SuppVersity - Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

The dumbbell bench press is a pec stretcher. Doesn't it already look like maximal pectoralis major activity? No, a high EMG activity will not  necessarily translate into improved long-term muscle or strength gains, but it can tell you a lot about the biomechanics of different exercises and/or, as in the latest study by de Araújo Farias et al. (2016), exercise equipment and order. The true purpose of this study by scientists from Brazil and the US was to investigate muscle activation, total repetitions, and training volume for three bench press exercise modes, the smith machine (SMBP), barbell (BBP), and dumbbell (DBP) - all followed by a triceps extension (TE). Want to try something very different? Try BFR and Hypoxia Training BFR, Cortisol & GH Responses BFR - Where are we now? Hypoxia + HIIT = Win? BFR for Injured Athletes Strength ⇧ | Size ⇩ w/ BFR Training & Living in Hypoxia With nineteen trained men as subjects, the scientists had ea...

Does a woman's pectoralis react the same way to dumbbell bench, incline and shoulder presses as the one of their male training partners? Does it make a difference whether you are a novice or an advanced trainee? What about light vs. heavy weights - any effect on the activation patterns of pectoralis, delts, trapezius & co? Learn the answers to these & other questions in today's SuppVersity article (photo bodybuilding.com) The SuppVersity EMG Series is still one of the the most popular article series, here at the SuppVersity and that despite the fact that I guess most of you will already know the results by heart. Therefore I am happy to present you some additional data from a recently conducted study from the Biodynamics and Human Performance Center at the Armstrong Atlantic State University in Abercorn. The study that was published in the Journal of Sports Medicine a couple of days ago is - according to the authors - the first to investigate, whether the previ...

Flex Wheeler doing BB presses in what vcertainly isn't the ideal position for the lower back - imagine him doing that standing *uhoh* Don't worry, I am not going to repeat my SuppVersity Facebook news post on the activation of the rectus abdominis , the obliques and the lower back muscles many of you 'liked' on Facebook. I am rather going to expand on it by presenting the data from the unofficial follow-up (Saeterbakken. 2012). Before I do that, I will yet give you the usual preview of today's installment of the SuppVersity Science Round Up I am doing every Thursday (1PM EST, live! ) with my friend Carl Lanore from Super Human Radio (in case you did not notice, the number of real scientists on the show has risen exponentially within the last weeks, so I highly recommend you download a couple of other podcasts as well). SuppVersity Science Round Up - Preview Just like today's blogpost the focus of today's Science Round Up is actually going to ...

Image 1: The muscles of the deltoids (red) on the front (left) and back (right) of the body and the rotator cuff (violett), the group of muscles and tendons that stabilize the shoulder. I don't know about you, but somehow I feel sad that this is already the last installment of the SuppVersity EMG Series . While it certainly was a hell lot of work to compile all the information, I am very pleased that (a few exceptions aside) you, the 'students' of the SuppVersity; appreciate and put into practice some of the information, I am putting out here. That being said, it is actually quite fitting that the series ends on a body part, even bodybuilders hardly ever stop fine-tuning: the complex musculature of the shoulder, the anterior, lateral and posterior part of the m. deltoideus, also known as the pars clavicularis , which attaches to the clavicle , the pars acromialis attaching to the acromion and the pars spinalis that is directly attached to the spina scapulae ,...