Athlean-X & Mentzer are WRONG! Pull-Downs / Chin-Ups DON’T Work Biceps at Both Ends!! (THIS Does) 💪
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Key Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:35 Error #1 - Shoulder Flexion (Pull-Downs Don’t Work It!)
0:53 How to REALLY Work the Biceps at the Shoulder
1:33 Position vs Resistance Examples
3:15 What About the Eccentric Phase?
4:51 Why Should You Believe Me?
6:13 Error #2 - Active Insufficiency
6:53 Error #3 - Supination
8:42 Intro to Regional Hypertrophy
9:42 Biceps Regional Hypertrophy - Key #1 (Biarticular Effect)
10:31 Biceps Regional Hypertrophy - Key #2 (Supination)
11:31 Specialized Supplements You’re Not Taking
12:13 ProHealth Longevity & the Importance of Personalized Nutrition
13:58 Fitness-Tip Friday Newsletter
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Athlean-X recently quoted a bodybuilder named Mike Mentzer in saying that “the close-grip palms-up pull-down is the best BICEPS exercise in the world, better than any curl you can do.” He even called the chin-up, which is the same underhand pull movement, one of the only 2 bicep exercises you need. Because, according to him “It applies the stress to the biceps from both ends because we’re going into that flexed shoulder and bent elbow position.”
Error #1 - The pull-down and chin-up do NOT work the biceps at the shoulder! It’s physically impossible.
The biceps perform elbow flexion at the bottom, and shoulder flexion at the top, and it is essential to work them at both ends, because that has regional hypertrophy effects on the biceps. Working them at the elbow preferentially works the LOWER biceps, while working it at the shoulder work the UPPER biceps more.
But a pull-down or chin-up combines elbow flexion with shoulder EXTENSION!! The exact opposite of what the bicep does!
To work the biceps at the shoulder, you need resistance against shoulder flexion. Here that’s the dumbbell pushing down on the upper arm, forcing the shoulder flexors like the upper biceps and front deltoid to work against it.
During a pull-down the shoulder’s in a flexed position, which may trick you into thinking you’re working shoulder flexion, but there’s nothing pushing down on the arm! The resistance - which is what matters - is the cable pulling up on the arm, forcing the shoulder extensors, like the lats and long head of the triceps, to work against it.
This can be confusing, because the shoulder IS in a flexed position. But the position itself doesn’t tell you anything about what muscles are being worked in any exercise. It depends 100% on where the resistance is coming from!
What about the eccentric phase? The shoulder is being flexed then, right? Yes, but it’s passive shoulder flexion because there’s still no resistance against it. Think of it this way, does the eccentric phase of a push-up work your back because your arms are pulling being retracted? Nope. Still works the chest, just concentrically then eccentrically.
The fact is that if you’re doing a pull-down or chin-up, nothing you can do, whether its overloading eccentrics, adjusting the angle of your elbow, or how far back you lean… nothing, can change that fact that you’re working shoulder extension. Not flexion.
Error #2 - Having the shoulders flexed and elbows bent at the same time - like they are at the bottom of a pull-down or top of a chin-up - actually puts the biceps into active insufficiency. So at this point of the exercise, even the elbow flexion aspect works the brachialis far more than the over-shortened biceps.
Error #3 - Having the forearms in a supinated position and working supination itself are two completely different things!
In order to work the biceps more than the other elbow flexors during a curl, there has to be ROTATIONAL resistance against supination! That’s what it does that the other flexors don’t. A pull-down or chin-up doesn’t provide that.
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