Jeff: It's the responsibility of those
that share the information with you, not just to have it go in one side of the
brain and out the other and just regurgitate. But to actually apply some science to it, and
that is something I think is sorely lacking, let's just say in YouTube fitness as a whole.
Okay, I got a quiz for you here today. It involves this first clip. Jesse, go ahead and show him.
Okay, I want you to compare this exercise and what you're seeing done here. We know it's a lat pull
down, but what specifically is being done here? If you've watched any kind of YouTube fitness, likely
it's jumping out to you, you know exactly what I'm talking about. But if not, watch the exercise
and evaluate. Now, if that wasn't helpful enough, I will give you a hint. Go ahead and show this
one now. Okay. Do you recognize what's happening now when he's doing it? Okay, again, it's not
necessarily the lat pull down, but it's actually maybe how it's being performed. Okay, great.
Now the next part of this test is I want you to compare that, and the muscle building benefits
specifically of what you just saw to this next exercise. Jesse, go ahead and cue that up.
Jesse: You got it.
Jeff: Now watch this exercise and again compare
it muscle building benefits to what you just saw. Now if you don't recognize what this
is, then it means that you're not only not watching enough YouTube fitness, but you're
certainly not watching enough Athlean-X and it kind of breaks my heart, actually.
Jesse: Aw, it's gonna to be okay, Jeff.
Jeff: I m just saying, it does. So, this is a
face pull, I'll give that part away. And it's not just my favorite exercise. It's not going
to win just because I like it again. We're going to pair these things objectively head-to-head.
Actually, you can see Jesses used the exercise two to build up quite a nice upper back. Which one
do you think builds more muscle? All right. Now, the reason for this question and why
we're pitting them head-to-head is actually something I never thought I'd have
to do, except we get comments and questions, and we got one. From who?
Jesse: JoshuaTheGreat61291.
Jeff: Okay, what did he say?
Jesse: He said, Jeff, I've been seeing so many videos about long length partials
and how much more effective they are, even when compared to full range of motion reps.
Which brings me to your beloved Face Pulls. I know they are safe and everything, but they don't meet
the criteria for an effective long length partial exercise. Therefore, should I find a new exercise
that I can apply long length partials to?
Jeff: Okay, so there's a lot to go through here.
Okay, first of all, long length partials was the answer to the first thing that you saw there. A
long length partial being the partial repetition, not full range of motion, that's being done with
usually heavy weights, good load at that top extended portion of the range of motion with the
most stretched portion of the muscle during that exercise. But I'll answer the question there.
Does the face pull first and foremost meet the criteria for a good long length partial exercise?
It doesn't really. So, he's not incorrect in that. When you have the beginning portion of a face
pull, some might say, well, you can be in a long length of that, can't you? Not really,
because it requires heavy loads. You need high tension with stretch to make the long length
partial effective. Because I could do, let's say, a stretch exercise like a Seated Dumbbell Curl
with a pair of 3-pound pink dumbbells in my hands all day long, and I'm not going to get the same
effect. You need the weight plus the stretch to create the tension that makes those productive.
Now what does that sound like to you?
Jesse: Uh.
Jeff: Anything? Something not new. Eccentric training?
Jesse: Oh yes.
Jeff: Right. In order to build muscle, we know
that eccentric overload is one of the three main drivers of hypertrophy. So, the first thing that
grabs my attention is everyone wants to talk about long length partials right now. But we've been
talking about them forever really and that is they're a subset of eccentric training, a known
stimulus for growth. So, when research studies come out, again, that claim, or even, let's say
prove in the study, long length partials create more muscle gains than full range of motion. Long
length partials can produce more muscle gains than the contracted portion of an exercise.
Jesse: Okay.
Jeff: Long length partials can increase muscle
mass when compared to not using them 5 to 10%.
Jesse: Hmmm.
Jeff: All right. And some even create protocols and recommend protocols that
involve only the use of long length partials. And they throw out the rest of the repetition.
Jesse: So, no full range of motion reps.
Jeff: None because they don't see the benefit
there. So, if I looked at that lat pull down again, a full range of motion repetition would
bring that bar all the way down to my chest and all the way back up. Now, the eccentric portion of
that repetition is the entire raising of the bar back to the top. When I have heavy loads, they're
under tension in an elongating muscle, most up here when it's fully stretched, but in elongating
muscle I have that increased eccentric load. The partials are going to hang out at that top portion
where you're most elongated and most stretched, which will drive the most tension theoretically
to the muscle. So, it should come as no surprise that these are effective and that they actually
work for building muscle. I'm not arguing that, I use them in my own training.
Jesse: Mm-hmm.
Jeff: Okay. But I think that we have to stop
falling in love with research when it comes out and considering it to be the end all,
be all. Because there's more to, let's say, a Face Pull that we're comparing it to that
does not do a good job of having tension in that position. By the way, the load using a
Face Pull is always going to be very low.
Jesse: Mm-hmm.
Jeff: 30 pounds, 60 pounds, whatever it is on your stack there. And when
you have your arms out in front of you here, the tension through the muscles that you're ultimately
going to work is at its lowest. It peaks when the arms are perpendicular to that cable. It's
going to be lowest when they're parallel. So, it does not meet the criteria for being a great
long length partial exercise. But should we do it? That's the question. Well, I think the bigger
question we have to ask right away, though, is there something else that's happening here? Maybe
it's less magical than you think. Because a lot of the use of long length partials, especially in
the case of Sam Sulick, is that they're occurring at the end of sets after the person has already
reached concentric muscle failure. And failure is a big concept here.
Jesse: Right.
Jeff: In other words, are you training with a
higher intensity because you're now employing long length partials? So, you go through all of your
full range of motion repetitions and you're only using partials, not because you decided I'm going
to use partials from the beginning of my set, but you're doing them out of necessity because
you cannot move the weight any further because of the fatigue through any additional range
of motion. There's a big difference there. And that requires that you've already failed
concentrically, and you're forced to have to use these partials in the extended range.
When we talk about the gains of 5 to 10%, I think we need to make sure that we're also
looking at that with the right frame of mind. Is 5 to 10% gains in muscle size, or really in
any lab setting, is it a significant amount of increase? Yes, it is. Again, in a laboratory
setting, that is. But when we look at the application of that in the real world, you may
not be as excited about it as it might seem. Let's say we're going to measure strength, okay,
a 10% increase in strength over the course of a study. Take a 250-pound bench press that goes up
to 275 by the time you're done, 10% increase.
Jesse: Yeah, that s big.
Jesse: It's pretty big, right, especially if that was your max. That's pretty
big. But now when we measure muscle size or hypertrophy, we've got a couple ways we can do
that. But let's do it by the circumference of the muscle you trained. You're training your
biceps in the study. You're gaining what? How much in 12 weeks? Let's say it's two inches. Two
inches on your arms from 15 inches to 17inches, or from 15 inches with additional 10% to 17.2 inches.
That's it. 2.2 versus 2. And if you gained an inch on your arms, it's one inch versus 1.1 inch.
And if you're if you're giving up the alternative options and you're seeking out, like our
questioner is, only exercises that can allow you to perform long length partials. Are you missing
a much bigger picture here? And that's where I want to go back to the Face Pull. Because this
Face Pull is traditionally a corrective exercise. But I don't want you to look at it as just a
corrective exercise. In other words, diminish its value versus a sexier, Heavy Lat Pull Down, it
can't possibly be a muscle builder. Yes, it can, because this Face Pull, while a damn good muscle
builder in its own right, believe it or not--
Jesse: Yeah.
Jeff: --again, you go back and look at some of your growth and development there.
Jesse: Yeah.
Jeff: Right. It has this other effect too; it
amplifies your performance on the big lifts by filling in those weak links in the kinetic
chain on the bigger compound exercises. You wind up getting a higher sum total output on the
big compound exercise because you've addressed the weak link. So, these are not just corrective
exercises, they're stage setters for much bigger performances on your big lifts.
Jesse: Yeah.
Jeff: And again, all you got to do is look at
Jesse here. How much did you weigh when you did your 560-pound deadlift?
Jesse: 163 at best.
Jeff: And that's a massive deadlift for
someone at his size. How does he do it, is it something magical? No. He is a disciple here
of Athlean-X and he's been doing Face Pulls for a hell of a long time.
Jesse: It's true.
Jeff: And he's got definitely very well developed
upper back muscles. And he's got that from doing his Face Pulls. But I think beyond that it led to
a much bigger deadlift which led to more muscle size. So, ask yourself this question; when you
look at those studies that compare, let's say, even the same person doing a leg extension, one
leg with partials and the other leg without, yes, you're comparing the partials versus someone
who's not using partials, but are you comparing the partials to someone who maybe just focused
on progressive overload and heavy squatting? Because the strength focus could have produced
greater than 5 to 10% gains in muscle size?
Jesse: It s true.
Jeff: Right? There's more than one way to skin a cat. And I think when we
start to fall in love with the research and we get excited about it, which we should, but we start
to say, Hey, everything else goes out the window, including your Face Pulls Jeff, because I need
something that does long length partials you're diminishing the other benefits that you get.
This Face Pull allows you to do much more than that. There's some downstream benefits that
come from this and at the end of the day, maybe at the end of a year, you're far surpassing
whatever 5 to 10% increase you were getting from long length partials. Again, I'm not saying long
length partials don't work. I'm not saying that. I'm saying you have to make sure you compare
it and broaden up your picture here. The other thing I would say is are there other benefits to
using full range of motion. And it's very clear there are. I actually made a whole video where
some have shown they have the same increased flexibility levels by just performing all of their
weight exercises in the gym through a full range of motion. In other words, negating the need
to stretch. Now, I don't fully advocate that because I think some people develop tightness that
need specific stretching. But just as an overall concept, there have been studies that show that.
So, you can't just say, hey, long length partials and focus so far in on just hypertrophy when the
bigger picture, meaning your overall athleticism. I mean, for me it's impossible to really separate
all these things, but your overall athleticism, your strength. And maybe you aren't really so
focused on your strength, but I can tell you right now you better damn well should be.
Because as you get older, it's one of the biggest predictors of your function throughout
the rest of your life and your mortality risk. The stronger you are, the better you're going to
be, and the healthier you're going to maintain your health throughout life, so your longevity
improves. How about explosiveness? Is that of any value to you? So why are we only looking at one
element, why is it always about just hypertrophy? I mean I love a good pump; I love a good muscle
gain, but it's really about more than that. And trying to evaluate exercises solely based on
this one aspect is going to definitely leave major holes in your training, and some of you
are likely not going to be happy with. And when you realize that in the case of your 5 to 10%
increase, your 2-inch increase in the size of your arms versus the potential 2.2in increase
in the size of your arms, it's just a wakeup call to how myopic it might be to be looking at
your training through that one single lens.
So, to answer our friends question here, what
exercise should you do instead? You shouldn't. You should still do the Face Pull. You should still do
partial repetitions. You should still do eccentric overload. You should still focus on strength.
You should still maximize your flexibility. You need to do it all. And I'm sorry if you're
looking for a shortcut around that answer. But all of these things are important, and all
play a major part. In terms of the studies guys, it's the responsibility of those that share the
information with you, not just to have it go in one side of the brain and out the other and just
regurgitate, but to actually apply some science to it. And that is something I think is sorely
lacking, let's just say in YouTube fitness as a whole. Make sure that you understand what
you can do with this information so you can make it better and take it a step further.
If you're looking to take your programing and your training a step further, then guys,
head over to Athleanx.com. We have full programs and supplements available to
you. If you found this video helpful, make sure you share it with someone else you think
might too. Also click Subscribe, turn on your Notifications so you never miss a video when we
put one out. All right guys, see you soon.
