Muscle growth requires tension. If you haven’t been gaining muscle, one likely culprit is a lack of high-threshold motor unit recruitment during your sets.
When the tension of your muscle contractions is too low, you’re not stimulating the muscle fibers that have the most growth potential.
This holds true for any muscle group.
However, the calves come to mind here since they’re one of the most notoriously stubborn muscle groups – if you chose the wrong parents. In Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding he mentioned that one of the ways he got his proportionally puny calves to grow was with super-heavy sets of incline leg press calf raises.
In essence, he forced his calves to produce more tension and they grew because of it. But you’ll quickly run into a wall of fatigue and joint strain if you only add weight to your exercises.
There’s a simpler, safer and more effective way to get more tension and growth out of your sets: the squeeze.
Let’s say your biceps are lacking size. If I hooked up your biceps to EMG electrodes and had you perform a heavy biceps curl or weighted pull-up you’d see some impressive electrical activity on the screen.
Now, what if I just told you to just squeeze your biceps as hard as possible without any weight in hand? What would the EMG show? A helluva lot of muscle activation, maybe even higher than you achieved while doing curls or pull-ups! I can say this because I’ve performed that exact experiment on myself.
Professional bodybuilders understand the muscle-building power of an intense squeeze. Indeed, you’d be hard-pressed to find an interview where one of the top guys doesn’t mention it.
The trick is to find the right balance between the weight you’re lifting (it shouldn’t be too heavy) and the amount of time you squeeze a muscle at its peak contraction. Unfortunately for us, the National Institute of Health (NIH) doesn’t consider this information a priority, so I was left to figure it out through my own experimentation with clients.
The parameters I came up with have been battle-tested with many hardgainers. But in order to get the fastest muscle-building results, it’s important to know which exercises work best for the squeeze technique I’m about to outline. I’ll start from the ground up…
Calves: Standing calf raise, single-leg
How to do it: Stand on your right leg without shoes, and perform one calf raise as high as possible and squeeze the peak contraction as hard as you can for 5 seconds. Without resting, perform 5 full calf raises with your right calf. At the top of the 5th rep, squeeze the peak contraction for 4 seconds followed by 4 reps. Then squeeze for 3 seconds followed by 3 reps. Continue with the sequence until you squeeze for 1 second followed by 1 rep. Do the same with the left calf.
Perform 3 sets with each calf.
Hamstrings: Horizontal back extension, single-leg
How to do it: Hook both heels under the pads of a horizontal back extension stand. Pull the left leg out so only the right heel is against the pad. Perform one single-leg back extension as high as possible and squeeze the peak contraction as hard as you can for 5 seconds. Without resting, perform 5 full single-leg back extensions with your right leg. At the top of the 5th rep, squeeze the peak contraction for 4 seconds followed by 4 reps. Then squeeze for 3 seconds followed by 3 reps. Continue with the sequence until you squeeze for 1 second followed by 1 rep. Do the same with the left leg.
Perform 3 sets with each leg.
Glutes: Single-leg hip thrust (shown below)
How to do it: Perform one single-leg hip thrust as high as possible and squeeze the peak contraction as hard as you can for 5 seconds. Without resting, perform 5 full single-leg hip thrusts with your right leg. At the top of the 5th rep, squeeze the peak contraction for 4 seconds followed by 4 reps. Then squeeze for 3 seconds followed by 3 reps. Continue with the sequence until you squeeze for 1 second followed by 1 rep. Do the same with the left leg.
Perform 3 sets with each leg.
Push-up, toes on the floor or elevated on a short box
How to do it: From the top position of a push-up, try to pull your hands together as hard as you can for 5 seconds (your hands won’t move but you’ll feel your chest contract intensely). Without resting, perform 5 full push-ups. At the top of the 5th rep, try to squeeze your hands together for 4 seconds followed by 4 reps. Then squeeze for 3 seconds followed by 3 reps. Continue with the sequence until you squeeze for 1 second followed by 1 rep.
Perform 3 sets.
Biceps: Inverted row, palms up using rings, straps or a fixed bar
How to do it: Row your body to top position, then squeeze your biceps as hard as you can for 5 seconds. Without resting, perform 5 full inverted rows with your palms up. At the top of the 5th rep, squeeze your biceps for 4 seconds followed by 4 reps. Then squeeze for 3 seconds followed by 3 reps. Continue with the sequence until you squeeze for 1 second followed by 1 rep.
Perform 3 sets.
You probably noticed that none of the aforementioned exercises require anything other than your body weight. However, they’re incredibly effective for building muscle without overloading your joints with massive weights.
For this week only, you can get the complete system for 10% off at checkout, just put in the coupon code SAVE10.
Stay Focused,
CW
