10/12/2019
“Which exercises will work best for building my (insert muscle group here)?”...
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We all have different anatomical structures, as briefly discussed in previous posts, that will determine which variation of an exercise will likely be most effective to implement to build muscle.
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An additional component that can be applied to further help you choose which exercises will provide you with the most return per rep is understanding the resistance profile of the exercise and your muscle’s ability to produce force.
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In other words, you want the exercise to be most difficult where you’re the strongest and easiest where you’re the weakest, to provide an evenly distributed amount of resistance, allowing you to spend more effective time under tension (a primary driver of hypertrophy).
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As shown above, in most cases, your muscle is weakest in its fully shortened and lengthened positions, leaving it to be its strongest in the midrange.
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Understanding this, you can begin to determine which exercises provide the most resistance in the midrange and the least in the lengthened and shortened positions.
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Using the above example, dumbbell lateral raise provides little to no resistance at the fully lengthened position of the delt (the bottom of the exercise), a little more at the midrange, and the most at the fully shortened position of the delt (the top of the exercise) - preventing you from being able to express as much force at the lengthened and midrange, as possible, due to over fatiguing the shortened position.
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There are also times where you can pair up two exercises to ensure all ranges of the muscle are challenged adequately.
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For example, a reverse banded bench press can be great for evenly distributing resistance at the bottom and mid position of the pec, yet to still leave almost no resistance at the top, causing something like a cable fly or pec deck to work well to specifically target the fully shortened position of the pec afterward.
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Train smart.
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