Muscles Are People, Too

They just want to do simple jobs and be happy.

I’m developing a theory, which is probably not original, so let me re-state this: I’m developing an understanding of what others have figured out before, that muscles just want to move quickly and well.  From the top to the bottom of a given lift and back again, the trip should be about two seconds, a ‘one-one thous - ‘ down, which is a bit less than a second, followed by a full ‘one-one thousand’  and maybe a bit more on the way up.

The lift also has to run through the muscles’ full range of motion, the better to maximize the stretching and contracting functions of the central nervous system.  For example, as you’re gazing at the screen, put one fist up, ready for a biceps curl.  You let that fist down at a reasonable speed: ‘one-one thous - .’  Pause briefly, and then it’s ‘one-one thousand,’ coming up.  That’s generally going to be your rep speed as you train.  Things could get a little slower at the end of a set of 5 or a heavier 3, and especially at a top level single, but by and large the muscles are happy to be operating according to design.

What would it mean if muscles were not happy?  They would be slow, sore, and tight from moving slowly and holding the weight too long.  In what is clearly a defensive measure, they would give every indication that they don’t want to train.  This could be because the wrong muscles are doing too much work for too long, like the quads being forced to put on the brakes during squats.

Unhappiness could be from the complete opposite:  the muscles that are supposed to engage don’t really get a chance.

Compound lifts like the squat and the bench press are not the simple leverages of that biceps curl you just did.  They involve multiple joints, limb lengths, and muscles operating in conjunction.  Leverage dictates the share of the load each body part bears.

Some combinations of bone lengths and muscle insertions move weight more efficiently than others.  For example, I’ve always been a decent squatter but a fair bencher at best.  A thick chested and comparatively short armed friend of mine can bench press magnificently.  He’s pretty incredulous at how I struggle along.      

Since natural leverages vary, some athletes do not make effective use of the muscles tasked to perform a given lift.   That bench pressing friend of mine has gigantic pectorals that wrap around his rib cage, with all the fibers primed to heave in unison.  I’ve benched and benched, and my pecs have never had much to contribute or show for all the effort.    

The bodybuilders of this world have long known this about the bench, and experienced powerlifters like the folks at Westside have been making up for it for a long time: the bench just doesn’t fully work the chest for most people.

I’ve also discovered, through my own example, that lifters can be counted on to make bad situations worse.     

My legs had become slow, sore, and unhappy from squats into which I lowered myself far too slowly, feeling my way through while wondering how far back to send my hips, incline my torso, and spread my knees.  I was crouched like a ski racer tearing down the slope.  Heavy weights had become misery.

This is wrong, I realized in the middle of a workout.  The solution has been some nice deep box squats with my feet set wide to simplify the motion.  This sends my knees way out, so I’m not going to do a great deal of inclining with my torso, and I can drop straight down into a nice, low adductor stretching position with that ‘one-one thous - ‘ timing as I commit my weight to the box.

I confirmed the logic of this approach by watching a YouTube video by powerlifter Matt Wenning, a former champ and now coach.  My hamstrings are engaged simply and directly, like in that biceps curl earlier.

One day in high school 43 years ago, Joey [Salerno] and I were bench pressing, gutting through sets of 5 with 165 pounds and pretty proud of ourselves.  Neither of us had ever reached a 200 pound max, but this had to be the day, we decided.  We loaded up 200 pounds.  Joey got it.  I did not, which had me near tears, fighting not to bust out bawling completely - which of course amused everyone and made the entire ordeal worse.

Joey must have had some reserve muscle mass or some quirk of leverage in his frame that made him a superior bencher from that moment on.  I would have sold my soul for greater mass or leverage, but I had no way of knowing I should have been cycling through dips, flat and decline bench dumbbell work, and lying triceps extensions to get them.

That’s in bold in case someone is actually reading this blog and stumbling upon something that might make a difference in somebody’s life.

Each pec muscle is the size and shape of a deck of cards fanned out by a magician, with the ends all tied in where the shoulder meets the armpit.  This construction means that the pectorals are involved in a number of different motions: primarily horizontal adduction, which is to say sweeping your arm, if it were held out to your side, in front of you.  This is on all levels, from your hand being above your head to all the way downward, as if you’re flapping your wings and slapping your thigh with the palm of your hand.

It rotates your humerus inward as you’re throwing a punch or a ball, and it brings your arm back up in front of you from behind, if you had your hand in your back pocket.

When you bench press, which means your elbows are flared out sideways when the bar is on your chest, the sternocostal heads are most likely the ones drawing your upper arms forward and across.  The variables in this leverage are upper and lower arm bone lengths and the distance the bar travels.

However, what the barbell bench press does not cover in pectoral action, dips and flat bench and decline bench dumbbell presses do.

(So do incline dumbbell presses, though I’ll explain why I don’t use them in my rotation*.)

I’ve finally grasped what may other lifters have known, that the bench press is an assemblage of various strengths that are fully realized elsewhere.  Dumbbells allow for greater ranges of motion around the shoulders, and the stabilization necessary to control independent weights would appear to activate greater muscular recruitment than does the comparative stability of a barbell.

The various leverages of my pecs have been met with simple movements and quality reps, and they are now better prepared to contribute in whatever mysterious way they do to my benching.

The barbell benching remains important, however, because it allows for a greater amount of weight than that of the two dumbbells to be handled.  This means greater strength development for the entire enterprise.  The pectorals must be fully and thoroughly developed in order to contribute, so these exercises would best be described as interdependent.

*Incline dumbbell presses can be part of the rotation, but I personally don’t think they contribute much to the pectoral phases used in the bench press.  I train the incline as a barbell strength lift once a week, along with the seated press.  Those lifts are unique enough to be strengths unto themselves.

My legs are willing to squat again because I’ve cleaned up my rep speed and trajectory.

My chest is happy to bench because I’ve finally prepared all its facets with clean rep speeds and trajectories.

Just keep everybody happy, and they should be willing to get strong.