Jason Huh on the Huh Rep philosophy of constant tension and bicep training

[Turkish Juicer]

[scorpion62]

Good one TJ

[Turkish Juicer]

Thanks!

[dooie]

Like

[Rhodium]

You have dam good posts TJ

[Dukkit]

Ive recently started doing partials on some exercises and Ive def felt and noticed a difference. Especially hams and lats.

My arms have always been hard to get them to grow or feel most exercises so Im still working on how to best incorporate partials into them.
But this vid just gave me some ideas.

Thanks TJ

[Turkish Juicer]

^^^ Partials work. I would like to contribute to this thread by giving a few workout examples from my very own personal experience in the recent past.

Arms: I have always had trouble to have a ''peak'' on my bicep, then thought of bringing in constant tension to the peak area of the bicep by performing partials on the cable crossover machine, presuming that if I were to stress this area only with a particular exercise I would get the desired result. Guess what? It worked! For the first time in my life, I was able to have a bicep peak, and a damn good one, thanks to the quarter reps philosophy.

Hamstrings: I was watching a Antoine Vaillant leg workout video on youtube and I was quite surprised to see that he was actually applying the whole 21 exercise technique to legs while working with isometric exercises such as seated leg curl and seated leg extension. Most of us are familiar with the 21 exercise with the bicep muscle only, where you hit the lower and upper bicep with 7 reps each time and then do the whole range of motion for 7 times before finishing up the set. Antoine, the smart mofo he is, apparently does this also for legs, probably to confuse the muscle all once in a while. I decided to give it a shot the next day and did it on both standing leg curl and lying leg curl machine, hams were sore as hell the next day and the day after. In sum, it worked.

Chest: Majority of lifters go all the way up with their barbells and dumbells while conducting barbell bench press, dumbell chest press and shoulder press exercises. In a way, this is cheating. Once you are passed the 3/4 of the range and perform these exercises with a full range of motion, that's also about when the tension is off the primarily targeted muscle and on to the secondary muscle, namely triceps. Not to mention performing these upper-body press exercises with elbows locked in each rep also puts some stress to the joints, which is something I am concerned more about as I get older. Thus, I dared my training partner a couple of months ago to perform partial reps on bench press with the same amount of weight and reps he normally does and he eventually admitted to that partial rep lifting technique was overall more challenging as did I.

In sum, partial reps work. Moreover, they work better than sets that are primarily concerned with full range of motion as they keep the pressure constantly on the targeted muscle group and create an environment where cheating is not an option anymore.

[Turkish Juicer]

bump

[scorpion62]

Tried this bicep workout today,and TJ yes I agree that it was more challenging to carryout my bicep routine in this manner , the pump was unbelievably so I am going to keep this up for about 3 months and see were it takes me , I will do my chest tomorrow and keep you posted

[Turkish Juicer]

^^^ Awesome!

[< <Samson> >]

Great info, best posts!

[dooie]

Tried this bicep workout today,and TJ yes I agree that it was more challenging to carryout my bicep routine in this manner , the pump was unbelievably so I am going to keep this up for about 3 months and see were it takes me , I will do my chest tomorrow and keep you posted

I also did this tonight, I have bought new supps and was thinking it may be them, but after every set of the cable curls over the chair, my arms were killing, the pump hurt!!! This is the first time I've had a pump in my bis without my forearms hurting! I also did tris but didn't feel the quarter rep so much, my tris burn always anyway!

Chest would be hard to isolate to do the huh rep! I would like to know what you did!! I'm doing legs tomorrow, trying it on the leg extensions, can't wait!

[Turkish Juicer]

I also did this tonight, I have bought new supps and was thinking it may be them, but after every set of the cable curls over the chair, my arms were killing, the pump hurt!!! This is the first time I've had a pump in my bis without my forearms hurting! That is the greatest aspect of working with the cable machine. It allows you to isolate the muscle much more than free weight can offer, hence putting more stress on the targeted muscle group, allowing for more hypertrophy. I love how it simply leaves out your forearm and puts all the stress on your biceps, cable machine is indeed a great invention for those who precisely know how to utilize it...

Chest would be hard to isolate to do the huh rep! I would like to know what you did!! I'm doing legs tomorrow, trying it on the leg extensions, can't wait! As a matter of fact, chest is pretty easy to isolate when you do partial reps. Wide grip, all the way down (barbell should not touch the chest though) and up 2/4 of the entire range of motion, making sure triceps will be left out as much as possible. Try this out with your regular weight-rep-set format, your chest will be sour for days. Partial reps on the leg extension machine has NOT worked for me. It worked for hamstrings on isolation machines but not for quads for some reason, so I follow partial reps philosophy for hams only.

....

[Turkish Juicer]

Here is a great example of how to perform partial reps while training chest.

Jay performs partial reps for his chest relentlessly, regardless of equipment.

See how the pressure is constantly on chest, not triceps and/or front delts due to the practice of partial reps.

There is a reason why the dude is 4 times Mr. Olympia, and is striving for the 5th.

[dooie]

....

I did lower back and hams yesterday, and holy shit, are my hamstrings sore, ps my bis are still hurting! This will revolutionize my training!

[Turkish Juicer]

I did lower back and hams yesterday, and holy shit, are my hamstrings sore, ps my bis are still hurting! This will revolutionize my training!

I am also still very sore from my lower back and hamstring training from 3 days ago, in spite of having done deep fascia stretching several times and 2 low intensity cardio sessions to combat the soreness!

I will be looking forward to your feedback for chest training with partial reps method!

[scorpion62]

I did my chest on friday and its still sore ,my chest was rock hard on friday and still the same today my tris well they were screaming on friday still unhappy today lol legs tomorrow boy how I am looking forward to this

[dooie]

I did my chest on friday and its still sore ,my chest was rock hard on friday and still the same today my tris well they were screaming on friday still unhappy today lol legs tomorrow boy how I am looking forward to this

Scorpion and TJ, how does ur chest workout look with partials? exercise, sets and reps wise??
I don't have a spotter, so is it ok to do partials on the smith machine?

I tried to do tris the way Jason did them in the vid, but they weren't sore, and normally my tris kill me??

[Turkish Juicer]

Scorpion and TJ, how does ur chest workout look with partials? exercise, sets and reps wise??
I don't have a spotter, so is it ok to do partials on the smith machine?

I tried to do tris the way Jason did them in the vid, but they weren't sore, and normally my tris kill me??

My chest workout is a pretty typical chest workout where there are 2 press and 2 isolation exercises, 4 sets each, 8-12 rep range for press and 10-15 rep range for isolation exercises.

The fact that I perform my press exercises via partial reps has nil effect on the rep-set format of my training, it is the same old system that I know works for me...

I don't do my triceps via partial reps either since it doesn't work for my triceps either. I never lock my elbows when conducting close-grip bench press for triceps, however. So you may consider that one also as a partial rep since I go only 3/4 of the full range, which drops to 2/4 as my triceps get beat and tired... I always lock my elbows during cable pushdown exercise and squeeze the muscle.

You have to adopt this system to yourself and everything becomes clearer in time.

[Turkish Juicer]

double post

[scorpion62]

Scorpion and TJ, how does ur chest workout look with partials? exercise, sets and reps wise??
I don't have a spotter, so is it ok to do partials on the smith machine?

I tried to do tris the way Jason did them in the vid, but they weren't sore, and normally my tris kill me??

dooie I use the BB and the smith for flat bench , and for my flys I use the pec dec plus DB, DB for incline and smith for tricep I do cable pushdowns ,close grip flat bench ,skull crushers with this I take my arms past my head and push the Z bar out the way doing this it takes the shoulders out the exercise and your tricep is doing the work with this when I bring the Z bar back up I will do close grip flat it finishes the muscle of doing partials with these two exercise works for me ,my set and reps are 4 sets reps 12 putting the weight up every set

[dooie]

I posted a thread a few weeks back asking, how do I get my lats to burn the way my chest does 48 hours after a workout, well I just figured it out 'PARTIALS!!! I did 5 exercises, 3 of them with partials (pull downs, row machine, and another row exercise) and holy shit my lats are killing me!! Fantastic, my back workouts have always been high volume, actually all my bodyparts respond to high volume, not including arms, but this just works for me! Day off today, chest tomorrow!!

[Turkish Juicer]

There you go!

[dooie]

Hmmm did chest, Not the best workout today, was cut short!!
Incline DBs 2 warmups, 48kgs x 8, 48kgs, 7, 44kgs x 10, 40kgs x 12 (not partials) but I always keep the tension on my chest
Decline smith machine partials 100kgs, 110kgs, last set was a drop set 110kgs, 90, 70, 50
Flat DB Hammer press 26kgs x 10 for 2 sets (normally 3)
Normally I'd do flys but had to leave early today, was feeling strong but not enough time, so kinda pissed about that, see how the chest feels in 36hrs or so!

[spywizard]

lets talk about what partials do...

when we use full range of motion at either point *extension or at the low point of the lift... a little bit of blood and thus oxygen gets into the muscle thus relieving some of the stress in that muscle..

when the muscle is under constant stress with no relief and lactic acid continues to build and the mitochondria is burst when we rest and recover new mitochondria is developed, this is most effective in developing slow twitch ability (not muscle fiber) when the new mitochondria developed more glycogen can be stored in the muscle and additional blood flow to the muscle is possible and necessary..

static training is also a good way to accomplish this..

[RaginCajun]

how would this type of training affect tendons and ligaments? would stretching afterwards be a mandatory thing since one isn't extending all the way on a given rep?

[Turkish Juicer]

If you are a serious sport, then stretchering afterwards is always a mandatory thing. Correct me if I am wrong.

As for tendons and ligaments, a previous warm up is necessary, as always and joint health is preserved to a greater extend with partial reps because you don't ever lock out your elbows/knees, hence so much less pressure is introduced to those areas.

[MajorPectorial]

Gotta admit. Started doing partials first finishing with full extension and I now ache for atleast three days. But apparently I 'overdoit'.

I tell them yes. Your quite right lol.
;+)

[RaginCajun]

If you are a serious sport, then stretchering afterwards is always a mandatory thing. Correct me if I am wrong.

As for tendons and ligaments, a previous warm up is necessary, as always and joint health is preserved to a greater extend with partial reps because you don't ever lock out your elbows/knees, hence so much less pressure is introduced to those areas.

thanks, thats what i thought. yes, i warmup, stretch, workout, then stretch again.

[scorpion62]

lets talk about what partials do...

when we use full range of motion at either point *extension or at the low point of the lift... a little bit of blood and thus oxygen gets into the muscle thus relieving some of the stress in that muscle..

when the muscle is under constant stress with no relief and lactic acid continues to build and the mitochondria is burst when we rest and recover new mitochondria is developed, this is most effective in developing slow twitch ability (not muscle fiber) when the new mitochondria developed more glycogen can be stored in the muscle and additional blood flow to the muscle is possible and necessary..

static training is also a good way to accomplish this..

I agree spy you should keep some full range movements in your program. Don't do partial movements exclusively for too long. I would recommend alternating sessions of partial and full-range training. Its like doing supersets you dont do them all the time but doing them every so often are good for your workout

[Turkish Juicer]

I agree spy you should keep some full range movements in your program. Don't do partial movements exclusively for too long.

He wasn't really saying anything in the favor of full range movements if you read his post again.

Maybe we should discuss what partial reps mean and what full range movement really stands for to avoid further confusion here.

If 4/4 is considered the full range of motion during bench press exercise, then the term ''full range of motion'' here is rather defining of the total distance that the bar & weight has to travel, as opposed to the amount of work that subjected muscle fibers have to do regarding level of involvement. If you are weight lifter, then fine, move the weight through full range of motion, being 4/4, as this will also allow your triceps and front delts to be involved to a greater extent in this exercise, not to mention you are giving your subjected muscle fibers a rest when you lock your elbows at the top. If you are a bodybuilder who is rather concerned with hypertrophy, however, about 3/4 of the total range is what you should be aiming for. Full range of motion becomes quite irrelevant if the main concern here is hypertrophy as opposed to moving the weight itself.

Do it like big Vic does!

PS: Vic in this video performs his cable-flyes in the ''static'' manner, like Spy mentioned above.

[scorpion62]

Sorry TJ when I said I agree it was where spy was saying about static training I know that I should have explained it better but I was heading for the land of nod , the reason I said not to use partial training all the time was partial reps place such high demands on the recovery ability of the muscles being worked, This is only my opinion as it took me a good 4 days to feel that I had recovered fully from my workout again this maybe the age that Iam at and it does take that bit longer for me to recover anyway,I will be doing partial in my workout but I wouldnt do them all the time I dont think my body would allow me to do it ,like I said they are like supersets to me I would only do these every so often and again the recovery after the sets for me was hard but in saying this I did and do see the benifits for partial being interduced into my workout

[Turkish Juicer]

Sorry TJ when I said I agree it was where spy was saying about static training I know that I should have explained it better but I was heading for the land of nod , the reason I said not to use partial training all the time was partial reps place such high demands on the recovery ability of the muscles being worked, This is only my opinion as it took me a good 4 days to feel that I had recovered fully from my workout again this maybe the age that Iam at and it does take that bit longer for me to recover anyway,I will be doing partial in my workout but I wouldnt do them all the time I dont think my body would allow me to do it ,like I said they are like supersets to me I would only do these every so often and again the recovery after the sets for me was hard but in saying this I did and do see the benifits for partial being interduced into my workout

Understood.

I have just one question though: did you do cardio following your previous chest workout?

[scorpion62]

No I limit my cardio as I cycle 2 or 3 times a week never after a leg workout as my legs spasms are mad due to the different muscle used on the bike. I am sitting at 17 .3 right now my bf is 15, I am going to do a show or Scotland's strongest right now I am try to pack as much muscle as I can so at the end of the year I will decide what to do , my training partner is the British powerlifting champion and since working out with him I have put on some great mass with him, so as I said I don't do cardio at the start of my workout , I will stretch and then do 2 warm up sets of 15 reps then I will start my workout chest , legs or shoulders ect

[Turkish Juicer]

Cardio after your previous chest workout would have helped with the soreness, something learned through trial and error, which is why I asked if you did cardio after your previous chest workout which had you experience soreness for 4 days.

[scorpion62]

Cardio after your previous chest workout would have helped with the soreness, something learned through trial and error, which is why I asked if you did cardio after your previous chest workout which had you experience soreness for 4 days.

I will take this on board TJ and try it out cheers

[Stalker3060]

Might add this in. Still relevant?

[JohnnyV85]

Might add this in. Still relevant?

Why not? Go for it