In a perfect world we’d all be much more knowledgeable about human movement and bodybuilders would have a more thorough understanding of movement. There were many gems mentioned in this blog regarding lying leg curl performance; including rectus femoris shortness/stiffness, lumbar extension, and machine design. Unfortunately this stuff is over the heads of most bodybuilders and most trainers.

There is one thing I really like about certain machines for bodybuilding purposes. First, due to their design, some well-built machines can keep constant tension on certain muscles or muscle groups. Most free-weight exercises have a range where tension on the muscles is greatly diminished. Due to this constant tension, the muscle might be able to experience greater hypertrophy due to the occlusion and subsequent “pump,” which has been shown to stimulate the release of various hormones, cytokines, and growth factors at the local level.

Progressive overload on the big compound lifts will always remain king, while isolation movements can help “polish” a well-developed physique. Great stuff! -Bret

Please accept my sincerest apology for somewhat unwittingly contributing to your thoughts being twisted and used without your permission.

Apparently my younger brother had logged into my e-mail account and noticed an exchange I had had with you in which you were kind enough to clarify several different training-related topics for me.

Long story short, he posted a question on a forum (of the website that you linked to) in an article in which the editor provided a Hamstrings “protocol” from one of the website-affiliated coaches. That question was never answered directly in the forum where it was posted, ended up being re-worded to some degree without his knowledge, and then posted in a “Reader Mail” article.

I offer my sincerest apology for any misrepresentation of your thoughts, any perceived disrespect stemming from the tone of the “response” to the question that involved your name, and for essentially being responsible for this entire mini affair that took place.

While I am extremely embarrassed at my part in this, please accept my humblest apology. You’re one of the brightest minds out there and a total class act, so you should never have to be subjected to having your good name turn up elsewhere without your consent and where comments may be prone to being taken far out of context.

It was also somewhat surprising to see the “if a top coach does it, it must make it good and/or useful” explanation. While I would never completely reject something a top coach does out of hand, the fact one may be using a given exercise or technique is hardly evidence that something is needed, a good idea, or what have you.

I have trained many times @ Joe Dodd’s gym in Trenton, NJ, and he would always say you would not get big from machines.

Given your comments about some of the folks with whom you train it seems readily apparent that even for the bodybuilding crowd, leg curl machines are anything but necessary to optimize results. Given the many options of training the entire posterior chain that don’t involve machines of any sort, do you think that the notion that for bodybuilding purposes a leg curl machine may be “necessary” stems from the fact that top guys have used them and never necessarily thought about how (or even if) their results might have differed if not using the leg curls and sticking to things like RDL’s. GHR’s, and various other options at their disposal?

It seems that oftentimes we attribute results to one thing that is not even taken in isolation, when it is either another element or the sum of all the parts responsible for the end result, as opposed to the one element we anoint as responsible fopr those results.