News & New Info

On this page I will share news and recently learned information on exercise and nutrition.

This is an answer to one emailed question about my new views on exercise.

In my years of study, I have focused on how to stimulate muscular growth on the cellular level, that is, the micro level. Intensity, load and volume were the forefront axioms of my belief of how to stimulate muscular growth. But, as usually, a great focus comes with a great blindness. In my studying and experimentation I was so narrow-minded. I focused on the micro level and completely dismissed, unconsciously, the macro level. The level to which all of out immediate attention is directed: biomechanics. I have learned, with great elation, that it is not only how intensely you perform an exercise, but how you perform and exercise period that can result in stellar gains in strength and size. I'm gonna divide the conversation at this point into three sections: what, why and how. I.e. What changes have I learned about, why are they significant (but I would rather say that they are damn near GENIUS!) and how do we apply them to real life exercises.

I have learned, via the brilliant works of Bill DeSimone, that exercising in the traditional HIT form of a "full range of motion" or even John Little's Max Contraction is...well, less than optimal, rather it is potentially dangerous for ligamental and tendon tissue and having your perform muscular work in areas of your range that merely waste energy that can best be served to fuel the contraction against significantly heavier loads. The Mid range, performed in a very precise manner, is optimal, safe, productive and conductive with your human biomechanics.

The reason for such a bold statement as that above is two fold: injury prevention and how muscles actually work.

If you exercise through a complete range of motion, such as in the dumbbell fly, dip, chin, triceps pressdown or a number of nautilus, hammer strength and medx machines, your have reach one or both of the extremes. Extreme stretch or full muscular contraction. Both ranges offer little of what I once thought, but one of them is dangerous: full extension of the muscle. When a muscle is fully extended in is weak, considerably weak. Why is it so? ) In the image shown you will see the muscle on the microscopic level. You have myosin proteins bridging out to attach to actin proteins, and the lesser the degree between lever position (the limb we are moving) and full contraction the greater the degree of overlap. But, especially in biarticulating muscles, once you have reached the position of full extension (for the biceps that would be with the palm fully pronated, elbow extended and humerus pulled as far behind your back as possible) you have reached a position where you have little in the way of actin/myosin overlap, i.e. you are weak...significantly weak. This position is known in biomechanics as passive insufficiency. The reason passive insufficiency is dangerous is because the position in which a joint has to be in in order for the muscle to reach passive insufficiency is a range of motion that is to the extreme of that joint. Coupled with the fact that because you are in a position where the muscle is weakest, it literally cannot divert the stress away from the joint. The joint is baring most of the load. You experience such discomfort when you perform the parallel bar dips very deep or the calf raise when you have a significant load and have your knees locked as you descend into a full stretch. So we have one range in a muscle's motion that is not conductive with "safe" exercise. What about the other?

In that same model of the actin and myosin filaments bridging there is another position where the area of bridging is less than maximal. In John Little's Max Contraction, Mike Mentzer's static contractions in the position of full muscular contraction and most of the giants of human physiology over the past 300 years there has been the belief that moving from the position of full extension to full muscular contraction will activate most muscle fibers due to the belief that once reaching the position of FULL MUSCULAR CONTRACTION you have activated all of your available muscle fibers. Well, though simple and practical, it simply is not true.

Once reaching the position of full muscular contraction you have not completely overlapped all of the actin and myosin proteins in the working fibers, but you have over bridged and have very few actin and myosin fibers connecting. And the problem of the position of full muscular contraction is that you are both, usually, muscularly and mechanically weak. And because of that you are unable to activate the greatest amount of fibers possible and stimulate them into growth. The two factors responsible for that are load and intensity. The range in which works the muscle optimally, safely and allows for maximal loads in a "mid" range of motion. In the mid range of motion you are avoiding hyper stretching the joint and the weakest areas of your range of movement. In the mid range you have your actin and myosin filaments bridging in the greatest quantity and you are in a position where a much greater load can be used, so a greater amount of muscle fibers can be recruited.

How to apply it to your workout. Well first of all, certain exercises are more productive than others, and some that were once thought of as brilliant have been disposed of.

The Bench press: the bench press has, to my regret, been underrated by the HIT community and especially by me! I will say this to you Bret, then post it on my site, that the bench press, performed in the manner described here, is the single most productive chest exercise. The Dip does not exercise the chest musculature as productively as once thought and has many risks. The bench press, performed with a medium width grip ( a little outside shoulder width) lowered down toward the nipples but stopping 3-4 inches short of contact and pressed up into a position an inch or two short of lock out will stimulate your chest and triceps phenomenally! The Leg Press: On the leg press, merely lower the weight until there is a little less than a 90 degree gap between your hamstrings and calves. The Overhead Press: If using a smith machine or machine, set the bar or handles so your hands are at about mouth height in the bottom position and press until you are an inch or two from lock out. Pulldown. Start with your elbows at eye level and pulldown until your hands are eye/mouth level. KEEP YOUR SHOULDERS DOWN. Do not elevate your shoulders during the exercise as it unloads the lats and gives them rest.