Q: I have been following your muscle-building journey. You did not have cables, but now [as depicted in Old Man Young Muscle 2] you do. I do not. Any suggestions?
A: Thanks for your question, James. I’m sure you’re not alone. Plenty of trainees work out in a bare-bones home gym, which is why I wrote the original Old Man Young Muscle…
During the pandemic, all I had was a 50-pound PowerBlock dumbbell set, an adjustable bench, and a doorway chinning bar. It was depressing, but…
With advice from Drug-Free Mr. Universe and biomechanics expert Doug Brignole, I built the OMYM workout around many of his “ideal” exercise for each muscle…
I made startling gains with only 35-minute workouts—no cables, no barbells, no machines. (My before and after pics during that time are on the OMYM page)….
So to answer your question, you should stick to that ideal-exercise-based workout in your home gym, but try some variations. The newly updated POF exercise list in The Ultimate-Mass Exercise Guide can help.
Also, my first training partner back in high school, Bill, introduced resistance bands to his home workouts for variety. He loves them. And elite trainer Vince McConnell incorporates bands into the programs of many of his clients who use the slow-twitch exhaustion method (STX—more on Vince’s band-infused training in future newsletters)…
I know, I know: the resistance curve is wrong with bands—ass-backward; however, bands are perfect for changing the torque curve to contracted dominant, like on pushdowns.
While a number of studies came out showing that stretch-position exercises blew away contracted-position moves for hypertrophy, there’s something missing that you need to consider before relying too heavily on stretch moves…
A misinterpretation of those studies may be crippling your gains. More on that tomorrow.
Grow with the latest mass-building research: Old Man Young Muscle 2 is here, giving you insight into most recent hypertrophy studies, how to apply them to your training, and a complete mass-building workout featuring STX, Speed Sets, and X-Reps. And for a limited time, you can get The Ultimate-Mass Exercise Guide FREE, which includes a New Positions-of-Flexion Workout. This is a $29 value, but for a limited time you can add both ebooks to your mass-building library for only $19 HERE.
