This is going to be a bit of a rant. I've been lifting for over 40 years. I have never seen the explosion of guys going all out to make a lift easy. Guys are deadlifting with the bar raised in a power rack. If it was on the floor they couldn't budge it. Guys are doing shoulder presses and stopping when their upper arm is parallel to the ground so they can handle a man's weight. Worst are the guys who sit and slide their ass out to make it an incline press. I see this old man who sits in a shoulder press machine. He lowers he seat as low as it can go so the lifting handles are high. He put the pin in the bottom of the plates and does his partial reps then struts like a peacock thinking he lifts more than the young buck who was in the machine before him. Just about everyone puts a million plates on the leg press with the back board high. They are barely bending their legs. Some delusional guys might say my thighs hit my chest. Lower the back board then and then you will be able to bend your legs. Not saying I'm strong but just last friday I was cleaning 135lbs barbell to do my military presses. I did these from the clavicles to full over head. I look across the gym and a guy is sitting in the smith machine with 155lbs on it doing military presses. Every rep the bar was stopped at the top of his head and it looked more like a partial incline press the way is ass was slid out from the seat. Even a simple bench press is being corrupted with partial reps. Pulldowns is another. It's a heave and a lean back. It looks more like a row than a pulldown. Seen guys that can't do pullups but can use more than their body weight in pulldowns doing their shenanigans. Bodybuilding is full of insecure guys that prop up their egos thinking they are strong when they are not. If in doubt do an exercise in the most challenging way instead of the easiest way. You're training your muscle not your ego.
So FOR ME, I can deadlift the same if not more from the ground than in with rack deads.....I've posted about this before. I also do leg presses not all the way up (which is about 60 degrees on a Flex leg press, but on the second hook which is right around 45 degrees. I do both of these this way for the same reason I do squats with heels elevated, which is to keep my ass out of the movements so I don't look like a cross between a mini-pony and a clydesdale from the rear view.
Rack deads to me, are a little harder as I don't have the glute and ham power helping me at the bottom. I put my right hand with the base of my palm at the top of my kneecap with fingers down, and my left hand with my fingers at the top of my foot where it meets the tibia. In between where my right hands fingers are, and the base of my left hand is where I set up the bar to go. It's some hams at the beginning, but mostly all lower back, and then shoulders, rhomboids, traps, lats, and arms taking the load. I guess it's all in how you do it, but I personally do them like that to make them harder and more effective not easier.
None of my weights currently would impress/outdo a 14 yr old girl, so I'm taking a major ego hit not building mine up.
The other stuff you posted about I agree is utter nonsense. That swinging shit on pulldowns has always been a pet peeve of mine. It's like "hey dickhead, those are for your lats...it's not supposed to be a full upper body workout"
Now that pullup variations are a "thing" these days, I see the same stupid shit with that. If you can't control your body or the weight, or rack things without making a major ruckus you have no business doing it, and need to drop down the weight until otherwise.
