Dedicated to Your Physical Transformation
In the last few newsletters, I focused on researcher Chris Beardsley’s observation on how muscles can grow in specific areas…
In a nutshell, he says that muscle can grow in length from stretch resistance, which creates more size at the ends of the target muscle, OR muscle fibers can increase in diameter from contraction, or contractile force, which thickens the muscle more near the center, a.k.a. the belly of the muscle. [Read more…]
The last few newsletters I’ve been discussing researcher Chris Beardsley’s observations on how different parts of a muscle can grow. I won’t drop in his wordy, nerdy quote again, but I will paraphrase his science speak… [Read more…]
I remember putting exercises on the trash heap if they didn’t have the most resistance in the contracted position…
Or I’d try to alter them to make the contracted position harder… [Read more…]
Do you do every set the same way? You know, same rep tempo, same hand spacing same rest between sets?
Our motto is “change to gain” because it takes something unique to add more mass to your physique. Here’s a good example of making a change on each set. On seated biceps concentration curls…
[Read more…]Q: Isn’t it true that you activate the most muscle fibers in the flexed position, like at the top of a leg extension or leg curl? I know that [Nautilus creator] Arthur Jones said that. So shouldn’t I really flex at the top of those isolation-type exercises? Come to think of it, why should I do compound exercises [like squats] at all? Isolating the muscle appears to be the logical way to stimulate the muscle growth best.
A: We respect the late Arthur Jones and value much of his research, theories, and opinions (Steve met him many years ago in Florida); however, newer research states the contrary—that the contracted, or flexed, position of an exercise is not where the most force/fiber activation occurs—it’s the bottom, where the target muscle is somewhat stretched. Here’s a quote from respected scientists Steven J. Fleck, Ph.D., and William J. Kraemer, Ph.D., that makes the point (we’ll put their statements in simpler terms in a moment): [Read more…]
