Poetry in Motion
The Testosterone exercise of the month
by Jerry Telle

Think of bodybuilding as a language, and think of the exercises we do in the gym as words in that language. Trouble is, most of us have "vocabularies" smaller than that of Koko the gorilla, who was featured on a very popular AOL chat. (Koko was asked if he liked to talk to people, to which thousands and thousands of web surfers the world over heard the answer, "Fine nipple." Huh? Koko need go back to skool.)

Anyhow, most of us learn a very basic repertoire of exercises, and we stick with them until they pry our cold, dead, callused hands off of the Olympic bar. It's understandable, though, since very few of us have the spare time to experiment with new exercises. The traditional bodybuilding mags don't help much, either, as most of the descriptions that they give of different exercises are damn near incomprehensible. We once followed the instructions in a Muscle and Fitness for doing Bulgarian deadlifts and ended up making beef stroganoff for six.

With that in mind, we've taken it upon ourselves to build your "vocabulary." Each month (or whenever we get our lazy butts around to it), we'll feature a new exercise either invented by one of us or by one of our colleagues. Try 'em out and let us know if you like them. And, if you have an exercise that you invented, email us a description of the exercise, and we'll name it after you. Just think of the thrill that you'll feel when you see Jablonski rhomboid squeezes mentioned in the same breath as Scott curls!

This installment features yet another movement that was concocted by mad exercise scientist Jerry Telle from his lair in Lakewood, Colorado. Since Jerry doesn't typically name his movements, I've taken the liberty of naming this particular one "Super Scott Curls."

Imagine that someone had the power to control your air or water supply. Needless to say, this is a guy you wouldn't want to piss off. Regardless, say one day you were told that you've got a choice — either air or water. Which would you choose? Obviously, neither scenario would make for a pleasant evening. You can't survive without either of them.

That's the way it is with positives and negatives — one without the other just doesn't cut it. You may prefer one, or one might be more productive in certain scenarios, but the fact remains that you need both.

You've probably read various articles that urge you to "emphasize the negative" or "emphasize the positive." Some trainers read these and it causes such confusion that they quit and get jobs in bakeries. There is, however, a solution. I've developed methods that allow you to emphasize both during the same set. These methods don't require a spotter or fancy machinery to perform them — only a few brain cells.

Everyone knows that you can lower (negative rep) more weight than you can raise (positive rep). Everyone also assumes that when you use the same weight, 50 pounds for instance, you're lifting the same amount as you're lowering. That's true of machines, but it's definitely not true of free weights!

When you're using free weights, lifting equal resistance in both ways doesn't have to be the case. Now, before you think I've learned how to defy Newtonian physics, let me quickly explain that a 50-pound dumbbell can exert anywhere from 0 to 50 pounds of resistance on the target muscle, depending on how the weight is positioned in the exercise.

Look at Figure 1. How much resistance is the 50-pound dumbbell placing on the biceps in the one-arm Scott curl? Now look at Figure 2. How much resistance is that same dumbbell placing on the bicep? Note that the elbow angle is the same for both exercises.

Figure 1

Figure 2

In Figure 1, the biceps are balancing the weight, but that's it. Any way you look at it, there's zero resistance on the bicep because the weight is directly in line with gravity. In Figure 2, on the other hand — even though the elbow angle is exactly the same as in Figure 1 — there's a full 50-pounds of force on the biceps. Zero to fifty just by adjusting the body and resistance positions.

Maybe that doesn't mean a whole lot to you. It should, though, because TENSION is what builds muscle, and generally speaking, the more tension you can put on a muscle, the better. In fact, muscle tension and fatigue are the most important factors in resistance training.

If you put a little thought into it, you can optimize tension throughout the entire range of movement — up and down — by adjusting exercise positions during the exercise.

Emphasizing the positive

Now check out Figure 3. During the positive, or weight raising part of the movement, how effectively does the resistance match the athlete's force curve? Not bad, but it could be better. Notice that at the top of the movement, there's still some resistance from gravity, but not much.

Figure 3

Now compare that with Figure 4. Notice that the athlete has approached the preacher curl from the other side. The dumbbell now places an optimum tension on the bicep throughout the entire lifting part of the movement. The dumbbell is curled from a fully-stretched bottom position to the top without shoulder movement.

Figure 4

Emphasizing the negative

Now, how can we position the body so the athlete can lower more weight under control than can be raised? In other words, how do we change the technique to overload the negative portion of the lift?

If you remember Figures 1 and 2, you might have an inkling.

This is a little tricky, so I'm going to talk you through the entire thing, which will involve rehashing a little bit about what I talked about in the previous paragraphs.

To begin the movement, grasp an appropriate dumbbell and position yourself on the opposite side (the straight up and down side) of the preacher bench. Instead of putting your elbow on the top of the bench, you'll be pressing it against the side of the bench, near the top, as shown in the following figures. You'll also be standing slightly to the side of the bench. For instance, if you're working your right arm, you'll be standing behind and slightly to the left of the bench (you'll see why in a minute).

You'll raise the dumbbell all the way to the top until the forearm meets the bicep, without moving the shoulder.

Here comes the tricky part: While keeping the arm and dumbbell at the same angle, step forward slightly (as shown in Figure 5) and pivot the arm and shoulder forward until the forearm is parallel to the floor. This will involve taking a half step forward with each foot: if you're working your right arm, you'll take a half step forward with your right foot first, and they your left foot.

Figure 5

Figure 6

Now, you'll simultaneously lower the dumbbell (slowly) and take a half step backwards with each foot to your starting position, as shown in Figure 6.

Figure 7

When you finish the rep, the lower arm will be fully extended, and you'll be again standing upright with your shoulder above the corner, or edge of the bench (Figure 7).

Got that? I know it's tricky, but you need to practice it a few times before you get the hang of it. Once you get used to simultaneously lowering the weight and returning your upper body to the starting position (Figure 6), half the battle will be over.

By doing the curls this way, you'll have maximized the muscle tension on the working arm; in effect cut the chaff from the wheat, as far as the regular Scott curl in concerned.

If you're interested in learning more about Jerry Telle's techniques, he has both a book and videotape available. The book, "Beyond 2001" is the product of over 20 years of $200,000 worth of research. Jerry cautions that the book, as yet, is very raw. In fact, it's virtually unedited and is "Kinko's quality." Jerry wasn't even going to make the book available until he was finished, but since the requests keep coming in, he's decided to sell it, for the time being, as is, provided the buyer fully understands what he's getting.

Jerry's video, however, is first-rate and gives a brief overview of Jerry's principles, along with demonstrating 6 great exercises.

Both "Beyond 2001" ($39.95) and the 2001 video ($29.95) can be purchased through American Magnetic Media, Inc. by calling 1-800-USA-TAPE.

© 1998 — 2009 Testosterone, LLC. All Rights Reserved.