Applying Muscle Health Theory

People who ignore these principles but still have good results (or seem to) often:

1. Have massage, ART (active release therapy), or other physical therapy regularly.

2. Have massive movement dysfunction that is covered by task-specific results (eg. powerlifters can lose huge amounts of human function and still make big lifts).

3. Cover this off unknowingly - eg. it's within their sport for a gymnast/wrestler, etc.

By completing this course you will understand how to select movements to challenge the connective tissues and generate inflammation and muscle growth.

You'll also know how to heal tissues while still getting stronger without inflammation and connective tissue strength.

A couple of practical examples:

Using an extreme range movement too often will destroy your progress and flare your tendons quickly. Using them optimally will create new levels of previously unreachable function. Think RDL or Smith Curls.

Using inner range movements for muscle growth will create sub-optimal gains and leave you prone to injury in athletic activities. Think Tricep kickbacks and Patrick step-ups.

Compared to fields like engineering and chemistry it's really the Wild West.

We have some ideas.

Some of them have some backing in good research. Some in bad research. Some in case studies.

Because there are many ways and means to get results the truth has been obscured and strength education is greatly lacking.

The skew towards doped athletes competing in powerlifting, bodybuilding, and weightlifting doesn't help either. These populations are poorly researched and what they are doing doesn't necessarily apply well to everyday coaches and athletes in other sports.

Student research is often short-term and in untrained groups. The opposite extreme of people who might not be taking their part in a controlled study as seriously as sex-life or even late-night study gains.

For all these reasons this fundamental concept isn't well taught or understood in the world of strength.

Here comes your competitive advantage.

Here comes your next-level results.

Here comes a secret of very few pros.

First, we need a couple of underpinning principles

In which position is the muscle strongest / weakest?

In which part of the movement is the hardest?

Which is easiest?

Generally, machines attempt to match the force curve to the strength curve. When we use free weights we should have awareness of the force curve and the strength curve.

Few coaches have heard of these concepts.

Fewer have deeply contemplated them and considered the impact they will have on muscle gains, strength gains, connective tissue damage, and rehabilitation.

By optimizing these variables for a given objective...

EVERYTHING CHANGES.

As you apply these tools you'll go from randomly using different tools for different jobs with variable results to getting reliable results and solving the challenges in front of you.

Sure you can manipulate total training volume, intensity, etc to survive any program but you will NOT be able to bulletproof and rehabilitate connective tissues or fill in strength gaps for specific movements without these tools.

Think of it like this.

You want to RENOVATE your biceps. One movement can be considered a sledgehammer, another a drill, and another a polishing tool.

Now you can swing a sledgehammer softly or even use it to rub it as if it were a polishing tool but truthfully each tool has a different role to play.

For carpentry this is simple. You might not even need your trade certificates to identify what does what...

BUT IN THE WORLD OF STRENGTH TRAINING THE TOOLS ARE UNKNOWN AND UNLABELLED.