and are in a favorable position to create force and reverse the load.
However, in the same lower position, your shoulders and triceps are at a disadvantaged leverage point.
Their main contribution is closer to the middle area and upwards.
This is generally the point at which we see the elbows feel like transferring the need for stress from the pecs to the shoulders and triceps to complete the lift.
I'll provide an overview here, but if you need to work on your own specific goals or have other issues, just contact me on Stacked Strength.
When a lifter improperly creases a lift directly from the chest, it often indicates weak chest muscles.
Because the pecs can't generate enough force to push the weight up, the elbows flare excessively to shift the load demands on the triceps and shoulders.
As mentioned earlier, at the bottom of the repetition, the triceps and shoulders are in a disadvantageous mechanical position to push the weight.
Therefore, weak pecs are usually the culprit when an athlete fails a rep a few inches from the chest.
However, this is often accompanied by an inability to effectively take the load and maximize the strain reduction cycle. If the athlete lowers the bar, and the eccentric and isometric strength is insufficient, then he will not take the load, which will lead to a decrease in elastic energy.
This energy, if not lost, would be used to quickly reverse the weight of the chest.
Another important factor in failure is bad technique.
However, there are several articles and how-to videos on how to optimize the bench press technique based on your levers and experience.
Therefore, technique will not be the focus of this article as it is assumed that technique is not the limiting factor.
Here, I'm going to teach you a simple strategy that addresses these two main problems so you can start developing new PRs.
But let's talk first about who this is for. As mentioned earlier, if you fail your chest, or if you lift incorrectly or struggle with paused reps, assuming your technique is decent, then you likely have weak pectorals.
Also, you likely lack the specific eccentric and isometric strength to both absorb and reverse the weight.
If this sounds like you, this strategy can help. The people who mainly have these problems are beginners and advanced learners.
Advanced athletes are a bit more complex, which can make the solutions equally complex. But I digress.
Below is a video demonstration of an effective exercise in fixing the above issues.
The strategy I am discussing can be implemented with great success with various urgent exercises and is not limited to the demonstration below.
An additional benefit of using Tempo while eliminating its mechanical advantages is the following It places higher demands on the target muscles and connective tissue without producing the same level of fatigue.
This is because, while the exercise feels challenging, the absolute load is less than if you were doing a full powerlifting setup and choosing an load with the same relative intensity.
For exampleWith a proper powerlifting setup, you can do a set of 8 at 100 lbs, but when you're doing a set of 8 at 70 lbs at pace, it might not feel any easier.
Same relative intensity, but less absolute stress.
This reduction in absolute stress reduces the stress on your body. This allows you to do more productive workouts within a micro cycle without exceeding your ability to recover.
