How To Figure Out If An Exercise Trains A Muscle Adequately with Bret Contreras 

Commonsense clues: generate hypotheses 1. 08:52 - Feel of the exercise in the target muscle 2. 10:59 - The burn in the target muscle 3. 11:10 - The pump (at higher rep ranges) 4. 12:10 - DOMS in proceeding 72 hrs 5. 12:30 - Tension (visual and palpation) 6. 13:23 - Fiber orientation & joint actions (muscle line of pull) 7. 15:50 - Physiques of lifters who prioritize that lift (WLers quads & 🍑) Numerical clues: measure outcomes 0. 17:17 - Mike's stimulator 1. 17:40 - Wire and surface EMG 2. 22:26 - TMG, MMG, and SMG 3. 22:39 - Functional MRI (measures fluid shift post training) 4. 23:20 - Ultrasound (longitudinal or immediate post training) 5. 23:41 - Muscle biopsy (sarcomere disruption) 6. 23:52 - Metabolites & glycogen depletion (lactate, creatine kinase levels) 7. 26:04 - Hormonal factors (Test, free test, IGF-1, cortisol, HGH, etc) 8. 27:06 - ROM and strain 9. 27:15 - Moment arms and pennation angle (SOHCAHTOA) 10. 27:40 - Force plate research (peak force, RFD, better for sport perf than hypertrophy) 11. 28:57 - muscle force angle curves (passive + active force) 12. 30:14 - musculoskeletal modeling 13. 31:09 - Acute protein synthesis 14. 31:14 - Intracellular signalling (MTOR vs AMPK) 15. 32:03 - PAPE (formerly PAP, mostly for sport perf) 40:50 Longitudinal Clues: test hypotheses (hypertrophy) 1. Girth (not that kind) 2. ultrasound 3. DEXA 4. BIA 5. Bodpod 6. Underwater weighting 7. Skinfolds 8. Combination modalities (CT scans + MRIs, etc) 40:41 Longitudinal Clues: test hypotheses (strength) 1. isometric, concentric, eccentric strength 2. dynamometer (single joint strength) 3. force plate (multiple joint strength 4. 1RM or RM prediction equation 42:04 Longitudinal Clues: test hypotheses (performance) 1. ADLs (elderly or rehab, e.g. sit-to-stand) 2. acceleration 3. Max velocity 4. Jumping performance & characteristics 5. Agility & change-of-direction tests TL:DR Consider multiple pieces of the puzzle before bashing an exercise. No dogma. Thanks RP and Dr. Contreras

I love how Dr. Mike in the middle in a smaller chair. The chair height size difference reminds me of a certain meme 😂. I don't know if it was intentional, but it is funny

Damn, Dr Mike, PhD really tries his best to derail the conversation but Bret was relentless

Out field needed someone like Dr Mike always keeping it light and fun. For so many years our field was just people who took themselves too seriously and made everything hella boring.

3:46 "I'm not a bro, I'm a scientist" Mike 🤣 That's gold, great information as always and good fun

I remember thinking the Smith machine was a waste of time for YEARS because of free weight purists online. After watching RP I realized I was being an idiot. I’ll continue to be an idiot, but less of one thanks to you all!

Dr. Mike in the short chair asserting his short king dominance

This is awesome. I've been a Bret Contreras fan for years. Great to see him in an rp video.

Brain hypertrophy for 1 hour on my rest day

I love how dr mike spit some jokes in between every point bret talks about😂

The setup is pretty epic. Put the biggest guys on an elevated platform around the smallest guy in the middle, and set them slightly closer to the camera. This is some game of thrones tier storyline.

There's a summary download link in the description. I've been looking for a lat isolation exercise recently, and tried lat prayers since Dr Mike recommended them in a vid. The cable machine in my apt gym snapped a while back and they just jerry-rigged it back together; the cable is shorter now than it's supposed to be. Fine for pulldowns, but I can't do the full-ROM on lat prayers. Also, I'm still pretty new to working out, so my lats aren't there/filled-out yet. So, for me I couldn't really feel the exercise in the lats, didn't get a pump, wasn't sore the next day, and wasn't even really sure I was doing them right. Point is, I have a video coming out soon on why the lat prayer is one of the top 3 worst exercises of all time and Dr. Mike is evil for recommending them. :P

Holy shit guys that was some proper nerd stuf, love it! I always found it kinda weird how dismissive some people got with exercises that others have done with great succes for years, this was really educational!

Great discussion, team, and very timely. I enjoyed hearing Bret present the framework and discuss its complexities. The contribution of this guy to general knowledge in the fitness industry is immense. I'd say Bret almost single-handedly brought strength (and of course, glute training) into the mainstream consciousness for women. But internet is a funny place and people would rather comment on his clothing choice, way of talking, seating arrangements, Jared having a sniffle, etc. etc. Carry on, gentlemen. Wish my professors in med school were as informative, humble and entertaining.

Mike put in on point: some people just love the easy answer. First they don´t need to take responsibility, for themselves - because if it doesn´t work it´s not their fault, it´s the fault of the person who told them and second: they don´t need to think by themselves. the problem is that there is no perfect exercise for any muscle for everyone. only for you - and you need to figure out what works best for you. and even then you can´t stop - because bodys change, you get older, bigger, smaller, etc - so you always need to listen to your body and figure out over and over again ...

Oh thanks so much for talking openly about it. You basically addressed everything I find wrong with these self-proclaimed experts. It's the basis of conspiracy theories. Sounds plausible and most people lack the ability and understanding to disprove it or counter their arguments.

Dr. Mike steals the show every single time!

The collab that wasn’t expected but needed

Dr. Mike is so relatable to me. Absolutely cannot pass up the opportunity to make a not so obvious joke, but the joke is always funny despite it being a little off beat. What a cool guy and clever guy. I would totally be your Freind Dr. Mike. Then you and I would no longer be Freind-less.

57 minutes of listening to Jared clear his throat.

Of course Dr. Bret is the authority, and having 2 doctors is always gonna be kinda dry but this is pure gold

This is the era where "fitness professional" only focusing on muscle anatomy and function preacher everything else mean nothing. That will pass eventually too. There is definitely more to the full hypertrophy picture than that one thing. Great discussion!

Frick i never thought these were so damn funny, ill need to watch all of them, also love the energy and the hilarious setup, you are the best :D

“You’re smart. Jared and I, we’re people… barely” 😂😂

Do you have a podcast? I could listen to you guys speak all day long.

Awesome to see Bret on here!

Dr mike is just there to make off handed comments like a 5th grader, i love it

Having this in depth content for free? What a time to be alive

This talk was amazing and we need more!! Jared clearing his throat constantly was a little bit distracting 😬 cough syrup or cough drop next time. Or music overlaid maybe. Thanks for all you brilliant guys do!! Much love ❤️

Hey someone asked for this on dr mikes' tiktok and now they've got an hour long video, a little ironic since few who watch all the tiktoks(the one-third video is about) are going to watch this whole video.

Hey, pedantic question for Dr. Mike. You've talked about not working out with overlapping soreness. For me it's a gradient, where there's full 100% sore "Can't-walk-or-wash-my-face-Did-way-too-much DOMS" down to the 5% sore "when I flex my arm or pick up something heavy I can tell that I worked out in the past couple days but it doesn't hurt." Decent DOMS, say 50% on this soreness gradient, fades after a day, but it can take two weeks for a muscle to get down to 0%. For the overlapping soreness cue, are you mainly just saying that 20% soreness is fine, but we shouldn't work out with DOMS, or are you taking a hardline that we should be at 0%?

Mike ripping ass at 18:36 killed me lmaoo, excellent discussion!

Great discussion! Very critical too. Exercise selection is an ordinary thing, bu with a Lot of complexities. Good to see the balance between acadêmic and pratical knowledge.

Kassem, Carter and Brignole should do a roundtable response to this, that'd be the funniest shit ever lmao!

Dr. Jorts himself! Excellent discussion men. Love to talk about the biomechanics of the vertical leg press some day

Hey Dr. Mike, I was thinking of this exact topic today before this video was posted. It would be cool to have a video that outlines the most hypertrophic exercise per muscle group. But, after watching this, if the data just isn't out there, it would still be interesting to hear a list of you, Charly, and Jared's favorite exercises per muscle group.

Poor Brett. He is there trying to have an informal lecture and then there are the other two who remind me of my sixth grade class. JK. Love the conversation. Thanks for the information.

more of this!! love the nerdy techy talks

“I’m not a bro, I’m a scientist.” Dr. Mike 2022

It’s about time u got Brett on ur show. Great job! ur guys make a perfect team.

This is literally my issue with my back and lats recently. I can't feel my lats! I went to the gym and tried every back exercise I could find. Still no indicators. Do I have even have a spine?

Also, replication studies often don't get published. Thus they don't get done in the first place. The scientific method demands replication, but the journal that should publish it demands new shit instead.

Super informative and hilarious at the same time. Love Dr. Mike's commentary. Ha!

I would love to see a more scientific debunking style of video about Doug brignole etc. A lot of what he is saying makes sense to me and I tried it with good results (12 years of training experience). Greetings

thx very insightful. For Contreras this was like a group therapy :)

first for manlet supremacy

that's actually dr mike's actual size

I feel like an overlooked aspect is intention while lifting. Both your gym bro pump guy and your typical I combine "strength and hypertrophy" youtuber get this concept mixed up. The pump is indeed important, but the way the term is widely used mixes it up with cardiovascular, high and half rep pump. What I mean is a intentional pump meaning, always bracing /contracting the target muscle before getting into the concentric, focusing on using only the target muscle while exerting force and also trying to resist mainly with the target muscle during the eccentric (example: letting your hands and arms relaxed during a lat pulldown and start by contracting your lats to pull against resistance at the top of the eccentric, and then slowly bringing your arms down while feeling the lats flexing as the arms come down but only using your hands and arms as hooks that are relaxed). This can also be applied to compounds not only to isolation exercises, but you will probably need to decrease the weight, but if your goal is size it will definitely help . In some exercises it is also wise to leave out the bottom and top part of the ROM to keep TUT higher (no half reps though!!), but sometimes it feels more natural to get in to the stretch so it is always important to brace before the concentric. On the other side you have the "I combine strength and size youtuber" that claims that if you are natty, you must train like a powerlifter and not a bodybuilder but this is not true. Sure strength will give you better chances of progressively overload, but why not trying to increase strength while perserving technique and intention standards instead of moving the weight from point A to B and blindly trust that biomeachanics will somehow handle bracing and muscular engagement? If you use a certain tempo and explosiveness to move a higher weight , you simply are compensating and using more muscles, making them "parasites" to the growth of the muscle you want to target. Plus, a higher tempo also kinda implies stretch reflex and momentum and those are also tension killers. You can compensate by maybe reaching a weight where you cant do anything but engage all your muscles maximally, but the risk to award and stimulus to fatigue ratio are shitty AF. That is why a lot of these youtubers "come back to bodybuilding" to fix "weaknesses". Often in strength training, you only amp up what is already strong, because the body tends to bias what is most capable so it performs better. Bodybuilding is a more "subtle, isolated interaction with your muscles as units so they perform better as a whole". I hear a lot of people tossing out lateral raises because their traps get too involved. How about reducing the weight and bracing your delts before bringing them up (using the hands and rest of the arms as hooks that are relaxed)?

My eyes went unfocused for a second, and it looked like Mike was standing up and being the widest dwarf I’ve ever seen.

Petitioning to funnel 50% of DoD budget to form the gains industrial complex

Education with a side of Dr Mike being a perv. Loved it

This is an interesting find. Especially considering what we now know about Bret. Also, the many shady thumbnails cancelling Hip Thrusts since this video…

50:32 Jared is right. When I was first diagnosed with a partial torn acl, first thing they said was I have weak glutes like lol bro, I can probably hip thrusts 3 times your bodyweight

Brett is the man that knows more about glutes than anyone else

Interesting seeing Bret after our leader bashed EMG… Great video

Kassem and Paul Carter are blowing up Instagram fitness lol, as an advanced lifter I do really like some of their recommendations on exercise selection

on of the best things was comparing old school body builders to the kinda weird era right after were body builders had a giant gut and didn't really look that great lmao

We are all friends in the journey to self mastery!!!!

Wow, Machine, you and your slasher sidekicks really slayed this topic. I can't wait to see the new Dino Velvet original.

I try and identify the difference between the con and eccentric part of the movement so I can tell witch way the muscle fibers run to contract harder to get out more reps.You can tell witch way the muscle fibers run by looking at the anatomy of the muscles however I've noticed people talk about natural pathways.In all honesty I try a combination of the previous tactic along with visualization on what I indeed to do alongside Premeditation and practice of remember and imaging with a honest do so and to do well as well as respect for what I'm doing in combination with strick form to help build a great mind Muscle connection.Meanwhile currently try to associate pain kill endorphins to enhance my results.I also associated more primal ideologies with the movements and ive been open to accepting ideas that mite help me understand that the actions I partake in are now justified to a be more current day form of hunting and adrdilin and or fatigue even for the life of me type of event.

Jarod what is up with your clearing of throat? My mom does this a lot and she has an issue that was a small tumor. I assume you have had this looked at by a dr,

It takes a big man to let two big guys perspective mog him like that during an interview.

So am I correct in suggesting that a human performance facility needs to be created that tests biomechanical theory as a fulltime pursuit rather than using the university PhD model?

I remember when that HMB-FA study came out I was the only guy on the bb forum saying it was full of crap. Then people were like, "WHAT? You're accusing the researchers of being shady??" Interesting after all these years to find out the truth finally came out.

My right flexor digitorum longus often cramps af when I do hollow body pull ups, time to measure the activation lmao

What I got from this video: if you grab your training partners glutes and it gets rock hard, you’re doing it right

This was AWESOME!

I almost didn't watch this because Dr. Mike made this very clear to me already, if you feel it in the muscle that is supposed to be targeted, it's probably hitting the muscle. lol

I don't know why, but the chair setup reminds me of the Piper Perri meme

Excellent topic. Thank you guys

Awesome video. Love this style of video. Keep it up

Great discussion!

Fuck yes. I may have some actual to say after I‘ve listened. For now I’m just pumped about the video title.

I'm not even 6minutes into this and I'm cracking guys... x'D video idea: Bro gym expresions made intellectual (like the "extreme cell swelling" you said XD) btw, GAINZ economy its fundamental 🤣 Even before seeing the video, thanks for the free and humorously wisdom you share 🙌

do 20 sets of an exercise then wait 1 or 2 days to feel what muscles are sore..

I love a short king 👑 especially for cuddles 🥰

Bret you're referring to the air bender Naudstradamus, Naudi the Fraudi Angrylar. aka Fictional Patterner or what he refers to as Functional Patterns.

This video about to make Paul Carter and Kassem cry like babies 😂

lol every time dr mike would make a joke the big dude was just like "yeah thats cute, im doing a science here."

When are we getting the ol Bilbo Swaggins aka Johnny Haack aka Captain America juice?! You're such a tease, Mike.

bret is like the teacher and mike and jared are like the disobedient runts 😂

Its like Lord of the Rings with the perspective making Mike look like a hobbit; hilarious!

RP video team pulling some Peter Jackson trickery.

Lol this reminds me of the forced perspective in lotr

I cannot believe Bret got away with talking about getting rock hard and feeling peoples glutes without a snide remark from Dr Mike.

When I first opened the video I seriously thought Dr. mike was sitting far back in the room.

since I'm here, what is the latest research in calisthenics?

Ive been waiting for this

This is. Very advanced information

I thought the thumbnail was photoshopped… but it’s real lol

There's some serious out-angling going on with this perspective. Dr. Mike looks like a dwarf compared to Dr. Bret and Mr. Jared!

when i train sometimes ill throw flies in or a chest press machine im not sure if its cause its a new stimulus but compare to my main lifts dips bench etc i feel every contraction and super sore the next day compare to the compound lifts

The perspective on this is hliarious😂

13:08 "they feel their glutes and they get rock hard" - are we talking about the glutes or....? 😳

So does the hip abduction work the piriformis or it doesn’t matter because the glute medius is still working?

loved this vid, never thought i would see bret on here!

You guys are awesome! Have you guys considered doing this on a sofa? That's my only negative take on this as you guys look somewhat uncomfortable sitting there for almost an hour.

Jared Feather’s calves need a time stamp all their own!!!!!

This is the best placement of people in a video 🤣☠️👏🏻

"Do you feel it in the target muscle?" That's it. All that's needed after that is minimization of the target/elsewhere ratio.