WEBVTT

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This is gonna be a very high level overview

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of exercise selection to give you some pointers

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and general guidelines

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or bumpers if you will, if you're picking exercises

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for your own transformation plan.

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Or to kind of double check,

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make sure there's no red flags in the exercise selection

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of someone who is writing your program for you.

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So you can ask questions

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and make sure they have a logical thought

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process behind them.

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Very generally, we're gonna look at

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the length and the challenge.

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Those are two different things in exercises.

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A shortened length exercise just means

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that muscle is getting to a shortened position

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or training on average in its mid to shortened range.

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For the most part, lengthened is just the opposite.

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We are getting that muscle to a more stretched position

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and training it in a more stretched range of motion.

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This is different than challenge, which is specific

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to the exercise itself.

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So it could be in a lengthened position for the muscle,

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but hard in the short position of the rep.

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This would be an incline dumbbell curl as I have down here.

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We're in shoulder extension

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and elbow extension, getting to a lengthened position,

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but it's not hardest there.

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It's hardest once you get into elbow flexion,

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the short position of the exercise.

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So that is a short challenge, but a lengthened position.

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Then we have things that are shortened,

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challenge just the opposite.

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It's hard when the muscle is in the shortest part of the rep

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and a lengthened challenge hardest when you are in the more

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stretched or lengthened portion of the rep.

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So I put this general little table down here

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to give you some examples

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of the different combinations of these.

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Whereas a short position lengthened challenge would be a

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dumbbell creature curl.

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So you're in shoulder flexion

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and you're getting to a fairly short bicep position,

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but it's not hardest here in the short position.

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It's hardest when your elbow is extended,

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the lengthened position of that exercise.

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Now, that will be important when we look at

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how we're picking what exercises and where to put them.

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So here's some considerations

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for lengthened versus shortened,

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and generally speaking, when I say shortened exercise,

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I'm talking about something that is going

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to be harder in the short position, short challenge,

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and then generally in a short position as well.

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So these are going to be easier to recover from acutely,

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so it's easier to train them at a higher frequency compared

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to doing the same number of sets

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and same intensity of a lengthened exercise,

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which means we can drive more metabolic adaptations

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with less fatigue carrying over between workouts,

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even though you may feel you fatigue more quickly

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between sets within the workout.

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Those are the two different things.

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Length and exercise benefits.

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You can achieve a potentially greater mechanical tension

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stimulus, which is going to help us

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with preserving that muscle

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Tissue or creating a stimulus to grow muscle tissue.

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You can get that done in fewer reps

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and fewer sets compared to the shortened exercises.

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It will also help you maintain coordination

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and strength in those length

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and ranges, which can be beneficial for,

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um, injury prevention.

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So when we're programming this

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or picking exercise to put in our program, if we're trying

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to train with relatively high frequency

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and a moderate to higher volume of, uh, exercises

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and sets per exercise, we might want 60, 70, even 80%

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of our exercises

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to be a little more biased towards the shortened exercises.

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So short, harder in the short position,

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and slightly shorter muscle length to support our ability

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to recover more frequently.

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They also, as the calories get lower

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and perhaps you're doing lower training volume,

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a lower volume of lengthened bias exercises can help you

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preserve muscle mass, since you may not have the

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carbohydrates available as those calories come down

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to support higher volumes of work or muscle glycogen.

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So there's cases to use, either one, you just have

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to pair it appropriately depending on

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where our calories are, how frequently we're training,

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how much training volume we want

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to be utilizing in our program.

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So what about if you have limited exercise selection?

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What if you don't have a leg extension?

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You don't have a cable machine,

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you don't have APEC fly machine to train.

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You know, those exercises in a more

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short position very easily.

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You only have free weights or you only have bands, right?

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So for example, if no leg extensions available

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and we're basically restricted to squatting patterns

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to train our quads, how do we get higher frequency

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with length and bias exercises without under recovering

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or being hard to maintain that frequency?

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That's gonna come down to effort management,

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meaning we're not taking every set to failure.

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We're leaving a couple reps in the tank on pretty much every

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set, but maybe we do an extra set or two.

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Again, not going all the way to failure.

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That can potentially be a way to manage that variable.

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What about if bands are the only feasible option

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for some exercises?

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Well, bands are less fatiguing on average than other

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machines and cables

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because their resistance, their challenge is very biased

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to the short position as you stretch that band, as you push

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or pull on that band resistance.

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So higher volumes of band work can be tolerated

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and you can utilize creative methods like reverse drop sets,

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partials, et cetera.

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You can use those more frequently to improve the efficiency

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and stimulus of your workout.

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So that's why understanding how to utilize some

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of those things or having a coach that is, uh, you know,

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very well versed in these principles on how

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to manipulate these things can make your workouts much more

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effective and get us to our goal a little more efficiently.