Three Methods to Hit the Little Muscles
Sneaky ways to add extra emphasis to a little muscle while working a bigger one.
We all know we need to emphasize certain muscles to get better at particular lifts.
And we all have little muscles that we don't particularly like to do anything with that usually get left out because we've rightly focused the majority of our energy on big exercises.
But I have found that if you don't do a little bit of work for some of the supporting cast muscles, you eventually end up with an injury.
And if you don't address your weak links most people don't move up in their lifts, or at least when they get past the beginner stage and have their form perfected.
So what's the solution? Well one small one that I've come up with that seems to work well for me flow right along the lines of one of my earlier articles.
It was about looking for little ways to create the greatest efficiency in your training.
Well, here's three ways to throw in those smaller exercises so that you're sure they get done and you still have an efficient workout.
1.
Alternating sets between big and little exercises.
Most of us hard core guys tend to skip stuff like calves, but I have found that for me, if I skip them on regular basis, I tend to have calf pulls when I do events that really stress them.
Sprinting, etc.
So this is how I like to work my calves to make sure they get done.
I alternate sets of squats (or could be pulls, or presses) with sets of calf work.
The calf work does a couple of things for me.
It keeps me moving in the gym from set to set between sets of squats.
It helps me pace.
By mixing it with squats, I also get a superior calf workout without having to do much.
Because the calves are involved in squatting, they're getting worked from both angles.
But the small exercise is not enough energy drain to effect my squats.
This style would apply to many other types of workouts and you could set it up to have a related effect like the squat calf raise combination or a direct effect by mixing for instance deadlifts and hyper or reverse hyper extensions.
2.
Reverse ordering a workout.
Another thing big lifters usually skip is abs.
This is very easy to neglect at the end of a major lifting session when you've burned up all your energy.
If however you change the order you force yourself to get that exercise you're likely to skip done first.
Then you can concentrate on the big bang exercise.
This works particularly well with abs, because they make for a great warm up and when you pre-stress them they then have to work twice as hard during your big compound exercises.
Therefore you get more strength without nearly as much direct work.
And you get for a good part, a more applicable kind of strength for what most lifters really want.
By pre-stressing your abs with a direct exercise then following up with a compound exercise that stresses them in a supporting role, you teach them to be strong for the compound exercise.
This can be applied to lots of different workouts.
For instance, doing grip work first then a heavy pulling workout.
Or deadlifts before your squats instead of after to pre-fatigue your back.
3.
Arranging your workout to specialize on a smaller muscle.
If you know you have something that is lagging, creating a weakness you can take a short period of time and arrange a major exercise geared toward fixing that weakness while still fitting the bill of being a serious basic exercise.
For instance if you're a bench presser and you know your triceps are weak, well do some close grips.
You're still benching, but you've changed the exercise to work on a particular weakness.
If you're having trouble locking out, do power rack work.
If your hamstrings are weak, do single leg deadlifts.
If your low back is weak do stiff legged deadlifts.
You get the idea.
Think about it a little and find the exercise, which fits, in the basic framework of squat, press, pull that also mechanically lends itself to fixing your particular weakness.
We all know we need to emphasize certain muscles to get better at particular lifts.
And we all have little muscles that we don't particularly like to do anything with that usually get left out because we've rightly focused the majority of our energy on big exercises.
But I have found that if you don't do a little bit of work for some of the supporting cast muscles, you eventually end up with an injury.
And if you don't address your weak links most people don't move up in their lifts, or at least when they get past the beginner stage and have their form perfected.
So what's the solution? Well one small one that I've come up with that seems to work well for me flow right along the lines of one of my earlier articles.
It was about looking for little ways to create the greatest efficiency in your training.
Well, here's three ways to throw in those smaller exercises so that you're sure they get done and you still have an efficient workout.
1.
Alternating sets between big and little exercises.
Most of us hard core guys tend to skip stuff like calves, but I have found that for me, if I skip them on regular basis, I tend to have calf pulls when I do events that really stress them.
Sprinting, etc.
So this is how I like to work my calves to make sure they get done.
I alternate sets of squats (or could be pulls, or presses) with sets of calf work.
The calf work does a couple of things for me.
It keeps me moving in the gym from set to set between sets of squats.
It helps me pace.
By mixing it with squats, I also get a superior calf workout without having to do much.
Because the calves are involved in squatting, they're getting worked from both angles.
But the small exercise is not enough energy drain to effect my squats.
This style would apply to many other types of workouts and you could set it up to have a related effect like the squat calf raise combination or a direct effect by mixing for instance deadlifts and hyper or reverse hyper extensions.
2.
Reverse ordering a workout.
Another thing big lifters usually skip is abs.
This is very easy to neglect at the end of a major lifting session when you've burned up all your energy.
If however you change the order you force yourself to get that exercise you're likely to skip done first.
Then you can concentrate on the big bang exercise.
This works particularly well with abs, because they make for a great warm up and when you pre-stress them they then have to work twice as hard during your big compound exercises.
Therefore you get more strength without nearly as much direct work.
And you get for a good part, a more applicable kind of strength for what most lifters really want.
By pre-stressing your abs with a direct exercise then following up with a compound exercise that stresses them in a supporting role, you teach them to be strong for the compound exercise.
This can be applied to lots of different workouts.
For instance, doing grip work first then a heavy pulling workout.
Or deadlifts before your squats instead of after to pre-fatigue your back.
3.
Arranging your workout to specialize on a smaller muscle.
If you know you have something that is lagging, creating a weakness you can take a short period of time and arrange a major exercise geared toward fixing that weakness while still fitting the bill of being a serious basic exercise.
For instance if you're a bench presser and you know your triceps are weak, well do some close grips.
You're still benching, but you've changed the exercise to work on a particular weakness.
If you're having trouble locking out, do power rack work.
If your hamstrings are weak, do single leg deadlifts.
If your low back is weak do stiff legged deadlifts.
You get the idea.
Think about it a little and find the exercise, which fits, in the basic framework of squat, press, pull that also mechanically lends itself to fixing your particular weakness.
