Muscle heads
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From: Per Elms?ter on 19 Oct 2005 18:13 Some muscles have several heads. For instance the quads have four heads as the name implies. 1.. Rectus Femoris 2.. Vastus Lateralis (Externus) 3.. Vastus Intermedius 4.. Vastus Medialis (Internus) Do all exercises that work the quads work all the heads equally or is it possible to work one head more than another. If the latter is true, does anybody do this and why? I know you cannot work only part of a muscle since a muscle fiber runs from one end to the other. So how does this apply to the different heads? -- Perre I gave up on SPAM and redirected it to hotmail instead.
From: Hobbes on 19 Oct 2005 18:45 In article <Byz5f.148673$dP1.506553(a)newsc.telia.net>, "Per Elms?ter" <perelms(a)hotmail.com> wrote: > Some muscles have several heads. For instance the quads have four heads as > the name implies. > 1.. Rectus Femoris > 2.. Vastus Lateralis (Externus) > 3.. Vastus Intermedius > 4.. Vastus Medialis (Internus) > Do all exercises that work the quads work all the heads equally or is it > possible to work one head more than another. If the latter is true, does > anybody do this and why? I know you cannot work only part of a muscle since > a muscle fiber runs from one end to the other. So how does this apply to the > different heads? Actually there are 5 'heads' to the quads as rectus femoris has a two heads - one has origin on the iliac spine and the reflected head originates on the acetabulum. All the muscles of the quads are primarily knee extensors and insert at the patella. It is possible to stress specific muscles in the quads preferentially during during knee extension movement, but really questionable to what matter of degree. Even though you could put an EMG on the muscle and possibly stress the vastus lateralis slightly more (in theory), in reality you'd have to ask - what difference does it make? Is the small degree of preferential recruitment really important especially as you may have to sacrifice total motor units being recuited in all four muscles? Unless you have a pathology and have lost recruitment I'd question why it was necessary. Possibly a very advanced bodybuilder would need this in order to get a certain shape, but for the average weight trainer I'm not sure why you would worry about it. -- Keith
From: Lascivious Mink on 19 Oct 2005 19:13 Per Elms?ter wrote: > Some muscles have several heads. For instance the quads have four heads as > the name implies. > 1.. Rectus Femoris > 2.. Vastus Lateralis (Externus) > 3.. Vastus Intermedius > 4.. Vastus Medialis (Internus) > Do all exercises that work the quads work all the heads equally or is it > possible to work one head more than another. If the latter is true, does > anybody do this and why? I know you cannot work only part of a muscle since > a muscle fiber runs from one end to the other. So how does this apply to the > different heads? > Well, rectus femoris is a (really weak) hip flexor, so you could do that (hip flexion) to work it in isolation.
From: Per Elms?ter on 19 Oct 2005 19:15 Hobbes wrote: > Unless you have a pathology and have lost recruitment I'd question why > it was necessary. Possibly a very advanced bodybuilder would need this > in order to get a certain shape, but for the average weight trainer > I'm not sure why you would worry about it. I think I'm more curious than anything else. However on the practical side I was probably wondering how the different exercises that work the quads would affect them. Like why do a bunch of different exercises if only one or two are sufficient? Let's say that you'd go a long way just doing DL and squat. Why then bother with all the other leg exercises that work the same muscles. -- Perre I gave up on SPAM and redirected it to hotmail instead.
From: R Smith on 19 Oct 2005 20:38
"Per Elms?ter" <perelms(a)hotmail.com> wrote in message news:isA5f.148679$dP1.506539(a)newsc.telia.net... > Hobbes wrote: >> Unless you have a pathology and have lost recruitment I'd question why >> it was necessary. Possibly a very advanced bodybuilder would need this >> in order to get a certain shape, but for the average weight trainer >> I'm not sure why you would worry about it. > > I think I'm more curious than anything else. However on the practical side > I > was probably wondering how the different exercises that work the quads > would > affect them. Like why do a bunch of different exercises if only one or two > are sufficient? Let's say that you'd go a long way just doing DL and > squat. > Why then bother with all the other leg exercises that work the same > muscles. > > -- > Perre > I gave up on SPAM and redirected it to hotmail instead. Marketing. Hip aductor machines are so much more sexy for the women folk than humping a bunch of iron onto your traps and squatting to get the same effect. And you don't have to vomit on your spandex bodysuit and leg warmers. 'least wise TBR tol' me so. And he is a god. Lower case, definitely. > > |