The point of the questioning relates to the fact that yes the pulling muscles are involved in the sprint but are not as directly involved, one would think, as hams/glutes/quads/calves(weight/load bearing musculature).
True enough but what power output can you generate with pull downs vs bench?
No doubt that’s it’s not even close. I was just looking for an additional method of providing stimulation to a fairly large number of m-u’s in a manner similar to the way in which you often use the bench.
I was thinking in terms of a a pulldown/weighted pull-up or a dumbbell row. I discounted barbell rows in the same role since a great deal of ab/low back activation would have to occur to get into positon to execute it as well as stabilize for the movement.
I was considering such to be used in addition to using benches or inclines in a program.
with pulldowns should they be performed weighted with lesser reps as bench. Or do as many as you can(which is around12-15) I would think that weighted ones would incorporate more motor units and give a greater cns stimulus.
bumping it.
Not sure except youd prob want to use these exercises closer in and the last squat/clean session would need to be closer in as well
Aren’t all pulldowns weighted? Or did you mean chin-ups/pull-ups?
Repetition performance is dependent upon intensity (% Repetition Maximum), so the most you can do is based on the % you are using. There would be no benefit to power using 12-15 repetitions. Low reps would be more beneficial to maximum motor-unit recruitment, but I’m not sure if the benefits are there with the pulldown as a stimulus for the sprints at all. Chin-ups and pull-ups would be a better substitute overall, but what about stretch-shortening cycle contribution since the chin- and pull-up begin in the concentric range?
One more question that seems to fit here, which concerns the other weights that you would be doing without the heavy bench effort 3-4 days out. If you’re in a comp period where you have been doing maintenance weights, and the bench is a higher stimulus for the final taper for THE key race in this comp, would the other weights in this one session be maintenance or off?
In that one special case, the bench would be the only lift
Thanks, that’s exactly the way I was thinking about putting together a program.
Interesting… So, most people could max out on bench with low reps, 2 days out? Or would they drop the intensity of the lift if they’re that close to the race?
Would olympic lifts fall into the same category as squats, where they should be performed a minimum of 5 days out?