You know, I think I might finish my next bench session with a 135-to-the-death set. 225 to failure would be pretty quick I think, maybe 10 reps, probaly less if I had a hard workout already. I normally do DB presses as bench night closer, but this sounds fun. I can’t remember the last time I did more than 8 or 10 reps. I have a hunch I will feel very humbled at how many reps I get- 20? 25 maybe?
Some threads just should not be resurrected. This is one of them.
Actually, if there were only ONE that shouldnt be resurrected, this would be that one.
When I was active on another lifting website, they had a deadlift challenge. Total number of DL’s in 5 minutes. Form did not matter, you just had to go from the ground to standing upright. If you weighed over 200lbs the weight was 225, if you were under 200 the weight was 165. I think these are the correct weights.
Anyway, at 175 lbs body weight, I did 165lbs 50 times. I was dead for about 2 days afterward. I couldn’t breathe right for about 2 hours. I paced myself at 10 reps per minute. The top guys in the heavy and light categories were doing around 50-60. Perhaps we should do something like that here. My best 135lb bench was 18 reps.
This debate reminds me of the fastest hand and feet competition in drumming. Very often guys will be clocked for a minute and try to play as many strokes as they can fit in - they are all calculated by a “triggered device” called a drumometer - it picks up all the strokes.
However, there are many loopholes because the speed might not be steady at times and I think it is a lot harder to play a song (which are much more than just a minute) at a steady, fast tempo than it is to isolate the hands or feet (or as drummers call it “twitching out”) at a fast but, not necessarily, steady
tempo.
[quote]pja wrote:
Professor X wrote:
You need to learn more about this exercise. If you completely lock out, it is a rest position. The major muscles being worked are now your triceps and stabilization from shoulders and arms, not your pecs if your arms are straight up in the air. The pectoral muscles work at adduction of the humerus. If the humerus is outstretched in front of the body, while they may be flexed, they are not receiving the direct force from the weight lifted.
Did you even read what I said?? If we assume the the path from point A to point B is the same for a partial rep where you only go from A to B, as it is for a full rep where you go from A to B plus something else…how can the total stress induced be more for the partial rep… See what I am saying?
There is no way it can be more…it might be the same(only if absolutely all the load is distributed through the arms)…or it might be less…but it can’t be more. Once again assuming everything else is the same, weight, number of reps,same path from A to B, total time from A to B,etc. [/quote]
Ok, let’s have some fun. Do you want to make yourself feel stupid? Then do the following:
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Go to the gym.
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Find a squat rack. With a barbell and some weight.
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Point A: squat almost ass to the grass but don’t rest on your calves at the bottom. Point B: come up until you have barely broken parallel.
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Alternate between point A and B.
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Write down how many reps you have done.
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Repeat steps 3 to 5 but changing point A and point B to be:
Point A: squat all the way down until your ass touches the grass and goes green.
Point B: come up until your legs are straight.
At the end of all this, come back here and write down how many reps you’ve achieved in both cases.
A.
P.s. There is no point in lying as I don’t care what the reps actually are, or what weight you used. The important point is that you will realise you need to learn more.
Partial Reps as Demonstrated in Video= Continual tension on one muscle group, in this instance the pecs. This allows those interested in hypertrophy of a specific muscle to focus on that muscle instead of being limited by the weakest muscle involved in the full ROM lift.
Full Range of Motion= Tension is not continual; the muscles not involved at that specific portion of the lift will have a chance to rest (‘rest’ being relative to the other portions of the lift).
Systemic energy expenditure is not relevant in max repetition lifts (high-rep squats and deads aside due to the metabolic tax they impose). How many times do you fail on a max rep bench because you gassed out? It is because of localized muscle fatigue, which is amplified with partial reps, as explained above.
However, if the muscle group on which tension if being amplified is signficantly stronger than the weakest muscle involved in the full-range lift, one can get more reps with that partial range of motion. Of course the negation holds true as well.
People must really love to argue if they’re going to make a statement as asinine as a partial rep being tougher than a full rep.
I also hope all the people with the “well you can’t do it so you can’t talk about it” attitude never discuss pro sports at all, because after all they’re not as good as the pros so they’re not allowed to have an opinion.