How many times has this happened to you?

People often blame this kind of problem on their lack of “mind-muscle-connection” to the back.

And while sensation by itself shouldn’t dictate your decision-making in the gym, if you’re ONLY feeling muscles that you aren’t trying to target with an exercise, that’s a problem.

I believe that the ultimate culprit of the problem described above isn’t mind-muscle-connection at all.

When we’re lifting, our brains are constantly seeking the most efficient solution to accomplish the task at hand.

This means that the brain will recruit muscles that are in the best position to act against an external load.

This doesn’t mean: the brain will choose the muscular solution that you’re hoping for…

This does mean: that the brain always does what it does for a reason.

This reason isn’t arbitrary - it’s based on the physics of the scenario. What the brain chooses isn’t an accident.

With that in mind, let’s look at different pull-down scenarios:

While exaggerated, this is the technique I often see people using when they report feeling “too much biceps” on a pull-down.

Whenever I hear someone say “I feel too much biceps”, what that translates to is: I am performing an exercise that asks the biceps to do work.

In this scenario, the muscles that bend the elbow have a significant advantage to move the load.

Why?

The white line above represents the line of resistance from the cable and its direction through my arm.

Because the line of resistance falls through the middle of my arm (my humerus), the muscles that bend the elbow have a substantial advantage in being able to pull the handle downward.

How might this look if I wanted to set up the resistance so that my elbow-bending muscles didn’t have that same advantage?

Now, the line of resistance falls directly parallel to my forearm and in line with the elbow joint.

What does this imply?

The muscles that bend the elbow no longer have the same advantage that they did in the prior scenario in being able to act against the load.

In the above scenario, the only muscles that can effectively act against the cable are the ones that move the shoulder and shoulder girdle, like the lats and other back muscles.

This principle applies across all pull-downs and rows, regardless of whether they are done with free weights, cables, or machines.

If the line of resistance does not align close to parallel with the forearm, then the muscles that control elbow motion will contribute substantially more than our goals indicate they should.

If the line of resistance aligns parallel with the forearm, then only the muscles that move the upper arm (the “back”) will be able to act against the resistance to pull down or row.

Here’s another example of two dumbbell rows, one of which will recruit more biceps than the other:

In general, using fixed implements usually allows for more elbow muscle recruitment as compared to free-moving implements (such as cables and DBs), but the principles remain the same.

If you are pulling, align the resistance so that it’s parallel to the forearm.

Your elbow muscles will still contribute (and they should, to some degree), but their involvement will likely be so low that you won’t perceive any fatigue in them as compared to muscles of the back.

The same applies to any pressing motion, wherein you may be feeling a lot of triceps recruitment as compared to the recruitment of the chest or deltoids.

If this is the case, you don’t have “overactive triceps” or “weak pecs”, you’re simply just using a resistance that falls somewhere through the upper arm as opposed to parallel to the forearm.

I hope this helps. If it doesn’t, let me know how I can clarify!

-Ben

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