Mr. America Doug Brignole’s Training, Part 10

I want to circle back to add-on exercises you can use after the ideal. Doug did not think they were mandatory, or in most cases even necessary…

True, many ideal exercises have some contraction and stretch, especially those with cables like cable chest presses…

Even so, research has confirmed that variation in fiber recruitment with other exercises can improve and/or accelerate full muscle development (see OMYM2 for specific studies)….

For example, loading the full-stretch position, like overhead triceps extensions or dumbbell chest flyes, has been shown to produce more growth near the insertion of the target muscle…

Doug had some good perspective on “stretch-position loading.”

Some of our muscles respond extremely well with maximum stretch (like the pecs), but other muscles don’t seem to need it (benefit from it) as much, and often it’s anatomically (orthopedically) dangerous.

For example, if you tried to do a lat exercise that caused maximum loaded stretch, you’d end up with zero load upon full contraction—and it would likely stress the shoulder joint.

The cable lat pull-in elongates the lats enough, while still allowing you to have about 20 percent of the resistance upon contraction.

Doug is saying that like the cable chest press, you get sufficient stretch and contraction with continuous tension. And the strength curve of the cable lat pull-in is very close too ideal. He continues…

The same is true with rear deltoids. It’s dangerous to take that arm too far across the front of your torso. But the stretch works fine for the front deltoids.

It’s not good to allow (or cause) the side deltoids to experience maximum stretch, and they don’t seem to benefit from it.

It’s not good to over-stretch the hamstrings while maximally loaded, nor the quadriceps while maximally loaded, although both benefit from as much knee range as possible (although less loaded at the extremes).

It would obviously not be good to maximally stretch (while fully loaded) the abs or erector spinae. But training the upper traps with maximum stretch and full load is more beneficial than not doing so.

He’s correct in that loaded stretch can be dangerous for some muscles—and that some muscles benefit more from stretch loading…

You should never OVER-emphasize stretch with a weight, and you should never move fast—no speed sets with stretch-position exercises. That’s explained in both OMYM and OMYM2.

It’s interesting that some of the ideal exercises are full stretch, such as the sissy squat for quads. Again, no need to go as deep as possible or to move quickly—stay in control.

In the next training newsletter I’ll have some thoughts from Doug on low reps vs. high reps for hypertrophy. Stay tuned.

For more info on the Brig20 exercises, go here: https://www.smarttraining365.com/brig20

Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.