Rack Lock-out Curls?

Hey, I’m in the 7th week of Poliquin’s Maximal Weights program and he suggests rack lock out curls… Can anyone explain what these are??

Thanks!

It was in prev CP’s QOS section;

"Rack lockouts are partial reps in the close-grip bench press. Because you are using a close-grip, you’ll strongly recruit the triceps. Furthermore, the highest recruitment of the triceps occurs at the end of the range of motion in the bench press movement.

To take advantage of this extra degree of recruitment, you can use a power rack to limit your range of motion, which will also allow you to use a greater amount of weight than if you were doing full range of motion bench presses.

I recommend using the “stops” in a power rack to shorten your range of motion. In other words, place the stops several inches above your chest so that your range of motion is only 1/3 to 1/4 of what it would normally be. You should also pause at the bottom of the movement (the point at which the bar hits the stops) so that you cannot use the elastic component of the muscle."

how do you have progressed?

How have you progressed thus far?

Mickey, thanks for the reply. I have read his decription of rack lock outs for triceps, but for weeks 7-9 of the program he specifies “rack lock-outs concentration curls” as the A1 biceps exercise…If you look at his program, you’ll see what I’m talking about. I’m clueless on this one.

As far as progress, I’m using the program as specified for arms on tuesday, and I’m also using it for chest/back on friday. I have been seeing increases of atleast 1 rep and/or increased weight in every workout except for today’s…(damn!). I haven’t seen significant gains every week in quite a while. As a test today, after attempting to do 6 sets of 4 reps on the flatbench with a 501 tempo, I decided to try pumping out as many reps as I could on flat dumbell press with 100lb dumbells. Last I checked I could only squeeze out 6 (fresh). Well, this morning I cranked out 8 and that was after my chest workout!! So my strength has definately gone up. Of course, I didn’t use any tempo bracket for the dumbell test, I just did them the way I used to before following Poliquin’s ways.

So hopefully this helped, and hopefully someone knows what the hell rack lock-out concentration curls are…

What do you do if you do not have access to a Power Rack?

In a rack lock-out curl you stand in the rack and set the pins so you are only doing the top half of the motion. At the bottom when you pause the bar on the pins your elbow joint will be open about 105-125 degrees (at least that’s the setting I like). When Poliquin talks about barbell concentration curls he is refering to an excercise where you squat low against a wall, wedge your elbows against the insides of your knees, and strictly curl a barbell. This is a tricky setup, since the power rack would have to be flush against a wall that has no mirror. I think he was suggesting that lift so you don’t use leg kick to break the bar off the pins. If you can set-up a preacher bench with a vertical pad (anything other than a vert pad won’t work for lockouts) in the rack, that might be a better choice.

Thanks Matt! Do you know if Poliquin wants you to rest the bar on the pins before repeating, or should you stop just short of touching to keep tension on the arms?

Lower the bar to the pins very gently (as if the pins are made of glass). Pause for 3-4 seconds on the pins (take a couple deep breaths), and then blast the bar off the pins. I sometimes take up to six seconds, since I have alot of fast twitch fiber and poor muscular endurance. When the bar is on the pins you should still feel some engagement of the muscle (espec in the second or so before you explode into the rep). Think of it as getting into the starting blocks for a sprint, I’ve even had a partner call mark, set, go on each rep. When you do the close grip bench lockouts, be especially sure not to fully disengage the triceps. If you relax the tris and then initiate a strong drive with the delts, you will place a whole lot of sheer force on the elbow joint, which may cause your elbows to hurt alot for a couple months. do not ask how I found that one out :frowning: