I’ve been discussing changing exercises from time to time—even workout to workout. It can fuel hypertrophy due to variation on fiber recruitment, not to mention boredom relief; however…
You need to be in touch with your target muscles so you know if a replacement exercise is benefitting your quest for more hypertrophy. For example…
When Jonathan and I trained together at the Iron Man Training & Research Center, hitting biceps was a favorite…
The POF program we used most often was…
Dumbbell curls
Incline curls (stretch)
Concentration curls (contracted)
My problem was that I had a hard time feeling dumbbell curls. You may be saying, “But isn’t that the ideal exercise for biceps?”
Yes, according to Drug-Free Mr. Universe and biomechanics expert Doug Brignole, it is—but apparently not for me…
When I do them, I feel unstable. Jonathan always loved them and got a deep ache in his biceps; I simply had a hard time engaging my biceps properly….
I liked cable curls much better. I could lean into them, which provided more stability and the nerve force I needed to activate more fibers.
That’s why I have it as the top ideal exercise for biceps in Old Man Young Muscle 2.
But there’s nothing wrong with dumbbells if you feel them. A good mind-muscle connection means you can help you tap into the nerve force to activate the most high-threshold motor units.
And therein lies the point of this discussion. Yes, you can switch exercises, but if you feel an exercise more than another, stick with your best choice most of the time.
By the way, POF did great things for both Jonathan and myself. Legendary photographer Michael Neveux said that Jonathan had the best arms he’d ever seen on a drug-free bodybuilder. We even put him on Iron Man’s cover, featuring his gargantuan guns (remember, no drugs whatsoever)…
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