SuppVersity - Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

Image 1: The major muscle groups of the back - trapezius (red) and latissimus dorsi (green) In this issue of the SuppVersity EMG Series, we are going to tackle three instead of one muscle groups, ... the trapezius (image 1, red) and the rhomboidei (image 1, blue), of which the former, i.e. the " traps ", which covers the rhomboids that connect the scapula with the vertebrae of the spinal column, is often erroneously associated with the musculature of the neck; in effect, the m. trapezius extends longitudinally from the occipital bone to the lower thoracic vertebrae and laterally to the spine of the scapula and is thus responsible for what pro-bodybuilders often refer to as back thickness and ... the latissimus dorsi (image 1, green), which literally is the 'broadest muscle of the back' and thus responsible for back width . The reasons we will be addressing back width and thickness in a single issue are twofold: Firstly, you need to train al...

It is set in stone that you first do your bench presses and then finish up with some sort of triceps exercise. A group of scientists from Brazil ( Simao. 2010 ) wanted to check, whether doing it the other way around may not have its own, unique benefits and - you knew it - it has! The 31 participants who had a military background were randomly assigned to one of three groups, the first of which began with large and progressed toward small muscle group exercises (LG-SM) while another started with small and advanced to large muscle group exercises (SM-LG). The exercise order for LG-SM was bench press (BP), lat pull-down (LPD), triceps extension (TE), and biceps curl (BC). The order for the SM-LG was BC, TE, LPD, and BP. The third group served as a control group (CG). Figure 1: 1RM tests and muscle thickness effect sizes and magnitudes across 12 weeks of resistance training. Although the overall effect size was relatively small, the results suggest that conventional wisdom is mislea...