Advanced Muscle Prescription... a revolution in exercise selection
1. Exercise selection is king & poorly understood.
2. Young Children and tribal people have higher joint and muscle function with less chronic pain. Human Freedom Training must maintain and expand on child-like movement capacities.
3. There are 2 types of tension we have to consider with any exercise.
Muscle Over Movement (bone cannot be flexed).
GIRONDA
Vince Gironda is the godfather of bodybuilding knew that exercise selection hugely impacted muscle development.
A bit of a mad scientist Vince changed many things in the bodybuilding world out of his California Lab.
He pointed to local muscular hypertrophy and things like upper and lower biceps, pecs and quads.
Vince was right.
CHARLES
Charles Poliquin understood this but his use of ART, PIMS, Stretch To Win etc. says that he didn't value the extreme outer range.
Charles valued inner, middle and outer ranges as many of his students do... Charles' students are the only people I've seen coherently program strength training.
Many of them miss this logic as I did for 15 years between when I started studying Charles' work and when precision exercise selection clicked for me.
This alone puts his students ahead of the rest for muscle gains, strength and resilience to stay healthy through the process.
I believe Charles would have upgraded his system based on what I'm about to present.
BEN
Ben Patrick broke down and sequenced the movements for the knee for the first time! The results are staggering for one of the world's most common physical complaints... sore knees.
You will see the same logic in other parts of the ATG system but I've never seen the system written to include what I'm about to share. I believe this is a significant addition to the ATG logic that is the best Athletic Development system the world has seen so far.
RANGE OF STRENGTH
Extending on ATG logic was Range Of Strength applied specifically to the outer range. Lucas, Keegan, Ben and Jeff really birthed this concept.
Lucas has persisted and continued to develop the idea with his own philosophy evolving along the way.
Splits, back bridges, pikes have never progressed as fast, as systematically and as safely.
But this is about a lot more than Range Of Strength and the novelty of achieving the impossible.
Advanced Muscle Prescription will revolutionise the way the world strength trains and prevent millions
Force Curve
At which point is the exercise hardest?
Movement Categories
Most healing to most damaging... (which is also part of the long-term healing.
1. Extreme Inner Strength - The Specialist
Connective tissue is under no positional strain.
Strain comes from the muscle contraction.
Muscle contraction is the dominant source for loading.
Muscle activation is strong but force output is less.
Extreme Inner Strength
This is when 2 or more joints are in their maximally shortened position.
eg. squatting calf raise (top position), top position of the muscle-up, V-sit, upgraded spider curl, tricep kick-backs.
Inner Strength
This is when one joint is in the fully shortened position for the agonist but the other is not.
eg. top of a standing calf raise, false grip hang, patrick step-up, dip lockouts.
i) The Most Healing
- Least connective tissues loading.
- Creates circulation without damage.
- Low-inflammatory response
- Great for tissue vascularity
ii) The Most Neural
- Access positions others can't. (muscle-ups, V-Sits, backsaults etc)
- Stop cramping in shortened positions.
iii) Proximal Muscle Gains
- Logically if tendons are not being strained then neither is the muscle closest to the tendon. In a microscopic level it is a continuum connective tissue to muscle cells.
Contraction type options
- Inner Range Concentric Only (Sled work)
- Inner Range Partials (Patrick step-ups, bench press lockouts etc.)
- Inner Range Force Curve (Concentration curls, Kick-backs)
- Inner Range Isometrics (Flexing muscles, pausing top position in the spider curl etc.)
- Bounces (Romanian Rhythm Squats, Dip Lockouts)
Concentric dominant.
Slow concentric phase.
Slow eccentrics are less useful.
When to use:
Before training extreme outer positions.
When systemic inflammation is an issue.
Frequently (avoid cramping).
Great for recovery.
How to use:
High reps / volume.
Most days.
For fat loss (burn glycogen without excessive soreness and tissue damage)
FAQ's
Is this just "active insufficiency" I learned about?
Yes! But rather than avoiding it we're going to understand it and use it! It's not a point of limitation. It's something we haven't developed yet. We are highly adaptability.
2. Middle Strength - The All-Rounder
i) The most commonly trained part of the strength curve.
ii) The most carry over to other movements for that muscle.
iii) The place where the muscle has the most leverage.
The place where the muscle has the most leverage. Mechanical advantage is strong.
eg. standing curl vs smith curl vs spider curl
Bench press for the pecs, squats, standing barbell curls etc are all mid position dominant movements. etc.
1) Balanced Concentric / Eccentric Dominant.
2) Mixed Muscle Gains
All tempos can be used.
When to use:
Moderate frequency.
Can work with eccentric or concentric emphasis.
How to use:
Moderate repetition range.
Does create connective tissue adaptation, soreness and muscle damage.
3. Extreme Outer Strength - The Revolver
1. Strains connective tissue and muscle tissue.
2. Great for muscle growth
3. Improve range of strength.
Neural activation is very strong in the outer-range before the tissues snap.
Extreme Outer Strength
This is when 2 or more joints are in their maximally lengthened position.
eg. upgraded Jefferson curl, cross-bench pullover, Smith curls (flies), slant board RDL's, donkey calf raise, natural knee extensions.
Outer Strength
This is when one joint is in the fully shortened position for the agonist but the other is not.
eg. deep knee bends, standing calf-raise, ATG Split Squats for the front leg, seated calf raises.
1) Most Structural
- Connective tissue is already under load passively! Then muscle contraction creates much higher connective tissue forces.
2) Most Damaging & Inflammatory
- These movements create a long healing cycle.
- With correct application they are the most important for connective tissue integrity.
3) Distal Muscle Hypertrophy
- Since the tendon is going to be challenged to adapt... so will the muscle cells closest to the tendon.
What Is Outer Strength?
Movements that:
Structurally Dominant
The lengthened position is the heaviest
3. Unless you're tight it shouldn't feel overly fascial at least not like the "now I know what torture on the rack must have felt like"
eg. Cyclist Squats, Preacher Curls, Guillotine Press, Seated Good Morning for the hamstring, Bench press and Dips for the pecs.
Why Outer Strength?
1. Stimulate muscle growth without the extreme tendon strain of extreme range
2. Increased connective tissue strength & eccentric tolerance
3. Prepare for outer / extreme range work.
4. These movements shouldn't be used too often with high loads
Outer Strength Movements Are:
1. Structurally dominant
2. Suited to higher repetitions (1-5 repetition range mostly)
3. Stimulate muscle and tendon growth
4. Have a strong inflammatory effect
5. Are eccentric dominant and suited to slower eccentric emphasis.
Sequencing
Extreme / Inner Strength
Middle Range.
Outer Range.
Extreme
Movement Specific Strength
Muscles do the big movements.
Other Key Concepts
1. Identify the weakest link in the chain.
The key weakest muscle will create the biggest gain in performance when strengthened.
2. The Precision Muscle Development creates a structural surplus where less damage is done in each sporting event or training session because it wasn’t maximal for the tissues.
3. Beyond that muscle strengthening / size, the gross motor patterns should also be trained...
4. It takes less time to get a person with a 100 Muscle Number to go from a 1x bodyweight back squat to a 2x bodyweight back squat.
5. Total Body Muscle Has A Soft Upper Limit...
Choose Where To Place The Protein
Lower / Upper Body Dominance.
Tricep / Bicep Dominance.
Quad / Hamstring Dominance.
Tib Ant / Calves
Abs / Lower Back
Wrist Flexors / Extensors
Left To Right...
6. Flexor muscles like heavy eccentrics and speed, less volume.
7. Extensors muscles like more volume and less speed.
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