Yesterday, in my discussion on incline presses, I mentioned that recent studies are indicating that stretch overload is a big key to more hypertrophy.
It’s one reason powerlifters have such massive traps—heavy deadlifts, an exercise that puts those muscle in a max-stretch struggle from start to finish…
A good example of stretch overload as a mass maker is eight-time Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman’s training, which we analyzed on a day-by-day workout basis in the last chapter of Beyond X-Rep Muscle Building (pages 93 to 102)…
He not only did a lot of heavy deadlifts—all trap stretch, no contraction—but also low-end partial shrugs. And that’s not the only muscle he attacked with serious stretch-overload. Here’s a quote from that 2005 e-book (17 years ago, yikes)…
[At elongation] the muscle fibers are perfectly aligned for ultimate power generation. In simple terms, if you want to trigger extreme mass, you need to overload that point somehow. Coleman does that instinctively with heavy partial-range reps. For example, he does only the bottom half of a bench press stroke. In fact, he almost never does full reps.
I prefer full-range reps on most sets, emphasizing the stretch. But some partials in the stretch position can crank the growth ignition—especially on stretch exercises like flyes and shrugs. But be careful. For the best muscle-building stretch moves, see the new ebook.
New: Get the ideal exercise for each muscle, the best add-on moves for ultimate mass, complete 35-minute workouts, exercise start/finish photos, and details on building muscle fast and efficiently in Old Man, Young Muscle.
And you still get The Muscle-On, Belly-Gone “Diet” ebook FREE for a limited time when you add Old Man, Young Muscle to your mass-building library. Go HERE.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com
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