We’ve been discussing Mr. America and Mr. Universe Doug Brignole and his biomechanically ideal exercises.
He has 16 factors, basically a checklist, for determining an exercise’s rank. From those 16 Steve extracted his top five that are detailed in the new ebook.
One of the big ones for optimal muscle-fiber activation is correct resistance curve. That means the exercise should be hardest near the stretch position and easiest at contraction—as in the dumbbell decline press or incline one-arm laterals.
Another key factor is that the muscle is pulling the resistance directly toward its origin. On the dumbbell decline press, for example, you are driving your arms toward your breast bone, which is the pec muscles’ origin.
On the other hand, a row is pulling your arms straight back, not in toward the spine where the mid-back muscles’ origins are. That makes rows inefficient for back development—but not useless (explained in the new ebook).
What about biceps? Doug sifts through his factors and concludes that the alternate dumbbell curl is the Big Kahuna.
It checks off both of the above factors…
1) an excellent resistance curve due to angle of pull and gravity
2) target muscle pulling directly toward its origin due to the biceps pulling forearm toward the shoulder…
Here’s another important ideal-exercise factor: one-limb movements are best because of bi-lateral deficit…
Bi-lateral deficit means that a muscle is stronger when working alone rather than with its opposite-side counterpart.
Alternate dumbbell curls check that box as well. What’s our take?
While we do alternate DB curls every so often, we’re not big fans of alternating back and forth during a set. Why?
One arm is resting while the other works—we like a continuous tension, working one biceps all the way through the set.
And speaking of continuous tension, we also prefer the concentration curl over alternate DB curls, as there is still a bit of resistance at the top…
Plus, having the arm away from the body is a less painful position for our shoulders, which have some damage from years of heavy pressing (that’s a different discussion on joint impingement and our dumb-assery for ignoring it).
One last point for getting the most mass gains for your effort buck: Work one arm through all of your biceps sets and exercises; then do the other side.
While you may think it takes more time, the extra amount is very small—and the added mass stimulation will be well worth it.
If you’ve been with us for a while, you know that we prefer short rests between sets—usually only 20 seconds or so. That amplifies the Size Principle of muscle-fiber recruitment (see the new ebook)…
Alternating arms on concentration curls provides too much rest for the nonworking biceps.
For example, if you’re doing 10 reps, four seconds per rep, your biceps are getting a 40-second breather as the other biceps works. That’s too long for us. We like to keep it going for better growing…
All sets for one biceps, then all sets for the other.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com
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