Quote:He asked you to elaborate. We're willing to learn here. Maybe you have vast experience in upper body development, but the majority of posters on this board don't. I think we non-lifters would all like to know how a leg injury impedes upper body development.

 

One certainly can bench press without using one's legs, and I've seen many photos of paraplegics with massive upper body development. His comment was far from the dumbest thing I've ever read on the internet ... or on this board ... or just in the last day.

One can build muscle, the way a paraplegic can, by doing plenty of bench-press work, curls, and other beach-body exercises, but to build the same sort of raw strength required to be an offensive lineman, you will need more than just exercises that mostly just isolate the arms and shoulders.  Deadlifts and cleans are generally required for linemen because, besides the indirect workout to the upper body that you get from deads and cleans, the development of the "posterior chain" is crucial in developing upper body strength.  I could continue at length on what I mistakenly thought was common knowledge for football fans (particularly those willing to take a public stand on offensive linemen strength training), but I'm going to guess that this will bore most of the board.

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