Is My Gym's Rack Suitable for Rack Pulls

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1

I am reading The Bridge 1.0 documentation in preparation for beginning that program, and I am wondering if my gym’s rack is appropriate for rack pulls. The rack supports only go as low as one-half inch above my kneecap and I am wondering if that will suffice for the rack pulls? If not, what pull variant would be a suitable replacement?

For fun, if I was going to make an educated guess, I would say that the rack is not sufficient based upon this sentence from the Bridge document regarding the criteria needed to trigger an “overload event” that will elevate the muscle protein synthesis rate, “If the lifter is exposed to enough volume, intensity, and range of motion to accumulate enough stress to qualify as an ‘overload
event,’ this exposure produces an increase in muscle protein synthesis rates.” I am guessing that since the range of motion is being decreased then without changes to other training parameters I may no longer trigger the “overload event”. Perhaps I could increase the volume and intensity in that case to compensate for the decrease in range of motion?

Thanks Doctors Baraki and Feigenbaum and also to Leah for all the support that you offer on this forum.

2

If the weight plates are flat, you could stand on some to raise yourself up higher, putting the barbell lower on your leg.

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3

Like mentioned above, you could stand on a flat plate. This is what I do at my gym.

Also, I believe Leah recommends that if you cannot do rack pulls to supplement them with paused deadlifts.

Hope that helps!

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4

Some bumper plates are stackable. You can do block pulls off of those if you have them.

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5

Alan Thrall has a great video on DIY deadlift blocks using a horse stall matt

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Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

tried stacking plates today and ended up with two stacks each of three 45 plates and two 35 plates. The plates are not flat, but each size interlocks (sort of). The 35’s wobbled a bit on top of the 45’s so it was a bit unnerving. Next time, I will try all 45’s if nobody else is using them as that ought to stabilize things a bit.

I think near-term I might build a portable wood box platform built to the correct height and carry it with me on the days I need to do rack pulls. Long-term, I need to clear out space in the garage and buy a rack that has better adjustments than what I have access to right now.