The power is the energy that is transferred per unit time. This is the essence of weightlifting. It is not your raw strength that will give you your 1RM. Hypertrophy, on the other hand, will increase your mass. This type of high pull exercise power emphasizes the strength and time it takes for your body to release all that stored energy.
It is vital for us to have power in our functional fitness, overall health, and sport. So it is no surprise that many people put a lot of emphasis on it when setting fitness goals. Weightlifters have many options for training explosiveness.
WHAT EXACTLY IS A HIGH PULL EXERCISE?
The upright row is the “peak” of a high-pull exercise. You raise a barbell or other weight in front of your body. This position requires you to hold the barbell in your hands and keep your arms parallel to the ground. These similarities end at this point. Both exercises work your shoulders, but the high pull exercise places less emphasis on this area. The upright row focuses almost exclusively on the delts.
High pull is an entirely different exercise. The high pull exercise uses your entire body. It extends the muscles in your spine, hips, knees and legs. The high pull is a compound exercise that can do wonders for your postural and structural health. This movement actually has more similarities to the Olympic lifts that the upright row.
STANDING ON GIANTS’ SHOULDERS
In terms of explosiveness, the Olympic lifts are a beast. The clean and the snatch require that the lifter explode with energy while extending their ankles, knees and hips to power a barbell from the ground up to the overhead position. Both lifts require a lot of core strength, shoulder mobility, stability, and core strength to maintain control over the bar. They are also very technical and require years of training to master complex movements.
THE BENEFITS OF HIGH PULL EXERCISE
- The high pull exercise is good for your whole body, as we have already mentioned. You will activate your traps, rhomboids and abdominals. Your delts, delts, hamstrings, and many other muscles and stabilizers will also be activated. You don’t need to worry about lifting the bar. Instead, you can focus on lifting more. This will result in a higher level fitness and a longer-lasting increase in power output.
- Regular pulls also offer the benefits of power, speed, strength, balance and posture. It doesn’t offer the benefits of strengthening the arms and mechanics. The reason is that the third pull, which raises the bar to its maximum height, is dominated by the upper body. This height allows for a more vertically-oriented extension, which is useful when training the traditional clean and jerk or snatch.
