Question regarding different exercise variations

[Secondlife2]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this board and to the weights. At this point I'm trying to work mostly on my form on a lot of the basic exercises. I'm also doing a lot of reading and watching videos of pro bodybuilders, to learn how to train properly.

I noticed that a lot of the pro bodybuilders do a lot of different exercise variations. For example the biceps. The biceps has two heads, a long and a short head and is tri-articulate, meaning that it work across three different joints: the elbow, the shoulder and the proximal radioulnar joint. Because of this it's primary function is to move the forearm towards the shoulder (elbow flexion). The biceps secondary function is supination of the forearm, turning the hand from a palms-down position to a palms-up position.

Now because the biceps has a long and a short head and by looking at the functions of the biceps, wouldn't it be enough to only hit it with a couple of exercises, like rotating incline dumbell curls and rotating dumbell preacher curls. And you could variate these exercises by keeping the dumbells close to each other or wide apart. Think close and wide grip on a barbell.

If you look at it from a biological point of view a lot of the variations seem unnecessary. So why all the different variations?

Thanks in advance.

 

[CDB]

If you look at it from a biological point of view a lot of the variations seem unnecessary. So why all the different variations?

One of the 'lessons' drawn from HST is you don't need all that variation to make muscles grow. You may need it to a certain degree to address weaknesses that stop progression of the load on the bar at some point when you start hitting strength plateaus. For beginners it's not needed by a long shot.

 

[_tim]

You're right that bodybuilders hit just about every part of every muscle group - they win or lose based on definition. For someone who lifts to be healthy, stronger, bigger, or just for the fun of it, you don't necessarily have to go to the level of detail that pro bodybuilders do. If you're just getting going, focusing on form for the major complex lifts is a great first step. Those would be: Bench Press, Back Squats, Deadlifts, Rows (BB/DB/Cable), Shoulder Press (BB/DB, standing/sitting). You could use those core lifts for basically your entire lifting career and hit almost any goal that you set for yourself in the gym.

Best of luck as you get going!

 

[Bryan Haycock]

A note about exercise variations

Personal trainers (and people who claim to be such) are anxious to tell you that they use a secret variation of this or that exercise and by using this secret variation your gains will come much faster. I have not found this to be true. Because of the anatomical nature of the major muscle groups, subtle variations in hand or foot position seldom if ever increase the absolute load that the muscle is experiencing. Besides hand and foot variations trainers will also espouse twisting or rotating the hands throughout a movement. Again, this does not significantly affect the load on the muscle and hence will not significantly affect your results. Here are a few examples:

Claim: Rotating the hands/dumbbells while doing flies will enhance the effectiveness of the exercise.

Reality: The effectiveness of doing flies is determined by the amount of resistance against the vertical travel of the dumbbells. Gravity supplies this resistance. Rotating the hands/dumbbells while performing the exercise does nothing to increase the gravitational pull against the dumbbells, nor is there any resistance to the rotation of the hands. No resistance, no benefit.
Claim: Squeezing the biceps at the top of the curling movement will change the shape of the biceps and give you a "peak".
Reality: Muscle shape is a genetic trait. If you do not already have that shape to your biceps, flexing will not give it to you. As your biceps grow from doing curls, your muscles will not change shape, they will only become larger versions of what they look like today.

Claim: Close grip bench -or any squeezing pec exercise- will build the “inner” pecs near the sternum.

Reality: Squeezing the pec in the fully contracted position does not isolate the muscle at the sternum; placing your hands closer together while bench pressing will not do the trick either. If you connect a bunch of rubber bands end to end and make a chain, can you stretch any one rubber band more than the others while pulling only from the two distal ends? No. The same is true for muscles. In general, the load is distributed evenly throughout the length of the muscle. The muscle must grow thicker as a whole to see more thickness at the sternum.

Claim: Rolling the shoulders forward and back while performing shrugs will enhance growth of the traps as compared to a straight vertical motion.

Reality: The line of resistance is in a straight vertical line perpendicular to the floor. There is no resistance in any other direction but straight down. Remember, it isn’t just contraction that causes a muscle to grow, it is contraction against resistance.
There are many more misconceptions about exercise variations but this gives you an idea of the kind of thing I’m talking about. When someone tells you should do an exercise this way or that, use your noggin and all the knowledge your got to ask yourself if that really makes sense given the nature of our anatomy and the line of gravity. If it doesn’t make sense, say thanks for the advice and go on about your business.