When deadlifting and size is your primary goal. What technique do you use:
Touch and go (let the bar lightly touch the ground between reps
Bounce the bar between reps
Let the bar come to rest between reps
Stop the bar an inch or two short of touching the floor
Reason for my Q, is that I read an article in Muscular Development magazine, where they said you should stop the bar an inch or two short of touching the floor between reps. I’ve seen some of the other bodybuilders in my gym use this technique as well.
Allowing to bar to come to rest and ripping it from the floor/pins again recruits the most motor units and has the most strength benefits. This is not what you desire. Powerlifters typically use this method.
Touch and go (assuming the touch is light) or stopping an inch above the floor would be best for size/hypertrophy because of the “time under tension” principle. Bodybuilders typically use these methods.
[quote]njrusmc wrote:
This is how it was explained to me.
Allowing to bar to come to rest and ripping it from the floor/pins again recruits the most motor units and has the most strength benefits. This is not what you desire. Powerlifters typically use this method.
Touch and go (assuming the touch is light) or stopping an inch above the floor would be best for size/hypertrophy because of the “time under tension” principle. Bodybuilders typically use these methods.
I have never seen the bouncing technique.[/quote]
Yep, this is basiclly spot-on. I tend to favor resting the bar on the floor after every rep, but that’s mostly because I still have a lot of strength that I can benefit from doing them. Use the lift that coincides best with your goals. I will say, though, that ripping it off the floor will dominate my traps worse than anything else.
[quote]njrusmc wrote:
This is how it was explained to me.
Allowing to bar to come to rest and ripping it from the floor/pins again recruits the most motor units and has the most strength benefits. This is not what you desire. Powerlifters typically use this method.
Touch and go (assuming the touch is light) or stopping an inch above the floor would be best for size/hypertrophy because of the “time under tension” principle. Bodybuilders typically use these methods.
[quote]njrusmc wrote:
This is how it was explained to me.
Allowing to bar to come to rest and ripping it from the floor/pins again recruits the most motor units and has the most strength benefits. This is not what you desire. Powerlifters typically use this method.
.[/quote]
Powerlifters tend to have very thick and dense backs so that is what I desire… I’ll take a brief pause or touch and go(without bouncing) rather than stopping the bar mid air. Much safer in my opinion at least.
If your sticking point is on or close to the floor, touch and go deadlifts will keep it there. If you want to do the movement without the ‘starting strength’ effect, then you may as well rack pull it and start with the negative. It then becomes a little more like a quarter squat. They all have benefits, but if you find that resting the bar completely between reps is robbing you of increasing the load or reps, then stick with touch-and-go or even use a bounce to help bust through plateaus (and then return to touch and go). No point in doing the movement picture-perfect and not progressing.
