MyoKinetics

𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐆 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐆 𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐒𝐓

Is your chest lagging and seems to not be improving even if you are throwing more volume at it? It may be because of your back muscles not your chest. Your scapular stabilizers are crucial for force production and maintaining tension in the pecs when training them. ◀️💥For more info swipe left and check out chapters 6 & 10.◀️

The scapula is the pivot point where the humerus moves about, when the pecs act on the arm to rotate about the shoulder and the shoulder blades are not stable for the force requirements, you will have compensations occurring. The shoulder blades may get pulled forward into protraction, shortening the pecs and not allowing for optimal engagement. This can also lead to triceps taking over and the anterior delt.

To fix this issue, we need to address the strength and motor control off the scapular stabilizers. Strength is important for counteracting the force produced by the pecs, but motor control is needed to maintain the proper positioning during exercises.

Exercises like; face pulls, scap retraction, rows, A,T,W’s are essential for strength and motor control. For intergrading the motor control aspect to the exercises you need to perform the chest training exercises with lighter weight and learn to control the motion from the shoulder blades.

𝐏𝐔𝐋𝐋-𝐔𝐏𝐒 𝐕𝐒. 𝐋𝐀𝐓 𝐏𝐔𝐋𝐋𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐍𝐒

It is a common question whether lat putdowns activate the lats more or pull-ups (forward handgrip)? A study by (Kenji et al), from the sports biomechanics journal, looked EMG activation of muscles during both. For more training info like this swipe left.

What they found was that pull-ups had greater activation of the biceps and erector spines when compared to the lat pulldowns. The lat pulldowns threaded towards a higher activation of the re**us abdominis well as slightly more pec major during the eccentric phase. However, for lat activation, there were no differences

Lat pulldowns are easier to master control of the motion and easier to manage the load. Load management allows both an increase in ability to do volume and keep control of form when still a novice. Pullups, on the other hand, are versatile and can be done anywhere without equipment, they emphasize control of the lower body as well for pull-ups you're bound your body weight unless you have equipment like a weighted belt or an assistance machine.

𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐄 𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐂𝐔𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐒
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Often you may hear I am in a caloric deficit or surplus from people who are dieting but are they really and to what extent? ◀️💥swipe left for more info in training◀️ Calorie calculators are a valuable tool when combined with the knowledge of a Dietitian but can often be misunderstood. Here is what you need to know about them.
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Calorie intake calculators are accurate to an extent, the most accurate of equations used is the Mifflin equation predicting within 10 % of actual resting metabolic rate (Frankenfield D et al 2005). It is important to understand that your metabolism can vary based on uncontrollable factors such as arousal state, food you eat, spontaneous activity. And consider that those calculators do not factor in percent lean mass, ethnicity and many other variables.
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When using such calculators take the number with a grain of salt. Pay attention to how your body responds to the changes. Dietitians know how to adjust these numbers based on experience and information they ask you like diet history as well as any conditions that need to be considered. So be careful when getting advice from unqualified individuals.
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Diet apps may be useful tools to make you more conscious of roughly how many calories you are taking in but can also be tricky as many apps allow anyone to input caloric values for foods making them unreliable. Point being when you change your diet based on data from such equations be careful as you may decrease your calories too much or too little which can lead to issue both health and performance. Specifically, in very active individuals as equations tend to underestimate their RMR (Jagim AR et al 2018)

𝐋𝐄𝐆 𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐒 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐋𝐄𝐆 𝐃𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐋𝐎𝐏𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓
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The leg press is a great accessory exercise in a leg day routine. It has been shown to result in similar muscle gain in a 10-week study comparing it to squats. However, it may not lead to similar performance adaptations further research is needed. ◀️💥swipe left for more training info◀️
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The leg press is a great glute and quad exercises, one common thought with it is that changing foot position will affect muscle activation. Looking at a study that observed muscle activation during different foot positions, neutral, internally rotated, externally rotated. The results showed that there was no statistical difference in muscle activation in the quads based on their evidence.
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This study has a few limitations and improvements that can be done with this study to further refine the results. One strong limitation is the weight they used which was only 55% of their body weight, whether that has the same activation as a higher percent of their actual 1RM isn’t know. However perhaps we may see trends like the leg extension where internal rotation limits the re**us femoris and favors the vastus muscles.
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Another thing to add is that it is common misconception that the leg press engages your hamstring in a manner which they perform work. Many popular websites and books even recommended as a hamstring exercise. However, that is not true it is as much a hamstring exercise as are leg extensions. Which was shown by (Kevin E. et al.) Looked at the emg activity of lower limb muscles during different exercise. What they found was that the activation of the hamstrings was not statically different during the ascent between leg extensions and leg press. This is because of the mechanics of the leg press and the hamstrings crossing both the knee and hip joint.