The strength curve of a muscle.
At some point during training you must have noticed a sticking point – a range of motion that feels disproportionately more challenging than the rest.
Sometimes, a sticking point emerges from raw fatigue – but in some cases, there’s just a particular part of an exercise that is frustratingly hard.
This challenge is highlighting a phenomenon called the length-tension relationship of your muscle.
No exercise is created equal.
Gravity is universal – It's the north star of training, consistently pulling straight down.
However, the type of resistance and your physical positioning during an exercise influence where you’re stronger and where you’re weaker.
Herein lies the key to cracking the code on your gains, and sending your results sky high.
${component=BasicCard}The Length Tension Relationship
- Muscles at longer or shorter lengths tends to be weaker.
- Muscles placed at mid-range length are as strong (and often as stable) as can be.
It's all about positioning.
Think about how big of an impact impact this has on your programming and exercise execution.
For an exercise to bias a given position, your skeletal structure must be set-up in a way that pre-biases you into that position for the muscle.
Take the biceps curl for example:
${component=BasicCard}Bicep Curl & Muscle Length
The biceps are responsible for flexing your elbow, supinating the wrist, and (to a small degree) flexing the shoulder. Thus...
- Shortened: High Cable Biceps Curl
- Mid: Standing Dumbbell Curl
- Lengthened: Face-Away Low Cable Curl
Reverse-engineer and apply.
Length-biased exercises have unique benefits and challenges for your programming. Some play nicely as movement prep drills or joint stability exercises, and others are just full send working movements.
To integrate these exercises into your program, view them from a skeletal position perspective. How does each exercise bias a shortened, mid-range, or lengthened position?
${component=Step}Analyze your program.
Write out your workout program and categorize each exercise by its target muscle group.
${component=Step}Apply functional anatomy and biomechanics.
Define the action of each muscle group associated with every exercise in your program.
${component=Step}Identify its length-tension relationship.
Reverse engineer the muscle action of each muscle group in your program, and establish where each exercise falls on the continuum of more-shortened, mid-range, or more-lengthened.
Once you start to view exercise through the lens of the length-tension relationship, you can start to intentionally program or remove redundancies for the greatest impact on your training.
Not only will your sessions be less bogged down, you’ll start making bigger gains – faster.
Give it a shot in your next workout.
~ Eric