Q: I’ve been reading about 3D Positions of Flexion, and it makes total sense. Most of the three-way hits for each muscle are straightforward, but I’m confused about midback. Is a row classified as the big midrange exercise? With a barbell row, the arms squeeze the shoulder blades at the top, which is the contracted position. Is a barbell row both a midrange and contracted exercise?
A: You need to look at the lats and midback together to understand the three positions of flexion for each. For lats, you use pulldowns or chins as the big midrange exercise. Then you follow with pullovers for stretch and stiff-arm pulldowns for contracted.
For midback muscle building, there’s no need for a midrange exercise—you get that on the pulldowns or chins for lats. Those exercises pull the arms down and back, which affects the lats as well as the midback…
To stretch the midback, the best exercise is one-arm dumbbell rows, moving the dumbbell over and past the centerline of the torso at the bottom of the stroke. That’s the complete stretch position for the midback muscles. Also, as you row the dumbbell to the top, you want to keep your arm angled slightly away from your torso to keep the midback muscles engaged. If you pull with the arm close to the torso, you activate the lats more than the midback.
For the midback’s contracted position, use bent-arm bent-over laterals—it’s a combination row/lateral raise, arms bent at slightly greater than 90 degrees. You could use bent-over rows instead because, as you observed, the arms retract the scapulae at the top for a complete contraction. Let’s summarize…
3D POF lat routine: pulldowns (midrange), pullovers (stretch), and stiff-arm pulldowns (contracted)
3D POF midback routine: midrange position trained with lat work, one-arm dumbbell rows (stretch), and bent-arm bent-over laterals or rows (contracted); upper traps—dumbbell shrugs (stretch and contracted)
Notice that the upper traps are a separate animal. To fully develop the upper traps, you should do dumbbell shrugs, which train the stretch and contracted positions. Most trainees get plenty of upper-trap midrange work during their delt routine and from other back exercises, so shrugs should be sufficient…
3D POF is a logical way to train without wasting time or effort. You get max force with midrange work, stretch overload with stretch-position exercises and occlusion and continuous tension with contracted-position movements. You also work the full range of motion of each muscle, which improves flexibility and activates more complete development with fewer sets. In other words, you stimulate maximum muscle growth from a number of different pathways. It just works.
NOTE: For more information on 3D POF and blockbuster mass-building info plus full workout routines based on research-proven full-range training, get 3D Muscle Building.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com
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