Q: With the past few newsletters, you really hit it out of the park. Since using stretch exercises and Speed Sets on selected exercise, [as in the [OMYM] workouts], I’ve increased my muscle size considerably. Now, with your dissection of the study on stretch partials, I think those will give me more new gains. My question is, Do you consider parallel-bar dips a good stretch move for chest?
A: While you do get a decent lower-chest stretch on parallel-bar dips, the front-delt heads are the prime-mover muscles. But there’s a bigger problem…
If you look at the photo above, you can see the precarious position of the shoulder joint at the bottom of each rep…
And your bodyweight is pulling down, producing an awkward line of pull on that joint…
That in itself is not worth the risk, in my opinion. And yes, I’ve done them for long periods, and, yes, I have shoulder damage…
Was it the dips? Overhead presses? Heavy flat-bench presses? Maybe all of the above, who knows.
While some trainees may be able to tolerate dips without injury, why chance it?
You can get better and safer pec-stretch loading with dumbbell flyes. Even dumbbell decline presses produce a decent pec stretch, one reason it’s considered the ideal chest exercise.
Note: For a chart of stretch-position exercises for each muscle, as well as the ideal and contracted-position moves, see pages 42 and 43 of Old Man, Young Muscle.
Sculpt your perfect physique: Get the ideal exercise for each muscle, the best stretch and contracted 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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SEE YOUR PECS
(without man-breasts!)
Man-Boobs Syndrome, or “moobs,” is becoming an epidemic primarily because of diet mistakes and rising environmental toxins. You might be more familiar with the medical name: Gynecomastia. “Gyno” is caused by an increase in estrogen in men as their testosterone drops. A quarter of all older guys suffer from man breasts, according to the Mayo Clinic, but even younger men are leaving their shirts on at the beach or pool because of it.
Our colleagues over at Critical Bench have a must-read page that focuses on the problem, and there’s plenty of good info you need to know…