BB Rows (Madcow)

[gjohnson5]

http://forum.mesomorphosis.com/showthread.php?t=12[/url]). So anyway, you tend to pull back a bit with heavy weight anyway and that is how rows should be done heavy and explosive. You should be accelerating that bar into your body. So someone starting at 90 degrees generally ends up cheating back just a bit and that's okay.

If you wrote a book, I'd buy a copy...
Anyway , wouldn't you say that true for most any free weight back exersize. you pull back at the bottom to "cheat". Use momentum at the bottom and you get the back squeeze at the top

In addition, a lot of guys lack the flexability to keep their back flat and perform the exercise as they get near the 90 degree point. In that case you shoot for 90 degrees but you go to where your body is comfortable.

The reason why I stress it is because we have all seen the dochebags in the gym standing almost vertical and rowing through a minute range of motion. This is crap. It doesn't allow for proper activation of the lats since you aren't pulling in but up, the range of motion is drastically reduced, and on top of that you wind up looking like a moron so there's really nothing good to come of it.

LOL, you'll be surprised with what you see in the gym sometimes

As for starting the motion at 45 degrees, I can't say it's optimal unless you can't get any lower (in which case flexability work or core strengthening would be my suggestion depending on the issue causing this). If you start at 45 degrees and row hard, you'll find yourself above 45 degrees at peak contraction and possibly significantly. Your range of motion is cut, your lats aren't getting proper activation because you are no longer pulling in but pulling up and you will end up relying on other muscles to generate the momentum (and that necessitates further straightening of the back).

Would you consider 45 degrees a good angle if using a tbar row instead of a barbell row?

So anyway, it's a soft rule when I say 90 degrees. I am fairly flexible and I can get close but not a full 90 (you see this in the goodmorning too - everyone has a different range of motion). That said, the soft rule is meant to provide the necessary margin to correctly perform the exercise. There is a hard rule right behind it saying that you absolutely must come as close as you are able to the 90 degrees. Significant deviation compromises the exercise.

Huge reply but it's better to give someone the full explanation. Give it some thought and do some rowing in the gym the next time - performing the motion makes it crystal clear. Be sure to work on accelerating the rep. A rower accelerates the oar through the water working harder and harder throughout the range of the stroke. He doesn't stop pulling hard once he gets the oar moving. This is critical to rowing success in the gym but watch your rib cage on the light ones.

I agree totally

Chairman hit

 

[silver_shadow]

If you wrote a book, I'd buy a copy...
Anyway , wouldn't you say that true for most any free weight back exersize. you pull back at the bottom to "cheat". Use momentum at the bottom and you get the back squeeze at the top



LOL, you'll be surprised with what you see in the gym sometimes



Would you consider 45@ a good angle if using a tbar row instead of a barbell row?



I agree totally

Chairman hit

bro, MC2 has stopped posting some time ago

 

[gjohnson5]

bro, MC2 has stopped posting some time ago

Damn , that's a big loss...
Must have been too many knuckleheads arguing with him

Ooh well. I will spend more time here instead of chat.
More interesting topics to me

 

[silver_shadow]

Damn , that's a big loss...
Must have been too many knuckleheads arguing with him

Ooh well. I will spend more time here instead of chat.
More interesting topics to me

naw... no knucklehead would argue with him... one day his site just said that he felt he had achieved what he had set out to do which was to educate enough guys and start some momentum, so he didn't feel the need to post anymore.... well something to that effect... there was a post about this a couple of months ago.

 

[blut wump]

Madcow left us with this legacy:
http://www.geocities.com/elitemadcow1/table_of_contents_thread.htm

I think that maybe he felt that his work was done once his repository was complete. I'm sure he'll pop back at some time.

 

[gjohnson5]

Chairman hits for both yall

 

[silver_shadow]

to quote from the website:

http://www.geocities.com/elitemadcow1/index.htm
3/21/2006



With the updates here (lots of new ones in the 3/19/2006 entry below) I view this work as fairly complete. While it is nothing revolutionary it is nonetheless a decent resource for programming and weight training information that most recreational lifters and bodybuilders will likely find valuable and, given a lot of what's been put out there into the commercial gym world by bodybuilding and the captive media sources over the past 30 years, eye opening. I originally set out to try to help some people in a fairly limited way. I figured that if I could make some tangible difference in an activity that was important to a group of 8-10 people, that would be something good and something that would pay back some of the joy and fun I've had with weightlifting over the years. Certainly nothing grand but nonetheless improving the world by leaving it better than I found it and passing on some fruits of my own efforts. Basically to introduce some fundamental concepts and change some commonly held albeit inaccurate views. I think I've at least succeeded in that and by most interpretations made a significant contribution to a fair number of people over the originally intended 8-10. I'll state one last time for the record that the choice of using 5x5 programs in my examples and on this page is mainly because they are very easy to teach training theory from, scale well with experience, have a long history and pedigree as very effective for size and strength, and dispel some commonly held myths that frequency must be frozen in absolute and that copious amounts of isolation work are required at all times. That seems to get lost sometimes in the 5x5 fervor so it made sense to put it down one last time for the books. That being said, I certainly feel the 5x5 style programs are a great way to train, I certainly don't know a better template to increase big lifts and add muscle.



Anyway, with this chapter closed there won't be any more updates to this website (beyond some basic testing and patching once in a while to make sure things remain functional). This should be enough to get most people the information they need, get them some solid progress, expand their knowledge of programming and training theory, and give them some places to look and books to read to further expand their knowledge as they deem fit. There has been a huge disconnect in training theory (even at the most basic level) with the recreational gym culture and hopefully this can serve as something of a bridge.



And with that I'd like to say farewell and goodbye to all the friends I've made over the past year. I hope that you guys enjoyed our conversations as much as I did. Know that one of the things in life that I enjoy most is teaching and watching people progress through their efforts - so I too have gotten something out of this. All things end with time and at this point I don't think there's much more I can do than just continue talking and saying pretty much the same things over and over again to new people (which is why I made this site). Hopefully there is enough momentum and critical mass from what I've done and what so many others are doing that combined with the internet's broad user base providing easy access to information, good realistic info on training won't be some mystery or hard to find. Our youth will understand what training entails and with effort will have the tools they need to progress steadily and reliably rather than quitting, spinning their wheels, or turning to drugs at the first sign of plateau. Who knows, we might even see something worthwhile in the bodybuilding magazines someday.



Lift bigger, eat bigger, get bigger, but above all be happy and enjoy doing it. Although congratulations from others might await at the destination, happiness is found on the path.



All the best,



Madcow

 

[bignate73]

Would you consider 45 degrees a good angle if using a tbar row instead of a barbell row?

with a tbar then you could be more upright since it tendes to travel on an slight arc. I adjust my torso angle on this one so that the bar moves in perpendicular. ultimately the same angle as from the floor, just slightly different balance required and you can counterbalance more on a tbar.

 

[anthrax]

This thread is sticky material

 

[gjohnson5]

This thread is sticky material

As per Anthrax , it has been stuck!