[quote]btlifter wrote:
just one other question… lots of people advocate pullups rather than pulldowns… why is that? personally i’ve always preferred pulldowns because of the ability to precisely control the weight… and… i can only do something like 6 good pullups, so, what if i want to control the form etc. more thoroughly?[/quote]
Once you can do 15 straight pullups with good form I guarantee you won’t be complaining of a narrow upper back. Pullups are a way better back builder than pulldowns.
guys, i’m not refuting your claims, im’ simply asking for an explanation as to why, it seems like it shouldn’t be the way, i offered explanations as to why pulldowns seem better… i’m just curious as to why those who disagree do, in fact, disagree
My take is that I am hitting more muscles when I am doing a pullup. I definitely feel my abs firing. When I do pull downs, I do not feel my abs firing. I don’t feel my shoulders firing as much either.
When I use a finger board, I feel my forearms firing as well as the rest of my body. When I go one armed, I feel my shoulders firing even more to stabilize my body.
Does this mean it’s better? I don’t know. I am not a scientist. But feeling muscles fire makes me think I am at least using them.
Wow, lots of ribbing on my “outer lats” comment; I appear to have dropped a fitness term that’s grossly out of fashion at the moment…
I’ve read the arguments about “no inner pecs/lats/etc.,” and actually agree–isolating individual muscles, to say nothing of parts of muscles, is impossible.
Still, on wide-grip chins, I find it useful when coaching clients to tell them to focus on the sides of the back, (the outermost portion of the lats), to keep the movement out of the arms or shoulders…which is the problem that the guy who made the post was having.
[quote]btlifter wrote:
guys, i’m not refuting your claims, im’ simply asking for an explanation as to why, it seems like it shouldn’t be the way, i offered explanations as to why pulldowns seem better… i’m just curious as to why those who disagree do, in fact, disagree[/quote]
Why, in general, is a squat better than a leg press?
Everything has it’s place. There is nothing wrong with pulldowns. However, pullups force you to stabilize your whole body throughout the movement, otherwise you will swing. You will involve many more muscles. With pulldowns, you lose most of the stabilization since your legs are locked in place. At least with the cable pulldown, you still have some upper body stabilization going on. If you switch to a fixed pulldown on a machine, then you take out even more muscles.
Is that a bad thing? Depends on what your goal is. If you want the best bang for your buck, involve the most muscles. If you want to concentrate on fewer muscles at one time to bring up lagging body parts, then there you go.
And you can manipulate the reps on pullups. Just get a pullup/dip belt and add some weights.
And you can manipulate the reps on pullups. Just get a pullup/dip belt and add some weights.
blifter is probably concerned with manipulating the weight in the other direction–ie, less than body weight, which is possible but requires more imagination than the dip belt (I’m not a big fan of assisted chin units).
I can often make myself sore from a single set of chins done all out with full extension. Can’t say pulldowns have ever had that effect, no matter how much weight I use.
I’m fairly new to the site, but let’s face it here: the bottom line is that chins are a “pride” exercise, like deads or full squats. I suspect guys who read this site advocate them for the same reason most people avoid them: they’re functional, they’re a full-body workout, and they’re hard as hell.
[quote]dynamicfitness wrote:
And you can manipulate the reps on pullups. Just get a pullup/dip belt and add some weights.
blifter is probably concerned with manipulating the weight in the other direction–ie, less than body weight, which is possible but requires more imagination than the dip belt (I’m not a big fan of assisted chin units).
[/quote]
I really don’t love the assisted chin/dip station unless you can’t do any at all. Again, it takes out a lot of what the bw chins give you.
Also, if the OP is interested in manipulating the weight (i.e. making chins easier), maybe he should just focus on being able to do 10-12 unweighted and then add the weights. As long as you can do 3 or 4, you will build them up over time, and he says he can do 6 already. Just keep pulling, make them a priority and they will improve.