Q: I’ve read a little on your Point-of-Flexion training, and it seems complicated. I was thinking about getting the 3D Muscle Building e-book, but I’m not sure I’ll understand it. I guess I really want to know two things: if it works and if I will “get it” once I read the e-book.
A: It’s actually “Positions” of Flexion, but “Point” of Flexion works too—same meaning. POF is far from complicated; in fact, it streamlines mass-building bodypart routines. POF gets to the “point”—you don’t waste time or effort so you have more recovery ability for maximum growth.
Basically, with POF you train each muscle with three distinct exercises in order to train the target muscle’s full range of motion and stimulate muscle growth along a number of different pathways quickly and efficiently. The best POF bodypart workout to explain the concept is one for triceps…
If you raise your hand, like you want to ask a question in class, that’s the top point along the triceps’ arc of flexion (overhead extensions, stretch position when elbow is bent). Now lower your straight arm till it’s perpendicular to your body, like you just completed a bench press. That’s the midpoint along the triceps’ arc of flexion (close-grip bench presses, midrange position). Now lower your straight arm down next to your torso. That’s a third key flexion point (pushdowns, contracted, or fully flexed, position).
By training those three exercises, you attack the critical points along the triceps arc of flexion and work the bulk of the muscle through its full range of motion. That provides more complete development quickly due to unique fiber activation at each point.
You actually achieve the most fiber activation in the midrange position because you use a number of muscles to overload the triceps with heavy weight and achieve max-force generation. That’s the key mass-building exercise for triceps, but the other two add significantly to the size-building effect, especially when you take stretch overload and occlusion into account…
Overhead extensions, the middle photo above, stretch the triceps against resistance. That stretch overload has been linked to hyperplasia, or fiber splitting, as well as anabolic hormone release in the target muscle. In fact, one animal study produced a 300 percent muscle-mass increase after only one month of progressive stretch overload workouts (yes, a triple-size increase).
Pushdowns train the triceps in the contracted, or fully flexed, position. That’s one of the best exercises to block blood flow (occlusion) with continuous tension. Note that on pushdowns you get a good squeeze on the triceps and, if you do the exercise correctly, tension remains on the triceps throughout the set. Occlusion and tension have been shown in research studies to produce significant muscle-size increases, even with light weights, which is partially due to the influx of blood when you finish the exercise.
You can see how those three positions, or points, of flexion
To give POF a test drive, try this triceps program: Start with close-grip bench presses, 2 x 8-10; then move to overhead extensions (stretch), 2 x 10-12; end with pushdowns, 2 x 12-15. Train all work sets to exhaustion—till another full rep is impossible.
Note the rep-range variance on each exercise, which enhances the size-building characteristic of each. After that quick, efficient workout, you’ll have a full skin-stretching pump and feel a deep ache in your triceps. You’ll know that you’ve achieved unique stimulation that will result in new impressive muscle size.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com
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