Have you ever watched the way they do comp bench? It's FOUR movements. Lift off, pause, down, pause, press, pause, return. Most of us would have to strip off 40-50 lbs. to work that. I'm deeply impressed with our local gym owner who does it similar; a pause at the bottom before true pressing, and uses perfect form throughout...repping 350-425 like it's nothing, and he's a natty!
Considering the ignoble deadlift, and the results it gets...all starting from dead weight. And I've seen some training suggestions that refer to pauses (especially squats) at the eccentric point...and I'm thinking this: perhaps most of us are working out wrongly. By allowing spring in the movement, negating dead starts (even in a set) and cutting the TUT with continuous movement, we may be cheating ourselves out of some real power training that could rocket us into bigger PR's, if we would just cut down the weight and start using pauses to truly lift the weights. I'm sure this has all been discussed before somewhere, but here are my concerns:
The only drawbacks I can think of here are like what happened when I did squats this way: exacerbating an injury or weak point (my hips) into a danger zone...but hey, what is happening to that joint when you get all crap-heavy? Maybe it's better to hit it early with lighter weight and try to train it up.
A second drawback might be that you're emphasizing the eccentric portion of the ROM and not really doing much for the rest of the movement, the weights being lighter. Thoughts?
edit: oops, I meant concentric. I get those backwards a lot!
Considering the ignoble deadlift, and the results it gets...all starting from dead weight. And I've seen some training suggestions that refer to pauses (especially squats) at the eccentric point...and I'm thinking this: perhaps most of us are working out wrongly. By allowing spring in the movement, negating dead starts (even in a set) and cutting the TUT with continuous movement, we may be cheating ourselves out of some real power training that could rocket us into bigger PR's, if we would just cut down the weight and start using pauses to truly lift the weights. I'm sure this has all been discussed before somewhere, but here are my concerns:
The only drawbacks I can think of here are like what happened when I did squats this way: exacerbating an injury or weak point (my hips) into a danger zone...but hey, what is happening to that joint when you get all crap-heavy? Maybe it's better to hit it early with lighter weight and try to train it up.
A second drawback might be that you're emphasizing the eccentric portion of the ROM and not really doing much for the rest of the movement, the weights being lighter. Thoughts?
edit: oops, I meant concentric. I get those backwards a lot!