Arnold was known for his mass, but he could also hit some aesthetic poses, as in this Caruso shot of him in his Invisible Top Hat pose. [Read more…]
SIC Mass Workout
Q: I’ve been using your Stretch-First POF Workout [pages 71-72 in Old Man, Young Muscle]. I’ve grown more in six weeks than most of last year. Doing the stretch exercise first is the bomb. It’s giving me some sick gains. One question: You’ve mentioned how bench dips for triceps are bad for shoulders, but you have it in the workout as the ending contracted move. Do you still do those? [Read more…]
Elite Trainer On Stretch-Loading for Mass
Elite trainer Christian Thibaudeau promotes stretch loading as a major hypertrophic trigger. He uses both static holds and partials in his clients’ workout as well as his own training to build mass and strength… [Read more…]
No Contraction for Best Mass Reaction?
Q: Your “Biggest Mistake” newsletter was insightful. Since I’ve made changes to do more loaded-stretch exercises, I’m feeling bigger. With all the studies showing that stretch loading produces best muscle gains, I’m wondering why I need contracted-position exercises [like pushdowns for triceps] at all? [Read more…]
Is Stretch Loading All You Need for Mass?
Yesterday’s newsletter contained an overview of a new study…
“Partial Range of Motion Training Elicits Favorable Improvements In Muscular Adaptations When Carried Out at Long Muscle Lengths.” [Eur J Sports Sci. Pedrosa, et al. 2022] [Read more…]
Stretch-Mass Acceleration
Q: Your discussion on Speed Sets has me experimenting. Should I do the second set of each exercise with those 1.5-second reps? That would give me half my sets in regular 1/3 tempo and the other half Speed. It seems like that would help reduce damage overall from negative-stroke work.
A: That will be an interesting experiment to see if you start to add mass faster due to reduced damage from fewer so-called “garbage negatives”…
They’ve been called that because even on sets to failure, at the end the negative stroke is still fairly easy—not enough resistance to tax the muscle much but still doing damage as the actin-myosin pairings drag over one another causing “friction.”
Speed Sets eliminate those garbage negatives as the eccentric stroke is quick—less than a second; however…
One type of exercise I don’t recommend Speed Sets for is most stretch-position moves, like incline curls, dumbbell flyes, etc. (For a complete list of stretch exercises, see the Positions-of-Flexion Exercise Matrix on pages 42 and 43 of Old Man, Young Muscle.)
The reason is that putting the target muscle in a fully elongated state makes it more vulnerable to injury, as in tendon tears, etc. But…
You can do the stretch moves slightly faster than 1/3—for example 1/2 or even 1/1.
Just stay in complete control of the weight—no heaving, jerking or throwing. Remember, 1/1 means lift in “one-thousand one” and lower in “one-thousand one.” That’s still a controlled tempo…
Use your best judgement as to which stretch exercises you feel are the safest for a faster rep speed. For me and my bum shoulder, for example, doing dumbbell pullovers faster than 1/3 is a no-no.
While 1.5-second reps are my ideal choice for Speed Sets, any increase in negative-stroke tempo should produce a reduction in muscle damage with more recovery substrates left for mass accumulation. At least that’s the theory.
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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Do Stretch-Pause Sets Cause More Damage?
Q: Your analysis of stretch and stretch exercises has been interesting to say the least. You’ve said that you often include an ideal-exercise set on which you pause for a count in the stretch position on every rep. Do you think stretch-pause sets cause more damage than regular sets? [Read more…]
How to Add More Mass With Stretch, Part 2
Yesterday you saw the difference between stretching a muscle without contraction vs. stretch-position resistance exercises…
To recap, damage appears to trigger the hypertrophy produced by both; however, growth is usually significantly more with stretch against resistance PLUS contraction, as in stretch-position resistance exercises. [Read more…]
How to Add More Mass With Stretch, Part 1
Q: You’ve been diving into the growth-promoting potential of movements that emphasize the stretch phase of a muscle’s range of motion. Your science and logic seem pretty solid and correlates with some of the exercises I’ve done that cause significant soreness in a target muscle group. Do you think this could be as much a result of micro-damage from stretching as enhanced fiber recruitment? I could see this micro-trauma also causing hypertrophy, but I was curious if you had an opinion on this. I remember the sorest I’ve ever been was from an overly exuberant dive into stiff-legged deadlifts. I know biomechanics says that it’s almost exclusively a glute movement, but hamstrings do get a significant stretch under load at full extension, which my soreness verified.
A: Here’s a quote from hypertrophy researcher Brad Schoenfeld, Ph.D., on a human study using stretch only, which produced impressive muscle hypertrophy (from Old Man, Young Muscle)… [Read more…]
Mr. America’s Stretch Take
Mr. America/Mr. Universe Doug Brignole has some thoughts on my recent musing on stretching and stretch moves for mass.
He makes the observation that some muscles respond better than others to full stretch, and putting some into a full stretch can be dangerous, such as rear delts. Bringing the arm too far across that body can damage the shoulder joint…
And also lats. Here is Doug’s take… [Read more…]