So, you have now successfully worked each of your muscles in the middle and lengthened portions of their strength curves. Only one left.... the shortened part of the strength, which is the hardest part as the muscle will tire out quickly when put into its shortened part of the strength curve.
Once you learn to work muscles from every portion of the strength curve, you'll be set to see substantial muscle growth as the muscles will have no choice but to grow if they're being hit at their weakest points. Now when you learn these exercises, you'll want to start with them at each muscle group since you won't be able to use much of any weight for many of these exercises. Waiting until the end of the workout results in poor contraction, which results in less muscle development. Also, these exercises below are to be added to the ones you're already doing for the strongest and most lengthened portion of the strength curve.
Pectoral Fly (Machine)
I recommend the machine because remember, if you use dumbbells there won't be any tension when you bring them together as you arms will be straight up, parallel to gravity which results in no tension
With the fly machine, you'll feel tension the entire time, and you can contract the pecs extra hard when you bring the handles together
An alternative is to use the cable, but you'll have to position yourself where the cable is 90 degrees to your arm when its coming across your chest
Here's an example in the picture
If you do decide to do this for the shortened part of the chest, you may want to do one side at a time to focus really hard on the contraction, and of course to limit how much space you take up in the gym
Lateral Raise (Dumbbells)
We used this exercise for the lengthened part of the strength curve, but now we're shifting where the tension comes from
With the cable, we positioned ourselves to where the tension came at the bottom of the movement, where the shoulder is lengthened
Now we simply use a dumbbell since that'll put the greatest amount of tension on the shoulder when your arms are stretched out away from you
Keep a slight bend in your arm and think about raising your elbow up as opposed to your hand
This will limit the movement of the forearm
Hold the weight at the top of the rep for a couple of seconds to ensure you're contracting the deltoid hard in its shortened position
Tricep Dips or Cable Pressdown with your Elbows Behind You
Tricep dips are the best because you can easily put your elbows behind you, and you can you the assisted machine. Trust me, for the shortened part of the tricep, you'll need it!
The alternative would be to do a cable pushdown while keeping your elbows behind you the ENTIRE TIME
To do this you'll need to use a rope, since you obviously won't be able to bring a bar behind your back with the cable pushdown
This is a little more complicated, but if you want to try it or have to resort to it due to there not being a dip machine, then focus on one arm at a time to really focus on those contractions
Lat Pressdown
This exercise is best for shortening the lat as it can easily be mimicked without weight.
While sitting at a table
Put your arms across the table, keep your hands flat and think about driving your forearm and elbow downward while sitting up straight
While standing
Put your hands at the top of your thighs
Keep them there while trying to drive your elbows around your sides and towards your back
You can feel the lat contract hard with both of those movements, but of course the shortest position is when you're standing up and you're trying to drive your elbows behind you. But the reason we do it sitting down too, is so you can learn how to activate the lat before you move the weight
Grab a longer bar to attach to the cable for this
Bend as a 45-degree angle and take a few steps back
Then, think about pushing into the table again
When the bar comes down to your waist, think about standing up straight and driving your elbows behind you
This will NOT FEEL GOOD, but it's not supposed to! The muscle is doing really hard work as it's being shortened
Cable Curl Behind Head or Spider Curl
Both of these work really well when shortening the bicep, but if you're new to this you may want to start with the cables you can more angles to work with than dumbbells
Bring a bench or stool to the cables, or you just sit down in front of it
Use a medium-sized bar as it'll be easier to keep your arms straight while driving the outside of your hand into the bar while you curl the weight
Make sure the angle of your spine matches the angle of when your arms are facing. This works whether or sitting up tall or slightly bending forward.
Then, before you move the weight, think about turning your wrists and driving the pinky-side of your wrist into the bar. This activates the bicep as the bicep's function is to supinate
While keeping your elbows stationary, curl the bar behind your head
When you get to that point, try to slightly drive you elbows upward as this will put some extra tension on the bicep
But, DO NOT use the handle that he's using in the photo as that drives tension on the thumb-side of the wrist, which does nothing for shortening the bicep. Plus, it puts your wrist in an odd position
Quads
You're already doing the leg extension, which puts the quad in its shortest position at the top of the rep, so we're going to add in squats
SIDE NOTE: These will be quad-based squats. The heavier squats that work your entire lower body will be discussed in a later article
To emphasize the quads on a squat, your knees need to be moving up over your toes while your back stays straight
You'll want to use lighter weight for this as this'll be hard on the quads, and you want to get used to the movement
First, think about moving your knees forward as you get ready to descend, as opposed to moving your butt back
This activates the quad which means it'll be the muscle that fights gravity as you squat down
Second, pause at the bottom of the squat and focus on driving your feet into the floor
You can sit at the bottom of the squat for a few seconds to make sure you're generating tension with the floor
Doing this will force your quads to work, as opposed to just standing up and having the tension spread out amongst different muscles
Keep in mind, this will LOTS OF PRACTICE before you can do rep after rep while keeping tension on the quad
Hamstrings
You've been doing the lying and seated leg curls, which hit all the points of the hamstring, so now we're going to add in hamstring-based squats
These are a great way to put mass on the hamstring, and will also help you to get stronger in your heavy squats
To emphasize the hamstrings, you'll to move your butt back first while keeping your knees behind your toes
Like the quad squat, pause at the bottom and really push that butt back while driving your feet into the floor
Be sure to keep your butt back and knees behind your toes throughout the entire rep, ensuring that the hamstring takes all the tension
These will take a ton of practice as well, but your leg development will be incredible once you master it and can add on more weight
Calves
Keep doing the standing and seated calf raises, but change your foot positioning to hit different parts of the calf
Start with your far apart, and then bring them together as the sets get harder
Do this with both calf exercises
Abs
So far you're doing the crunch machine and leg curl (pulling your knees to your chest instead of your feet)
Keep testing your strength with the lying leg raises if you've been doing the knees to chest style easily. You'll want to push yourself to eventually pull your feet in order to strengthen your core
Now we're going to incorporate obliques
The easiest way to hit the obliques is by simulating a side crunch with the cables
I find that twisting doesn't hit the obliques that hard
Grab the cable and step away from the apparatus until you feel your oblique start to contract hard
This will help you determine where you need to stand in order to get the full contraction while doing the movement
Bend over towards the apparatus until you feel a stretch in the oblique
You DO NOT have to bend all the way over, as this will actually take tension away from the oblique
Then, try to stand up perfectly straight. You should feel it in the oblique
After that, slightly bend to the side to contract the oblique a little harder before bending back towards the apparatus
you can even hold your position standing up straight in order to contract the oblique more
The nice thing about cables is that you can easily change the direction of the force and you can position the handle at different heights in order to emphasize certain portions of the movement
And there you have it! You can now work every portion of the strength curve for each of your muscles. Remember, these exercises will take practice, and practice makes perfect! But can't the body adapt to that too? Yes it can, and when it does, you'll have to pull out the big guns! I'll give you the ammunition in the final article of this series, Cracking The Plateaus!
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