Q: You said that most of Doug Brignole’s ideal exercises are isolation, but that he considers the dumbbell decline press for chest his ideal. Why? Isn’t the more isolated decline flye just as good or better since triceps aren’t involved?
A: Talking to Doug via Zoom before his death, I asked him that very question…
He said the reason is that the biceps are a limiting factor on any flye movement—much more limiting than triceps on decline presses.
That’s accurate because you hold the biceps in an isometric stretch—very fatiguing.
Even so, in Old Man, Young Muscle I mention that I still use flyes, but as a stretch-position add-on exercise for chest—after decline presses…
Many studies show that stretch loading is key for optimal hypertrophy, so.…
In the OMYM workout, I emphasize the ideal by doing it first for two sets, then I add on either a stretch- or contracted-position exercise…
So for chest, it’s either flat-bench flyes (stretch) or close-grip bench pushups (contracted)…
The close-grip pushup isn’t the best contracted-position exercise—it does involve a lot of front delt. But that’s the best choice I had in my sparse home gym…
In a commercial gym, cable flyes or machine flyes are better choices for full-range resistance…
Still, any of those add-on exercises can provide extra mass stimulation via fiber-recruitment variation after the ideal exercise.
It’s an ideal-plus-add-on mass blast, and you get that for all target muscles in the OMYM workout.
GROW like never before: Get the complete Stretch-First POF Pre-Ex Workout as well as the Base-STX Workout, which both include the ideal exercise for each muscle and the best stretch and contracted add-on moves for mass, in Old Man, Young Muscle.
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