Day 354 - P90X2 Base and Back Latest Numbers

Well, I posted my latest numbers for Chest, Back, and Balance, so here are my latest numbers for Base & Back as well:

Exercise - Round 1 reps, Round 2 reps

No Kip Pull-up - 15 reps, 13 reps
Plyo Frog Squat - 30 reps, 30 reps
Wide Leg Close Grip Chin-up - 15 reps, 13 reps
Chair Jump - 20 reps, 20 reps
Chin Pull - 16 reps, 14 reps
Plyo Lunge Press - 15lbs (each hand) 25 reps, 15lbs (each hand) 25 reps
V Pull-up - 12 reps, 10 reps
Surfer Spin (I do the "Run Stance Switch" from P90X Plyo-X) - 30 reps, 30 reps
Kippy Cross Fugly Pull - 16 reps, 16 reps
Jack-in-the-Box Knee Tucks - 25 reps, 25 reps

Quote of the day:
"If there is no struggle, there is no progress."
~ Frederick Douglass

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Day 68 - Pullups/Lat Pulldown Hand Positions

I'd like to hear more about how exactly a lat pull down tracking behind the head strains the shoulder. 

Cable Lat Pulldowns can be a great alternative to pullups. For individuals who have access to that piece of equipment can greatly benefit from a lat pulldown tower, especially if they cannot do full pullups yet. Having said that, I think you should stay away from pulling the bar down behind your head - keep the bar in front of your face, coming down to your chest.

Most people do not have the required shoulder flexibility to do a posterior lat pulldown correctly. This, in turn, can lead to bad form and increased potential for injury (shoulder impingement) because the upper arms (humerus bones) are not really designed to track that far behind your body.

If anyone is promoting the use of a posterior cable pulldown, then they must be doing it because they believe that there is either more muscle being activated or you can 'attack' a muscle in your back in a better way...both cases are untrue. In fact, studies have shown that an anterior cable pulldown or pullup activates far more muscle out of the lats, and if you wish to train some of the other muscles in the back that assist in shoulder blade adduction (rhomboids) or humerus adduction (teres major), then you can try changing hand grips, as long as you still maintain the proper transit of the bar in front of your face.

Can a posterior pulldown be done correctly? Sure. But in my opinion, the cons outweigh the risks, and you can achieve far better muscle activation and strength from other forms and keeping things much safer.

I have found a study that was done on varying hand grips on the lat pulldown machine. Here is their "Practical Applications" portion of the paper.

Short forms:
LD = Latissimus Dorsi
WGA = Wide Grip Anterior
WGP = Wide Grip Posterior
PM = Pectoralis Major
CG = Close Grip

Because the primary purpose of the lat pull-down exercise is the development of increased strength during shoulder adduction, it is of great importance to prescribe the handgrip position that elicits the most activity from the muscle primarily involved with this downward movement, namely the LD. The results of this study indicate that the wide grip hand position with the bar pulled anteriorly to the chest (WGA) recruits more motor units, and therefore requires more work from the LD than any of the other conditions tested. Therefore, this handgrip position should be used to provide a greatest amount stimulus and a greater development of the LD than other handgrip positions. This finding may be especially important because it brings into question the necessity to use the WGP position, which has been cited as a condition that increases the potential for injury to both the gleno-humeral joint and cervical spine.
 

But if the purpose for the prescription of the pull- down exercise is to develop overall strength during shoulder adduction, or if the athletic movement being trained for involves adduction with the arm located more anteriorly, then the strength professional should also include handgrip positions which elicit more activity from the PM. The results of this study indicate that the CG hand position recruits more activity from the PM. Therefore, incorporation of pull-down movements with a CG can increase the overall development of strength for shoulder adduction.

Quote of the day:

"Do not let it be your aim to be something, but to be someone."
~ Victor Hugo

Day 47 - Pullup Question

I started doing pullups 2 years ago with a doorway pull bar. After 1.5 rounds my numbers went way up with short stroke pulls as I was too tall for the bar. I switched to a permanent bar bolted above the doorway. I am 6'2" and I have to reach to grab the bar so each rep is from a full hang. My numbers went down as expected as i did full range pulls. Over a few rounds with the higher bar the numbers came back up but many times I would toe tap between reps. Now I'm trying to eliminate or at least reduce the toe tapping between reps. I try and push 10-12 reps, then a very quick toe touch to reposition my hands and another 4-6 reps, with another quick toe touch, 2-4 more. When I get wasted I then will do a toe touch to hammer out 2-3 more to reach my goal. How should pulls be done, and is there a standard that says pull reps should be continuous, no touching throughout?

If anything, I would RECOMMEND a foot touch on the floor between reps, that ensures that you are getting full range of motion. My pullup bar is mounted to my basement ceiling so it is right about the perfect height for me now.

I will fully admit that I used to cheat with my pullups and only come down about 80% of the way to the floor, but now I force myself to get a toe tap on each rep to get full range of motion. Sure, my reps dropped initially as well, but they will climb again as you get stronger.

I would say a quick rest between reps is fine, as long as you remember a few things:

1 - Don't spend any more than maybe about 1/2-1 second on the ground between each rep. You may have 1 mid-set break that may last a few seconds, but try and keep somewhat of a consistent pace.

2 - Even when you touch the floor and take a quick rest, try and keep your hands on the bar and your arms/lats engaged. They don't need to be fully flexed, but not relaxing either. This increases what is known as your 'time under tension', keeping the muscle fibers engaged. By keeping your muscles under tension, you create a situation where they have a better chance for muscular growth (size and strength). 

3 - Try and keep your concentric (upward movement) and eccentric (downward movement) motion as fluid as possible. When knowing that your feet are coming down to contact the floor, the tendency is to let yourself 'fall' from the bar, rather than lowering yourself. Remember that the downward motion, and therefore controlling your body while lowering it, is just as important as the upward motion.

I also recommend keeping 'kipping' to a minimum as well. Kipping is when you use other movements with your body to propel your momentum and body weight off the ground, helping you get your chin over the pullup bar.

The problem I have with kipping is that it not only removes a lot of the force needed to complete an actual pullup, but every has different body mechanics, including kipping, so not everyone is going to kip the same way. Because of this, some individuals may end up creating muscular imbalances due to improper form that can lead to injury down the road.

Unfortunately, some other 'organizations' promote kipping, for reasons I will not understand...

Quote of the day:

"Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor."

~Truman Capote

My Birthday Challenge - The Details

Believe me or not, I was honestly planning on posting my Birthday Challenge details today, and now it just so happens that Steve Edwards (the guy whose blog inspired MY Birthday Challenge) also posted some Birthday Challenge details today. Keep in mind, Steve is more of an outdoorsy-type than me, but both challenges are based on the same principles; to physically push yourself and challenge yourself to make this birthday more memorable than the last! Or, as Steve writes in his blog today, "It's not a birthday pretty hard, it's a birthday challenge!"

Here is my layout and plan for my birthday challenge this year. I have committed myself to hitting my goals in all of these categories, even if it takes me all day to complete! A couple of things to note; first of all, I turn 27 years old on Friday November 25th 2011. Since work will get my way of reaching my goals, I have decided to do the birthday challenge on Saturday November 26th instead. Secondly, some of you out there may find some of these goals "easy", but that is all dependent on your current fitness level. For me, I tried to plan goals that are attainable, but challenging to me, while trying to maintain some sort of relation to this being my 27th birthday as I can. Yes, some of these goals will be easier than others, but overall, this should definitely fall into one of my most memorable birthdays yet!

Here are my goals based on taking ideas from many other birthday challenges I have read from others, keep in mind I am turning 27 years old (that is the binding pattern here):

270 Pushups - This one may be a bit easy for me as I am fairly good at cranking out pushups, but will still challenge me enough and make some of the other goals tough!

270 Pullups/Chinups - This will most definitely be my most difficult category. I will alternate between pullup sets and chinup sets, but all will include pulling up my own body weight to get my chin over that bar.

270 Jump Squats - Pretty self-explanatory here. I feel I have pretty resilient/strong legs so this one shouldn't be too bad, although combined with the next goal and things may get interesting towards the end.

270 Plyo Lunges - Again, I feel I have strong, resilient legs, but these combined with the jumping squats are going to have me walking funny the next day probably!

729 Crunches - 27*27=729 that is where I got this number. 270 crunches didn't seem like enough to me so I expanded my goal. Here I will alternate between a few different types of crunches that target the upper and lower abs as well as the obliques, but either way I will hit 729 total crunches.

2700 Jump Ropes - This one may get interesting towards the end and will definitely cause me to feel it in my calves the next day!

2700 lbs. Lifted - I will lift 2700 lbs. total in a few different ways such as shoulder presses, bicep curls and triceps kickbacks. An example of this would be 60lb shoulder press (30lb each hand) for 10 reps equals 600 pounds. I will be able to reach 2700 pretty quick and easy, but it will still effect other things such as pushups and pullups!

2.7L Beer - Assuming I am still awake later in the day, I will consume 2.7L of beer in honor of many other birthday challenges I have read about. This actually is quite a feat for me as I am not much of a drinker, so knocking back just under 8 cans of beer after a day full of exercise will certainly knock me out!

So there you have it. The way I have structured my day to meet all of my goals is by breaking down all of these goals into smaller sets to allow my body to recover a bit between sets. For example, my very first circuit I will do 30 pushups, 15 pullups, 70lb shoulder press x 10 reps (700lbs), 40 standard crunches, 15 chinups, 30 jump squats, 30 plyo lunges, 200 jump ropes. I will continue in this pattern somewhat, but as I go, I will hit my goals for certain categories first so that by the end I will pretty much be alternating between pullups/chinups, jump ropes and crunches. (I hope that makes sense)

For training, I will be spending 5-6 days a week training for what I will be doing. What I mean by this is that I will be doing pushups, pullups, core work, weight lifting, plyometrics, etc. I will record all of my birthday challenge and edit it down to a more concise video at that time for all of you to either use as motivation, or to just call me crazy! Stay tuned...

***EDIT*** You can view my Birthday Challenge video here

-Tyler Robbins
B.Sc. PTS