Go to most gyms in the world and ask people what is the upper body lift that packs on the most amount of mass and you’ll get the bench press. While I do think that the bench is a phenomenal lift, I don’t think that its the most bang-for-your-buck lift because the bench press is mainly a chest, front delt and triceps exercise for the most and it hits a few muscles around the scapula as well. There are other simple upper body lifts out there that target way more upper body muscles than the bench press, what lift am I referring to you may ask?
THE RACK PULL
The rack pull is hands down the lift that I dedicate most of my upper body mass to because it does a great job at overloading my body in ways that a row or a press could never do alone.
What does the rack pull work?
• The rack pull literally hits your whole back from the traps all the way down the erectors making it a full back worker. It is true that not every part of the back is receiving the same amount of stimulation, but the whole back is still getting hit nonetheless and you will feel it the next day.
• Your forearms and grip get a fantastic workout because you are constantly squeezing the bar as hard as you can while trying to keep the bar as close to you as possible. I personally like to use a double overhand grip for as many warm-up sets as possible and when I can’t do that anymore I will use a mixed grip and when that doesn’t work anymore I will throw on some straps for the extra heavy sets.
• One of the best exercises for your posture and for neck mass. The upper back gets trained extremely hard from this movement which will have a great impact on your posture, but the neck also gets trained isometrically throughout the lockout position of the lift.
• The Rack pull is also taxing and trains the core a lot if you don’t wear a belt because you are constantly trying to keep hundreds of pounds as close to your body as possible.
When should you program rack pulls?
I am personally a big advocate of programming rack pulls on a back/pull day at the beginning of the workout because it is typically the exercise that you could go the heaviest on and use the most total amount of poundage’s.
What height should I set the pins?
There is no right or wrong answer because each pin has its own place, but I like to set the pins in a way that the bar is slightly below my knees, but I also have some training cycles where the bar is slightly above my knees, it depends.
What are some other rack pull variations that I should try out?
There are 2 rack pull variations that I really like:
• Snatch Grip Rack Pulls: These will put even more emphasis on the upper back and rear delts in an overloading fashion
• Rack RDL’s: These are kind of like partial RDL’s, but they are key to overloading the hamstrings with more weight than you would typically use on your regular RDL.
CONCLUSION:
Give the rack pull an honest try for a few weeks and I promise you that it will take your upper body to another level. One of of my biggest regrets was that I didn’t start doing them earlier, but at least I know w now and I have my whole life ahead of me to do them and to convince others to do the same.