Q: You mentioned that Arnold liked a seated cable lateral. Did he do them sitting on the floor? Why not just do them standing?
A: He actually did them sitting on a low stool. He could probably tell by feel that the low position put him at a better height for an ideal resistance curve than doing them standing when the pulley is set near the floor…
If you do them standing, you should set the pulley at about waist height. That will give you more resistance at the bottom stretch and less at the top contraction, similar to Arnold’s version…
That’s important because muscles are weakest at contraction due to the fibers being too bunched together to exert force.
And that means the bottom stretch is more advantageous for triggering hypertrophy. So why not just do the bottom part of the stroke?
It appears that new fiber bundles can be activated throughout the range of motion, albeit fewer at the top than through the stretch…
Still, you don’t want to neglect that contracted area or you could leave some growth on the table.
After the ideal exercise, you may want to emphasize that area with a contracted-position exercise. In the case of shoulders, Arnold liked standing dumbbell lateral raises.
So while Arnold appeared to use a shotgun approach to construct his muscle-building workouts, he did have an excellent instinct for zeroing in on some of the best exercises—like the seated one-arm cable lateral, an ideal choice.
Sculpt your perfect physique: Get the ideal exercise for each muscle, the best stretch and contracted 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
Former Editor in Chief, Iron Man Magazine
www.X-Rep.com
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