you could be building muscle almost twice as fast as you are right now now with this what would stretch focus training which is seemed to crack the code to build the muscle I've even started experimenting it with my own training and honestly it seems like it's working don't just take my word for it though I've assembled my Elite crew of researchers to dive into the science separate the truth from bad and figure out the best way to use this training to build muscle faster so whenever you lift weights your muscles contract to lift the weight
up and then stretch in order to lower the weight back down but something special seems to happen when your muscles become stretched under load the muscles can sense the stretch in the contractile units and in response kick start a complex process that tells the body to build more muscle this is what researchers now term stretch mediated hypertrophy but not until fairly recently has more specific research actually put this Theory to the test and the findings were quite surprising even to me there's four studies I want to look at with each of them testing a different
muscle group the first two tested what would happen if you only perform the bottom part of an exercise where the muscle is stretched one of the two published just last year tested this using preacher curls and assessed the growth in the biceps after five weeks the result the subjects that performed only the bottom half of the curl experienced 2.6 times more biceps growth than those who only perform the top half of the curl pretty cool right another study also published just last year replicated an almost identical design but this time on the leg muscles using
leg extensions they had subjects perform the bottom versus top half of the leg extensions and one more group who did the full range of motion they measured the growth of the Quad muscles at four different sites after 12 weeks growth at almost every single one of the measurement points was greater for the group who only performed the bottom half of the leg extension now these two studies they highlight the importance of the bottom position of your exercises because that's when your muscle is stretched the most we'll talk about what this means for your training later
on but before that what about exercises that can put your muscles into an even more stretched position than traditional exercises do with those exercises lead to more growth here's two studies that tested just that the first study was done on the triceps in this case subjects had one arm assigned to Cable push Downs whereas the other arm was assigned to overhead cable extensions they perform these exercises twice a week and to avoid favoring one arm over the other every workout the subjects alternated which arm that they trained first now based on the stretch focus training
Theory since the overhead position places one of the triceps heads the long head of the triceps into a position of Greater stretch when compared to push Downs where your elbows remain by your side it would be the more effective exercise but what actually happened well after 12 weeks the overhead arm experienced about one point five times more growth not just in the long head of the triceps but surprisingly in all the three heads of the triceps by the way guys before we dive into the last study can we just give the subjects from the previous
tricep study a big round of applause these guys are literally walking around with one arm one and a half times bigger than the other and they did it all for science so comment below for science to show your support who knows maybe one of them is even watching this video alright let's move on to the final study the last study I want to cover was done on the hamstrings in this case there were two groups of subjects each assigned with a different exercise one group did seated leg curls and the other group did Lion light
curls now since three of our four hamstring muscles go from the hip down to the knee a seated position stretches them into a longer length than a line position does So based on this can you tell which exercise came out on top you guessed it after 12 weeks the seated leg curls provided significantly more growth in these three hamstring muscles than the lion leg curls all right we've covered all the research now let's dive into the Practical how exactly do you go about applying all this to potentially speed up your gains easy there's three training
tips that I have for you but before we dive into those tips I do want to mention that science is always changing and evolving especially in new fields of research as of now I do believe there's sufficient evidence supporting what I'm about to share with you at least enough to start experimenting with it especially because there's no real downsides to them but as someone who appreciates science I must also be willing to be wrong and change my thoughts when new science comes out so we'll see how the science develops in the next few years and
if you give me a follow on Instagram I'll keep you guys updated with new research and my personal results but for now let's dive into these tips the first tip applies to all your exercises we know how important the bottom position of an exercise seems to be for growth so don't cut it short when bench pressing bring the bar down all the way to your chest and consider using dumbbells to get an even deeper stretch when doing curls fully extend your arm at the bottom when squatting come down to at least parallel or even further
if you can in addition to this make sure you're actually controlling the weight down to the bottom position and then when you get there don't cheat or bounce out of it using momentum it's often one of the hardest parts of the movement and you'll be tempted to cheat but don't control the weight and remember that is potentially the most important part of the movement for growth the next tip has to do with your exercise selection to be honest you don't need a bunch of special exercises that will provide more stretch mediated hypertrophy you're already doing
that the tried and true exercises like bench press curls and squats they all put your muscles in a deep stretch position given that you perform them with a full range of motion how however as we discussed earlier there are some muscles that can potentially benefit from being stretched to a greater degree these are what's known as bi-articulate muscles muscles that cross over two joints rather than just one and as a result can be positioned in a way that stretches them even more than normal so for these muscles you'll want to make sure that you're doing
an exercise that puts them into that position of extra stretch but until more muscle groups and exercises come up in future research here's the four muscles and exercises I'd be comfortable recommending that you incorporate the first two are the hamstrings and triceps as we saw earlier using exercises with exceeded leg curls and any sort of triceps overhead extension will provide a greater stretch and lead to more growth the biceps is another muscle I'd add to the list one of its heads the long head can be positioned into an even greater stretch by performing a slight
incline curl or behind the body cable curl although there isn't direct evidence on this yet it does seem very likely to provide a better fit lastly the glutes while there's no direct evidence yet Romania deadlifts squats and split squats will likely be your best bet since they challenge your goods in that old important stretch position last but not least here's a more advanced tactic that I like to call length and partials so given how important the bottom position seems to be for growth why not spend more time in it here's one way of doing it
before I share this technique though just realize you don't want to use this on big exercises like squats deadlifts and overhead press and you also don't want to do this very often since it can be quite fatiguing but every now and then such as during your very last set for a safe exercise such as a dumbbell press flies leg extensions triceps extension and bicep curl try this out after you reach the point where you can't do any more full range of motion reps continue your set by performing half reps at the bottom position to stress
your muscle in that stretch position until you reach failure if you guys can't tell I'm obsessed with doing everything impossible to maximize gains in the time and effort I spend at the gym four years ago I compiled everything I knew and all the current Research into an online program designed to use science to shortcut your transformation these programs went on to transform the lives of over a hundred thousand members but since then I've expanded the team collaborated with experts continued mastering my craft and stayed up to date with new research I've made mistakes and I've
been wrong about a few things along the way but there isn't a better teacher than failure I appreciate you guys joining me along this incredible journey but we are just getting started because today four years later with the help of my incredible team I'm proud to present my new and improved line of 2.0 programs fully equipped with the latest Cutting Edge science to join our community today and start pushing the boundaries of your potential head over to billingscience.com or click the link in the description box down below and I'll see you in there thank you
for watching I'll see you next time
