I was poking my noob nose around the 'Strength Sports' forum and noticed that the programs that people post have much, much, MUCH more pressing work than rowing. For instance, there would be 12-16 sets of various pressing exercises all with much more load than the measley 4-6 sets of rows. Shouldn't this cause imbalances?
From the majority of the articles I’ve read on this site, pressing and pulling should be done of equal volume/load. For example, presses are balanced with rows and chins while squats are balanced with deads.
If someone could clear this up, I’d appreciate it.
Ya know, I had the same question when I started Westside. For me, it isn’t as big of an issue because I’ve always been a better puller than pusher. But, when doing pushing exercises, they are done on ME days at a high intensity (intensity being % of 1RM) and a low volume. The pulling work is done at a higher volume with lower intensity. While you probably couldn’t expect the same strength over time in your pulling vs. pressing, the higher voulume of the former is often enough to offset possible imbalances.
A lot of the Westside templates include a lot of upper back work, such as face pulls and seated power cleans in addition to main exercises like pullups and rows. This is to offset any imbalances from the pressing work, plus it helps with stability on the bench. After all, even Dave Tate says the lats are essential to a big bench, and you don’t build your lats without pulling. I like to throw in some high-rep upper back work into each upper body day to keep myself balanced. So far, no shoulder problems and my back is strong as hell too. Deadlifting heavy helps too.
Hey great points all you forgot one crutial one though. The frequency and high volume pulling we do. Im talking the pain enduring massive amout of time we pull a fork spoon or cup from the table etc to our bodies and up to the mouth My god that alone has added innches to my lats
Overtraining the upper back through comsumption an article in the making. Also the reason no curls are needed
I had the same question when I was reading Westside routines for the first time. In the templates I read they often do pulling on both upper body and lower body days. The total sets are low on each day, but over 2 upper body and 2 lower body days it probably balances out.