One
of the most common questions in weight training
is "can you work different areas of the same
muscle?"
For
example, can you work the lower biceps or the
outer thighs? The quick answer is "yes",
but as you'll soon see, reality is somewhat more
complicated than that.
Before
we go into the how, we need to explore why it's
useful to work different areas of a muscle. The
main reason we want to work different areas of
a muscle is in order to build a more balanced,
aesthetically pleasing physique. If a person only
focuses on a few exercises, they will tend to
overdevelop certain areas of their muscles at
the expense of others. This can make even a well-developed
physique look incomplete or even downright bad.
Imagine
a trainer who has spent all their time working
only on the flat bench press. They will have well-developed
chest muscles but the majority of that muscle
will be in the middle to lower area of the chest,
with very little in the upper area. This will
give the visual impression of a droopy, bottom-heavy
chest, which is not visually pleasing at all.
By selectively training specific areas of a muscle,
you can create optical illusions.
You
can give the impression of wider shoulders by
focusing on side deltoid (shoulder) training.
You can give the impression of a higher, more
well-developed chest with focused incline training.
A tighter waist will make the shoulders appear
wider while working the "peak" of the
biceps will make that muscle appear higher and
more dramatic. Emphasizing width in back training
will help to create a nice V-taper that will give
the illusion of wider shoulders and a smaller
waist.
These
optical illusions, put together and crafted through
targeted training of specific aspects of your
muscles, can help you to maximize your physique
potential.
Now
that you've learned why it's important to selectively
train specific areas of the muscles, let's learn
how to do it.
When
a muscle is activated by the nervous system it
contracts. The muscles operate under what is known
as the "all-or-nothing" principle: either
the whole thing contracts or it doesn't contract
at all. This would lead us to believe that you
can't focus on a specific area of the muscle.
After all, if all the fibers have to contract
when you lift a weight, you can't isolate a specific
area of the muscle, right? Wrong.
The
fibers in your muscles aren't all lined up in
a perfectly straight line. If they were, it would
be impossible to focus on specific areas of a
muscle. But we live in a three-dimensional world
and your muscles have to work in many different
directions and at many different angles. This
is what makes it possible to work different areas
of the muscle.
When
you lift a weight, even though the entire muscle
contracts, depending on the angle at which the
resistance is applied, some muscle fibers have
more direct tension placed on them than others.
The pectoral (chest) muscles are a great example
of this. I don't think anyone will dispute that
incline presses will put more tension on the upper
pec muscle fibers than decline presses. The angle
of the exercise places the majority of the tension
on those upper fibers.
This
is all well and good for a muscle such as the
pectoralis. It's a fan-shaped muscle, making it
easy to isolate different areas of the muscle
by changing the angles. But what about different
shaped muscles such as the biceps? The vast majority
of the fibers of the biceps run in the same direction.
Can specific areas of the biceps be isolated?
Can you work the outer biceps or the inner biceps?
The
answer to this question is a qualified "yes."
Even
though the majority of the fibers of the biceps
run in a similar direction, you can place somewhat
more tension on the inner or outer biceps, depending
on how you apply the tension (for example, a wide-grip
barbell curl versus a narrow-grip barbell curl).
The only problem is, since most of the fibers
do run in a similar direction, the difference
in actual muscular development is going to be
small. You're never going to have someone see
you and say "Wow! Look at those inner biceps!"
The anatomy of the muscle itself will also determine
the extent to which you can isolate specific areas.
An
excellent example of this is the deltoid (shoulder)
muscle. The deltoid has three specific heads (a
head is basically a separate section of the same
muscle). These heads are the anterior (front),
the lateral (side), and the posterior (rear) heads.
Even
though all three heads of the deltoid end up at
attaching to the same point on the upper arm bone
(a.k.a. the humerus; this attachment point is
anatomically known as an insertion), they originate
on different areas of the shoulder. This gives
each head of the muscle a different line of pull.
If you raise your arm straight up to the front,
you're working the front head, to the side, you're
working the side head, to the rear, you're working
the rear head. It's basically like attaching three
ropes to the same hook on a wagon - you can pull
the wagon with each rope but it will go in a different
direction depending on which rope you pull.
Though
this is a simple example, it can get a little
more complicated when you start dealing with multi-headed
muscles that have the same basic origin and insertion
points. For example, if you have a look at the
quadriceps muscle of the front thighs, it has
four different heads. They all start and finish
and in very similar places on the hips and knees.
How
do you isolate specific areas of a muscle like
that? It's a bit trickier but it still can be
done. It will depend largely on which exercises
you do, how you do them, and how well you can
mentally focus on the specific area of the muscle
you are working. It may be something as simple
as changing how your place your feet or even just
trying to push (or pull) more in one direction
than another.
Mental focus is an often-overlooked but extremely
important aspect of training, especially if you're
trying to hit a certain area of a muscle.
Often,
by concentrating on contracting a specific area
of a muscle more, you can actually recruit more
muscle fibers from that area, helping to increase
the work done by that area. This skill takes time
and effort to develop but it will pay off. Not
only will you be able to more selectively focus
on the muscles you are contracting but you will
be better able to feel how specific exercises
work different areas of your muscles.
While
a comprehensive list is beyond the scope of this
article, here are a few examples of some exercises
that you can use to focus on specific areas of
your muscles:
Lower
biceps: preacher curls
Biceps peak: cross-body hammer curls
Long head of the triceps: overhead dumbell extensions
Lateral head of the triceps: reverse grip pushdowns
Upper pecs: incline bench press
Lower pecs: decline bench press
Inner quads: leg extensions - lean over and hook
your toes up
Outer quads: leg extensions - lean back and point
your toes
Lower abs: lying leg raises
Upper abs: cross-bench crunches
Back width: wide grip pull-ups and pull-downs
to the front
In
conclusion, your ability to focus on specific
areas of a muscle is going to depend on several
factors. It will depend on the shape of the muscle,
the specific anatomy of the muscle (origins and
insertions), and how well you can mentally focus
on that specific area. This ability to focus on
specific areas your muscles will help you to create
a more visually-pleasing physique by allowing
you to act as a sculptor of your own body, selectively
building muscle where it will have the most impact
on your appearance.
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