Yesterday I addressed a question about building muscle in a home gym without a cable unit.
The answer is to stick with the workout in OMYM, which uses only dumbbells, a bench, and a doorway chinning bar. But you may want to introduce some band exercises…
Yes, the resistance curve is wrong with bands; however, bands are perfect for changing the torque curve for contraction-dominant work, which can be a good thing…
But didn’t a number of studies recently show that stretch-position exercises are significantly more hypertrophic than contracted-position moves?
Yes—and those studies caused many trainees to shit-can contracted-position exercises, thinking they are inferior. Bad idea. That’s because…
Many of those studies were performed with untrained subjects. It appears that stretch-mediated hypertrophy occurs quickly and early, then tapers off.
Stretch moves also tilt the most growth to the ends of the target muscle. On the other hand…
Contracted-position exercises build more of the muscle’s girth, expanding the fibers toward the middle of the target muscle.
Also, while growth is slower with contracted-position work, it’s more steady and doesn’t taper off—at least not nearly as fast…
In fact, it appears that contracted-mediated growth surpasses that of stretch exercises with consistent use…
It’s kind of a tortoise-and-the-hare thing—slow and steady wins the race. Or in this case, it appears to add more to your muscle growth consistently over time.
So integrate BOTH stretch- and contracted-position exercise into your training, perhaps at different workouts…
And try integrating bands for peak-contraction work. Just make sure you secure them properly. Getting your scrotum whip-slapped is no fun—unless you’re into that.
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