Exercise 102: Shorties
Questioning some common exercise dogma.
This is the second article in this series of collaborations with
at . The first, about using exercise to recharge your acupuncture muscle batteries, can be found here. It recommended a few well-known exercises - done the “traditional” way - for recharging our acupuncture muscle batteries, with the goal of improving our capacity for healing.My personal recollection from five decades ago, of the traditional exercises of my high school gym class, was that we were always instructed to incorporate the “full range of motion” for a given exercise. That meant, for instance, with a pushup you would lower yourself all the way down to the floor and then all the way back up with arms locked. That counted as one repetition, and anything less didn’t count. In short, anything less was perceived as cheating. And was thought to somehow be less beneficial for building strength.
The trouble with that theory is that every exercise involves a chain of connected muscles, ligaments and tendons, but the intent of exercise primarily focuses on developing the biggest muscles in the chain. Those are the ones we mostly want to see adapt, because big muscles are what makes a superhero look powerful and what helps the average human look a bit sexier and feel a bit more confident. They are also the ones that generate the most power.
When you exercise the full range of motion, at the top and/or bottom of the motion you tend to put a lot of stress on the tendons that anchor a muscle in place and ligaments that connect muscles together. With a normal range of motion they don’t receive nearly as much stress. At a minimum, strained connective tissues, and the pain, soreness and/or injury that they cause, are a very fast way to lose enthusiasm for exercise. Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) can last for days afterward, and injuries will take far longer to heal. And if those aches, pains and/or injuries cause you to stop exercising for a while, your muscle gains will slip away, until you can eventually return to exercising.
Is there a better way?
Unexpected Wisdom
Jonathan’s fitness journey brought to his attention the physical training techniques used by prison inmates.
Consider the many intelligent men who are locked away for years of their life. They have to do something to pass the time, and prison would provide a person with a lot of time to ponder and refine their knowledge and experience on any topic of interest. Exercise is certainly no exception. So it’s no surprise to me that Jonathan found an incredible fitness insight by listening to what former prisoners have to say about exercise.
Shorties
Jonathan’s first introduction to shorties came from a video about “prison pushups” (the link lists dozens of such videos on YouTube).
The video which he had found shows a former inmate with incredibly well-defined chest muscles, who is being asked how he achieved them.
His one word answer: “Push-ups.”
“Regular, full range of motion push-ups?” the interviewer asks.
No, he elaborates. Because when you lock out at the top of the push-up, you take the tension off of your muscles. He does “short” pushups, which keeps continuous tension on the muscles.
That’s an important exercise principle to remember: The key to muscle adaptation is tension.
That’s telling your body that those muscles are important to your survival. And it responds by adding more muscle and making existing muscles, ligaments and tendons (everything within that particular kinetic chain of muscles) stronger.
When I first heard this concept, based upon my personal experience, it intuitively made sense to me.
When I graduated from high school, I was weak and overweight. The only D grade I received was for a Physical Education class: swimming and weight training. Despite attending every class and trying my best, I was clearly the worst performer in class. The coach wanted to flunk me. It was only his assistant’s pleading with him and attesting to how hard I was trying that enabled me to barely pass. He gave me a D minus. I never received a grade lower than C in school, before or since.
My weakness vanished several years later, when I developed a passion for bicycling. Years later, after bicycle touring from Tacoma, Washington to San Diego, California in 1984, I had incredibly well-defined quadriceps (the large leg muscles in front, just above the knees). Even Arnold Schwarzenegger would have been impressed by my quads!
Did I ever use a full range of motion to get those great quads? Nope. Not even close.
Bicycle pedals are mounted on crank arms that are opposite one another. The distance between the right and left pedals (top to bottom, or fore to aft) on my bicycle was about 14 inches. That means that when pedaling, each knee only deviated 7 inches from a common centerline, while my hips stayed in a fixed position. So on each turn of the crankarms, half the revolution would be a maximum of 7 inches above centerline, and half would be a maximum of 7 inches below centerline. Which is far less than the full range of motion that is possible for your leg muscles. That was equivalent to only several inches into a typical squat position, and nowhere close to a full range of motion.
Yet this shortened range of motion not only allowed me to develop fantastic quads, it did so with minimal negative effect on tendons and ligaments. The one exception was that prolonged riding can initially strain the ligaments in your knees. The solution was to simply dial back on the tension that was being applied, giving every part of the chain of muscles sufficient time to adapt. The lower the tension, the lower the strain. In effect, going fast would cause pain, but by going slow I could still keep going.
Shorties Adaptations
Shorties can be adapted from most standard calisthenic and weighted exercises. You just take out the part of the range of motion that gives your muscles a break, plus the part that creates the most strain on connective tissues, making it an exercise of continual tension. You don’t even need to be continually moving throughout the exercise. If you stop while your muscles are under tension, you’ve just converted your calisthenic to an isometric exercise. Both are great!
Conclusion
Performing exercises using a full range of motion can increase the chances of damaging muscles and connective tissues. If your body has to repair such damage, it does so with the resources that it would otherwise be using for building the new muscles that you are seeking.
Shortening up the range of motion can minimize your chance of such injury. When you avoid the damage, you can achieve more muscle growth for the same amount of effort. And you are less likely to experience downtime due to sore or injured muscles.
Jonathan recorded a video on his Substack that goes into a lot more detail about the benefits of shorties, and he provides demonstrations of how to perform them. Check it out!
Or better yet, check out Jonathan’s recent updated post:
Postscript: Muscle Loss
In the first post in this series, I discussed some things that contribute to sarcopenia (age-related muscle loss).
I’ve just finished reading The Salt Fix (2017) by James DiNicolantonio,1 about the fallacy of government recommendations for lowering salt intake for the average human to no more than 2.3 grams per day. Counter to this advice, the book provides evidence that the average non-athlete actually needs between 3 and 6 grams of salt per day.2 Anything below or above that range is counterproductive, though it is more harmful to consume too little salt, than it is to consume too much. If you consume too much, your normally functioning kidneys will quickly excrete any excess.
Specifically, he cites research that sodium depletion may lead to impaired muscle strength and energy metabolism, by reducing the alkalinity of our cells.3 He also states that low-salt diets may:
Lead to weaker muscles,
Contribute to chronic fatigue syndrome,
Increase the risk of injury,
Cause longer recovery periods, and
Decrease muscle gains.4
I’ve recently started taking one-gram sea salt tablets, 3 or 4 times per day. I can’t comment on whether or not it has helped with building muscle or strength, but it has greatly improved the quality of my skin. It is no longer dry and flaking, and all sorts of odd little skin blemishes have disappeared in the couple of weeks that I’ve been doing this.
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BEWARE OF THE BENEVOLENCE OF BILLIONAIRES:
Most billionaires become such by exploiting you, not by thinking of your best interests. Viewing the world through this lens may literally save your life!
Disclaimer: If you have delegated your health responsibility to a physician, by all means get their permission before engaging in any physical activity that may or may not improve your health. Though the typical physician who I encounter looks unlikely to do enough exercise to be qualified to give such advice. If in doubt, take responsibility for yourself and listen to your body. It will tell you what is too much, as long as you pay attention to what it has to say.
Revision History:
4 Apr 2025, added a paragraph at the end of the Conclusions section, with a link to a newer article by Jonathan.
The Salt Fix, pages 30 and 118.
The Salt Fix, page 132.
The Salt Fix, page 143.
 | A guest post by
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Everything comes back to charge.
alkalinity is higher charge, acid is lower charge
https://substack.com/@controlstudies/p-159778868 he points out the PCR is testing for charge
piezoelectric effect - muscles make charge via usage
diabetic ulcers won't heal, until they are charged up via high voltage galvanic devices
cancer (a protective mechanism) occurs when there is an area of low charge, or when a toxic chemical (which lowers charge) in present and the body encapsulates it to quarantine it from the rest of the body.
salt reduces alkalinity aka charge