[quote]Silyak wrote:
The video says to measure your arms to the first knuckle of your middle finger. If I understand correctly, your first knuckle is the one where your finger meets your hand. So basically you don’t include your fingers. [/quote]
I noticed that, and that’s what makes sense to me… But then in the comments of the article it was referencing, the author said to measure to the tips of the fingers. If I just measure to the first knuckle, my arms qualify as “on the short side,” but if I measure to the end of the finger, they’re “pretty crazy long.” Common sense tells me the first measurement is right.
[quote]StrengthDawg wrote:
So J, now that you posses this profound knowledge, what has changed or what will change in regards to your lifting? [/quote]
Not much, just a few tweaks in perspective and self-knowledge. “Do what is appropriate for your leverages,” seems to be a part of “do whatever lets you lift the most weight,” in my mind. Just a new tool to analyze things.
It’s also important to me to understand what’s going on with “This works for me but not for you,” situations. Whose style should I try to copy verbatim, and whose should I take with a grain of salt?
Here’s what I think my proportions imply for the big 3:
Bench Press
If I have short arms, the bar shouldn’t need to land too low on my chest for my wrists to stay over my elbows. That probably implies something about grip width too, but I don’t know what.
Squat
If I have long legs (short torso = long legs? Or do I need to measure my femur and tibia now?) then maybe a wider stance would give better leverage. But then again, I should be squatting with a wide stance anyway.
Deadlift
Short torso, short arms… According to the article, I can deadlift either sumo or conventional, but I’ll need lower hips than the short-legged individual would to get the bar off the ground.
I’ve also frequently read that longer-limbed lifters need more assistance/isolation work than shorter-limbed ones, the latter of whom can often see progress using mostly compound lifts. That would imply that I can make progress just by benching alot, but for squats and deadlifts, isolation work will bust plateaus.
Maybe. I dunno. I’m just toying with the idea. Advice from someone more experienced would be great. In the meantime, I’m gonna keep tinkering to see what lets me lift the heaviest weight.