[quote]DaCharmingAlbino wrote:
[quote]yolil wrote:
Hi, this is my first post. As most first posters say “hope I’m in the right place”.
I’m 37 weigh 82kg(181lbs) and 183cm (6ft.)tall.
Just back training since Feb after a long lay off - so weights are light. Trying to put form first.
Some of my current 1RM numbers are:
Snatch 50kg - trying to fix second pull
C+J 70kg
Squat 100kg (major weak point - starting to work on this now)
DL 130kg (ditto)
Bench 90kg - I only bench about once every 2 months
Deadhang BW pullups 10
Standing Broad Jump 2,50m
Currently trying to work on technique with Muscle Ups, Korean Dips (which so far seem to help my shoulders), Front Lever Pulls + improve Squats, DLs + TGU.
I have 2 questions about Pull Ups if anyone can help. Does the close grip (shoulder width) version, where the elbows are in front of the body not massively recrute the pecs and therefore reduce the load on the lats (and back in general), whereas keeping the elbows laterally in line with the trunk makes for a purer back exercise?
Secondly, why is it I find that I start raising my knees at the end of a set to make the pull up easier?
Thanks in advance for any comments.
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We’re about the same height and weight, though I have 10 years on you.
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elbows in front recruits more biceps and so lets you lift more weight, so I guess you could say it reduces load on the back by spreading it over more muscles. Dunno about pec involvement. You doing them pullups behind the neck?
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Your body is trying to reduce the lever arm that your trunk and legs make, making it easier to bring the body close to the upper arm. Same reason it’s easier to do pullover’s with bent arms rather than straight. There’s also some irradiation going on and that movement pattern may even be an evolutionary holdover from avoiding ground-based predators. Obviously, I’m speculating and others in the forum likely know better than I.[/quote]
Thanks for your post - your ideas are very interesting. The following are just other proposals.
Would the bicep involvement not be very similar regardless of elbow position as the distance traveled by the wrist to the shoulder is basically the same? Would one not be just a standard curl and the other a hammer curl as regards the bicep? The reason that I mention the pec involvement is that the elbows in front make the pullup a calisthenic pullover which bodybuilders use for pec as well as lat development.
I love your point about ground-based predators - sounds a bit whacky but I think it’s a great hypothesis - maybe it could become the new “barefoot pullup” - as the barefoot runners also use this idea. (not being serious now). I’ve actually been recently researching the bipedal human’s descent from the trees with regard to wrist structure and found the comment really interesting. There maybe a more mundane explanation though following from your reduction of the lever arm idea that the knee raise is a partial kip which creates momentum by means of the leg movement which we transfer to the arms through the inertia of our trucks to help finish the pull of the elbows.
I’m gonna try to keep those knees down which is tough though as I train outside on a beach gym and form is so easily defeated by ego!!
