In the last few newsletters, I focused on researcher Chris Beardsley’s observation on how muscles can grow in specific areas…
In a nutshell, he says that muscle can grow in length from stretch resistance, which creates more size at the ends of the target muscle, OR muscle fibers can increase in diameter from contraction, or contractile force, which thickens the muscle more near the center, a.k.a. the belly of the muscle.
Sounds a lot like he’s saying that you can “shape” a muscle—at least to a degree. Isn’t that impossible? I always thought so, but it got me reminiscing…
The very first Mr. Olympia Larry Scott was known for his huge, thick arms back in the ‘60s. His full, bulbous biceps were particularly shocking (see MD cover below).
As he was writing a book titled Loaded Guns in the ‘90s, he was still training hard despite being older and wanted to experiment to see if he could carve more of a biceps peak.
In his early competitive days, his biceps training focused on preacher curls, an exercise that was even dubbed Scott curls because of his reliance on it (not recommended, as it puts the biceps tendon in a precarious position to snap).
Scott decided to de-emphasize preachers and rely more on so-called peak-contraction moves, like concentration curls and spider curls. He was shocked by how simply changing biceps exercises created more peak—at least for him…
The preacher curl obviously puts tremendous stress on the biceps at the elbow insertion, which is exactly why it’s so dangerous. But it appears that the excess stretch is exactly what creates development at the insertion.
Luckily, Larry’s genetics apparently made him immune to the hideous tendon-snapping scenario. He was incredibly strong on preachers, which helped him develop gigantic, thick biceps and no-doubt superhuman tendons.
But you can see from the photos above that he was able to remake his mountainous mound into a jagged peak.
Was it muscle wasting in his lower biceps from being older—selective sarcopenia? Were the exercises he switched to building the brachialis muscles that snake under the biceps to push up the peak?
Tomorrow I’ll have some observations from my own training that may have you nodding in agreement or screaming “old-school fool!”
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Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
Steve Holman
Former Editor in Chief, Iron Man Magazine
www.X-Rep.com
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