What's up, guys?
Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.com.
The marker's coming out today so I can show you how to understand better the anatomy of
the chest so you can start getting better result in specific areas of the chest – or
at least trying to influence different areas of your chest.
There are different areas of your chest, right?
We know that the pec muscle is divided into different heads.
There's actually three heads and when it comes to the lower pecs, a lot of times people either
ignore, or don't realize that here is a head really down low.
It's called the abdominal head of the pec major.
There is a way to influence its pull so you can get a little bit more favorable activation
there.
The pec is going to contract, we know that, but we can get different activation based
on the angle of pull.
So now, when we look at the pec, if I just pull out the cable here in front of me you
can see right away that there is a line – let's see if I can get this human anatomy chart
working here.
There's a line right here that will divide the basic sternal portion of the pec.
All these fibers are coming from my arm and attaching right here to my sternum like this.
So we have the line that comes up here and that pretty much makes all the sternal fibers
come this way.
Then above that line, if I start to bring my arm up, you can see here on my clavicle,
all these fibers that are coming down off of that, feed into the pec this way.
Down, kind of at an angle swooping down into my upper arm, okay?
So you can see that.
Now, when I come all the way out here – right there – you see that little line?
Dividing right to here.
Below that is the abdominal head.
So this little band that comes from here, up and around to here is the abdominal band
and it inserts right here into the top of the abdominal muscles and around here to the
side of the obliques into this area here that they call the aponeurosis.
Right into this area here.
Understanding that you can actually determine how to get more of an activation upper, mid,
or even in this case, lower.
So we know if we want to go upper we do something called – I call it a UCV Raise.
You want to be doing your crossovers or you're pushing up and across.
Down below and across, because we're lifting up here.
If the angle goes from here to here, in order to contract this, you would pull at that angle
and you would do this, okay?
That's what you want to think about if you want to target the upper pecs.
So that angle of pull.
That's not this if you're looking for lower chest.
For the middle of the chest we'd be out here more, coming across.
That direction, again, trying to put the fibers in line here.
Form the lower portion, to get a more favorable contraction from the bottom you can't be doing
what people try to normally do.
That's these lower cable crosses.
That's not going to do it.
You actually have to go the other way.
You have to go up tall here so that now, when I grab – let me give this a little more
weight – when I grab here we're going to want to get from this direction – from here,
right?
They're running from here to here.
So we want to get our humerus from here to here, okay?
We want to follow that.
So we're actually pulling down that way.
Now here's a good tip for you: in order to get a better stretch you should try to externally
rotate your shoulders so you set your shoulder back.
If you're already internally rotated, you're already bringing this attachment across, so
you're already bunched up; what you want to do is externally rotate your shoulder by getting
your hand underhand.
This way.
Now don’t worry about anything else.
Worry about your elbow because your elbow is obviously going to be attached here to
your humerus, which is where the pecs attach.
If I can focus on where my elbow is going then I can focus on what's happening up here.
So if I want to hit this area I'm going to want to come underhand this way, and as I
come down I'm just trying to get my elbow from here to here.
Trying to get it to touch the bottom here – or right to the upper abs.
So, up here, high, down here to low.
Here, high – you can see the muscles working – here, down, low.
Here, down, low.
That's the best way – if you want to try to start targeting, or at least influencing
a little bit – the lower portion of the abdominal head of the pec major.
Again, underhand this way, up tall, externally rotate your shoulder by having your arm up
underneath this way, and then here, angle of pull, here to here, elbow from up top,
down below, across your body.
Trying to finish down at that area.
So guys, as I said, sometimes if I have to break out the marker to make you understand
I absolutely will.
The key is to get you to understand.
The key is to get you better results.
ATHLEANX is about putting the science back in strength to allow you guys to get better
results from all your workouts.
If you're looking for a complete program to get the maximum out of what you have, to maximize
your capabilities and the capacity you have to build a bigger, stronger body quickly;
then head to ATHLEANX.com and get our ATHLEANX training system.
In the meantime, if you've found this video helpful make sure you let me know below and
if you want me to keep breaking out the markers I'll do that, as long as I can reach wherever
the hell it is that I have to reach.
All right, guys.
I'll see you soon.