Saturday, November 27, 2010

Pulls (and maybe leg press)

Snatch 12,20kg: 5/5 each
Snatch 24kg: 5/5, 30/30

Dead lift 70kg: 5
Dead lift: 110kg: 3, 5

Clean 2x20kg: 10

Clean 2x20kg with fleece gloves: 20


Snatch 12kg with fleece gloves & baby powder: 10 min (2/2/2/2/1/1)


Did some dead lift with bar. As the bar is quite short there's a bit of improvising to find room for the bells and to make them stay on the bar. I understand why the bar with exchangeable plates got popular some time ago. The 110kg felt like in control, but I did not want too many reps as I am not adapted to that lift nowadays.

Today's surprise was the cleans with gloves. That was hard.

By the way, a deadlift is not a pull
"By the way, a deadlift is not a pull; it's the same movement as a leg press except you're using your hands to hold the weight. So the deadlift is a press."
The quotation comes from a T-Nation article by Thibaudeau (LINK). The article was not written for me so I did not read it all. Nonetheless, I found the above citation good food-for-thought. I have always thought of dead lift as a pull. But, the authour is right in that there is a leg press element in the dead lift. Yet, he is wrong when he claims that it is "not a pull." There is a pull-element as well; think straight legged dead lift. A lesson to be teased out is that thinking in absolute dichotomies usually leads you astray: black or white, good or bad, correct or incorrect. Often "both-and"-explanations proves to be closer to the truth than "either-or"-explanations.

2 comments:

mikesharkey said...

I find how much is pull or leg press depends on the feet position. I just started doing Sumo DLs with my feet spread wide and that feels like much more of a leg press, however, with my feet close together it is certainly a pull.

funny too, I do my deadlifts like this with kettlebells (though I do have some plates. i can get the bar up to almost 400lbs with the bells (though I can't quite lift that haha)

Alexander said...

I do some high rep sumo dl with bells only too. They feel great but the bells' weight has its limit (2x36). I have never tride sumo with a bar, might try.

Lucky you to have such a bar!