Training

Unfortunately, building a massive body requires a more thoughtful approach than simply trying to move as much weight as humanly possible.

To know how to best train a muscle, you must first understand its physical structure and, in particular, its biomechanics and muscle fiber composition. This information will help you choose the correct repetition ranges, weekly volume and rest intervals for optimal results.

But many exercisers do not customize these load parameters to the specific muscle being trained. For example, they will dedicate 4 to 6 weeks of their training to hypertrophy and perform each exercise with a repetition range of 8 to 12 repetitions.

This is a mistake. Optimal hypertrophy training is muscle specific.

In this two-part article, I will give you the necessary information on these two topics for each major muscle - biomechanics and muscle fiber composition. Today's article will cover the pecs, triceps and shoulders and will begin with a brief summary on muscle fibers.

The different types of muscle fibers

There are at least three different types of muscle fibers. To increase contraction speed, increase force production and increase resistance to fatigue, you have type I, type IIa and type IIb muscle fibers.

Type I muscle fibers are slow-contracting muscle fibers and type II muscle fibers are fast-contracting fibers. The following table lists the most important characteristics of each of these muscle fiber types.

Type I fibers are slow-twitch and type II fibers are fast-twitch. The following table lists the main characteristics of each muscle fiber type.

Each muscle has a different muscle fiber composition. Some muscles are dominated by fast contracting fibers, while others are dominated by slow contracting fibers.

Muscle fiber composition is largely genetically predetermined and has very important muscle-specific training implications. Fast contracting fibers respond best to low volume, long rest intervals, high intensity and low frequency. Slow contracting fibers, on the other hand, respond best to high volume, short rest intervals, low intensity and high frequency.

Perhaps most importantly, fast-contracting muscle fibers have a significantly higher growth potential than slow-contracting muscle fibers. Even in untrained individuals, they are typically more than 20% larger and it is not uncommon for them to be over twice as large.

The muscle fiber composition of each muscle varies from person to person, but as with most physiological characteristics, the individual differences are not that great. In the general population, differences in the percentage of slowly contracting muscle fibers are usually between 5% and 10%. So you are probably not special in this respect, even if your mother told you that you are.

As for the change in muscle fibers from one type to another, age seems to be a factor (the percentage of fast contracting muscle fibers starts to decrease after the age of 30), although some studies have shown that high intensity resistance training helps to prevent this. Bodybuilding-style training with weights in the 6 to 12RM range can convert both type I and type IIb muscle fibers into type IIa muscle fibers.

However, since weightlifters, powerlifters, bodybuilders and physically inactive people differ by less than 5% in terms of the percentage of slowly contracting fibers in their muscles, it is unlikely that you need to consider muscle fiber conversion in your training.

Also, the theory that high intensity (>90% of 1RM) is optimal for hypertrophy because it helps you get more fast contracting fibers and these fibers have the greatest growth potential is probably wrong. Yes, getting stronger will help you become more muscular as it enables you to expose your muscles to more stress, but it is also important that you don't neglect your slow contracting fibers.

In bodybuilders, unlike powerlifters and Olympic weightlifters who show preferential hypertrophy of type II fibers, hypertrophy of both muscle fiber types can be observed.

As a conclusion from this, you should always try to achieve a balance between volume and intensity for maximum hypertrophy.

This is basically all useless if you don't know the muscle fiber composition of your muscles.

To solve this problem, some smart trainers - who for whatever reason seem to be French Canadians - have developed a test to help you figure out how fast contracting a muscle is. This test is commonly known as the 80% test.

In a nutshell, given an exercise that targets a specific muscle, determine your 1RM weight and then test how many reps you can perform with 80% of that weight. If you can perform less than 8 reps, then the fast-twitch muscle fibers dominate that muscle. If you can perform more than 8 repetitions, the slow-contracting muscle fibers will dominate.

There are more sophisticated variations of this test, such as using 85% for 5 repetitions, but the principle is always the same.

The advantage of this test is that it is individualized. The disadvantage is that it is impractical. I don't know anyone who uses this test systematically because you have to find an exercise for each muscle that really isolates that muscle, which means it's probably hard to perform that exercise with the 1RM weight (have you ever done one repetition of flying movements with the 1RM weight?).

You also can't overcome neural factors. Poor technique or an inefficient nervous system will cause you to underestimate your 1RM and give you the impression that your muscles are contracting slower than they actually are. You can use exercises like front squats and dumbbell bench presses to get a general idea of your muscle fiber composition, but this is far from perfect.

The good news is that there is plenty of research on muscle fiber composition.

Now that we've got the introductory notes out of the way, let's get to the good stuff!

Chest

The pectoralis major consists of two muscle heads - the muscle head that attaches to the sternum (lower chest) and the muscle head that attaches to the clavicle (the upper chest).

The primary functions of the pectoral muscles are diagonal shoulder flexion and adduction, as used in flying movements. So to target the pecs, you should choose exercises that involve diagonal shoulder flexion or adduction.

Note: It is flexion when the shoulders are internally rotated and adduction when the shoulders are externally rotated. If you have trouble seeing the rotation of your shoulders, look at your elbows when your arms are raised in front of your body. If your elbows are pointing outwards to the side, it means your shoulders are rotated inwards and if your elbows are pointing towards the floor, it means your shoulders are rotated outwards. Remember this because you will need it in a minute.

In addition to this, the angle between your arms and your body will determine which head of the pectoralis will be trained the most - incline bench for the upper chest and reverse incline bench for the lower chest.

One problem that many exercisers have when training their pecs is that the front shoulder muscles take over. The anterior shoulder muscles are also involved in diagonal shoulder flexion, but their role in adduction is minor.

Therefore, if you want to isolate the pectorals from the anterior shoulder muscles, you should perform exercises where the shoulder is externally rotated. The most obvious choice would be standard flying movements where you actively try to rotate your hand slightly outwards.

However, although the pectorals are best isolated by exercises that involve external rotation of the shoulders, the pectoralis major is biomechanically more efficient, and therefore stronger, when the shoulders are internally rotated.

This means that you cannot maximally stimulate your chest without training the front shoulders and you should take this into account when putting together your training program. However, it is a common mistake to overemphasize the front shoulder muscles.

Which exercises are best for stimulating the chest?

For pressing exercises, the further out to the side you place your elbows, the better.

This causes an internal rotation of your shoulders and results in the exercise involving more diagonal shoulder flexion and less off-diagonal shoulder flexion, which is the movement performed during the front lift.

I agree with Vince Gironda that the bench press to the neck or guillotine bench press is undoubtedly the best exercise for the pecs.

Bench pressing in this way has been known to cause shoulder pain in some - not to mention that bench presses to the neck are not entirely safe when performed without a training partner, so you might prefer to use dumbbells or not take the risk at all.

An underrated exercise that protects your shoulders while still training your pecs is the flying underhand grip (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OSGl8qtZKI). Most exercisers perform flying movements exclusively with a neutral grip, but the pectoralis major is stronger when the shoulders are internally rotated, which is why an underhand grip is superior for stimulating the chest.

You can perform this exercise with dumbbells, but flying movements with dumbbells have a resistance curve that doesn't match the strength curve (no tension at the highest point of the movement) and going too low can overload the shoulders. For these reasons, I prefer to do them on the cable pulley.

If there is no equipment in your gym that allows an underhand grip, such as straight handles or short ropes, you can simply grab the carabiners (handles are for pussies, right?) or pull straps through the carabiners and grab the straps.

As for the optimal number of repetitions for chest exercises, you should use a medium repetition range. The pectoralis major is a performance muscle and both of its muscle heads are primarily made up of fast contracting fibers in almost everyone, with 60% Type II fibers being the average.

The bottom line:

• The pectoralis major is made up of about 60% fast-contracting fibers.
• It is strongest when the shoulders are internally rotated (elbows pointing away from each other during the press) and is best isolated by maximizing the lateral extension of the elbows.
• Try flying repetitions with an underhand grip and a medium repetition range.

Triceps

If you understand the range across the chest, then you know why bench pressing like a powerlifter is not optimal for chest development. Powerlifters often don't have the biggest pecs, but their triceps are usually monstrous (look at Dave Tate for an example of this).

This is not only due to the biomechanics (bent back, elbows closer to the body, J-curve) of the powerlifting bench press, which emphasizes the triceps more than the chest, but also due to the muscle fiber composition of the triceps.

In addition to this, the triceps brachii is even more of a performance muscle than the pectoralis major. Its proportion of fast-contracting muscle fibers is about twice as high as the proportion of slow-contracting muscle fibers, which corresponds to a proportion of 67% type II muscle fibers.

Accordingly, you should not worry about kickbacks with high repetitions. Instead, ramp up the intensity on lockouts(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH-S0bmUyPA), dips and close bench presses on the reverse incline bench. It's best to use low reps most of the time. High reps won't do much for most people.

There's something else you should know about the triceps - they are made up of three muscle heads (long, lateral and middle), with the long muscle head crossing the elbow joint and the shoulder joint, helping to extend and adduct the shoulder (moving the arm down and towards the body).

This means that it is insufficiently trained when it has to act as an elbow extensor while the shoulder is adducted or extended. This means that it cannot muster enough tension to be active on both joints at the same time. Basically, all horizontal pressing exercises including dips (you may say dips are vertical, but I say "who cares") inadequately stimulate the long head of the shoulder. You need to do overhead work to train the entire triceps.

The bottom line

• The triceps are made up of 67% fast contracting fibers. So train them according to the motto "train heavy or go home."
• The long muscle head must be trained with overhead work.

Shoulders

As you probably know, there are three shoulder muscles - the anterior, lateral/side and posterior muscle head of the shoulders.

As a side note, there is no such thing as a "medial/middle shoulder muscle head". In anatomy, medial refers to "near the center of the body", while the correct term lateral refers to the "outside of the body". These terms are often confused with each other for understandable reasons, but they are actually opposing terms and not synonyms.

Terminology is not the only thing that is misunderstood about shoulder training. Many people use a completely unbalanced shoulder program. One study showed that bodybuilders have anterior shoulder muscles that are on average five times larger than those of physically inactive people. But their lateral shoulder muscles are only three times larger and their posterior shoulder muscles are only 10 to 15 percent larger. (Gundill, 2002)

This is not surprising when you consider that many exercisers primarily perform horizontal and vertical presses for their shoulders and their shoulder training is not balanced to begin with. This is partly due to the misconception that side raises are a good isolation exercise for the lateral shoulder muscles.

This is not the case as long as you do not modify this exercise.

If you take the force generated by the lateral shoulder muscles during the abduction performed in side raises as 100%, the force generated by the anterior shoulder muscles is about 75% and the supraspinatus force is 25%. This means that the supraspinatus (another rotator cuff muscle) and the anterior shoulder muscles together generate as much force as the primary muscle in this movement, the lateral shoulder muscle.

Furthermore, these studies were primarily conducted with physically inactive people, so athletes with dominant anterior shoulder muscles can expect even worse results. The same applies to overhead pressing exercises. Performing these towards the neck or with dumbbells helps a little, but they still don't produce balanced shoulder development on their own.

How can you train the lateral shoulder muscles without involving the front shoulder muscles?

Reduce the amount of shoulder flexion (raising the arm as in front raises). You may have heard that it is safer to perform side raises at the scapular level, which is about 30 degrees forward. This statement is correct, but it also means that the exercise becomes a kind of front lift.

The same applies to not fully extending the elbow. Yes, this puts less stress on the elbow joint, but you should still aim for a 99% extension. This should be enough to keep the load on the muscles rather than the elbow.

The weight should be on a line that continues straight from the lateral shoulder muscles to the side. This means that it is better to perform this exercise on an incline bench. Try an angle between 15 and 60 degrees incline. The lower the angle, the more you involve the rear shoulder muscles.

Performing side raises on an incline bench brings me to another factor of increasing the activity and range of motion of the lateral shoulder muscles. The first 30 degrees of abduction are primarily performed by the supraspinatus, after which the lateral shoulder muscle head becomes the primary performing muscle. This is not a bad thing, as the supraspinatus also needs training, but it means that you need to control the movement at the top.

If you're one of those guys who moves the weight up laterally with momentum and then ducks under the weight, then you're only loading your supraspinatus and barely training your lateral shoulder muscles. If you perform the exercise on an incline bench, you cannot duck under the weight during the upward movement and can concentrate on the muscle activity instead.

There is another very important factor that determines shoulder muscle activity - shoulder rotation (just like the chest muscles).

The more you internally rotate your shoulder during shoulder flexion and abduction, the more you engage the lateral and posterior head of the shoulder muscle and the less you engage the anterior head of the shoulder muscle. During a horizontal shoulder abduction, as in reverse flying movements - rotating your arm outwards increases the activity of the lateral shoulder muscles at the expense of the posterior shoulder muscles.

When training the lateral and posterior shoulder muscles, I therefore recommend that you extend your elbows almost fully, that you do not use the scapular plane and that you rotate your shoulders inwards.

These technical adjustments increase the stimulation of the middle shoulders, but also reduce the width of the subacromial space and increase the risk of impingement syndrome, which is why you should be careful if you are already struggling with shoulder problems. You can also counteract these problems by retracting your shoulder blades.

The fact is that shoulder impingement is primarily a concern if your shoulders are not structurally balanced in the first place and these exercises improve this situation, making it a bit of a chicken and egg scenario. In addition to this, I recommend shoulder isolation training on an incline bench, which is generally gentler on the shoulder.

As for the posterior shoulder muscles, in addition to rotating the shoulders inward during reverse flyes or side raises on a flat incline bench, you can also train these muscles with any type of pulling movement such as rowing or face pulls (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9TvW5bvXxE) that hyperextends the shoulder (meaning that the elbows are moved behind the body). The latissimus and pecs cannot stretch the shoulder beyond the anatomical position, so the posterior shoulder muscles become the primary active muscles.

For the anterior shoulder muscles, front raises in the scapular plane with the shoulders rotated outwards is a good, risk-free exercise. Unless you're not doing overhead presses, I don't think you need isolation training for the anterior shoulder muscles - especially not as long as your shoulders are structurally balanced.

Speaking of structurally balanced development, I recommend face pulls with an underhand grip for training the external rotators. Contract the muscles hard at the highest point of the movement and pull the rope up to your face. If you want to isolate the infraspinatus and teres minor, you can perform external rotations lying on your side. These produce the most EMG activity of most external rotation exercises.

Remember, however, that reverse flying movements also train the external rotators. So unless you are having trouble activating the infraspinatus and teres minor, it is generally sufficient to only perform reverse flying movements and face pulls.

In terms of the number of repetitions, all the muscles of the humerus and scapula are actively involved in posture and stabilizing the shoulders in virtually every upper body movement. It can therefore be expected that these muscles have a high work capacity and that the slowly contracting muscle fibers dominate with a share of 60%.

This is true for the entire shoulder girdle with one odd exception - the infraspinatus provides some momentum for the external rotators and has a slight dominance of fast contracting fibers.

The bottom line

• Traditional shoulder training emphasizes the anterior shoulder muscles at the expense of the rest of the shoulder girdle muscles.
• Overhead presses generally include plenty of work for your front shoulder muscles.
• Add side raises on an incline bench and reverse flying movements with inwardly rotated shoulders to your program to make it more balanced and complete your shoulder development.
• Use a medium to high repetition range.

I hope this article has given you some new ideas for optimizing your training. In the next part, I will look at the rest of the primary muscles of the human body.

References

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4. Data on the distribution of fiber types in five human limb muscles. An autopsy study. F G Jennekens, B E Tomlinson, J N Walton. JNeurol Sci. 1971 November; 14(3): 245-257.
5. Data on the distribution of fiber types in thirty-six human muscles. An autopsy study. M A Johnson, J Polgar, D Weightman, D Appleton. J Neurol Sci. 1973 January; 18(1): 111-129.
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7. Effect of training on enzyme activity and fiber composition of human skeletal muscle. P D Gollnick, R B Armstrong, B Saltin, C W Saubert IV, W L Sembrowich, R E Shepherd. JApplied Physiology 1973; 34(1): 107-111.
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9. Electromyographicanalysis of the rotator cuff and deltoid musculature during common shoulder external rotation exercises. M M Reinold, K E Wilk, G S Fleisig, N Zheng, S W Barrentine, T Chmielewski, R C Cody, G G Jameson, J R Andrews. JOrthop Sports Phys Ther. 2004 July; 34(7): 385-394.
10. Fiber type composition and maximum shortening velocity of muscles crossing the human shoulder. R C Srinivasan, M P Lungren, J E Langenderfer, R E Hughes.ClinAnat. 2007 Mar;20(2):144-9.
11. Muscle fiber types and size in trained and untrained muscles of elite athletes. P A Tesch, J Karlsson. JApplied Physiology 1985; 58(6): 1716-1720.
12. Muscle hypertrophy and fast fiber type conversions in heavy resistance-trained women. R S Staron, E S Malicky, M J Leonardi, J E Falkel, F C Hagerman, G A Dudley. Eur JAppl Physiol Occup Physiol. 1990; 60(1): 71-79.
13. Muscular adaptations in response to three different resistance-training regimens: specificity of repetition maximum training zones. G E R Campos, T J Luecke, H K Wendeln, K Toma, F C Hagerman, T F Murray, K E Ragg, N A Ratamess, W J Kraemer, R S Staron. Eur JAppl Physiol. 2002 November; 88(1-2): 50-60.
14. Performance and fiber characteristics of human skeletal muscle during short sprint training and detraining on a cycle ergometer. M T Linossier, D Dormois, A Geyssant, C Denis. Eur JAppl Physiol Occup Physiol. 1997;75(6):491-8.
15. Pressing Issues: Building better shoulders with overhead presses. M Gundill.Ironman 2002 August; 8: 42.
16. Shoulder muscle activity and function in common shoulder rehabilitation exercises. R F Escamilla, K Yamashiro, L Paulos, J R Andrews. Sports Med. 2009; 39(8): 663-685.
17. Skeletal muscle adaptations during early phase of heavy-resistance training in men and women. R S Staron, D L Karapondo, W J Kraemer, A C Fry, S E Gordon, J E Falkel, F C Hagerman, R S Hikida. JAppl Physiol. 1994 March; 76(3): 1247-1255.
18. The role of resistance exercise intensity on muscle fiber adaptations. A C Fry.Sports Med. 2004; 34(10): 663-679.
19. The upper extremity of the professional tennis player: muscle volumes, fiber-type distribution and muscle strength. J Sanch's-Moysi, F Idoate, H Olmedillas, A Guadalupe-Grau, S Alay-n, A Carreras, C Dorado, J A L Calbet. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2010 June; 20(3): 524-534.
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By Menno Henselmans | 10/14/11

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/muscle-specific-hypertrophy-chest-triceps-and-shoulders

Related blog posts:

>> Muscle-specific hypertrophy: biceps, back and lower body

>> Advanced German Volume Training

In the first part, I talked about the muscle fiber composition and biomechanics of the chest, triceps and shoulders. In this article I will cover the other primary muscle groups.

Biceps & brachioradialis

The biceps, which consists of a long (outer) and short (inner) muscle head, may seem like a simple muscle with straightforward biomechanics, but in reality it is a more complex muscle that crosses the elbow, forearm and shoulder.

The short muscle head of the biceps is a shoulder flexor, albeit a weak one, which means that it is not sufficient for simultaneous flexion of the elbow and shoulder. In other words, it cannot perform these two tasks simultaneously, so any biceps machine or biceps exercise where your elbow is in front of your shoulders will only train the long head of the biceps muscle.

The same applies to a lesser extent to exercises that involve shoulder abduction. So the next time you want to do standing cable curls in front of a mirror with a double bicep pose, remember that you'll probably be training your ego more than your biceps. Take care of the biceps mass first before worrying about developing biceps peaks like Albert Beckles.

Another way to preferentially recruit one muscle head over the other is to manipulate the position of the hands relative to the elbows. A wide grip emphasizes the short muscle head, while a narrow grip emphasizes the long muscle head. A shoulder-width grip still emphasizes the long muscle head more than the short one.

As mentioned earlier, you should be quite advanced before you should even consider this. Most exercisers are best served by sticking to exercises where the elbows are closer to the side of the body.

To emphasize the brachialis more than the biceps, you should perform slow contractions with the biceps in an awkward position (flexed shoulders). The slow-contracting muscle fibers dominate the brachialis more than the biceps, which respond best to fast contractions.

Another consideration for optimal biceps recruitment is the position of the hands. The biceps are very effective when the palms are facing upwards, slightly less effective when the hands are in a neutral position and inefficient when the palms are facing downwards.

But why are some exercises easier with the hands in a neutral position? It's because the brachioradialis, another elbow flexor and one of the larger forearm muscles, is most effective in this position.

In terms of the number of repetitions, a medium to low repetition range is most effective because the fast contracting muscle fibers in the biceps dominate - even if only by 5%. The brachioradialis has a higher dominance of fast-twitch fibers, with about 60% type II fibers, which is why you should train with heavier weights for hammer curls.

The bottom line:

- For standard curls, stay with the elbows at the sides of the body before thinking about emphasizing the brachialis and biceps peak.

- Use an underhand grip and a medium repetition range for biceps training and a neutral grip and a lower repetition range for brachioradialis.

The forearms

The forearms are made up of so many small muscles with varying compositions of muscle fiber types and different biomechanics that a full description is beyond the scope of this article.

Suffice it to say that an elbow flexion and extension covers the largest forearm muscles, which is why you should perform these exercises before trying finger exercises and the like.

In line with their frequent use, most forearm muscles are dominated by slow-contracting muscle fibers, which is why you should use high repetition numbers. You should also make sure to use more wrist flexion than wrist extension in your training program.

Latissimus & teres major

The latissimus dorsi and its little helper, the teres major, function primarily as shoulder adductors (pulling the elbows to the side of the body) and shoulder extensors (the opposite movement to front raises).

Shoulder extension is primarily performed by the higher fibers of the latissimus, while shoulder adduction is primarily performed by the lower muscle fibers of the latissimus. Maximum hypertrophy of the latissimus therefore requires both of these movements.

Many exercisers skimp on shoulder adduction - probably because it is more strenuous (like wide overhand pull-ups compared to underhand pull-ups) - and thus limit the width of their back.

A little known fact about the latissimus is that just like the chest, shoulder rotation affects the biomechanical efficiency of the muscle. During shoulder adduction, the latissimus is at its strongest when the shoulders are slightly rotated outwards. During shoulder extension, the latissimus is at its strongest when the shoulders are in a neutral position.

If you place your arms out to the side as in the Iron Cross exercise (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f24Vd_qGkKU), rotate your shoulders inwards when your thumbs are pointing towards the floor and rotate your shoulders outwards when your thumbs are pointing towards the ceiling.

Observe the movement of your shoulders. If you are using a rope, rings or any handle that can be rotated, then you should automatically rotate your shoulders into the optimal position for most pulling exercises. If you don't do this, you need to use a handle that puts your shoulders in the optimal position. For lat pulldowns, for example, you should use a slightly V-shaped handle instead of a straight bar to maximize the recruitment of your latissimus.

As for the composition of muscle fiber types, the latissimus normally consists of an identical amount of slow and fast contracting muscle fibers, so it responds best to a medium repetition range.

The bottom line:

• Include both shoulder extensions and shoulder adductions in your program.
• Think about your grip and shoulder rotation for your exercises.
• The latissimus responds best to a medium volume.

The trapezius

The trapezius is an exemplary muscle. The upper trapezius is visible in the mirror, but the middle and lower trapezius are not, so only the upper trapezius gets attention - a perfect example of the mirror muscle effect.

Even among people who train their backs as hard as their mirror muscles, the trapezius tends to get neglected. When was the last time you did isolation training for your middle or lower trapezius?

Even though the lower and upper trapezius muscle fibers have opposite functions (pulling the shoulder blades up and down), training the trapezius is pretty basic - pull the shoulder blades down, up and together in equal amounts against resistance. (The key phrase here is "to the same extent").

And while you may think you're achieving structural balance with your program because you're pulling and pushing in a 1:1 ratio, you should be performing a higher volume of pulling movements than pushing movements.

The chest is dominated by the fast contracting muscle fibers, but the trapezius is a postural muscle and accordingly the slow contracting muscle fibers dominate, so you should use a higher volume for the trapezius than for your chest.

It's worth noting that the rhomboids, which also retract the shoulder blades, are made up of about 55% fast contracting muscle fibers, but because these muscles are not visible from the outside, this should not concern bodybuilders.

For those who train their neck muscles, it's worth noting that the sternocleidomastoid, a neck flexor and extensor, is made up of 65% fast-contracting muscle fibers.

The bottom line:

• Your trapezius is important. Train it fully and train it more than your pressing muscles.

Gluteus, leg flexors and lower back

These muscles form the middle/lower posterior muscle chain and have massive strength release potential. They often work together during a hip extension, while the erector spinae stabilizes the spine and the gluteus and leg flexors move the hip. In addition to extending the spine, the erector spinae also rotates the spine and flexes it to the side.

The gluteus maximus and the leg flexors are mainly responsible for extending the hips, but the leg flexors also bend the knees. (The short muscle head of the biceps femoris is exclusively responsible for knee flexion). This dual function of the hamstrings has very important implications for gluteus, hamstring and calf training.

When the leg flexors attempt to extend the hip and knee, they achieve passive insufficiency. When they try to flex the hip and knee, they achieve active insufficiency. Basically, the leg flexors cannot perform their functions on both joints at the same time.

This means that during hip extension exercises like deadlifts, the more you bend the knees and the more you emphasize the gluteus, the less the leg flexors come into play. If you only perform bent-knee exercises for your legs (and no leg curls), then you are not fully training your hamstrings.

On the other hand, many exercisers have weak, underactive glutes and strong, overactive leg flexors, so you should perform your hip extension exercises with bent knees.

Since the gluteus and the hamstrings both flex the hip, bodybuilders may tend to train both muscle groups at the same time. This is suboptimal. The gluteus is a few percent dominantly slow-contracting, but the hamstrings are made up of a gigantic 70% fast-contracting muscle fibers.

The erector spinae contains about 6% more slow-contracting muscle fibers. This means that you should use a low repetition range for the leg flexors, but a medium to high repetition range for the lower back and gluteus.

The bottom line:

• Bending the knees during a hip extension takes the leg flexors out of the movement.
• Use straight leg exercises (or leg curls) with low reps to work the hamstrings and medium to high reps with bent knees to work the glutes and lower back.

The calves

The long, deeper calf muscle, the soleus, keeps you upright throughout the day and is therefore made up of almost 90% slow-contracting muscle fibers, so you don't need to worry about reps below 15. The gastrocnemius is often referred to as the fast-contracting part of the calves, but this is only in comparison to the super slow-contracting soleus.

In the lateral muscle head, the fast-contracting muscle fibers are indeed dominant, but only by a few percent and in the middle muscle head, the slow-contracting muscle fibers dominate by a few percent, which is why you should use a medium volume for the gastrocnemius. You can emphasize the middle muscle head by turning the tips of the toes outwards and you can emphasize the lateral muscle head by pointing the toes inwards.

Both the soleus and gastrocnemius perform plantar (sole of the foot) flexion, but the gastrocnemius, which runs across several joints, also flexes the knee and cannot flex both joints at the same time. For this reason, you can isolate the leg flexors during a knee flexion by plantar flexion and the soleus by flexing the knee

The anterior thighs

The front of the thighs consists mainly of the quadriceps. The quadriceps themselves consist of three main muscle heads - the vastus lateralis, the rectus femoris and the vastus medialis oblique (alias VMO).

All of the quadriceps muscle heads extend the knee, but the rectus femoris also flexes the hip, so it becomes actively insufficient if you try to do both at the same time. To demonstrate this, pull your knee up as far as you can. Now try to straighten your knee. Difficult, isn't it? That's an active insufficiency of the rectus femoris (and a passive insufficiency of the leg flexors).

The vastus medialis oblique and vastus lateralis also pull the kneecap in opposite directions during knee extension, so it's important to maintain a structural balance between these two muscles. There is controversy regarding whether and how to preferentially recruit the vastus medialis oblique over the vastus lateralis, but healthy exercisers should have no problems as long as they perform bilateral and unilateral exercises through the full range of motion.

As for the muscle fiber type composition of the quadriceps, this varies significantly between muscle heads. The vastus medialis oblique has a slight predominance of slow-contracting muscle fibers, the vastus lateralis consists of about 57% fast-contracting fibers, and the rectus femoris, the center of the thighs, consists of 65% fast-contracting muscle fibers. Now you know why Olympic weightlifters tend to have large quadriceps. For maximum muscle mass, I recommend mainly lower repetition ranges but at the same time a wide variety of repetition ranges for the quadriceps.

There are a number of other smaller thigh muscles including the adductors. I won't cover them all. Simply put, the adductors are made up of about 60% slow contracting muscle fibers and the other hip flexors have a ratio of 50% slow contracting muscle fibers to 50% fast contracting muscle fibers.

The bottom line:

• When training the quadriceps, use a wide variation of repetition ranges with an emphasis on the lower repetition ranges.

The center of the body

The rectus abdominis, aka six-pack, flexes the spine. The obliques support the abdominal muscles here and rotate and bend the spine to the side. Together with the transverse abdominis, they also generate intra-abdominal pressure.

The obliques and the transverse abdominis are trained through heavy multi-joint exercises such as squats and deadlifts. However, the rectus abdominis may remain untrained without direct training, depending on your exercise selection.

Another consideration is that anecdotal reports suggest that the anterior midline muscles have limited hypertrophy potential, even though fast-twitch muscle fibers dominate these muscles by about 5%. And then there's the debate about whether flexion of the spine is healthy, or whether extra mass in the midsection is even aesthetically desirable.

With all this in mind, I think beginners should perform exercises such as planks, rollouts and reverse crunches with low repetitions to strengthen the front core, even if it is only for the purpose of establishing structural balance and learning to stabilize the trunk properly with the muscles of the core.

After this phase, heavy multi-joint exercises such as vertical pushes and pulls may be sufficient training for bodybuilders depending on exercise selection and individual preference.

Conclusion

And with this, you should be clear. You now have almost all the knowledge of biomechanics and muscle fiber composition you'll ever need to optimally recruit your muscles, manipulate exercises to emphasize specific muscles, and choose optimal training parameters for each muscle.

And now you should modify your training program and grow!

References

1. A biomechanical analysis of anterior load carriage. A M Anderson, K A Meador, L R McClure, D Makrozahopoulos, D J Brooks, G A Mirka. Ergonomics. 2007 Dec;50(12):2104-2117.
2. Biceps activity during shoulder motion: an electromyographic analysis. K Yamaguchi, K D Riew, L M Galatz, J A Syme, R J Neviaser. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 1997 March; (336): 122-129.
3. Changes in muscle morphology in chronic trapezius myalgia. R Lindman, M Hagberg, K A Angqvist, K Söderlund, E Hultman, L E Thornell. Scand J Work Environ Health. 1991 October; 17(5): 347-355.
4. Comparison of different strongman events: trunk muscle activation and lumbar spine motion, load, and stiffness. S M McGill, A McDermott, C M Fenwick. JStrength Cond Res. 2009 Jul;23(4):1148-1161.
5. Correlation between the proportion of fast fibers in the biceps brachii muscle and the relative torque during elbow fl exion in subjects with clinical hypothesis of myopathy.
6. C G N Back, P C B Oliveira, S M G Mattiello-Rosa , C F R Sobreira, E Z Martinez, A C Mattiello-Sverzut. Rev Bras Fisioter. 2008 March/April; 12(2): 107-112.
7. Data on the distribution of fiber types in five human limb muscles. An autopsy study. F G Jennekens, B E Tomlinson, J N Walton. JNeurol Sci. 1971 November; 14(3): 245-257.
8. Data on the distribution of fiber types in thirty-six human muscles. An autopsy study. M A Johnson, J Polgar, D Weightman, D Appleton. J Neurol Sci. 1973 January; 18(1): 111-129.
9. Effect of isometric upper-extremity exercises on the activation of core stabilizing muscles. Sami P. Tarnanen, Jari J. Ylinen, Kirsti M. Siekkinen, Esko A. Mälkiä, Hannu J. Kautiainen, Arja H. Häkkinen. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2008 March; 89(3): 513-521.
10. Effects of high intensity canoeing training on fiber area and fiber type in the latissimus dorsi muscle. S J Baker, L Hardy. Br J Sports Med. 1989 March; 23(1): 23-26.
11. Fiber type composition and maximum shortening velocity of muscles crossing the human shoulder. R C Srinivasan, M P Lungren, J E Langenderfer, R E Hughes.Clin Anat. 2007 Mar;20(2):144-9.
12. Fiber type composition of the vastus lateralis muscle of young men and women. R S Staron, F C Hagerman, R S Hikida, T F Murray, D P Hostler, M T Crill, K E Ragg, K Toma . JHistochem Cytochem. 2000 May; 48(5): 623-629.
13. Fiber types in human abdominal muscles. T Häggmark, A Thorstensson. ActaPhysiol Scand. 1979 Dec;107(4): 319-325.
14. Fiber types in human lumbar back muscles. A Thorstensson, H Carlson. ActaPhysiol Scand. 1987 October; 131(2): 195-202.
15. Leg extension power and muscle fiber composition. E F Coyle, D L Costill, G R Lesmes. Med Sci Sports. 1979 Spring; 11(1): 12-15.
16. Muscle fiber type distribution, muscle cross-sectional area and maximal voluntary strength in humans. P Schantz, E Randall-Fox, W Hutchison, A Tydén, P O Astrand. Acta Physiol Scand. 1983 February; 117(2): 219-226.
17. Muscle fiber type populations of human leg muscles. V. R. Edgerton, J. L. Smith, D. R. Simpson. HistochemJ. 1975 May; 7(3): 259-266.
18. Muscle hypertrophy in bodybuilders. P A Tesch, L Larsson. Eur JAppl Physiol Occup Physiol. 1982; 49(3): 301-306.
19. Muscle strength from adolescence to adulthood-relationship to muscle fiber types. B Glenmark, G Hedberg, L Kaijser, E Jansson. Eur JAppl Physiol Occup Physiol. 1994; 68(1): 9-19.
20. Myosin heavy-chain isoform distribution, fiber-type composition and fiber size in skeletal muscle of patients on haemodialysis. S Molsted, I Eidemak, H T Sorensen, J H Kristensen, A Harrison, J L Andersen. Scand J Urol Nephrol. 2007;41(6):539-545.
21. Rehabilitation of scapular muscle balance: which exercises to prescribe? Ann M. Cools, Vincent Dewitte, Frederick Lanszweert, Dries Notebaert, Arne Roets, Barbara Soetens, Barbara Cagnie, Erik E. Witvrouw. Am J Sports Med. 2007 October; 35(10): 1744-1751.
22. Strength training and anabolic steroids: a comparative study of the vastus lateralis, a thigh muscle and the trapezius, a shoulder muscle, of strength-trained athletes. A Eriksson. Umeå University Medical Dissertations, Umeå. 2006. Series No 1032.
23. The influence of variations in muscle fiber composition on muscle strength and cross-sectional area in untrained males. R J Maughan, M A Nimmo. JPhysiol. 1984 June; 351: 299-311.
24. The upper extremity of the professional tennis player: muscle volumes, fiber-type distribution and muscle strength. J Sanchís-Moysi, F Idoate, H Olmedillas, A Guadalupe-Grau, S Alayón, A Carreras, C Dorado, J A L Calbet. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2010 June; 20(3): 524-534.
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By Menno Henselmans | 10/27/11

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/muscle-specific-hypertrophy-biceps-back-and-lower-body

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Here's what you need to know...

1. Beginners and advanced exercisers react differently to heavy training. Beginners do better with 4 to 6 repetitions, while experienced exercisers are better off with 1 to 3 repetitions.
2. To really master an exercise, you need to train it two to three times a week.
3. If you train "down to the nerve" too often, you risk stalling your strength gains.
4. To get the most out of the maximum effort method, you should use it as a three-week maximum phase.
5. Get used to handling heavy weights by using supramaximal weights. Use partial reps at 105 to 110% of your max weight or hold 110 to 115% of your max weight.

1 - More repetitions for beginners, fewer repetitions for advanced users

As a rule of thumb, the more advanced you are/the stronger you are, the fewer repetitions you can perform with a specific percentage of your maximum weight. This is because more experienced exercisers can recruit more muscle fibers during a repetition, making each repetition more challenging.

Beginners have a much lower level of motor unit recruitment and have a harder time engaging a large percentage of their fast-twitch muscle fibers in a movement. They can perform more repetitions at a certain percentage of their maximum weight and this also means that they need to perform more total repetitions than advanced exercisers to get stronger.

A beginner/some intermediate exerciser focusing on strength will build more total strength by performing multiple sets of 4 to 6 repetitions than by performing sets in a 1 to 3 repetition range.

Conversely, an advanced trainee will mainly achieve muscle growth - rather than strength gains - by performing sets of 4 to 6 repetitions. To really increase their maximum strength, they need to do more work in the range of 2 to 3 repetitions per set and sometimes heavy single repetitions.

2 - To technically master an exercise, you need to train it two or three times a week

Being strong in the big basic exercises is not just a question of muscular strength. You also need to be able to master the exercises technically.

This goes far beyond knowing how to perform an exercise. Even if two people appear to use exactly the same technique, it is likely that they will have different levels of mastery of the exercise.

It's one thing to have what looks like perfect technique from the outside - it's another thing to have the exact motor unit recruitment scheme that will lead to a breathtaking performance.

We are talking about maximum recruitment of motor units, synchronization of these motor units and relaxation of antagonistic muscles - all things that are not visible from the outside, but will make the difference between an average performance and an outstanding performance.

The only way to improve these factors is to perform an exercise frequently. This is the reason why Olympic weightlifters train snatch and clean and jerk every day. The big strength exercises (deadlifts, squats, bench presses, standing shoulder presses and pull-ups) obviously don't require the same level of coordination as the Olympic weightlifting exercises, so they don't need to be practiced daily if you want to make optimal progress.

Regardless, the best way to improve your mastery of these exercises is to train them two to three times a week. It doesn't have to be a training session with maximum weights every time. Anything over 80% of your maximum weight will benefit inter- and intra-muscular coordination.

3 - Don't train "to the nerve" too often

Max Perryman has an interesting concept called "everyday maximum". This refers to the heaviest weight you know you can move on any given day regardless of fatigue, lack of motivation, etc. without having to push yourself to the max.

This is the zone where you should be doing most of your work. Too many people who want to get stronger train "to the nerve" too often. By this I mean using weights that make you nervous and that you need to prepare for with specific mental efforts.

Every time you try such a weight, you put your nervous system under a lot of stress and this will have a much stronger impact than you think. I know a lot of competitive athletes who burn out before a competition because they've pushed themselves to their maximum too often.

If you train "to your nerve" too often, then you risk burning out. I believe in training hard and heavy, but only to the maximum you can achieve without stress. Every once in a while you can crank up the intensity a bit to see where you are at.

I once trained a young CrossFit athlete who, with a body weight of just over 80 kilos, reached a maximum weight of 130 kilos in the clean and jerk. In training he never went over 125 kilos and most of his work was done at around 110 to 115 kilos, only increasing the weight when it wasn't mentally stressful and we both knew he could handle it easily.

When we then decided to see where his max weight was in the clean and jerk, he performed a repetition at 143 kilos with ease - an increase of 13 kilos on his personal best with room to go up!

4 - Training with maximum weight is the fastest way to increase strength, but it's not the best way

Even though I believe in not training "to the nerve", I still recognize that the max effort method - moving weights in the 95 - 100%+ range - is the fastest way to increase strength.

Please note that I said "the fastest way" because I don't believe this is the best way.

In my experience, you will make rapid strength gains using the max effort method for 2 or 3 weeks (some may extend this to 4 weeks), but after that your strength gains will stall and your strength may even decrease again.

The best application for the max effort method is a three-week max phase while you do most of your training on strength without training "to the nerve" - you stay with the weights at 85 to 90% most of the time and only occasionally go up to 95%.

For 3 weeks you can then do workouts that consist of plenty of work in the max zone (I usually use 8 sets of 1 repetition with a weight between 90 and 100% of max). This is followed by 3 sets of 2 reps between 80 and 85%, where you focus on speed and technique, and then two final sets of one repetition each with a weight between 90 and 100%+.

After this 3 week phase, we go back to not training "to the nerve".

5 - Use supramaximal weights to get used to handling heavy weights

Two important reasons why we fail with a heavy weight are a psychological block and a neuroprotective block.

The first phenomenon could be simply defined as being intimidated by the feeling of the heavy weight. I've seen many people passively pick up a weight from the rack, remain "soft" in a certain way, and then fail to move the weight up that they could have handled because it felt too heavy and they subconsciously gave up.

The second phenomenon relates to the action of the Golgi tendon organ, whose role is to prevent excessive force production that could potentially damage the muscle.

When the Golgi tendon organ senses that the muscle is producing too much force, it puts the brakes on and limits the force we can produce. However, the Golgi tendon organ tends to be a bit overprotective and doesn't allow us to use a very high percentage of our maximum potential.

Both elements can hinder you when moving heavy weights. And you can work on both elements using supramaximal weights - weights that are heavier than your maximum weight for the exercise in question.

You can do this by performing partial repetitions (a squat or bench press repetition performed only through the top half of the range of motion) using 105 to 110% of your max weight, or holding a weight in the 110 to 115% of your max weight statically, taking it off the rack, lowering it slightly and then just holding it for a while. Negative repetitions can also be used for this.

These methods will get you used to handling heavy weights. If you are used to moving weights above your maximum weight - even if it is only for a short distance - your training weight will feel much lighter and you won't panic. You will also improve the stabilizing function of your muscles, which will make your key positions in the exercise more solid.

By regularly moving very heavy weight, you will also desensitize the Golgi tendon organ. This will then become less easily active over time and allow you to use more of your potential strength.

You don't need a lot of volume for supramaximal exercises. Two or three sets will suffice. Two good approaches are to perform supramaximal holds before you actually move the weight (this will make the weight feel lighter) or perform 2 to 3 sets of partial reps at the end of the workout for the main exercise after you have completed all your working sets.

By Christian Thibaudeau | 12/02/14

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/5-ways-to-stop-being-a-weakling

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