• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 546 0

single deadlift is a necessary evil in a meet, but multiple reps with one shoulder in internal rotation and the other in external rotation produce an asymmetric shoulder stress that some people do not tolerate well. Haltings are very good for developing the grip, since you won’t be using your 1RM deadlift weight for them, and the double-overhand grip is harder than the alternate grip, so use the halting as a grip exercise, too. If you get strong enough that your grip strength is exceeded, then you can either use straps or switch your alternate grip, changing the supine hand each rep. This change is a little trouble, and straps are fine if your grip is otherwise strong enough, i.e., you don’t normally have any trouble hanging onto heavy deadlifts.

Pay attention to keeping the bar against your shins on the way up – this is the lats’ job. Haltings can be thought of as “pushing the bar away from the floor with the feet” at the bottom, and almost as a row at the top as the bar breaks over the knees.

Rack pulls

Rack pulls are the other half of this pair (Figure 7-2). They are done from inside the power rack, from level pins set at a point somewhere below the knees. How far below the knees the pins are set determines the amount of overlap that the halting and the rack pull have with each other. Just below the patellas is probably not enough, while down to mid-shin defeats the purpose of dividing the whole pull into two movements. Three or four inches below the joint line is about right, just below the tibial tuberosity. The point of the halting deadlift is to work the initial drive off the floor, which depends heavily on the quads for the drive and on the hamstrings to anchor the back angle. The rack pull should use as little quadriceps drive as possible, with the main emphasis on hip extension – working the hamstrings and glutes, and above all, keeping a flat back while this happens. With hip extension as the primary point of the exercise, rack pulls are obviously also done from a dead stop.

Figure 7-2. The start (A), middle (B), and finish (C) of the rack pull.

Your stance for the rack pull will be the same width as for the deadlift, but with your shins more vertical than they’d be in the start position off the floor. The bar should be in the position it would be in were it deadlifted to that height off the floor – bar over mid-foot and in contact with the shins, just barely below the knees. Your shoulders should be in front of the bar, and it is very important that they stay there until the bar is well up your thighs; in this respect, both haltings and rack pulls differ from deadlifts, which allow the natural change in back angle to occur when the bar is below the knees. Your back must be locked hard in both lumbar and thoracic extension – the chest is up, and the lower back is arched but not overextended – a normal anatomical position of extension, the position described for the squat and deadlift and for all barbell pulls. It is easier to get in this position when the bar is higher up the shins because less hamstring tension is pulling on the pelvis/lumbar lock at this point. As with the halting deadlift, the rack pull is performed with a double overhand grip, usually with straps due to the heavy weights used.

From the starting position, drag the bar up your thighs, keeping it in constant contact with the skin, with your shoulders out over the bar, your chest up, and your knees held in position with no forward movement. When the bar is high enough up the thighs that you cannot keep your shoulders forward, extend your hips forcefully – “shoot the hips” is a good cue for this movement. The finish position is the same as for a deadlift, with shoulders back, chest up, knees and hips straight, and eyes focused on the floor about 12-15 feet ahead. No exaggerated shrug is necessary or useful; the hips are shoved forward into extension with the chest held up, and this is all that needs to be done at the top. Breathing is also the same as for the deadlift, with a big breath taken and held before each rep. Sets of five