Hi Jay,
had a quick question about rack pulls. They are a new movement for me and Im on week 7 of doing them in the 4 day a week workouts from your get shredded guide. I slightly tweaked by lower back doing them yesterday and so felt like I was doing something wrong...
If your not inside a rack, how far down should you lower the bar? Is going halfway down your shins too far? This is what I was doing when I got the injury.
there isnt always a power rack available, so If rack pulls outside a rack give me lower back problems would you recommend switching them to regular deadlifts in order to allow a quick second break from the constant tension of never letting go of the bar (when doing the rack pulls outside the power rack)? Or should I plan to only do them inside the rack?
thankyou
jack
I would suggest lighten the weight some focus on the squeeze. A good alternative to rack pulls is the bent over row. Using the barbell vs DB will give good stabilization until you aren't tweaked and can isolate each side of the back again. Alternating underhand and overhand grip on barbell row will also give you different feel. It can be useful to hit the back from all angles. Good luck on your training. 💪🏼💪🏼⚡️
thankyou Zach, I like bent over barbell rows. I can connect with it really well especially the underhand way, but wouldn't that be more of a lat/rhomboid mid back movement? And the rack pulls would be like an erectors/lower back movment I thought, so I didn't know if that would be a good substitute for it. Does anything else come to mind that would be a good lower back substitute to rack pulls by chance? The other thing is maybe I just have to do them in the rack so I can get that little second pause where its laying down resting on a rack
@Jack Bartlett O sorry bud for some reason i was thinking you where talking about one arm row off the Dumb bell rack. A good exercise for the lower back would be Good mornings. I use to do them a lot when i first started training. I would go real light at first tho light weight will really pump up that muscle group. It's a excellent way to target the lower back without having to risk tweaks until you get back on track.
Also If you having lower back pain, Child pose, one leg donkey kicks, laying hip bridges, and hip flexor lunge stretches are all excellent stretches that i personally use and know work. I'm a big advocate of stretching the tweak and hitting it with heat and ice till you feel better.
@Zachary Sykes Wow thanks Zach! thats a ton of good info, I really appreciate it 🙏 Before this latest, I havnt had a lower back issue in a long time, but its been a reoccuring problem and so always a potential issue. Ive never done good mornings before and Im going to look into all these, thanks man!!!
I go about mid shins on rack pulls... remember... I had tissue work every week that kept me more plyable
@Jay Cutler for whats its worth, I started having a lot of weird "injuries" beginning with this lower back injury. I did a bunch of digging that ended with going to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, and it turns out I have Elhers-Danlos syndrome. So my body can't utilize or produce collagen as it should and thats where this comes from. It took a lot to find this out, so sharing in case it helps someone else.
