Q: The Old Man, Young Muscle program has me finally putting on some size. I think I was overtraining and not using the right exercises for age 55. You recently mentioned that you do full [three-exercise] Positions-of-Flexion mass routines for some lagging body parts. I would like to do that too. Do you recommend doing the stretch move then a contracted exercise to finish or vice versa?
A: That’s a great question. The order of your add-on exercises can make a big difference, and both ways have benefits—but one is superior.
Let’s use chest as an example. You start with dumbbell decline presses as your ideal, using the STX method for maximum fiber recruitment over two quick sets…
Now for the add ons. If you’re in a home gym, as with the OMYM workout, your stretch- and contracted-position exercises will be:
Stretch: Flat-bench dumbbell flyes
Contracted: Close-grip bench pushups
The question is, do you want to stretch the muscle last with flyes or end with a full-blown pump using continuous-tension contraction push-ups?
Ending with contraction (pushups) is the better choice. One reason is…
The flyes for stretch can activate more fibers due to the myotatic reflex. That’s an emergency nervous-system response when the muscle is fully stretched against load.
That means by doing the contracted pushups after, you can enhance fiber recruitment, which has been shown to develop muscle girth and also produced a blood-flow tsunami.
So that’s the preferred order: ideal + stretch + contraction. But you can switch it up every so often—contracted followed by stretch.
Variation will give you a new stress on the target muscles—however, stretch followed by contracted is the better choice most of the time.
Note: For a list of the best ideal, stretch and contracted exercises for each muscle, see OMYM pages 42 and 43.
Your Efficient Mass-Building Handbook: For complete mass workouts that include Speed Sets, the ideal exercise for each muscle, and the best stretch and contracted add-on moves, get your copy of 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.
