In Old Man, Young Muscle I talk about mechanical tension as being one of the bigger mass triggers.
It’s basically providing the target muscle with enough resistance to elicit activation of fast-twitch growth fibers.
The slow-twitch exhaustion technique, or STX, in that ebook has you do a 20-rep set to failure first, which fatigues slow-twitch fibers, bringing in the fast-twitch on the last four reps or so…
Then you rest only 20 seconds and crank out another set with the same weight. The short rest means slow-twitch fibers are still in oxygen deficit, so more fast-twitch fibers are force to fire…
You get excellent mechanical tension without joint-crushing weights.
Occlusion, or blood-flow blockage, is another way to quickly stifle slow-twitch fibers and get more fast-twitch fibers into the action. In the research, subjects had tourniquets placed on the limbs above working muscles to significantly reduce blood flow; however…
An isolation exercise with continuous tension creates a lot of occlusion without looking like a heroin user.
For example, if you do concentration curls from a third of the way up the stroke to the top, and only do that top two-thirds of the stroke for a controlled 20 reps, you choke off blood flow to the biceps throughout the set.
Elliott, an astute reader of this newsletter, asked if perhaps continuous-tension contracted-position exercises would be best for the first high-rep set to get occlusion, even if it’s not in the ideal category. He mentioned using top-range lateral raises…
As you know from OMYM, lateral raises are not an ideal exercise due to the faulty resistance curve—too much resistance at the top, not enough at the bottom. That’s why it’s suggested doing them last as an add-on shoulder move…
But if you want to experiment with occlusion as a fast-twitch accelerant, doing them first with a partial stroke for continuous tension could stimulate new gains. You’ll have to use a light dumbbell to maintain tension throughout the set.
So it’s standing one-arm laterals, top two-thirds of the stroke, rest 20 seconds, then do a set of the ideal delt exercise, low-incline one-arm laterals, which has an almost perfect resistance curve, as shown…
With that exercise order, you’re training the weaker part of the range of motion first with a truncated stroke for better occlusion, then emphasizing the strongest range with the incline laterals for optimal fast-twitch engagement.
Something to consider if you’re up for experimentation for new mass creation.
New: Get the ideal exercise for each muscle, the best add-on moves for ultimate mass, complete 35-minute workouts, exercise start/finish photos and details on building muscle fast and efficiently in Old Man, Young Muscle.
And you still get The Muscle-On, Belly-Gone “Diet” ebook FREE for a limited time when you add Old Man, Young Muscle to your mass-building library. Go HERE.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
Steve Holman
Former Editor in Chief, Iron Man Magazine
www.X-Rep.com
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