Doug Brignole - Ron Penna

Every year, countless individuals engage in a resistance training program in an attempt to either enlarge their muscle size for enhanced physical appearance, increase their muscle strength for improved athletic performance, or maintain the ability to perform the activities of daily living that are important to them. Most of these fitness enthusiasts perform standard resistance exercises, as recommended by fitness professionals, personal trainers, and friends, or as presented in books, magazines, and websites. These standard resistance exercises are generally effective for the first few months of training, during which time most new participants experience gains in both muscle size and strength. Sooner or later, however, they encounter either an exercise-related injury or a muscle-development plateau. Get Doug's book The Physics of Resistance Exercise here https://shrnetwork.biz/buildmoremuscle .

[3:25] Doug Brignole’s history in bodybuilding.

[5:03] Ron Penna’s epiphany from reading Brignole’s book.

[6:40] Most lifter’s egos will cause them to dismiss Doug’s book.

• They are seeking confirmation bias.
• There is also a sunken cost aspect to their current training style.

[9:25] The squat.

• Consider the Sine of the angle of incidence on the fulcrum between levers to determine where the maximum stimulus is achieved in a lift.
• In a squat, the quadriceps muscles receive the most tension at the bottom of the squat, but there is compensatory change in length of the other muscles involved, resulting in partial loss of total load placed on the quads.
• Besides the mechanical aspect, we have to look at the neurological aspect.
• There is a reciprocal inhibition involved in compound movements.
• The activation of the rectus femoris is very low in a squat because there is very little relative lengthening or shortening of it in the barbell squat.
• Hamstring muscles involved exclusively in hip extension also reciprocally inhibit rectus femoris activation.

[26:50] Doug explains the strength curve.

• Matching resistance profiles to the strength curve will give more efficient results.

[29:10] The goal is not to move weight from point A to B.

• It is to place maximum tension on a muscle through a full, active ROM.

[36:39] Never before seen movements.

• Scapular retraction and depression for the mid and lower traps.

[47:15] Can Doug’s approach be achieved with bodyweight and bands?

• They are not ideal.

[53:50] Rear delts.

• Going forward and back is more natural than going across the body.

[1:01:20] Ron’s experience with Doug’s approach.

• There is a misconception about the incline bench press.

[1:08:50] the importance of volume in hypertrophy.

• Doubling intensity doesn’t let you get away with cutting volume in half.
• Proximity to failure also plays into how much volume that you can do in the rest of your session.
• Sets of 6 to failure will give you more effective reps than high reps to failure, and it can be somewhat repeated.

[1:20:50] Bilateral deficit is explained.

[1;13:45] What is a mechanical advantage/ disadvantage?