[quote]Rational Gaze wrote:
Can anyone describe droop rows to me? I’ve read about them before, and I know Justin Harris uses them, but I can’t work out what they’re supposed to be. Thanks.[/quote]
This. You can use different attachements than the rope; Dave Henry used to have a video somewhere of him doing them wide grip on a traditional pull-down bar.
Thanks a lot, Sento. I think I’m going to use these instead of wide grip pull downs.
Is it safe to say that the droop row is a thickness exercise?
[quote]Mateus wrote:
Is it safe to say that the droop row is a thickness exercise?[/quote]
I think you will find it’s an excellent width exercise. All the stress will be on the upper part of the lats/teres major. I still prefer the parallel grip handle on those although with a rope I think you could extend the ROM to mimic a pullover at the end. Justin Harris largely contributes that style of rowing to a huge jump in lat width he made over a year or so span.
15-30RP on those, I think the sweet spot is around 18-22RP personally although the 25+ range certainly burns like hell.
I’ve always trained alone and decided it’s about time to get some video and have my form checked. I’m posting it here to weed out the trolls. I’m thinking I should try to pull my shoulders back more at the top.
Feedback much appreciated!
[quote]zenomaly wrote:
I’ve always trained alone and decided it’s about time to get some video and have my form checked. I’m posting it here to weed out the trolls. I’m thinking I should try to pull my shoulders back more at the top.
Feedback much appreciated![/quote]
Form looks good. Lower back kept it’s arch intact. You’re correct though, it doesn’t seem like you are pulling your shoulders back at the top. Squeeze the scapula at the top of the motion. BTW, how much weight was that? Hard to tell from that angle…
**EDIT: I see the weight listed in the video now, sorry.
OK, I replaced front pulldowns with droop rows and I love them. I considered holding the stretched position after my working set instead of the usual extreme stretch.
[quote]Rational Gaze wrote:
OK, I replaced front pulldowns with droop rows and I love them. I considered holding the stretched position after my working set instead of the usual extreme stretch.[/quote]
That’s a viable option. But I’d wait until you have done both your width and thickness exercises, unless you have another stretch in mind for thickness and don’t feel like doing your width stretch will hinder your on your thickness exercise.
Looking thick and strong Zen, good job. Your form looks good, but yeah, you could retract your shoulder blades more at the top to get more upper back stimulus out of the lift.
What kind of stretching are you guys doing for back thickness and forearms?
[quote]Sentoguy wrote:
[quote]Rational Gaze wrote:
OK, I replaced front pulldowns with droop rows and I love them. I considered holding the stretched position after my working set instead of the usual extreme stretch.[/quote]
That’s a viable option. But I’d wait until you have done both your width and thickness exercises, unless you have another stretch in mind for thickness and don’t feel like doing your width stretch will hinder your on your thickness exercise.[/quote]
I’ll do it after thickness, thanks again.
[quote]necrondi wrote:
What kind of stretching are you guys doing for back thickness and forearms?[/quote]
forearms are stretched with biceps. there is no real specific stretch for forearms directly.
for thickness you can do the doorknob stretch or you can get the v handle, attach it to the seated row machine and let it pull you forward with you trying to stay pretty straight but flaring the lats until you feel the stretch in the “thickness” of the back
The SLDL has never been one of my favorite exercises so I have not spent a whole lot of time training with it. That was a mistake! I am doing them after a leg press SS in a rep range of 15-20. Is this more of a focus on the stretch and burn, form, and intensity -vs- load?
Reason I ask is because I just barely got 16 reps with 185 lbs. Should I focus more on keeping the higher side of the rep range or increasing the weight and going into the bottom of the rep range?
Thanks for the feedback Sento & Mateus. Glad to know the only tweak I need is an easy one. I only recently started pulling with a belt so I wanted to make sure my form is still ok before I go repping 5+ with 500+. Silly me refused to wear a belt until now…
If you want to do them in the 15-20 SS range, then you might want to keep the weight the same and see if you can’t get your reps up to around 18 at least next time. Which, since you say you haven’t done them much in the past, should be pretty doable, might even hit 20+. Then proceed to up the weight while trying to keep the reps within that range as long as you can.
If for whatever reason you don’t increase the reps by at least 2 next time around, then you might want to drop the weight slightly and start at 20 reps.
And, just so you know, this is the general progression recommendation for pretty much all exercises. Starting at/near the top of the rep range and fighting to keep your reps up as long as possible, but knowing that since you’re adding weight regularly that the reps will eventually begin to drop to and below the bottom of the rep range, no matter how good your recovery/diet is. Once you do hit the bottom (or below), keep the weight the same and try to up the reps to get back into the rep range. When you fail to progress in terms of reps on two consecutive tries, then it’s time to switch the exercise out for another one for that body part.
[quote]zenomaly wrote:
Thanks for the feedback Sento & Mateus. Glad to know the only tweak I need is an easy one. I only recently started pulling with a belt so I wanted to make sure my form is still ok before I go repping 5+ with 500+. Silly me refused to wear a belt until now…[/quote]
I hear ya man. I didn’t use a belt until a few years ago when I hurt myself and decided to start wearing one purely to prevent that from reoccurring. Being injured sucks big time, much better safe than sorry IMO.
Is there a way to focus on progression with the doorknob stretch? I’ve been doing the hanging lat stretch but it might not be possible at times.
[quote]pumped340 wrote:
Is there a way to focus on progression with the doorknob stretch? I’ve been doing the hanging lat stretch but it might not be possible at times. [/quote]
Well, kind of if you count pulling away from what you’re holding onto harder and holding the stretch for longer periods of time. But it’s not going to be as quantifiable as the stretches where you are using added weight (like the hanging lat stretch).
You could basically do the same stretch using a seated pulley station and a close-medium grip neutral attachment, which would make progression a little more quantifiable, if you wanted to.
[quote]pumped340 wrote:
Is there a way to focus on progression with the doorknob stretch? I’ve been doing the hanging lat stretch but it might not be possible at times. [/quote]
The easiest is clearly going to be time you can tolerate… only you will be able to say if you are pulling equally as hard every time. You could also take TINY steps backwards say 1 inch back from where your feet where before and try to hold equally as long. Just stretch as hard as you can for 60-90 seconds though really.
Week 7 over now with my “Anaconda blast” and I have to say I’m quite pleased. I used to have recovery issues with the 3RP (cut my blasts short) but I can see this blast going for at least 3 more weeks. No signs of stalling or fatigue yet.