305pelusa
Level 6 Valued Member
When I do pulling exercises, I pay special attention to keep my shoulders low to prevent injury yet my online research showed that some people suggest doing pulling exercises with elevated shoulders to engage upper-back more. What's your thoughts about it? As I realized keeping shoulders down engages lats for sure and may be limiting range of motion of upper-back.
I have never heard of that. About the only things that come to mind are doing one-arm rows with an exaggerated ROM (letting the shoulder be pulled down and really cranking it back on the way up"), which is essentially what Kroc Rows are. The other thing is allowing the shoulders to rise at the bottom of the pull-up, and then engaging down again before pulling. This "resets" is a great way to train depression. Are those things what you're referring to? They're useful.
I haven't heard good things about letting the shoulders rise during the pull-up. If you let them elevate enough, then they're just stretching the actual structure. That might or might not be good for you.
After all, inverted rows with a wide grip seemed to be the best option for me because no elevation of shoulders is necessary and can be done with a wide grip.
In the calisthenics world, we have a saying. Pull-ups widen the back while Rows thicken the back. If you do wide grip inverted Rows, with an emphasis on keeping your elbows out and a hold at the top, you should feel an intense contraction. If you think about it, a very wide grip Row (imagine with straight elbows) is the same as doing a Bodyweight pec fly on rings. The latter is brutal on the chest. The former brutal on the mid back.
Ideally you'd find a weight vest for these. Placing your feet higher will shift the focus to your traps. Doing them one-armed seems shift everything to the biceps.
I also think it may be neurological since one may have more nerves in their lats hence more control compared to their upper-back. What do you think?
I think that's true. Initially it might be difficult to really feel the mid back cramping up. Always happens with small muscles. After some targeted training with exercises that really make you feel it, you might be more successful at getting these muscles to contract hard in all pulling work.
Once you get the hang of it with wide rows, you could try out the Bodybuilder Pull-up (aka Arched Pull-up, sometimes aka Sternum Chin-up). These are pull-ups with a lean to hit the mid back more. Same as how the incline press recruits the chest more than the overhead press. Same idea.