Bradley Simpson

Have you ever wondered the best way to target your butt over your quads in a squat? Target your calves over your lower back?

It is actually quite simple. The easiest way to think of it is: The main muscle(s) that contribute to a movement will be the one(s) that is stretched the most prior to the movement. Think of the squat. What contributes to the bar being lowered first? Is it your hips bending (your butt going back), or is it your knees bending? If it is your knees bending then you are working more quads, if it is your hips going back then it is more glutes and lower back.

This becomes relevant if you want to target a certain muscle group (or avoid it because it is already to big relative to other muscles). Beware though, your body will naturally strive to be efficient. This typically is a good thing, however, in this instance it may mean the muscles that are already the strongest (and biggest) want to do the work, and not the ones you want to target.

This entry was posted on September 27, 2007 at 8:53 pm and is filed under Athletics, Bodybuilding, Exercise, Fitness, Gym, Health, Uncategorized, Weight Gain, Weight Loss, Weight Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.