Q: I just read your newsletter on Position-of-Flexion [ideal exercise plus stretch- and contracted-position exercises]. I thought the natural strength curve of muscles is hard at the stretch and then tailing off at contraction. Doug [Brignole] said the ideal exercise is all you need. If others were beneficial, wouldn’t he have said so?
A: Doug and I went back and forth on this a lot. He believed you only need the ideal exercise for each muscle—nothing else.
I argued that anecdotal evidence suggested otherwise, and that Larry Scott, the first Mr. Olympia, actually developed more peak on his bulbous biceps by emphasizing contraction over stretch. Scott had photos in his Loaded Guns book that showed his biceps transformation…
In my case, I mentioned to Doug that whenever I stopped doing stretch moves for lats, like undergrip pulldowns and pullovers, my lower lats started to disappear—less development at the insertion. He said, nah—impossible.
Then studies started verifying that, including from Chris Beardsley, a hypertrophy researcher whom Doug revered (more on that in tomorrows Mantra newsletter).
Beardsley said that stretch loading produced more “length” hypertrophy, development at the insertion of the muscle, a.k.a. sarcomerogenesis—like flyes for more inner-pec development…
He also said that contraction loading built more muscle girth in the belly, or middle area, of the muscle.
I’m not saying that you can’t get spectacular development by using only the ideal exercise for each muscle. If I were only doing one move for each, that would be it…
What I am saying is that stretch- and contracted-position loading can add unique layers of mass for more complete and even faster development.
In your case, If you like doing mostly sets of the ideal exercise, do three or four instead of two and then add one of the missing-positions exercises…
In the above pictured POF triceps example, at one workout do decline extensions for three or even four sets followed by one set of kickbacks…
At the next workout do three or four sets of declines followed by one set of overhead extensions.
Or not—you can always just do ideal-exercise-only workouts if that’s what you like. I’ve tried it, and I do better with add-on moves, as the research suggests.
Note: For a chart of key stretch- and contracted-position exercises, as well as the key IDEAL mass exercise for each muscle, see pages 42 and 43 of Old Man, Young Muscle.
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.
