Ive been thinking about this lately. Many upper body pulling movements should be much stronger than pushing movements, due to the large powerful muscles involved in these movements. But there is a big biomechanical difference between pushing and pulling that makes them very different. These differences must lead to different training parameters, maybe you guys have some input on the matter.
Here are the differences:
1.) Pushing movements usually have a lockout, whereas pulling movements do not.
—In a bench press, or shoulder press, as long as you have adequate tricep strength, the movement becomes easier at the top of the rep until lockout. This point is arguable, but consider how much weight can be done for a partial rep, vs a full rep and you’ll see that less force is required as the rep nears the top.
—Now with a movement like the pullup, as you near the end of the rep, more force is required. Acceleration will not help you, because there is no lockout. Ive noticed for me, and many others, when doing heavy weighted pullups, the bottom of the movement is easy, because it requires the less force than the top, and uses all the powerful muscles of the back, while the top of the movement requires more force and mainly involves the weaker muscles of the arms. I do see many people in the gym that do not have a problem with the top of the movement, but they are usually the ones using no added weight, doing higher reps, only going down 1/2 way, and focusing on their biceps as their most important body part. Im not trying to mimic them.
2.) Pushing movments have a good stretch reflex at the weakest point (bottom) while pulling movements have a good stretch reflex at the strongest point (bottom).
—This is what makes pulling movements so strong (at the bottom). Most people can pull an incredible amount of weight for the first couple of inches. This also helps for movements like clean and snatch, that are pulling movements that rely mainly on acceleration. But this only makes rows/pullups worse. Your able to pull a lot of weight the first couple of inches, but its very unlikely if this weight is even moderately difficult, that you’ll be able to complete a full rep. And if you do use a weight that you can do a full rep with, then its not heavy enough to to stress your lats at the bottom of the movement.
—This is also what makes heavy pulls so difficult for me. Especially when it comes to grinding strength, where the rep starts to slow, and you have to keep pulling “grinding” to the top. If you start to slow towards the bottom where less force is required and your strongest muscles are, then how are you gonna make it through the harder parts of the rep? It just doesn’t seem possible.
Those are my observations about pulling movements vs. Pushing movements. This is probably why pullups and rows are not in competitions and are mainly only used as accessory type lifts. I’d like to take these assumptions about the lifts and overcome them to reach greater levels of strength.
***There are only really two solutions i can come up with.
- Split one movement like pullups up into two partial movements.
–First do heavy weight at the bottom of the rep, and only come up 1/4-1/2 way. Then work the top of the rep seperately with lighter weight.
–Or maybe train the bottom of the rep for speed strength, and the top half for grinding strength. This might imply typical speed strength parameters at the bottom, and then some maximal isometrics or something similar at the top.
- Use some sort of training device like bands chains or weight releasers
—I dont know much about this type of thing, but i think bands and chains would only make the problem worse. Weight releasers might be useful. I have heard of people doing something similar with pullups. Basically you hold a heavy dumbell between your legs, and then pull as hard as you can, when you stop moving up, let go of the dumbell, and you’ll shoot up. Never tried it, but could be useful.
What do you guys think? Im leaning toward training the bottom of the rep for speed, and the top for grinding strength.