FEMALE MUSCLE

Q. I’ve noticed that many pros don’t train using a full range of motion on every rep and many seem outright sloppy, but still manage to build tons of mass. How important is strict form and full range of motion in your opinion? Do the pros know something we don’t?

A. There’s something I like to say to my clients, and it’s that you don’t know what to look for unless you have experienced it yourself. To become a pro usually takes years of intense and focused training. It’s not just about getting as big as possible, but about learning about how to put muscle size on specific areas of the body. To do this takes a great deal of understanding and experience regarding the human form. Not only must you theoretically understand insertions and muscle action, but you must train those nerves to conduct your energy to only the muscles you wish to engage. This also means you need to learn to negate (or stabilize) the rest of the body in a position that is conducive to placing the body in a position that you can focus on those one or two muscles you wish to stimulate. Arnold called this the “mind to muscle” connection. Many people talk about this but haven’t yet fully understood the ability to “freeze” the rest of your body still and simply contract even a small piece of the muscle. This takes years of practice and much experimentation.

Take biceps, for example. To train properly, you must have abs engaged long and tall, you must have the shoulders pulled back out of the movement by retracting your scapula (using your lats and mid-traps), and you must have elbows slightly forward to the body but not held by the body. This is not a description for a beginner; however, those who understand physiology will know that this position will enable you to put the greatest degree of force on the biceps only. In this position the movement of the biceps will indeed appear short, but on the other hand, very efficient for the goal. The same is true for many back movements. Inner trap training will look like a very small movement but it is “full range” for that particular muscle.

What many people don’t understand when they watch pros train is that most use a wide variety of training techniques—loaded partials, full reps and squeeze, low and high reps, drop sets, burn-out sets, etc. I’m sure there are sloppy trainers out there (and yes, I’ve seen them), but if you look at their physiques, do they have that “detail” that comes from detailed training? Usually not. Others who show a variety of rep technique may indeed be strategically stimulating certain portions of their bodies that an outside observer is unable to even comprehend based on their experience level. The most important thing is that when you leave the gym, the muscle you intended to train is completely annihilated!

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