Have you been struggling to move up on your weights over the past few weeks and really want to step it up a notch? Are you particularly looking to increase muscle strength and size in your back but can't quite make the next weight you want for certain exercises? If you're looking to increase your deadlift and rows then fear not, there is an exercise out there which can really help you with the next stage of meeting your goal. Perhaps you want to increase your lifts by an extra 5-10 kg which will make a big difference to your workout, if this is the case then read on because this is how it's done...
Don't Get Stuck On A Weight
A question I get asked from time to time in and out of the gym is how often one should be 'upping' the weights from week to week. Unfortunately this question is too complex to give a definitive answer but you should be seeing changes depending on the type of workout you have given yourself. If you have been following a certain type of programme for the last 5-6 weeks then in my opinion it's best to change it and do something different. This is another way of seeing better results and increasing your chances of using bigger weights. Don't just stick with hypertrophy training when you could do a 3-4 week bout of strength training which will be effective.
Rack Pulls
A sure fire way of increasing your deadlift and rows is by performing rack pulls over a few sessions to get your body used to lifting the weight. Let's say you are at a 190kg lift and you want to hit the 200kg mark, what do you do? Well, instead of trying to lift it, don't and then becoming frustrated by the fact you can't, instead you will perform rack pulls. At a glance, this is what they look like....
As you can see from the above picture that you start with the bar nearly at hip level and all it is from this point is to stand with it. So unlike normal lifts, you aren't lifting from the ground, the bar is already halfway off the floor. This is to build strength and get your body used to lifting a heavier weight so that when you do it from the ground, you're better conditioned to do this. When you perform this exercise make sure you are lifting the desired weight and not the weight you would usually do, so in this case it would be 200kg.
