Lat Pulls vs. pullups

[nolanr]

Superslow reps may not be particularly effective training for sports, but they will KICK YOUR ASS. Try doing superslow on the negative (lowering portion) of a bench press some time. It is intense. If you're a musclehead like I used to be, this technique rocks. You can go normal speed on the positive portion of the exercise, or even get a spotter to help you lift a little bit. You can probably do 1 or 2 more reps lowering the weight even after you can't lift it anymore.

Sorry, but speed and lifting sounds like a bad idea to me. Snap crackle pop go the muscles, tendons, and ligaments. You ever seen idiots in the weight room pick a bar off the bench rack, flat out drop it on their chest, bounce it halfway back up to the starting position, then exert a teeny bit of force to lock their arms out and finish the movement? I've always wondered exactly what that was supposed to be accomplishing. Anyway, even if you're not doing super slows a movement should always be under control and smooth, not herky jerky and super fast. My $.02.

[Courtenay]

Agreed, Nolanr -- the jerky, uncontrolled movements you see in the gym are NOT a good idea; here we were starting to address intentional speed work to prepare for dynos -- i.e. if you are going to want to move really quickly through an overhung section and all you have trained to do are super slow pullups, you won't have built the explosive power needed to dive up to the next hold; training chins or pullups so you lower under control but blast your way up over the bar as hard as you can pull (as fast as possible) will give your lats, fingers, muscles and tendons the training necessary to do dynos without strain. Just a thought. BUT this does NOT mean I'm suggesting that you do all your biceps curls with too much weight and engage every single lower back muscle as you whip the bar to your shoulders. Leave that to those who don't know any better.

[nolanr]

Courtenay,

That's my other favorite dumb ass lifting technique, where it looks more like a power clean than a curl and they use more lower body than upper body during the movement. I always wanted to ask those guys, "So, um, did you even feel that in your bicep the slightest bit anywhere during the movement?"