Larry Scott Research Foundation: Sharing The Secrets: November 10th 2000

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Sharing The Secrets: November 10th 2000

Making Your Dreams Come True...

"Sharing The Secrets"

November 2000

By
Larry Scott

Larry Scott & Associates
(http://www.larryscott.com)

- - - - - Friday - November 10, 2000 - - - - -

1 - Loading The Guns
2 - How To Build The Slow Body-Part
3 - Anti-Catabolics - Don't let your body rob you hard earned size.

1 - Loading The Guns

I remember taking courses in college many years ago when I was in
Physical education in which it was apparent the courses
being taught were far behind state of the art training knowledge
available from many of the leading bodybuilders. Consequently, I never
thought to look to this source for more information about proper exercise.
Not too long ago however having glanced through some of the advanced
physiology courses available today and the content of the text books
opened my eyes considerably.
As Nehru once said, "We must have eyes to see and ears to hear and a
mind that opens up to the outside world".
Soon I was devouring everything from muscle testing and function
courses to Exercise physiology. It was fascinating. I was learning about my
passion. How good it felt to discover new truths about training.
Let me share some of these findings with you in the hope it will help
you in your quest for physical excellence.
I must begin by explaining a little about the origins and insertions
of the biceps heads. This is important to know in order to be able to
determine which muscles are working during a specific exercise.
Lets take working the biceps for "peak " development for instance. If
we look carefully we will see the biceps being composed of two heads,
both the long and the short head which is of course not anything new to
anybody with even a little knowledge of anatomy.
Closer examination reveals the short head is connected to the coracoid
process (the small bone furthest out on the shoulder) and the long head
is connected to the supraglenoid tubercle of the scapula. This again
is not anything earth shaking. It is important to note however, even
though these origins are close to each other, the coracoid process is
about 1 to 2 inches closer to the spine than the connection of the long
head.
In other words the best way to work both heads would be with a
movement that would bisect these two vectors.
This is very difficult to explain without the use of a picture but let
me see if I can create a picture in your mind.
Imagine you are doing a bicep curl with the elbows held in and the hand
grip position a little wider than shoulder width. This is the ideal
position for building both heads. Due to the fact that any movement of the
wrist with respect to the shoulder is going to be working both heads
there doesn't seem to be any way to work one head of the bicep at the
exclusion of the other.
One can put a lot more emphasis on one head over the other however by
different positioning of the hand on the barbell or dumbbell. Let me
explain. Let's suppose your desire would be to develop more bicep
thickness rather than peak biceps development. The short head of the biceps is
the head which head which gives greater thickness to the arm so more
exercises which activate the head would be appropriate. In as much as the
short head is connected more close to the spine, exercises with the
wrist out away from the body and the elbow in would give better
pre-stretch and would thus activate the head more effectively. On the contrary if
the desire is to build better peak on your bicep then, effort should be
expended to work the long head which primarily gives peak to the bicep.
We would then best accomplish this function by doing exercises such as
Vertical Preacher Bench curls or Spider Curls which keep the elbows out
and the wrists in during the exercise.
There is however, another muscle in the upper arm which also is
responsible for elbow flexion. This muscle is the Brachialis. I'm sure you
have heard of this muscle before.
Looking carefully at this muscle's origin and insertion we learn some
very interesting facts. First, we will note the long and short heads of
the Biceps insert on the radius (one of the bones of the Forearm) The
radius is the bone that swivels to allow for the twisting of the palm
from supination (palm up) to pronation (palm down). As a matter of fact
one of the functions of the biceps muscle is to supinate the palms. This
explains why we get better development from biceps work when we do the
exercise in as full of a supinated (palm up) position as possible.
The brachialis on the other hand has its insertion on the ulna (the
other bone making up the forearm). It is not dependent on the position of
the palm in order to work at its maximum.
Even more important than the insertion of the brachialis is its
origin. It does not connect in the shoulder region at all. It originates at
the top of the humerus (upper arm bone). This means it is not dependent
on arm position in order to work. This is very important information.
Especially when one looks at the position of the brachialis. You see, it
lies directly under the two heads of the biceps. This would seem to
indicate if we could build up this muscle it would push up the biceps and
give us much better peak.
How then can we concentrate totally on the brachialis rather than
just working on the heavy biceps heads. The origins are the clue. If the
elbows are raised to at least shoulder height and even higher,the biceps
are put on such a slack they can never fire to effect elbow flexion
(flexing the bicep). In this position then the only muscle that can work
is the brachialis.
What exercise could we do then to really work peak biceps?. The
answer: one in which the elbows are raised over the head. An exercise like
kneeling curl downs with the lat machine are tremendous for building peak
biceps. The elbows have to be kept high over the head however. You will
notice immediately that you will have only 30% of the normal strength
you usually have while doing bicep curls because the biceps muscles are
totally deactivated and all the work is now being done by the much
weaker brachialis.
By the way, Get a camera when you do this exercise you wont believe
the peak on your upper arm at the fully contracted position.

Okay, lets talk about the triceps.
The triceps of course are composed of three heads, thus the name
tri-ceps. The obvious intention is to get all three heads so big they will
be enormous.
The triceps muscles have some of the same peculiar differences between
origin and insertion as does the biceps. Lets examine them carefully.
The lateral head (external head) and the small internal head have the
same origin and insertion. They both originate on the upper portion of
the humerus (upper arm bone) and all three insert together on the under
side of the ulna. This means for one thing the position of the palm
does not effect the exercise because as you remember from our earlier
discussion the ulna does not change with palm movement.
The really interesting item to note is the origination of the long
head of the tricep. Before I continue, let me also call your attention to
the fact that the long head is the head with the most potential for
size. It has more muscle fibre than the lateral and the medial head
combined.
Continuing, the long head finds its origin not on the humerous bone
but on the Infraglenoid tubercle of the scapula (the back of the
shoulder). Lets examine what this means to us who are interested in building
big arms.
It's very similar reasoning as with the biceps and brachialis muscles.
The external and medial heads are connected to the upper arm bone and
consequently are not dependent on the position of the elbow with
respect to the shoulder to achieve full extension and full flexion. The large
tricep head however, is very dependent on the position of the elbow
with respect to the shoulder because it is connected to the shoulder.
I used to refer to certain triceps exercise as shape and others a size
movements. I really didn't know what I was talking about but it seemed
to make sense at the time. It was apparant, standing triceps pressdown
with the elbows in on the lat machine were excellent for chizeling out
some terrific shape on the external (lateral triceps heads). I could
never get any size doing this exercise because there just wasn't enough
muscle fibre in the external head to accomplish real arm size. I could
however get some impressive "horshoe" development. Consequently, I
would label this exercise as well as all dumbell and barbell kickback
exercise as falling into the category of "shape" exercises.
On the other hand I would label all exercises such as supine triceps
presses with the EZ curl bar and standing triceps pressdowns with the
elbows out as good "size" exercises because they (unbeknownst to me)
actually activated the long head much better because of the elbow position
with respect to the shoulders.
You see, because of the origin of the long head it is necessary to get
the elbow raised as much as posible in order to get full extension on
this tricep head. Once we understood what is happening we can devise
exercises that will really attack this potentially huge tricep head.
By using just a few of these exercises I can now keep my arm size up
very easily. I even have to watch it carefully in order to keep my
triceps from becoming out of proportion with the rest of my other body
parts.
Not too long ago Joe Weider and his wife Betty came out to Utah to
vist us for a while and we were enjoying a walk through some of the shops
in an old restored mining town by the name of Park City. It so happened
I had just worked arms the day before and was wearing a short sleeved
shirt to show off in front of Joe because I knew he always had a love
affair with arms himself.
We happend to be looking in the window of on of the curio shops and
Joe asked me.
" Have you been working extra hard on your arms Larry"?
"No about the same as before but I have found some terrific exercises
for them." I answered.
"Your arms belong on a 250 pound man Larry".
I don't know whether I felt like a freak or felt good about what I had
discovered about building arms. Coming from Joe I knew it was a
compliment as Joe is not one to criticize anyone.
Let me be more specific about how you go about using some of this
exercise knowledge. In order to visualize what I am going to share with
you, you must imagine the long head is connected to the back of the
deltoid and the only way you can get this muscle fully prestretched (it wont
build to its maximum potential unless you get into full prestretch
position) is to raise the elbows fullly overhead.
You will remember this as being the position we use while doing
standing EZ bar tricep extensions or overhead dumbell presses. Sounds
familiar doesn't it?
The only problem with the over head dumbell or EZ bar tricep extension
is the elbows go bad after a few weeks of doing these movements and
they are a long time coming back.
The position is correct it is just the exercise is too hard on the
elbows.
Try this experiment. Raise the elbow high over the head with hand
behind your head. Raise it as high as possible. Can you feel the tightness
of the tricep way down on the bottom close to the shoulder? This is the
area you will be able to build. It will forge a peak on the bottom side
of your arm causing the tricep to sweep down like a bunch of hanging
grapes.
Actually, it isn't the elbows that are hurting while doing the
standing tricep press with the Ez bar, it is a small muscle called the
Anconeus which is also an elbow extensor (works along with the other triceps
muscles).
You will find most of the fellows that have been training for some
period of time will have a tender Anconeus muscle due to hyper extension.
Let me tell you how to work the long head to its maximum. This
exercise is even better than the overhead triceps extension and it doesnt
hyper extend the Anconeus.
I am going to tell you exactly how I do it and I have experimented
with it for years to get it correct. You can use all of my suggestions or
part of them. It's up to you.
First, you must have a lat machine with a pulley attachment which will
allow the cable to come off the pulley at about 5 feet off the ground.
You then need to have some sort of arrangement against which to place
your feet. Similar to the foot stops used on a seated lat machine. You
will also need a twin pedastle bench with two surfaces each about 1 foot
square, separated by about 1 foot. The surfaces of the bench upon which
your elbows will be resting should be about 1 foot off the ground.
You will also need to get a "V" bar to hook onto the cable. Your palms
should be facing away from the machine and you should be kneeling on
the ground with the elbows resting on the twin pedastal tricep bench,
facing away from the machine.
As the arms are bent bringing the bar close to the machine the
shoulders should be dropped down to get as much extension on the long head as
possible. Try not to use the body to get the bar back up to full arm
lock out position again.
Alternate this exercise with Supine tricep press with the EZ curl bar
using as heavy a weight as possible. Do 3 to 4 series of these two
exercises and finish off with only the kneeling tricep extensions for about
3 to 5 sets dropping the weight each set with no rest between sets.
You will find you have discoved a gem if you do it exactly as I have
it outlined.

2 - How To Build The Slow Body-Part

No matter how excellent the physique there always seems to be one
bodypart that just won't respond as well as the rest of the body.
Having enjoyed some success in arm training I have been viewed to have
discovered some special secret. I'm sure the same is true of Tom Platz
and his thighs or Mike Matarazzo and his calves. If the truth were
known, the secret is not so much in discovering a new training method but
in finding a new mother because most sensational development can be
attributed to genetics.
This is not to say however that Tom didn't discover some amazing
breakthroughs in thigh routines or that Mike did not learn some interesting
training techniques for building calves I know I worked my fanny off to
build my arms and I know Tom went through a lot of pain to build his
incredible thighs.
The real benefit of having a responsive bodypart is being able to
contrast the work that delivers results to a super bodypart compared to
the slow one.
Let me use my arms and pecs for example. My arms will handle an
incredible amount of work without giving out. My pecs, on the other hand, just
don't have much staying power.
If I can hold a pump on my pecs through an entire workout I am lucky.
Also, they get bored a lot easier. I have to continually change the
exercises or the pump begins to go flat.
I really can't "blast" my pecs because they are already blasted with a
normal workout. Whereas my arms are always challenging me to try to
find something they can't do.
We really can't work the weak bodypart more on it's training night
because it is already pooped with a normal workout. What we can do
however, is work it a little... each night until we feel it begin to suffer
from overtraining. If it's still sore when it's time to train it again,
we'd better back off.
Let me outline a program which has worked when specialize on my pecs.
I will train pecs on their regular night (twice each week). During the
normal pec night, I will cut back to about 3 exercises of four sets for
a total of 12 sets. On the other training days, I include 3 sets of one
pec exercise.
This is always a different exercise than those done on my regular pec
night. I follow this program for at least 1 or two weeks or until I
feel my pecs not recuperating from the overwork.
For energy conservation, I also cut back on one of the other major
muscle groups on the night I stick in pecs where they don't belong.
Another very important aspect to remember while training a lagging
bodypart is the pace. It's important to imagine a clock has gone off the
minute you begin to train the slow bodypart. You must keep the pump in
the area as tight as possible. On a slow bodypart you only have about 15
to 20 minutes max to get your work done. Slow easy training will never
get the size you want and as I mentioned earlier, change the exercises
each night. Once the bodypart recognizes the same exercise coming again
it won't send a distress signal to the pituitary gland asking for more
growth hormone release. It has to always be kept off guard. The
strong bodypart can get away with repeating the same exercise and still
maintain good size but not the weak one.
Another sad fact about the lagging bodypart is, once you force it into
full hypertrophy, swelling with size, the quicker it is going to shrink
if you don't keep up the massive attack.
A strong bodypart can look great at only 70% of its possible growth
whereas the weak one has to get clear up into the 90's to look
proportionate with the rest of the physique. At this higher level of diminishing
returns it's much easier to slide back down the growth curve than it is
when you are only holding at 70%.
This is one reason why sickness is so devastating to the slow
bodypart. For some strange reason the weak bodypart is the first to shrink. I
guess it's because the greater the hypertrophy, the more unstable.
Your diet, rest times and supplements should be impeccable. Often the
thin underweight trainer will gain a little size and get so excited
with his new physique he slides into overtraining and uses up his
reserves. He then succumbs to the first flue bug that comes along. Down his
weight drops with most of the weight coming right from the weak bodypart.
It's enough to drive you nuts.
And that's not the worst of it, the weak bodyparts don't have good
muscle memory like the strong bodyparts. So, it's just about as hard to
rebuild the size on the slow bodypart as it was the first time. So, don't
neglect your supplements. Especially the non glamorous ones like a
super powerful Vitamin-Mineral supplement. And a good Anti-Catabolic.
There's still lots of literature suggesting all you need is a balanced
diet. Believe this, and you can be assured of getting more than your
share of colds and the flue bug especially when you're hitting the iron
for all your worth.

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