What's up, guys?
Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.com.
I'm down here on the floor today to prove to you that you can build some serious size
on your triceps with bodyweight training if you understand how to use your own body and
space.
You see, there's a bit misconception out there that says that you can't really build muscle
in bodyweight training.
Yeah, with the wrong bodyweight training that might be true, but if you know how to utilize
your body you can absolutely build some serious size.
Especially when it comes to triceps.
You have to understand one key point.
That is, your body knows only one thing: overload and tension.
We need to make sure that you can maximize your overload when you're doing bodyweight
exercises.
It's the biggest flaw when it comes to building muscle.
People just go through the motions instead of actually understanding the motions that
they should be putting their body through.
So here's a common misconception, or mistake that's made when people try to add some size
with bodyweight training.
We get in here to a diamond pushup – we put our hands here, together, you come down,
and we come up and start doing diamond pushups.
Now, the problem here is, for a lot of people they can do a lot of reps of this exercise.
So I might be able to do 30, 40, 50, 60; whatever it is that you can do.
You're not really creating a stimulus for overload there, right?
One of the things here that's different is, when you come down, look at the position of
the arm here.
You come down and I come up.
Even though my hands are staying fixed in place here I'm getting an adduction at the
shoulder across my body – a horizontal adduction – which is going to bring a lot of my chest
into this.
So that's why it's a lot easier to do that exercise.
We can do it differently.
We can get into what we call a modified tiger pushup.
You put your hands down and your forearms flat onto the ground.
From here, if you start off her as a beginner – again, the goal is to try to find exercises
that make you uncomfortable.
Think about that.
Try to make exercises uncomfortable.
That's how you grow.
You don’t want to love the exercises you're doing.
So you put yourself here in this position and all you have to do is just push straight
up, and up, and over, okay?
So, let it come straight down, push up, and then get yourself up and over.
Now, this is an easier version of a more complicated exercise in the diamond pushup.
You want to make it harder?
Just drop your legs back, drop your ass down, come straight down here again, and push up.
The key difference between this exercise and the one we just did is that you don’t really
have any active horizontal adduction in the shoulder.
That stays right there in place and now you're getting elbow extension here for your triceps.
So we're into this form right here.
Now, you want to make this harder?
You come up here into an incline position.
So you get up, all the way up top here, put your hands down, and then push up and down.
Okay?
So you're in this pike position and you can see these are becoming a lot more difficult
for me.
Finally, we put all of our body against gravity and we get this way.
Straight out here, elbows in, and push up, and down, and push up, and down, and push
up.
Now, that feel, to me, is no different than a heavy tricep extension here with a bar that
allowed me to do three reps, like it just did there.
Your body doesn't know the damned difference whether you have a barbell in your hand, or
whether gravity is providing that force.
Remember guys, gravity is hella strong and able to hold a lot of heavy shit down without
it floating away into outer space.
I think it can provide enough resistance for you and your workouts if you know how to utilize
your body against it.
Bodyweight training can be effective, guys.
It can definitely help you build muscle, you've just got to find that variation that challenges
you and that you don’t necessarily like because that's the exercise that's going to
make you grow bigger.
If you're looking for a program completely bodyweight only – nothing but your own weight
against gravity, you against you – head over to ATHLEANX.com and get our ATHLEAN0
program.
It's a six week program designed to help you do nothing but build more muscle utilizing
just your own body weight.
In the meantime, if you've found this video helpful make sure you leave your comments
and thumbs up below and let me know what you want to see here.
Bodyweight Wednesday?
I want to see more of these issues you want me to cover and I'll do that for you.
I'll see you back here soon.