Pre-Script

Quad Extension 101

Understanding the indirect contribution of muscles in a movement is a great way to start maximizing the efficiency of each rep and each set.

In the quad extension, it's favourable to maximally dorsiflex the ankle in order to use the lengthened gastrocnemius to help stabilize the knee as you get into the shortened position of the movement.

People leave a lot of reps on the table approaching this movement with an ineffectual ankle joint.

TLDR: Toe towards shin = good reps.

Stability = Output

The more stable you create the external environment of an exercise, the less self-organizing you have to undertake when performing it, leaving you more resources and better counterforce to apply tension to the intended tissue.

The Cable Fly is a great example of this principle.

We can do a cable fly any number of ways that scale up and scale down our ability to push the pec to its limit within a set.

For maximum output we’d look at a cable fly machine or even a seated cable fly (brining a bench in to a small cable stack) But even non supported variations have levels of external stability and counter force

For example, a standing vs. hinged cable fly will give you different levels of output because you can use the weight of your torso in the hinged positon to get your torso stable when compared to a standing variation.

It’s not about “better” or “worse” variations, it’s about understanding the differences and where these differences can serve you in the totality of your program.

Exercise Intent

Continuity in training requires understanding the intent behind each movement in your program. When equipment becomes the variable, being able to recreate the intended stimulus in any environment, no matter what equipment you have access to becomes a huge driver of progress.

Next time you’re picking exercises, think about what the core essence of an exercise is and how you can reproduce that stimulus even if you’re not on the same machine every day.

Delt Details

It’s often said that neutral is a range, which on mass is true, but neutral for any individual person comes down to a confluence of unique factors of that persons structure.

Understanding the angle that’s created by the trajectory of the scapula set forth by the rib cage is a potent positional landmark for everyone to know.

This is how understanding the neutral scapular plane helps improve efficiency of a basic cable lateral raise.

But this position and principle can be cross applied to so many different exercises.