If you are particularly strong above the knee it may be tempting to really pile on the plates and impress the whole gym with how much you can rack pull 4 inches. When pulling at knee height or above knee height I prefer to use sets of 4-12. Use the singles to strengthen as much of the ROM as possible without the use of the quads. If you want to pull heavy singles on the Rack Pull I recommend using one of the lower pin positions (from below knee to midshin). That is one main workset with perhaps one back off set for extra volume. Whatever the rep range used, 1-2 sets is probably plenty of work for a lifter strong enough to even be bothering with the exercise. Like Deadlifts, Rack Pulls can be useful along the repetition continuum from heavy singles to sets of 10. This tells me I probably have some weakness in my erectors that is ultimately holding back my regular deadlifts. I can actually Rack Pull more weight if I move the bar down a few inches and get more hamstring involvement. Again, for me, that position is directly at the knee cap. Typically lifters will do better to focus their training on the areas in the lift where they feel the weakest. I would encourage all lifters interested in the lift to experiment with various heights and find their weak and strong points throughout the range of motion. The very short range of motion allows for very very heavy weights to be pulled, but the incredibly short range of motion may or may not have a lot of carryover to a full deadlift.Īs with many things, the answer is “it depends.” The subjective difficulty of the Rack Pull is greatly influenced by a lifter’s height and his build. This is probably the most abused Rack Pull position in the gym. Arguably this is a good thing from a training standpoint. I can just find no tightness whatsoever in the set up. I personally find that my weakest Rack Pull position is directly even with my knee cap. This means that the lifter is using a whole lot of glute and low back to break the weight from the pins. From this position the ROM has been shortened enough so that there is significantly less hamstring involvement. Many lifters will find that this is a very difficult height to pull from. This height rack pull involves the most amount of muscle mass. The more he feels this stretch in the set up, the more they will be involved in the pull on the way up. From this height, the lifter can feel a stretch in the hamstrings while setting up. This is just enough height to eliminate the quads from the “breaking” of the bar from its dead stop position. ![]() This is the longest ROM pin position which will generally have the plates only a few inches off the ground. In fact an argument could be made that variation in the height of the pull is a good thing to strengthen all areas of the back. There is not necessarily one position in which the lifter should always do his rack pulls. Rack Pulls are essentially partial ROM deadlifts pulled from some point just below the knee (or on the top half of the shin), right at the knee, or just above the knee. Part I will start with probably the most common exercise performed in the power rack: the Rack Pull. Instead we will examine how and when to program these very important exercises for optimal results and most importantly carryover to their parent exercises. If you are unfamiliar with how to do these exercises then make the investment in SS: BBT. Most of the exercises that will be discussed in this piece are referenced in Rippetoe’s Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training, so we will not overly focus on how to perform each lift. The series will be at least four parts, each part dedicated to assistance exercises for the Deadlift, Squat, Bench Press, and Press. ![]() ![]() Over the course of the next several weeks and/or months we will be taking an in depth look at how all of us can better utilize one of the most important pieces of equipment for the strength athlete – the power rack.
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