Exercises to bring muscle separation??

[Doctordave42]

I'm not so sure its the isolation but rather the flexing of the muscle. Just like with posing. So focusing on the squeeze. If someone controls their negative on the squat or other compound, I would imagine there being better seperation. Whereas you take someone and put them on a leg ext without proper control of the negative or squeeze at extension, I just don't see this doing anything at all for seperation.

Genes may play a role in this as well but for my last contest prep I really focused on the squeeze the last 8 weeks and I came in very dug out. Separated everywhere. I would squeeze in certain positions like I would if I was hitting a certain pose on stage.

Intense stretching and massages as mentioned above should also play some sort of role? I had both of these in last prep as well. I don't see myself ever stopped either of these while I weight train.

Low body fat is a definite requirement of course.

Great post! I believe that fat storage patterns may be part genetic and part related to stress hormone levels. I have also read that Alpha Lipoic Acid has been researched to be effective in "muscle partitioning" . I took higher dosages of this when dieting to around 6% BF 15 years ago and the separation was remarkable compared to previous summers when I did the same thing. Each of the quadriceps muscles, for example, is partitioned or packaged in a fascial compartment/sleeve. The tissue in between these compartments is mostly fat, and sometime fascial adhesions (Thus my like for the above comments on stretching, especially between sets, as well as professional massage).
Stress hormones such as cortisol will store fat where we do not want it, and once it gets laid down, you really have to go deep to disrupt those storage sites and liberate it into blood free fatty acids. Lowering stress, post exercise relaxation/visualization has been shown to improve your Testosterone to Cortisol levels by improving Cortisol metabolism and clearance. Keeping your HbA1c low would also seem like a great way to reduce insulin (which signals for fat storage) with these efforts. Just my 2 cents.

 

[rotinaj]

It's bullshit through and through.

This. How do you contract contractile tissue if it is not connected to itself?
Get lean/full and flex hard.
The idea of training to “separate” something like my abdominal wall for better abs makes me cringe… like doesn’t that cause hernias?

 

[Fa Seeshus]

Sometimes small assistance muscles just don't fire due to muscle imbalance... So actually getting them to contract could give the appearance of more "muscle separation". In my case it is the Subscapularis. I was having shoulder issues due to the Lats overpowering them. Now through PT I'm able to fire the subscap better so my "lats" can flex better. This whole debate gets convoluted because we are talking about muscle groups as if they were just one muscle. Same thing goes with you legs... Like when you hit a quad pose but kick forward activating your hip flexors. Voila, more separation.

 

[Ranchhand]

Damn good thread, one of the best I've followed in awhile. Some very good points and varying opinions in this thread. Besides the standard genetics' card being pulled (very valid) I'm in favor of posts 5, 17 & 26 from livinlean and posts 9 & 14 from Big A. "Time under tension" through practicing posing to harden and define the genetic predisposition shape of the muscle to bring out a separation of the muscle from the surrounding muscles through proper dieting down to a level you can get an obvious separation.