The Muscle Prof Academy

[vidorando]

Which muscles make up the calves?
You have two primary muscles in the back of your lower leg. These include the Gastrocnemius and the Soleus. The Gastrocnemius has two heads (medial and lateral), whereas the Soleus has only one. The Gastrocnemius crosses the knee joint, and therefore fully activates when the knee extends. However, the Soleus does not cross the knee joint, and therefore does not need knee extension to fully activate this muscle.
The Gastrocnemius has longer muscle fibers, which means you should hit them with faster reps. The Soleus has shorter muscle fibers, which means you should hit them with slower reps. The best way to hit the Gastrocnemius is with standing calf raises, but the best way to target the Soleus is with seated calf raises.

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[Grom]

The calves are primarily slow twitch muscle fibers. Therefore, they should be targeted with high reps.
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Although they are made up of some fast twitch muscle fibers, you should only occasionally use lower reps with heavier weight.

[Grom]

The calves increase their mechanical advantage as you pull your heel up continually on a calf raise.
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They have the weakest mechanical advantage on the bottom. Thus, they have to work harder on the bottom of the movement. For this reason, it is essential that you train the calves in a full range of motion. However, after a set is finished, partials on the bottom may elicit high amounts of growth!

[Grom]

[Grom]

Do you use accommodating resistance?
If you do not use this method, then you may want to start! Normal lifting is called an isotonic contraction (we do this every time we go to the gym). However, towards the end of the movement, the weight gets easier. Although, if you add bands or chains to the bar (accommodating resistance) the end of the movement gets much more difficult. Adding bands or chains may be a way to spark new growth!

[Grom]

Today's The Muscle PhD Academy lesson builds on yesterday's topic.
Research out of my lab shows that when adding bands to a lift, the tension increases as you get towards the end of the lift. This is because as you near the end of a lift you have a greater mechanical advantage and the weight is easier to move.

I recommend adding bands to your heavy compound lifts such as squat and bench press!

[Grom]

Today's Wellness Wednesday investigates the essential mineral calcium. Calcium is the most abundant mineral in the body. Interestingly enough, 99% of all calcium in your body is found in bones & teeth and your total body weight is ~2% calcium.
Calcium also has many different functions. For example, bone health and density are one of the primary roles of calcium. However, it also aids in the contraction of muscle tissue. This includes skeletal muscle and heart muscle. Calcium allows stored carbohydrates to be used for energy. What's interesting is that calcium needs vitamin D to be absorbed. One of the best food to consume with vitamin D is salmon.

[Grom]

What is better? Straight Sets or Supersets?
It depends on your goal. This study compared a chest and back training protocol where subjects either started with chest exercises then moved on to back exercises or performed supersets (chest & back). What they found was that volume was the same between both training protocols!
Using agonist-antagonist paired set training may be beneficial if your goal is time-efficiency in the gym and maximizing metabolic stress. However, if your goal is to optimize your training, then you should periodize between traditional straight sets and supersets.

[Grom]

This week we have been discussing periodization. A very basic periodization model is step-loading. Step-loading is where you increase intensity and or volume on a weekly basis for 3-4 weeks, with a final week used as a taper where volume is cut by ~50%. With this model, you can continuously make gains, without overreaching or worse, overtraining. This is a tried and true method of gaining strength and size.

[Grom]

Tune in this week for @themusclephd Academy where we discuss The Importance of Sleep. I will talk about why sleep is necessary to make gains!

[Grom]

Make sure you tune in this week on The Muscle PhD Academy where we discuss a very interesting topic. This week we are going to look at the differences between men & women in regard to training & gains!



How does your training affect your hormones?

This research shows that training has a positive impact on hormones. In this study, subjects trained for 24 months. As you can see, there was a gradual increase in the anabolic hormone testosterone during the training. However, after a few months, it was followed by a gradual decline until the subjects changed their training protocol. These changes in testosterone were paralleled by increases in strength and power.

Therefore, to optimize the anabolic effects of training, you should periodically switch your training program. This can be achieved through an idea called periodization. Head over to themusclephd.com to review the articles on periodization and how it can be used to maximize your gains!

[Grom]

Should you squat before training arms?
This study shows that it can be beneficial! This study had subjects perform either bicep curls or squats before bicep curls. What they found was that both groups got stronger in the biceps. However, training legs before biceps caused the biceps to get bigger.
The researchers attributed the increase in biceps size to the fact that leg exercises increased testosterone and growth hormone, which allowed the biceps to grow!

[Grom]

Women have greater strength endurance than men.

One of the reasons is that their muscles are not as large as their male counterparts. Thus, when their muscles contract they do not cause as much constriction of the veins and arteries as males do. However, the natural blood flow restriction that occurs with lifting may be one of the ways we grow.
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One way to increase this anabolic response in women is to actually use more blood flow restriction in techniques in their training. For this reason, we recommend using BFR at least 1-3 days a week for females on any lagging body parts.

[Grom]

[Grom]

In today's The Muscle PhD Academy lesson we look at the muscle fiber makeup of the pectoralis major. We find that 60% of the chest is type II, fast twitch muscle fibers and that 40% is made up of slow twitch, type I muscle fibers.
What does this mean? We know that fast twitch muscle fibers have a larger propensity for growth, therefore 3/5 workouts should be a low rep range (6-12) and higher intensity (60-80% 1RM). However, you do not want to neglect the type I muscle fibers, which means that 2/5 workouts should be a higher rep range (12-20+) and a lower intensity (30-55% 1RM). This will optimally stimulate both the type I and type II muscle fibers for growth. You can even incorporate burnout sets towards the end of your workouts with a low intensity to stimulate both the type I and type II fibers in one set!