Bicep Power and Grip?

[Evilllamas]

Hi

I wasn't totally sure how to word the question- but here it goes;

I recently posted a thread about OAC training, and being a rock climber- this skill is on the way to the holy grail of rock climbing moves, the one finger pull up.

One of the most popular progressions for the skill, is using only the little finger of the other arm to aid the pull.

I tried this, and failed, so have been doing easier progressions- but it got me wondering, how does having a worse grip, affect how hard it is to pull yourself up- and is this difficulty due to the body limiting itself, (either physically or mentally) or that the bicep actually has to work harder to pull, with this inferior leverage- even though I can hang in the one hand and one finger position fine.

I'v had a look at some forearm muscle diagrams, but they haven't shown my the answer- can any anyone explain why pulling is so much harder when the forearms are working harder?

(Pull ups on my door frame are also allot harder than a pull up off a bar, and my biceps feel more fatigued after 5 of these, than 5 normal bar pull ups)

Thanks

[Larry Roseman]

This is just speculation, but in a simplistic sense the body can only manage so much neural-muscular energy for so long before it fatigues. For example, if you try to tense every muscle in your body, how long can you hold them that way?

It will be for less than you can hold tense any individual muscle. This explains partly why say, doing L-pull ups are harder than regular pull ups.

Whether this is a nervous system limitation or a function of systemic acid build-up I can not say, however

I do believe it is a factor.

[Evilllamas]

I was thinking a similar thing myself, but it still doesn't explain how doing an L sit pull up would benefit your raw pulling power, more than a standard pull up...

[Rafael David]

Dude, try do a wide grip L-sit pull up and then try do a normal wide grip pull up. So you'll see how the second will benefit your raw pulling power. 8)