I’ve seen articles and studies about back row v lat pulldown. They seem to work basically the same muscles.
In a Body By Science workout like the Big 5, where you want to work each major muscle group once to failure, why does Dr. McGuff include both instead of just the row (which based on other studies seems to be better)?
Lat pull down is a vertical pulling move while rows are a horizontal pulling move. While they largely work the same muscles they’re not identical. You get more scapula retraction from a row.
I know they’re not identical and do incorporate some other muscles, but the major loading in both is on the latissimus dorsi, so after already working it to failure with rows, I wonder why he goes again with pull-downs, maybe it’s to get the other smaller muscles involved but it seems like it would impact the lat dorsi too much. Like he includes a chest press, but not an inclined chest press.
A row works posterior deltoid and trapezius, in addition to lats. Most exercises target multiple muscle groups so it’s necessary to hit certain muscles more than once to develop all
There’s a bunch of important muscles in the upper back that really need a row to thrive. And unless you’re doing bent over lateral raises, your posterior deltoids will get neglected
I couldn’t do a pull up if my life depended on it. And I do pushups from my knees (when actually I do them, which is rare.)
I am making gains, however.
I wonder, having never been much of a Gymrat…if nutrient timing is important for strength gains. I generally do a McGuff style Big 5, once a week while fasted. Then post workout, I try to get in a higher protein meal…within an hour or so.
I’m 63, and 6’3" tall. I lost 140# pretty quickly, but am trying to be more patient with adding more Lean Mass.
Any advice would be appreciated.
How is the bbs workout going for you @goldwingnut? Do you workout alone or with a partner?
I have found that the rowing movement also hits the rhombus area, which will make itself known if it feels neglected…
I too wondered about nutrient timing related to strength training. My suspicion is it’s mostly irrelevent, an excuse to sell supiments and over eat. From time to time I go searching for papers or articles about digestion. So far I believe the digestive system is designed to feed fats and protiens in to the blood stream at a rate slow enough so they can be utilized. If that’s correct it should mean that if you over eat a fat or protein it might spend longer in the digestive system than is ideal.
Another issue is how time critical healing or repair might be. Suppose some body tissue is ready for repair but the raw materials are not available in the blood stream. My intuition is that process gets slowed down or delayed until the right conditions are present. Otherwise wouldn’t our bodies be full of damage that never got repaiired because some short window of opportunity is missed?
I skip breakfast 5 days a week and skip three meals on Saturdays. I lift three days a week and doubt my eating pattern is interfering with muscle hypertrophy as long as adequate nutrients are available day to day but I’m open to convincing evidence I might be wrong about that.
I missed your reply until just now, sorry… Yes I do work out with a partner, he’s much younger and stronger than I am. He happens to be someone who was a student of mine when I taught instrumental music in southern Kansas. (He was a fine tuba player, and a really NEAT kid!)
My progress has been very slow. I’ll be honest. But I’m clearly stronger than I was since starting in late September 2017, and I am staying the course. And now at 64, injury while lifting heavy is a concern. Hasn’t happened. The high intensity resistance training concept does address that concern nicely. Thank you to Dr McGuff (and others) for your advocacy of the HIT method of adding lean mass.
I am patient, but would like to see better results, sooner. I didn’t become skinny fat pencil-necked geek over night. So fixing it is just gonna take some time. Above the waist, I look like a holocaust survivor.
Below the belt, I still carry a little extra blubber. Nothing extreme, and to be honest, I’m in the best shape (aesthetically) of my adult life…by far.
@charlie3, you may find this info interesting.
Apparently, lab mice can add lean mass by doing nothing at all, except eating only in a short window. Dr Ronda establishes that Time Restricted Feeding is a little different than intermittent fasting, for the purposes of hypertrophy.
Dunno…but I always find her info on foundmyfitness.com pretty compelling.
Thanks for the tip. The app is not available for android but there are others. Not sure if I need a tracker. I work 60 hours a week, eating is fairly regimented. Sometimes I don’t eat until after the official work lunch time which is feasible because I bring fiinger food. I hesitate to get too agressive with fasting because I want to add some muscle and I owe it to my employer to be fit for work. I get home so late there is only time for some exercise, then a meal and then immediately to bed. All these fussy rules about eating early are not an option for me excpt may be a rare day off.
I’ve listened to a lot of her vidoes. Youtube is my talk radio at work and commuting.
As far as nutrient timing, it appears the body uses muscle tissue as an amino acid warehouse and uses it for higher prioriity maintenance and repair. I’d like to know more but I bet it’s a robust system that can be trained like fat burning and still allows for plenty of hypertrophy. In past months I was a slow gainer, probably because I was restricting calories to get rid of some fat. I’m satisfied with the body fat situation for now. Since I’ve increased calories I’m feeling stronger in workouts and adding a rep here and there.
