For some reason, I've developed a reputation amongst friends and colleague of know of what I speak with regards to fitness. If only they knew the truth. Some of the questions I've been asked have started me thinking though. I know I'm in danger of dredging over old ground but I've had a look through the old posts and I'm still unsure.
Now, I know that you cannot target the upper and lower abs per se because the abdominus rectus is a single muslce and contracts in unison. Fair enough. This principle extends to all muslces in the body unless you're talking about diferent heads of a muscle.
However, I've also read and heard that when training for strength, the muscle gets stronger over the range of motion that you train over. Hence, it's important to do any excercise over the full range of motion. If I understand correctly, this idea is also important in isometric stretchin with proports to strengthen the muslce when it's in a stretched position.
So, will any contraction of a muscle make it stronger and bigger and that's the end of it or does doing an excercise with a diferent range of motion make any difference to how the muslce develops or behaves. If the latter is true then surely, there would be differences in appearence as well. Can you, for example, give yourself pecs that are flat and well developed towards the centre line of your chest, by doing an excercise that has a greater range of motion in the chest, like the flyes or pec-dec. Alternatively, would only doing the leg-press half way down give you leg muslces that bulge out in the middle?
Just a thought.
Phill