A question of strength - Part 2
Q: I follow your articles and like your advice. I noticed that quite often you recommend donkey calf raises when you talk about training the calves. The gyms I know don't have a donkey calf raise machine and I don't like interrupting other people's workouts to ask them to sit on my back. Are there alternative exercises I can use instead of donkey calf raises?
A: The reason I like donkey calf raises is because this exercise puts your gastrocnemius in a superior stretched position. Seated calf raises are okay and machines for this exercise can be found in almost every gym, but this exercise is aimed more at training the soleus. However, for full calf development you need to train the soleus and gastrocnemius. If your gym doesn't have a machine for donkey calf raises, or if you don't like asking someone to sit on your back, then single leg calf raises with a dumbbell would be your best alternative.
Q: I like your column and I have a question about back training. I hurt my back doing heavy squats three years ago and even though squats and bent-over rowing are without a doubt two of my absolute favorite exercises, I am no longer able to do them. My back is more than wide enough, but the thickness suffers because I can only use rowing machines. I would appreciate some advice on how I can train around this problem. I want to win the Western Ontario Championships this year.
A:First of all, it's not necessarily because you injured your back three years ago that you can't use the exercises you'd like to do. Often lower back pain experienced after an injury is caused by tight/shortened hip flexors. Stretching these muscles regularly could help you get back into squats.
Apart from this, there are a variety of exercises that can help you increase the thickness of your back muscles. For example, you can add thickness to your back by performing pull-ups where you focus on moving your lower sternum towards the bar. Another option is to hold the contracted position while rowing on the machine for 3 to 4 seconds. This will overload the retractors of the shoulder blades, which will contribute to hypertrophy in the upper back.
Q: What is your opinion on 20 repetition breathing squats? I've just been reading Stuart Roberts BRAWN and talking to a lot of people on the internet about the benefits of 20 repetition squats. What is your opinion on this training method?
A: The classic 20 repetition squat programs are certainly worth a try. They were popularized by early iron sport authors like Peary Rader and Bob Hise. What types of gains can you expect from this? Typically, a teenager who weighs 70 kilos can gain 6 to 7 kilos in 8 short weeks by using a program of 20 repetitions of breathing squats (always assuming, of course, that they are eating appropriately). When performing this program, you take 3 deep breaths between each repetition. And of course you only do one set of this exercise. What actually happens is that you perform 20 single repetitions with 10 seconds rest between each repetition. This 10 second pause, during which you take 3 deep breaths, will allow you to recruit more high threshold muscle fibers than if you were to perform these 20 repetitions in one go. This is the reason for the higher than normal recruitment of motor units. If this exercise is performed with the correct training load, you will cough your lungs out at the end of the set. If you are underweight and have a low work capacity, then I highly recommend 20 repetitions of breathing squats. However, like any exercise program, breathing squats will only work until your body gets used to them.
Q: If a gym-goer notices that their strength has not increased compared to the last training session for a given muscle group, should they stop training that muscle group that day?
A:Yes, the motto to respect is "train harder or go home." If your strength has not increased since the last training session, two things may have happened:
- You waited too long between workouts and therefore lost the training effect. (This is often seen in what I call the "menstrual training cycle", which consists of 4 days of training and 26 days off).
- You have not waited long enough and therefore supercompensation has not yet taken place (the more common reason of these two).
As a rule of thumb, you should try to do one more repetition or increase the weight on the bar slightly (by 1 to 2%). The key to consistent progress is to continually increase the load slightly to coax the muscles into strength adaptations.
Q: I have a question about carbohydrate powders. You recommend high quality carbohydrate powders and I have found that these work very well for me. Many stores sell carbohydrate powders at horrendous prices. Do you know where I can find a good carbohydrate powder at a reasonable price?
A:A cheap alternative to expensive designer carbohydrate powders is plain maltodextrin. This is high quality stuff that works just as well as many of the expensive carbohydrate powders. Always remember that there is nothing magical about most supplements. A little thought and research can often save you a lot of money.
Q: I saw in the May issue of Muscle Media that Paul Chek mentioned your name when talking about Mesomophs. I also noticed that most of your athletes are elite level athletes who probably have the best genetics on the planet. My question is, how relevant are your training ideologies and workouts for athletes with less than perfect genetic predispositions? I have a fear that you personally find it very easy to build muscle mass and strength and that you can't really sympathize with the hard gainers with poor bone structure, poor recovery ability, low testosterone levels, etc. And since most of your workouts are designed for Olympic athletes, they may not be as beneficial for exercisers with average genetics who are trying to build significant amounts of muscle mass. I would look forward to an answer.
A: As for the suggestion that my training methods are unsuitable for the average exerciser, nothing could be further from the truth. I get emails every day from readers who are following my advice and finally seeing gains as a result. Many of them had previously considered themselves hardgainers but are now building strength and muscle mass. You should keep in mind that not every Olympic athlete I train is genetically blessed. The truth is that many of them only got to where they are today through hard work. One of the strongest guys I ever coached was Ian Danney, an athlete who competed in the Olympics on the bobsled team at a competitive weight of 100 kilos. Three years earlier he weighed only 84 kilos and three years before that it was only 67 kilos. But through intelligent training sessions and a careful post-workout diet, he was able to build up 23 kilos of pure muscle mass.
You have to keep in mind that there are MANY factors that contribute to muscle growth. These include muscle fiber types, the number of muscle fibers per cross-sectional area, muscle attachment points, and endogenous levels of anabolic hormones such as testosterone, IGF-1, growth hormone, etc. In addition to this, there are psychological attributes such as intelligence that allow you to make decisions that help you build muscle mass. It is very rare for anyone to be deficient in any of these factors. For this reason, you can achieve gains by emphasizing certain factors. If you were born with a lot of type IIa muscle fibers (fast contracting fibers), why would you bust your ass trying to build muscle with a low repetition workout? I believe I was blessed with a good muscle fiber composition, but I always suffered from a poor appetite. I had to get my post-workout nutrition down to a science in order to build mass. I also had some other, more serious problems. For example, I have excellent muscle attachment points in my elbow flexors, but not in my latissimus, etc. So I had to find ways to deal with these training issues through extensive research, personal conversations with other trainers and experience. I firmly believe that most hardgainers are hardgainers because they firmly believe they are hardgainers. It is these negative thoughts that keep them lean and scrawny. They are the ones who buy size M t-shirts to make their bodies look better instead of buying XXL t-shirts and trying to grow into them. If you visualize something, it will happen.
Q: You mentioned the supplement phosphatidylserine in one of your articles. Can you tell me a bit more about this as I have no idea what this supplement is and what it is supposed to do?
A: Phosphatidylserine is generally used for two purposes. Longevity fanatics like it because it supposedly increases the number of neurotransmitter receptors in the brain, which is supposed to make you more mentally efficient. Bodybuilders and strength athletes, on the other hand, are more interested in phosphatidylserine because there is evidence that it prevents cortisol from docking onto receptors in muscle tissue. If you train very, very hard, you may suffer from excessive cortisol levels, making further muscle gains difficult. However, you should be careful not to overdose on this supplement as you need some cortisol to maintain good health. If you use too much phosphatidylserine then you may suffer from a number of unwanted side effects such as sore joints.
Q: My triceps development has come to a standstill. Do you have any new training programs I could try?
A:The following program could also be called "the pre/post fatigue program from hell". I was first introduced to this concept by former Canadian national weightlifting coach Pierre Roy, who produced a number of weightlifting champions. Pierre would have his athletes perform the same exercise twice within a training session if he wanted to see rapid progress on that particular exercise. For example, if one of his Olympic weightlifters needed more strength in his legs, he would have him do squats at the beginning and end of the session.
I was further encouraged to incorporate this principle into my training when I stumbled across the strength training book by French strength training physiologist Commetti, which described the benefits of this method. This piqued my curiosity and I had many of my athletes work with this method and many of them reported incredible muscle soreness and subsequent incredible muscle growth. Although you can use this type of training for any muscle group, you should try the following program for your triceps:
1) Tricep presses performed lying down with a SZ bar towards your forehead, using a 6-8 RM weight (the heaviest weight you can perform 6 to 8 clean reps with) and a 3-1-1 tempo.<
Move on to this without resting:
2) Tight bench press with a 4-6 RM weight and a 3-1-1 tempo. Then go to without rest:
3) Tricep press performed lying down with a SZ bar towards the forehead, with a 4-6 RM weight and a 3-1-1 tempo
Pause for two minutes and then repeat steps 1 to 3 twice (you will probably have to reduce the weight by 2.5 to 5 kilos for each subsequent triple set) You can perform a few more tricep exercises after this, but the triple sets described should be the cornerstone of your training for a limited period of time (until your body has become accustomed to them).
In the book The Poliquin Principals, some muscle groups are listed that consist primarily of fast or slow contracting muscle fibers. I would be interested in a more comprehensive list of the average muscle fiber composition of different muscles. Do you know where I can find this information?
I only know of one author who has published something on this subject and he is the Finnish scientist Vittaasalo. The name of his book is Voima Harjotelu (Strength Training). Unfortunately, it is only available in Finnish.
However, you should keep the following information in mind:
1) In most individuals, most muscles tend to be made up of more muscle fibers of a certain type. Leg flexors and gastrocnemius, for example, usually have the largest proportion of fast-contracting muscle fibers, while soleus and adductors have a larger proportion of slow-contracting muscle fibers. Only one in 60 people have primarily slow-contracting leg flexors (note: fast-contracting muscle fibers usually require training with heavy weights and low repetitions, while slow-contracting muscle fibers respond better to higher repetitions).
2) In some people, there is a large variance between muscle fibers - even in the same person. For example, you can find people with fast-contracting biceps and slow-contracting triceps or vice versa. In my experience, the shoulder muscles are probably the muscle group with the most variance in terms of muscle fiber composition.
3) Performing loads of aerobic exercise can cause fast contracting muscle fibers to behave like slow contracting muscle fibers. As a result, high aerobic capacity often goes hand in hand with low overall strength.
4) Even within the same muscle there is some variance. For example, the upper fibers of the latissimus dorsi are slow-contracting fibers, while the lower fibers are faster-contracting in nature. The muscle fiber composition will look different depending on whether you insert a biopsy needle closer to the upper or lower end of the biceps brachii. Muscles like these require a lot of training in all repetition ranges.
For more information on muscle fibers, you may find the PubMed website helpful, where you can find a large number of studies.
Q: What would be the main differences between a bodybuilding training program for a natural bodybuilder and a "chemically assisted" bodybuilder, if any?
A: In general, there are two main differences between a bodybuilding program for a natural bodybuilder and a bodybuilder who uses performance enhancing substances:
- I don't believe that anabolic steroids necessarily allow a bodybuilder to train more often than a steroid-free bodybuilder, but they can definitely accelerate the rate of progress. In other words, a steroid-assisted trainee will achieve perhaps 5% instead of 1 to 2% gains per training session. I agree with those who say that you need to train less often while using steroids. This is probably due to the fact that a steroid-assisted exerciser will get stronger faster and each training session will be more demanding on recovery ability.
- As Mauro DiPasquale once said, your body will be more forgiving while using anabolic steroids. A steroid-free exerciser has to pay more attention to regular nutritional intake, the right amount of food and the quality of their sleep than a steroid-assisted bodybuilder who can stay up late and party without much negative effect. In other words, steroid-using bodybuilders can train terribly, eat poorly, sleep little and do a lot of other things wrong, but still build muscle.
However, I don't think you are at too much of a disadvantage if you train without steroids. I have often observed that people who train smarter have outperformed steroid-assisted bodybuilders in terms of gains, especially when you look at long-term progress.
Q: What is the best way to build trapezius? I've noticed that powerlifters and Olympic weightlifters seem to have the best trapezius development. In comparison, the trapezius development of bodybuilders is pathetic. Shoulder raises (shrugs) and rowing upright don't seem to do much for me and I highly doubt that powerlifters train shoulder raises...what's their secret? Is it the deadlift? And if so, is there any trick to shifting more load to the trapezius, like pulling the shoulder blades back? I would appreciate an insightful answer.
A: Powerlifters achieve their trapezius development through years of deadlift training, while Olympic weightlifters achieve their trapezius development simply through the Olympic weightlifting exercises and their derivatives. Power deadlifts and power snatches are probably the most effective exercises for trapezius development after shoulder raises. Five sets of six repetitions of these exercises will pack mass onto your trapezius. When training shoulder raises, I would recommend using dumbbells and only training one side at a time. This way you will achieve a much greater range of motion.
Pulling the shoulder blades back at the highest point of the movement when doing shoulder raises is definitely not a good trick. To be honest, it's actually a pretty stupid idea. How is gravity supposed to work its pull if you're trying to move the weight parallel to it instead of in the opposite direction?
By: Charles Poliquin
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/question-of-strength-4, https://www.t-nation.com/training/question-of-strength-5, https://www.t-nation.com/training/question-of-strength-6 , https://www.t-nation.com/training/question-of-strength-7
Q: I follow your articles and like your advice. I noticed that quite often you recommend donkey calf raises when you talk about training the calves. The gyms I know don't have a donkey calf raise machine and I don't like interrupting other people's workouts to ask them to sit on my back. Are there alternative exercises I can use instead of donkey calf raises?
A: The reason I like donkey calf raises is because this exercise puts your gastrocnemius in a superior stretched position. Seated calf raises are okay and machines for this exercise can be found in almost every gym, but this exercise is aimed more at training the soleus. However, for full calf development you need to train the soleus and gastrocnemius. If your gym doesn't have a machine for donkey calf raises, or if you don't like asking someone to sit on your back, then single leg calf raises with a dumbbell would be your best alternative.
Q: I like your column and I have a question about back training. I hurt my back doing heavy squats three years ago and even though squats and bent-over rowing are without a doubt two of my absolute favorite exercises, I am no longer able to do them. My back is more than wide enough, but the thickness suffers because I can only use rowing machines. I would appreciate some advice on how I can train around this problem. I want to win the Western Ontario Championships this year.
A:First of all, it's not necessarily because you injured your back three years ago that you can't use the exercises you'd like to do. Often lower back pain experienced after an injury is caused by tight/shortened hip flexors. Stretching these muscles regularly could help you get back into squats.
Apart from this, there are a variety of exercises that can help you increase the thickness of your back muscles. For example, you can add thickness to your back by performing pull-ups where you focus on moving your lower sternum towards the bar. Another option is to hold the contracted position while rowing on the machine for 3 to 4 seconds. This will overload the retractors of the shoulder blades, which will contribute to hypertrophy in the upper back.
Q: What is your opinion on 20 repetition breathing squats? I've just been reading Stuart Roberts BRAWN and talking to a lot of people on the internet about the benefits of 20 repetition squats. What is your opinion on this training method?
A: The classic 20 repetition squat programs are certainly worth a try. They were popularized by early iron sport authors like Peary Rader and Bob Hise. What types of gains can you expect from this? Typically, a teenager who weighs 70 kilos can gain 6 to 7 kilos in 8 short weeks by using a program of 20 repetitions of breathing squats (always assuming, of course, that they are eating appropriately). When performing this program, you take 3 deep breaths between each repetition. And of course you only do one set of this exercise. What actually happens is that you perform 20 single repetitions with 10 seconds rest between each repetition. This 10 second pause, during which you take 3 deep breaths, will allow you to recruit more high threshold muscle fibers than if you were to perform these 20 repetitions in one go. This is the reason for the higher than normal recruitment of motor units. If this exercise is performed with the correct training load, you will cough your lungs out at the end of the set. If you are underweight and have a low work capacity, then I highly recommend 20 repetitions of breathing squats. However, like any exercise program, breathing squats will only work until your body gets used to them.
Q: If a gym-goer notices that their strength has not increased compared to the last training session for a given muscle group, should they stop training that muscle group that day?
A:Yes, the motto to respect is "train harder or go home." If your strength has not increased since the last training session, two things may have happened:
- You waited too long between workouts and therefore lost the training effect. (This is often seen in what I call the "menstrual training cycle", which consists of 4 days of training and 26 days off).
- You have not waited long enough and therefore supercompensation has not yet taken place (the more common reason of these two).
As a rule of thumb, you should try to do one more repetition or increase the weight on the bar slightly (by 1 to 2%). The key to consistent progress is to continually increase the load slightly to coax the muscles into strength adaptations.
Q: I have a question about carbohydrate powders. You recommend high quality carbohydrate powders and I have found that these work very well for me. Many stores sell carbohydrate powders at horrendous prices. Do you know where I can find a good carbohydrate powder at a reasonable price?
A:A cheap alternative to expensive designer carbohydrate powders is plain maltodextrin. This is high quality stuff that works just as well as many of the expensive carbohydrate powders. Always remember that there is nothing magical about most supplements. A little thought and research can often save you a lot of money.
Q: I saw in the May issue of Muscle Media that Paul Chek mentioned your name when talking about Mesomophs. I also noticed that most of your athletes are elite level athletes who probably have the best genetics on the planet. My question is, how relevant are your training ideologies and workouts for athletes with less than perfect genetic predispositions? I have a fear that you personally find it very easy to build muscle mass and strength and that you can't really sympathize with the hard gainers with poor bone structure, poor recovery ability, low testosterone levels, etc. And since most of your workouts are designed for Olympic athletes, they may not be as beneficial for exercisers with average genetics who are trying to build significant amounts of muscle mass. I would look forward to an answer.
A: As for the suggestion that my training methods are unsuitable for the average exerciser, nothing could be further from the truth. I get emails every day from readers who are following my advice and finally seeing gains as a result. Many of them had previously considered themselves hardgainers but are now building strength and muscle mass. You should keep in mind that not every Olympic athlete I train is genetically blessed. The truth is that many of them only got to where they are today through hard work. One of the strongest guys I ever coached was Ian Danney, an athlete who competed in the Olympics on the bobsled team at a competitive weight of 100 kilos. Three years earlier he weighed only 84 kilos and three years before that it was only 67 kilos. But through intelligent training sessions and a careful post-workout diet, he was able to build up 23 kilos of pure muscle mass.
You have to keep in mind that there are MANY factors that contribute to muscle growth. These include muscle fiber types, the number of muscle fibers per cross-sectional area, muscle attachment points, and endogenous levels of anabolic hormones such as testosterone, IGF-1, growth hormone, etc. In addition to this, there are psychological attributes such as intelligence that allow you to make decisions that help you build muscle mass. It is very rare for anyone to be deficient in any of these factors. For this reason, you can achieve gains by emphasizing certain factors. If you were born with a lot of type IIa muscle fibers (fast contracting fibers), why would you bust your ass trying to build muscle with a low repetition workout? I believe I was blessed with a good muscle fiber composition, but I always suffered from a poor appetite. I had to get my post-workout nutrition down to a science in order to build mass. I also had some other, more serious problems. For example, I have excellent muscle attachment points in my elbow flexors, but not in my latissimus, etc. So I had to find ways to deal with these training issues through extensive research, personal conversations with other trainers and experience. I firmly believe that most hardgainers are hardgainers because they firmly believe they are hardgainers. It is these negative thoughts that keep them lean and scrawny. They are the ones who buy size M t-shirts to make their bodies look better instead of buying XXL t-shirts and trying to grow into them. If you visualize something, it will happen.
Q: You mentioned the supplement phosphatidylserine in one of your articles. Can you tell me a bit more about this as I have no idea what this supplement is and what it is supposed to do?
A: Phosphatidylserine is generally used for two purposes. Longevity fanatics like it because it supposedly increases the number of neurotransmitter receptors in the brain, which is supposed to make you more mentally efficient. Bodybuilders and strength athletes, on the other hand, are more interested in phosphatidylserine because there is evidence that it prevents cortisol from docking onto receptors in muscle tissue. If you train very, very hard, you may suffer from excessive cortisol levels, making further muscle gains difficult. However, you should be careful not to overdose on this supplement as you need some cortisol to maintain good health. If you use too much phosphatidylserine then you may suffer from a number of unwanted side effects such as sore joints.
Q: My triceps development has come to a standstill. Do you have any new training programs I could try?
A:The following program could also be called "the pre/post fatigue program from hell". I was first introduced to this concept by former Canadian national weightlifting coach Pierre Roy, who produced a number of weightlifting champions. Pierre would have his athletes perform the same exercise twice within a training session if he wanted to see rapid progress on that particular exercise. For example, if one of his Olympic weightlifters needed more strength in his legs, he would have him do squats at the beginning and end of the session.
I was further encouraged to incorporate this principle into my training when I stumbled across the strength training book by French strength training physiologist Commetti, which described the benefits of this method. This piqued my curiosity and I had many of my athletes work with this method and many of them reported incredible muscle soreness and subsequent incredible muscle growth. Although you can use this type of training for any muscle group, you should try the following program for your triceps:
1) Tricep presses performed lying down with a SZ bar towards your forehead, using a 6-8 RM weight (the heaviest weight you can perform 6 to 8 clean reps with) and a 3-1-1 tempo.<
Move on to this without resting:
2) Tight bench press with a 4-6 RM weight and a 3-1-1 tempo. Then go to without rest:
3) Tricep press performed lying down with a SZ bar towards the forehead, with a 4-6 RM weight and a 3-1-1 tempo
Pause for two minutes and then repeat steps 1 to 3 twice (you will probably have to reduce the weight by 2.5 to 5 kilos for each subsequent triple set) You can perform a few more tricep exercises after this, but the triple sets described should be the cornerstone of your training for a limited period of time (until your body has become accustomed to them).
In the book The Poliquin Principals, some muscle groups are listed that consist primarily of fast or slow contracting muscle fibers. I would be interested in a more comprehensive list of the average muscle fiber composition of different muscles. Do you know where I can find this information?
I only know of one author who has published something on this subject and he is the Finnish scientist Vittaasalo. The name of his book is Voima Harjotelu (Strength Training). Unfortunately, it is only available in Finnish.
However, you should keep the following information in mind:
1) In most individuals, most muscles tend to be made up of more muscle fibers of a certain type. Leg flexors and gastrocnemius, for example, usually have the largest proportion of fast-contracting muscle fibers, while soleus and adductors have a larger proportion of slow-contracting muscle fibers. Only one in 60 people have primarily slow-contracting leg flexors (note: fast-contracting muscle fibers usually require training with heavy weights and low repetitions, while slow-contracting muscle fibers respond better to higher repetitions).
2) In some people, there is a large variance between muscle fibers - even in the same person. For example, you can find people with fast-contracting biceps and slow-contracting triceps or vice versa. In my experience, the shoulder muscles are probably the muscle group with the most variance in terms of muscle fiber composition.
3) Performing loads of aerobic exercise can cause fast contracting muscle fibers to behave like slow contracting muscle fibers. As a result, high aerobic capacity often goes hand in hand with low overall strength.
4) Even within the same muscle there is some variance. For example, the upper fibers of the latissimus dorsi are slow-contracting fibers, while the lower fibers are faster-contracting in nature. The muscle fiber composition will look different depending on whether you insert a biopsy needle closer to the upper or lower end of the biceps brachii. Muscles like these require a lot of training in all repetition ranges.
For more information on muscle fibers, you may find the PubMed website helpful, where you can find a large number of studies.
Q: What would be the main differences between a bodybuilding training program for a natural bodybuilder and a "chemically assisted" bodybuilder, if any?
A: In general, there are two main differences between a bodybuilding program for a natural bodybuilder and a bodybuilder who uses performance enhancing substances:
- I don't believe that anabolic steroids necessarily allow a bodybuilder to train more often than a steroid-free bodybuilder, but they can definitely accelerate the rate of progress. In other words, a steroid-assisted trainee will achieve perhaps 5% instead of 1 to 2% gains per training session. I agree with those who say that you need to train less often while using steroids. This is probably due to the fact that a steroid-assisted exerciser will get stronger faster and each training session will be more demanding on recovery ability.
- As Mauro DiPasquale once said, your body will be more forgiving while using anabolic steroids. A steroid-free exerciser has to pay more attention to regular nutritional intake, the right amount of food and the quality of their sleep than a steroid-assisted bodybuilder who can stay up late and party without much negative effect. In other words, steroid-using bodybuilders can train terribly, eat poorly, sleep little and do a lot of other things wrong, but still build muscle.
However, I don't think you are at too much of a disadvantage if you train without steroids. I have often observed that people who train smarter have outperformed steroid-assisted bodybuilders in terms of gains, especially when you look at long-term progress.
Q: What is the best way to build trapezius? I've noticed that powerlifters and Olympic weightlifters seem to have the best trapezius development. In comparison, the trapezius development of bodybuilders is pathetic. Shoulder raises (shrugs) and rowing upright don't seem to do much for me and I highly doubt that powerlifters train shoulder raises...what's their secret? Is it the deadlift? And if so, is there any trick to shifting more load to the trapezius, like pulling the shoulder blades back? I would appreciate an insightful answer.
A: Powerlifters achieve their trapezius development through years of deadlift training, while Olympic weightlifters achieve their trapezius development simply through the Olympic weightlifting exercises and their derivatives. Power deadlifts and power snatches are probably the most effective exercises for trapezius development after shoulder raises. Five sets of six repetitions of these exercises will pack mass onto your trapezius. When training shoulder raises, I would recommend using dumbbells and only training one side at a time. This way you will achieve a much greater range of motion.
Pulling the shoulder blades back at the highest point of the movement when doing shoulder raises is definitely not a good trick. To be honest, it's actually a pretty stupid idea. How is gravity supposed to work its pull if you're trying to move the weight parallel to it instead of in the opposite direction?
By: Charles Poliquin
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/question-of-strength-4, https://www.t-nation.com/training/question-of-strength-5, https://www.t-nation.com/training/question-of-strength-6 , https://www.t-nation.com/training/question-of-strength-7
