Over the course of my many years of training, I developed Arc Movement Technology®. Using this technique helped me to win 21 World Championships in Natural Bodybuilding. Not only was I able to carve and shape my body to win, but Arc Movements help me to do it in less time, with less injuries, and proved to be very effective.
1.) All of Your Muscles are Made in an Arc Formation:
All of the muscles in the body are made in an arc formation. This includes the chest, deltoids, biceps, glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps, and every other muscle group. When I started developing Arc Movement Technology, it only made logical sense for me to train my body in a manner that was most conducive, which as I learned was within the natural arc movements.
To go against the natural arc - which I had previously done by using some of the exercises I had learned from other competitors, from books that I had read, and even from college courses I had taken – after a while didn’t make sense to me. When injury occurred, I decided to apply the concept of asking three questions –
#1 What exercise caused the injury?
#2 Why am I doing this exercise?
#3 Is there a better more effective way to accomplish my goal?
Out of these three questions, Arc Movement Technology was born.
Not only are the muscles in our bodies made in arc formations, but they are designed to be trained in the same arc for the best results. If you consider the natural path of a bicep curl, the weight travels through an obvious arc formation as it moves from its starting point to its ending point. However, even when you take a less obvious example like a seated row or dumbbell press, you can see how your hands and arms travel in a natural arc as they move from in front of you to pulling the resistance forcing the shoulders back and your arms to your side in an arc motion (seated row), and from your side pressing the resistance extending the arms directly in front of you in an arc motion (dumbbell press).
Arc Movement Technology is designed around being the safest, most body friendly and most effective movement that you can use to maximize development.
2.) Arc Movements Will Help You Build Muscle Faster
If you look at a bird, you’ll notice that the largest, leanest and most developed muscle group is the chest, and the flying motion is performed in an arc. Because your chest is formed in the same arc, your shoulders need to travel in a full range of motion to fully develop your chest. The full range of motion creates a peak contraction.
The barbell bench press is a perfect example of this. While doing a bench press, you can press the bar straight up by extending your arms, which will only give you a maximum contraction (this is the most that a bench press will allow), but the body is capable of a peak contraction. Because of the limitation created by the hand placement on the bar it will not allow you to finish the movement to acquire a peak contraction. In other words, you have completed the bench press movement to its maximum capacity, but you haven’t completed the maximum capacity of your shoulders and chest, you have not been allowed to reach a peak contraction.
One of the reasons why dumbbell presses are a far more effective exercise is that the hands and arms move along a natural path, which is in an arc formation. As a result, the muscle’s shape and strength are maximized because of Arc Movement Technology and using a full range of motion. This is a great exercise, the only downside to this movement is there is no direct lateral resistance only gravity pushing down.
3.) Arc Movements are Better and Safer for Your Joints
The reason we do resistance training is to develop and build our bodies and to cause the muscles to respond and get stronger. Very seldom while training do we consider the joint that the muscle is attached to because we are normally not experiencing any pain.
If you don’t understand that your muscle groups are made in an arc formation, and that you should also perform each exercise in that same arc formation you are running a high risk of eventually damaging the joint that the muscles are attached to. So, my advice is whenever you decide to build a muscle, always consider the joint that it is attached to; otherwise, you can become very successful at building the muscle at the expense of damaging the joint. At this point you would no longer be able to continue building that muscle because of the pain.
If you think about a Barbie doll, when you raise the arm straight out over its head it comes out of the socket. Your shoulder joint is made the same way. The only difference is you have ligaments, tendons, muscle, and skin to keep that arm from falling off; but over time continuing to put the shoulder in a compromised position starts to breakdown the joint structure which can affect the bursa, cause tears, or damage the rotator cuff. The shoulder joint is the most mobile joint in the body allowing you to move your arm in every direction this makes the joint vulnerable, so we must protect the joint while we are building, sculpting, and shaping our bodies.
Military presses and original dips - two very popular exercises - place the shoulder joint in a compromised position. This is where I would analyze the movement and look at the compromised position of the joint, my questions would be – What exercise am I doing? Why am I doing this exercise? Is there a better more effective way to accomplish my goal? When I ask these three questions, my conclusion is that there are better options for building the lower chest, triceps, and shoulders while keeping the joint protected.
A great exercise for developing the shoulders is the front press. This exercise will help you achieve the development you desire without compromising the joint. When doing the front press, you keep your hands and elbows in the front of the body through the full range of motion.
Using Arc Movements when you exercise will keep you within the structure of the joint allowing you to build strong shapely muscles in the safest environment possible.
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