Should I be doing rack pulls?
 

Hi peoples

I'm 27, female and weigh about 62kgs (sorry to speak in kilos to you all, I'm from Oz). I've been doing gym for nearly two years, doing weights and cardio. Nothing really tough. About four weeks ago I changed gyms. To start with they gave me a one day program, upgraded it and then changed to a split program.

My chest program now includes four sets of rack pulls. 5 at 80kg, 5 at 100kg, 3 at 130kg and 10 at either 80 or 100kg (I can't remember). I managed to do it the first time when the trainer was with me. The second time I was at gym early in the morning and I only got through my first set. I tried four times to lift the second one and then a different trainer came in and I told him how I couldn't lift it today. He was surprised I was doing rack pulls at all. It's now obvious that you're not supposed to do them at 7:30am. He asked me if I was a power lifter at all. I'm just some chick who does gym! He asked how long I'd been lifting weights. He didn't seem to think I should be doing them. He asked me what I was trying to achieve (fitness, strength, tone). He noted that I wasn't wearing a belt, and said that I would be stretching my abdominal wall. He suggested that one of the other trainers review my program, but he didn't book me in to do it or anything.

Just thought I'd see what opinions are out there. My trainer seems to expect me to get stronger every week. Thanks for your time.

I have never heard of rack pulls before, but looked it up and it seems to me that they're like dead lifts, but you partly do it? To me is seems that you should wear a belt if trying to go heavy at your end sets. So you don't pull your back, and hurt, or damage those muscles. I lift at home, and don't have a belt, so I try not to go too heavy. Most gyms should have them though.

Thanks :)

Yeah, it's pretty much like a deadlift, but the bar starts at your knee height, bend your knees, then you stand up to lift it.

I don't know if my gym supplies belts, I guess I'll ask them. Most of the guys that use the heavy weights room seem to use them.

I'm not looking forward to purchasing yet another gym accessory after investing in some good shoes, and a pair of gloves after the bar gave me blisters and tore skin off my hands from the first set :(

Okay, are you wanting to bulge up on muscle in your back, are you intaking protein? if so, how much? I have a sister who loves to lift weights like me, but does it to look more sexy, tone her self, but she does'nt like lifting heavy, because it tears her hands up, my hands are torn up, like if I am a red neck here in Arizona that works all damn day. Lol.

Like when I work out on my back, when I do my bent over rows, my hands rip apart easily, I eased into it. And I hate lifting gloves, they bug me alot. But here in the United States, at a sports authority or something, a belt cost 20 bucks or so I think. But over in Australia, I am not so sure.

Did you get lifting shoes, so you can do squats, ect? When I work out, I like to just wear no shoes, easier for me. But at school, the gym there, I wear shoes, don't think people like the smell of stinky feet.

No, I don't want bulgy back muscles!! Haha!! My diet is not really strict. I probably should eat less Fruit Tingles and more steak :) I don't "count" anything that I eat.

I think my gloves will help keep my hands intact, but I need to get used to them. I went to Athletes Foot and got Nike runners. They checked out my feet and everything and recommended them. I do cardio and classes at gym too. I didn't know there was such a thing as lifting shoes. But they might not have suited me on the treadmill. I don't do squats with a bar, I use a squat press.

Oh ok...I'd say talk to a trainer on what you should do exactly...ect.

Cool, yeah I will. Just not sure they all agree!

I hate to say it, but you'll probably get more useful advice here than from the "trainers" at your gym. You'll have to let us know exactly what your specific goals are.

In general, I would say that if there is a danger of "strethching your abdominal wall", which I take to mean injuring it, then you are using too much weight. As far as belts, imo they are far people who are trying to find their max lift or maybe are getting past an injury. If you need a belt in your training, then again, you are using too much weight. The very muscles the belt is assisting are the muscles you are supposed to be strenghening. So, my advice, forget the belt.

As far as rack pulls, I don't know why not to do regular dead lifts. A good exercise for the entire body, which won't necessarily give you bulging back muscles. Depends on the parameters you use.

I could be wrong, but I don't think the majority of trainees walk around with skin torn off their hands. I also don't think the majority wear gloves (not that there is anything wrong with it). If you get blisters it is because of the friction of your skin rubbing on the bar. If your grip is strong and secure then no blisters.

The answer is to work your forearms and strenghthen your grip and perhaps to use a weight you can hold onto. There is a time when it is sometimes necessary for an advanced weight trainer to use lifting straps, etc. when overall lifting ability has outstripped their grip. The muscles that govern gripping strength are very small compared to the back muscles, after all. I don't think, however, that that time is when first entering a weight training routine.

Work on holding on the the weight securely. You'll get callouses instead of blisters. This all goes into the classic mistake of starting too heavy.

I would have been just as surprised that someone has you doing rack pulls. In general, women are more concerned with getting a tone and sexy shape and rack pulls really are not commonly assigned for women's training routines. From your comments above it appears as though you want a standard training routine for women.

The reason he asked you if you are a powerlifter is because rack pulls are commonly part of powerlifting programs. In general they help lifters increase their overall deadlift poundage by targeting specific muscles (lower back, hams, glutes) without using your legs as much. So when you go back and do your regular deadlifts you should be able to do more off the floor.

If I were you I would ask this trainer why he has you doing rack pulls and elaborate on exactly what you want out of your routine. Some of these personal trainers are so used to creating programs for men who want to lift as much as possible, that they really have no idea how to write a program to train women. Also, why not try to find a personal trainer that is a woman or has a physique that you admire. They should be able to better understand your needs.

Eric and Sleazy are absoloutely right, I just want to add a couple things I've noticed::D
I used gloves for about a year and found it actually helped develop my grip strength. The gloves make your hands "bigger" because of padding and what not, and I find you actually have to grip a little harder to close your hands enough to secure the bar IMO. But you shouldn't get blisters from the bar, callouses yes, blisters no.

As far as the rack-pulls go, I know alot of girls that do stiff legged deads to work their core. They don't use near that kind of weight though, 60lbs or so max. IMO I don't see how rack-pulls can be beneficial to girls unless they are doing some sort of training for sports etc., you're better to stick with hyperextensions, and stiff legged deads to work your lower back and DB rows and Lat-pulldown to work upper back.

ps. I bet any one of us could write the personal trainers exam and pass with flying colors ;)

Thanks to all of you for your comments.

I don't really have specific goals other than what I mentioned. Basically I just kind of like gym, and I exercise because it's meant to be good for me! :)

I've started doing stiff leg dead lifts in my leg program. I'm doing two sets of 10 at 30kg, which is apparently just over 30lbs.

Yes, my trainer said of my hands "I've never seen that before. I get bits that wear off, but not skin ripping off." and the guy who sold me the gloves said "I haven't seen that in a long time". Yeah, it would have been because of my grip.

I told my trainer, after my second day doing the dead lifts that I was having trouble holding it. He said, "Oh because your hands aren't strong enough?" and I said yeah and he said next time if he's in he could show me how to use his figure 8s. I managed it better the next time though.

I'm not sure what hyperextensions and DB rows are. I do lat pulldowns up to 25 kilos.

I'll certainly be asking why I'm doing rack pulls. I probably won't be back at gym for another three days though. It's a pretty new gym, opened in October I think, and my trainer is one of the owners. I couldn't help wondering if he has his own agenda for wanting me to lift such heavy stuff. I don't know him very well, but I did go to college with him. I swear I never teased him or anything!! Haha

Hyperextensions
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/exer...cle=Lower+Back

DumbBell Rows (you have to scroll down to One-Arm Dumbbell Row, it's near the bottom of the page)
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/exer...le=Middle+Back

Thanks :)

I've actually done both of those before, but not for over a year. They would be good I think.

Oops, that was meant to be "just over 60lbs." I'm sure you all figured that out. :o

Excellent point, Kane.

Another trick is to use the largest bar possible. Something you can also do which is really great for developing grip strength is to wrap a a towel around a pull-up bar, making it as thick as you prefer. You can then do your pull-ups. This, of course, could limit your pull-up sets so I prefer to just hang from the towel wrapped bar as long as possible, have a short rest and do it again for 3 to 4 sets. Add whatever variations you care to invent.

You might want to try lifting straps instead of gloves to help with the rack pulls.

Rack pulls no more
 

Here’s what has happened…

I went back to gym after a five day forced break, and did a class then some cardio. During the cardio I saw my trainer, so I asked him why I was doing rack pulls. He said most people when they train want to get lean, even if they want to get big, they don’t want to get big and fat. He said most of his programs are based on increasing the basal metabolic rate, so that you burn more calories all the time. He said something like rack pulls work different parts of your body in one exercise…I explained to him what happened the previous time I had tried to do them, and what the trainer Steve had said. My trainer was pretty defensive about rack pulls, and perhaps a little disappointed/annoyed at what Steve had told me. He askedme "What else didd he say to you?" He said “I’ll go and talk to Paul about it now”, and he went and talked to Paul. Then he didn’t come back and tell me anything else.

So the next day was my day to do chest, and rack pulls are right after my warm up. I got through the first two sets, couldn’t lift the third, dropped the weight until I could lift it (which was equal to the second and fourth sets) and managed to do six pretty average reps. I obviously wasn’t doing them properly and by the end I hurt my lower back a bit. We could all see it coming.

At the end of my workout one of the female trainers asked me how I went and I told her what happened. She said my trainer really likes rack pulls at the moment. Sometimes trainers will find an exercise that they like and give it to everyone. She said she’d just started doing them, and sometimes her back felt kind of jarred (doesn’t really sound good to me…), but not like it hurt bending and stuff. I decided that was my kind of hurt, and she said it might be best to take them out of my program for a while. Then along came one of the trainers who also owns the gym and she said to him “Aidan’s given Spunky rack pulls and she’s hurt her back” and he said straight away “Take them out. I’ll talk to Aidan”. He gave me a stretch which helped my back quite a lot.

The lesson I learnt is, if you whinge to enough people you get what you want.

The next day was leg day, and everything was a bit hard, probably because my back wasn’t 100%. I had to drop my deadlifts my 10kilos, and it kind of hurt but I got through them in decent form, but I don’t think I was getting as low as before. At the end of my workout Paul saw me writing comments on my program card and asked what I was writing. It was about my deadlifts. He said “Okay, we’d better take your deadlifts out”. I said “But aren’t they meant to be really good for me?” and he replied “It’s all meant to be good for you. It’s all relative. (?) If you’re hurting your back we’ll take them out and you can do something else.”
I said “Won’t my back be better in a couple of days and then they’ll be okay?” and he said “If you’re feeling your back we’ll take them out for a couple of weeks and then you can go back and put more weight on your deadlifts.”

So now I am doing assisted chins with a wide grip instead of rack pulls, and medicine ball hammys instead of deadlifts. Ooh, I was feeling my hamstrings today.:)

Sorry that was really long. I could have just written “I’m not doing them anymore”. Haha