Dedicated to Your Physical Transformation
If you’ve read Old Man, Young Muscle, you know that the mass workouts are based on variation of fiber recruitment (Fleck, Kraemer, et al.).
In other words, while the ideal exercise is the best choice for optimal muscle stimulation, certain add-on moves help you achieve different angles, resistance paths and/or degrees of stretch/contraction for unique fiber activation. [Read more…]
I’ve been asked why I use add-on moves after the ideal exercise for each muscle, while Mr. America/Mr. Universe Doug Brignole only does the ideal exercise and nothing more… [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…]
In yesterday’s newsletter, I explained researcher Chris Beardsley’s observations on how different parts of a muscle can grow. That’s controversial to say the least. It sounds like muscle shaping, a so-called impossibility. But here’s what he said… [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…]
Rounder delts can make you look wider and your waist look narrower. That’s two aesthetic reasons to get shoulder training right, especially the side head that’s most responsible for those two effects. [Read more…]
Q: In Old Man Young Muscle you have a Base Workout for upper body and one for lower body. Then you have a separate chapter on full-range Positions-of-Flexion [stretch-first] workouts. How often do you switch to that from the Base Workout?
A: First, in all of my workouts I emphasize the ideal exercise for each muscle… [Read more…]
I won’t keep you in suspense: It’s range of motion. But the forgotten fact is why it’s important…
If you’ve ever watched a very lean bodybuilder doing leg extensions—lean enough so you can see fibers firing—you’ll notice twitching “explosions” all over the quad muscles as the lower leg extends and retracts. [Read more…]
Q: I’ve been following your newsletters. Interesting ideas. One question I have is that you talk about emphasizing the ideal exercise for mass for each target muscle, but then say that you follow it with a less efficient one. Why not just do the ideal exercise only for all sets and then move to the next muscle?
A: We’ve found that different exercises can have unique mass-building effects—and research backs that up… [Read more…]
In most of our mass-training e-books we say that the semi-elongated, or stretch, position on an exercise’s stroke is most important to pack on muscle weight. Why?
Here’s a quote we used in The Ultimate Mass Workout from strength and hypertrophy researchers Steven J. Fleck, Ph.D., and William J. Kraemer, Ph.D. (Don’t fall asleep as you read it; we will translate—lol)… [Read more…]
