What's up, guys?
Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.com.
Today we’re breaking out four muscle markers.
That’s right.
We’re going to put the science back in strength because we’ve got to answer this question
that I get asked all the time.
That is “To what degree can we influence our chest, and the development of our chest
through our training?
Can we hit the specific areas?”
We all have areas, guys.
I mean, I look in the mirror and you guys are kind enough to tell me about how I have
an indentation on my chest on one side, versus the other.
They’re not completely symmetrical at the bottom.
I wasn’t even aware of that until you told me that.
The fact is, we see different areas.
Maybe the upper chest needs more filled out.
Maybe you don’t like the fact that you just see one blended area here on the outside of
your chest.
It looks like all ribcage.
The lower chest.
Guys don’t have any defining bottom portion.
Is there anything that can be done about any of these areas?
Well, we’re going to break these guys out to help with that.
First and foremost, I think it helps to start determining what you’re seeing in the mirror.
What are you likely looking at?
If I were to take out a muscle marker and say “Hey, what could do as far as top or
bottom?”
Well, we know what we have two areas of the pecs here.
You can see that, even when I contract a little bit.
We get this outline of the delt here, which frames up against the clavicle, right about
this shaded area over here.
We come in, and we’re looking at the upper pec.
The upper portion of the pec right here.
They’re called the clavicular portion of the pec because the fibers run in this direction
here.
From the clavicle – this bone right here – and then down, and out to our humerus
here.
The groove on our humerus.
It’s going to have an impact on our arm motion because we’re going to go from our
origin to the insertion on the arm.
We know that’s going to happen, but we also have this big area of the pec that we know.
It’s the sternal portion.
When we look at the sternal portion now, we’re talking about the fibers that run from the
sternum and up toward that same point.
We’ll talk about it – as we have in the past – that there is a portion of the lower
fibers that angle more upward, just because of the angle.
Knowing that the sternum comes down and out and spreads a little bit.
These fibers run at more of an ‘up’ angle.
So, let’s draw the in purple.
I do have a purple muscle marker, guys.
Come up in this direction.
Some anatomists have called this the abdominal head.
But it is two major portions and we talk about the two major portions in the pec.
Why?
Really, because there are two separate nerve innervations.
We have the lateral pectoral nerve that hits the clavicular portion and we have the medial
pectoral nerve that hits the sternal portion.
So, if we were in a lab, and only in a lab, if we were to isolate that nerve, and stimulate
that nerve; we could, theoretically, get a contraction of one.
Either the upper pecs or the lower pecs.
Just by stimulating that nerve.
But that’s not what happens when we talk about real life, guys.
We don’t have the ability to isolate a nerve like that, in a lab setting, and get that
response.
We know when we move the arm, the arm actions themselves require that both of those nerves
are going to fire.
So, we’re not getting an isolation of the two.
What we do have – if you come back in again – you have the opportunity to influence
the muscle fibers in these two areas because we know we can do what I always say we can
do.
That is to follow the fibers.
We’ve talked about it in the past, and you’ve seen some of the exercises here as I demonstrate
them, that when we can take this arm from this position here and move it up and across
the body like that; we’re preferentially following these fibers.
We’re putting them in a good line of pull, giving them a better chance to actually influence
the movement.
So, we know we can do that here.
We can do the same here as we cross our body this way, through full adduction across the
body, knowing that these fibers that are oriented more parallel, can pull the arm more in this
direction and have better influence there.
Then, of course, through the lower pecs we know if we start with our arm high and come
down low, we’re getting this orientation now.
Which is preferentially going to allow us to hit and better develop these areas down
in the lower portion of the chest.
That’s something that science has proven now.
What about the other areas?
What about this area over here?
This whole inner chest area – get the microphone out of the way.
What about, as I’ve talked about in the beginning, this outer pec area?
Can we do anything about this?
Well, here’s where science gets a little bit more complicated but interesting.
What we’re talking about now is two areas that don’t have separate nerve innervation,
that don’t allow us to do anything special for it until we realize that there’s something
called ‘non-spanning fibers’.
Non-spanning chest fibers tie into the concept of fascia.
Fascia is one of the areas that we don’t really pay much attention to.
A lot of times, when an anatomy book draws out and shows us our muscles perfectly, or
even on our own Raymond as we look at the muscles; we get to see the nice, red muscles
with none of the white fascia covering them.
We would see those if we actually were to open our own bodies.
Don’t do that.
It’s not safe.
The fact is, that fascia is extremely influential on the overall performance of a muscle because
it has its own forced transmission capabilities.
What happens is – back to these non-spanning fibers – we have some muscle fibers that
come from either side.
Either from the origin of the insertion, that don’t make it all the way through.
They might only originate from one bone, tendon, into the muscle itself, and then die off.
Or you’ll get some from the outside that will originate from the outside here – the
insertion – and then die off.
They don’t span – they’re not myotendinous.
Meaning, they don’t go from bone to tendon, to muscle, to tendon, to bone.
They don’t make it all the way across.
So, what is the purpose of these?
Why do they even exist?
Can we do anything about it at all?
Well, we know that through the fascia, as we contract the muscle, the more force we
can contract the muscle with, the more we can help that transmit through the fascia
itself, surrounding that muscle.
And that fascia could help to keep that forced transmission going.
Therefore, it will involve these non-spanning fibers that would not have an opportunity
to be engaged because they don’t attach to the other side.
That’s how we realize we can get more forced transmission in development.
Does that mean we can do anything specifically about this?
No, but there’s one thing you should always be doing.
That is going through a full range of motion.
We’ve talked about the full range of motion.
Come on down.
We’ve talked about the full range of motion.
As I go through a full range of motion I’m giving myself a better opportunity to start
picking up some of the activation of these fibers here.
Not to mention, getting a complete chest contraction.
When we talk about the outer area of the pec here I talk about being able to position yourself
through maximum stretch.
Meaning, don’t perform your exercises with rounded shoulders.
Get your shoulders back, immediately taking this insertion point further back from the
origin, get a bigger stretch, and then apply tension in that position in the range of motion.
Don’t just rush through your exercises.
When you get down to the bottom position – whether it be through a dip, as you see me doing here;
or whether it’s a bench-press, as you see me doing here.
Allow for a rest-pause there.
Pause at the bottom of that rep to allow yourself to experience the tension in that elongated
state.
Again, when you come back through your range of motion don’t stop here.
Bench-presses alone are not going to give you maximum development of your chest.
But hold on for a minute, while I talk about the value of that.
It doesn’t give you maximum development because you’re not taking that pec muscle
through its full range of motion.
So, if you want to give yourself a chance to do something about developing the muscles
as completely as possible, take it through its full range.
Don’t stop here.
Go all the way across, through full adduction to give yourself the best chance.
Again, no chance for me to fill in this gap here, guys.
But what I can do is go through that full range of motion.
Now, where does that bench-press fit into this equation here?
It should fit as the foundation for your pressing exercises.
If you’re trying to develop your chest you want to start with the bench-press.
Why?
After all I just said.
Why?
Because you’re able to load that exercise with maximum tension that is not going to
be possible through any of the other exercises you can do for your chest.
Whether you’re a fan of flys – which I am not – or a fan of crossovers – which
I am more so – you still can’t load the chest muscle with as much mechanical overload
and tension that you can through a bench-press.
So, you fill that as your foundation, but to stop there would lead to an incomplete
chest development.
Realizing that I can’t just continue to work in this plane of motion.
Ignoring the fact that I’m not changing the angle.
Ignoring the fact that I’m not getting through full range of motion.
Ignoring the fact that I’m missing a lot of other key components.
Guys, when it comes to targeting your chest you have some options.
But the biggest answer is this: a complete development of your chest is going to require
the understanding of different angles that your arm can move in.
Understand the influence that will have on different areas.
And always, always, always strengthen yourself through a maximum range of motion.
Realize that certain exercises don’t take you all the way through there.
You’re going to have to pick and choose some that allow you to complete that and make
sure that the joint moves through its full range of motion to fully activate the muscle.
If you’re looking for a program that breaks it all down, puts the science back in strength
in every workout we do, selecting the exercises that compliment each other so you get the
best end result; that’s over at ATHLEANX.com.
In the meantime, if you’re looking for more videos tell me what you want to see, and what
you want me to cover.
I’ll do my best to do that for you in the days and weeks ahead.
All right, see you soon.