tension

Pin Press Guide – Form, Muscles Worked, And Variations The pin press can be a useful bench press variation for athletes who struggle with a sticking point! Building a stronger bench is often at the top of every powerlifting and strength athlete. When looking at isolating weaknesses in the...

To get the most out of your session, work out any tension. Work Smarter, not harder. Being too painful and stiff is possibly the only guilt-free justification for skipping gym sessions. However, if you're consistently skipping workouts due to painful muscles, it's time to think about doing some...

It’s all about taking it slow with this smart leg day workout. If you slow down the tempo on your heavy lifts, you’ll see quick gains. Squats, lunges, and deadlifts with heavy weights can (and will!) help you grow stronger legs. They are, for the most part, a recipe for success. However...

Metabolic Stress & Hypertrophy: do metabolites create muscle growth ? In the current model of hypertrophy, and the mechanisms behind it, 3 are the "main" ways through which hypertrophy occurs: ⁣ ⁣ 1) Mechanical Tension⁣ 2) Metabolic Stress⁣ 3) Muscle Damage (which we've already seen it actually...

Sumo Deadlifts ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Here's a quick tutorial on the main points you should focus on when deadlifting. ⁣ ⁣⁣⁣⁣ Creating a solid base will allow you to perform a great deadlift, so start practicing: ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣ 1) get close to the barbell (toucing/close to touching your shins) and hinge at...

Most people have to work extremely hard to build a wide, developed, back. Partly because the most “conventional” exercises poorly target the lats in the most efficient way. Therefor you have to do a lot of inefficient work in order to get adequate growth. Let’s break this exercise down into a...

Patellar tendinitis (inflammation) and patellar tendinopathy (disease, abnormal condition) “jumpers knee” is an issue that might make it hard to perform exercises that require more load on the quads from bending at the knee joint. This is the tendon that bring together the thigh muscles over the...

Neuromuscular massagetherapy treatment of TFL and Glutes can help reduce Hip & Knee legpain. Start with easy pressure on these tissue. Many triggerpoints can develop over years of stress and overuse. They will be sensitive 🤣. To reduce tension in I.T. Band focus your treatments on the T.F.L. &...

Some people have a hard time "feeling" their lats during things like pull-ups and pulldowns. One cue that often helps is to think about pulling with your elbows rather than your hands. This helps localize the intention of the movement to the shoulder joint, rather than the elbow. Think about...

The length-tension relationship of skeletal muscle is well-known; however, scientists and fitness professionals rarely realize its relevance to muscle growth. We know that mechanical tension is the main stimulus for muscle growth and the length-tension curve shows us that muscle fibers...

You've probably heard that training too much can get you injured. You've probably also heard that training too little makes you weaker and more likely to get injured. This is the injury paradox. Training can both protect from injury and cause injury. . Overtrained injured athletes can't perform...

General elbow pain is often associated with an imbalance between the forearm flexors and extensors. In most cases (but not all), the forearm flexor is in a state of overuse because of repeated "palm towards elbow" patterns, and you end up with an inflamed elbow tendon. <!-- IMAGE --> <!--...

For hamstring size, do both a heavy load, lower-rep range and a higher rep range. . 1 – Heavy, Low Reps: Your hamstrings are primarily fast-twitch dominant. This may contribute to the massive hamstring development in sprint athletes. In the gym, this means you should incorporate heavy...

Load and Repetition RangeIf a set of repetitions is performed to failure, it makes little to no difference how much weight (load) you use. This comes with the caveat that there are limits to this. For instance, if you choose a weight with which you can do 30 reps, or 1 rep, these are unlikely to...

The fastest way to improve the look of your biceps is to focus on the brachialis. The brachialis contributes to upper arm thickness more so than the biceps. Now, people assume that training the brachialis is as simple as using a neutral/hammer grip. Not so. While grip type can have an impact...

The bench press is like the Cinderella of the powerlifts. The squat and the deadlift tend to be like Cinderella’s domineering sisters, who get all the attention, while the bench press is left in the corner to its own devices most of the time. The bench press is rarely given a cursory thought...

There's up to 10% more muscle activity in the decline version versus the flat version of the triceps extension or skull crusher. More muscle activity means more muscle fiber recruitment. That means more fibers are stimulated to grow. This might be in part because the triceps are stretched more...

1. Use Accommodating Resistance: The resistance curve of the bench press makes it hardest at the bottom and easiest at the top. Your ability to produce force is opposite to this. You're weakest at the bottom and strongest at the top. As a result, the bench press doesn't cause high levels of...

If you want big traps, the type that makes you hearing impaired, then heavy deadlifts alone aren't going to cut it. And neither will twitchy, ultra-heavy shrugs that make you look like you're doing a chicken dance. You need time under tension. Dumbbell shrugs with a 3-5 second hold at the top...

10 Reasons Bodybuilders Are Bigger Than Powerlifters by Bret Contreras, Brad Schoenfeld, PhD | 05/24/11 Here's what you need to know... The most jacked powerlifters aren't nearly as jacked as most bodybuilders. As muscular as they may be, they don't achieve the same hypertrophy. Neither...