JEFF: What's up, guys?
Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.com.
Today we’re going to talk about the chest and we’re going to talk about those mistakes
in your chest workout that every skinny guy makes.
JESSE: Who you callin’ skinny?
JEFF: I’m just saying, you’re in the video for a reason.
Listen, guys; I’m also a skinny guy.
I grew up a skinny guy.
I know the challenges we have when it comes to building a bigger chest.
I don’t have the most stupendous chest out there.
But I will tell you this: there are things we can do in our training that will have an
immediate impact and we have to realize that, anatomically, we’re at a bit of a disadvantage.
The skinnier you are, the longer and lankier – you can demonstrate that, can’t you?
The longer and lankier you are, the more of a disadvantage you’re at.
Even from a fitness standpoint of the exercise, such as a bench-press, that make it more challenging
for you to use it to your advantage to build a bigger chest.
JESSE: Right.
JEFF: We’re going to talk about those things and what you can do for that.
Then there are compensations that come along with having these anatomical differences.
JESSE: Yep.
JEFF: So, if we’re going to do this, we have to do it right.
Let’s start with some of those challenges so we can all relate to what it is that’s
holding us back.
I mentioned the arms in the first place.
We’re talking about the difference between the longer, lankier guy.
The skinnier guy and the shorter, stockier guy.
JESSE: Right.
JEFF: When it comes to the bench-press in particular, the mechanics of the exercise
are in your favor, the shorter your arms are.
The less the bar has to travel, the less work you have to do.
Along with that is this evil side effect.
That is: the lengthier you are, and the skinnier you are, the less chest muscle you have, which
additionally helps to shorten the distance the bar has to travel.
So, when you don’t have the chest in the first place and you have to do more work,
it becomes more challenging to build a bigger chest to shorten that distance.
JESSE: We’re at a big disadvantage, guys.
A very big disadvantage.
JEFF: We’re in a big cycle here.
JESSE: Big disadvantage.
JEFF: So, what can we do?
Well, we can’t change those long, lanky arms.
JESSE: Right.
JEFF: But what we can do is change them relatively.
We can do that by changing the position of our body when we lay down to do a bench-press.
Here we’ve got to create this arch.
All the skinny guys I see forget to do this.
They don’t realize how important this is in changing the entire mechanics of the exercise.
By creating the arch you’re essentially doing this.
You’re creating more of a decline bench-press.
We know if we’re going to evaluate our strength levels on a flat and incline, or decline bench,
we’re likely going to be able to perform much better on a decline bench-press because
we’re shortening the distance that bar has to travel.
We’re doing the same thing when we create the arch.
So as you see Jesse do here, he’s working on getting those shoulders back – which
will come in big time here in a second – get those shoulders back, get the chest up as
high as you can, keep the shoulders pinned down and back on the bench.
Keep the ass down on the bench but get the lower back off.
You’re creating this arch.
You’re expanding the ribcage and shortening the distance.
You can see the pecs are much more engaged by doing this because they’re at a better
advantage to push.
We’re going to come back to that in a second, in relation to letting the shoulders do the
work.
This will carryover very well.
Not just to the dumbbell variation, but to a barbell as well.
The same things apply in how you want to do this.
What happens as a consequence of forgetting to do this is the very first, huge mistake
you’re making.
You’ll find ways to compensate and get yourself to do the bench-press.
This is where we see all the major problems.
This is where the shoulders will start to do the work because they have to.
If you have a long way to travel the shoulders have to keep pushing and pushing to get that
weight off.
As a matter of fact, Jesse, let’s show what this looks like.
If you’re in this position here, if the shoulders are going – you can evaluate and
have somebody evaluate from the side.
Jesse, I’m going to manhandle you here in this video.
JESSE: If you’re going to man-handle me, the next video, I get to give you my brand-new
intro that I’ve been working on for a lifetime.
JEFF: Guys, I told you that you’ve created a monster.
Fine.
I’m going to manhandle you, okay?
JESSE: Okay.
JEFF: So, let’s see.
The chest is – that’s going to leave a red mark.
The chest, when you put it up here, if you have somebody evaluate you from the side you
want to be able to see – let’s go to this arm over here.
You want to be able to see the chest, and the chest only.
Not the shoulder peeking out from the side.
If the shoulder is peeking out and if leading from the chest is doing the work as a consequence
of that, it’s going to take a lot of the effort and focus off the chest.
I’ll show it to you in action.
Get back and set yourself up properly.
If he arched, if he had his shoulders back, he gets into an arch.
The other arm is up.
He’s going to bench.
That’s his outward position.
Go back.
Come up.
You don’t see the shoulder.
All you see here is the chest and if you look at it, you can see good activation of the
chest here as he pushes.
That’s what you want.
That’s how you’re going to build a bigger chest.
Now, if you do this the wrong way and you let the arms go past because the shoulders
are trying to dominate because you have too long of a distance to go, look what happens.
This takes all the tension off the pecs.
You don’t want that.
Back again and lead with the chest.
Now push.
Now, again, you’ll be able to feel this yourself.
This is much more firm.
This is doing the work.
This is how you build the bigger chest with the right tension.
The second thing that comes from skinny guys is they have the reluctance to use heavier
weights.
JESSE: Right.
JEFF: Even if you use a dumbbell, the tendency is to push – if they have a heavier weight
– they want to push it-
JESSE: Just get it up.
JEFF: Get it up.
So, then they might use a lighter weight because even though they’ve heard on this channel
how the lighter weights will help with that mind-muscle connection – this is a bit of
a mind-muscle connection issue.
But in doing that, then they just go too light so they’re letting everything go with it.
JESSE: Do not accelerate and get your shoulders in front.
JEFF: Right.
What you want to do is, you don’t want to shy away from the heavy weights.
The heavy weights will allow you to stay back because you’re going to want to push back
as you push up, which will allow you to do exactly what we’re talking about.
Keep the shoulders out of it and let the chest initiate.
You can see Jesse doing that here.
But here’s the big thing I want you to do.
Skinny guys, any dumbbell bench-press, do what I’m telling you here and you’re going
to make immediate differences in gains and in the way, you do the exercise and the results
you see from it.
That’s what Jesse’s been doing here.
JESSE: Yeah.
JEFF: One of the bigger tips I gave him is to start doing alternating dumbbell bench-press.
JESSE: Yep.
JEFF: Why?
It’s not just the alternation of the reps that’s helping here, but it’s the flipping
of the recruitment pattern that’s helping the most.
If I have you start in the down position, as you can see Jesse doing here, I’m getting
the chest loaded already.
JESSE: Yeah.
A lot of tension.
JEFF: Opening up the chest, getting the chest loaded, and initiating from there is going
to be a hell of a lot easier than if you were to start your reps at the top, come down,
and then go back.
You’re almost ingraining the pattern of getting the dumbbell back to the starting
position, allowing the shoulders to follow.
Instead, get them down.
Start down here.
Let one come up and come down.
Not only are you getting some additional tension in place on the opposite side in the non-working
rep, but you’re getting that to be ready to go and perform to recruit from there first
and stay as the leading driver of the movement while the shoulder stays back.
Alternating reps are going to be a tremendous way for you to feel this, ingrain this, and
get better at this.
You can take that back with you to a bench-press.
You can even take that back to a two-handed version of a traditional dumbbell bench-press.
Your ability to see gains from your pressing will go up astronomically if you do that.
In recap here, you can’t change your lanky arms.
You can make them relatively shorter by getting your chest in the right position, by arching
the low back, setting it up, and not forgetting to do that.
Then, avoiding the compensations that come from having those two things – those anatomical
differences that us skinny guys tend to have – and making sure we know what’s supposed
to drive the movement.
Not letting the other muscles take over and do the thing we’re trying not to do.
JESSE: Let the chest take over, not the shoulders.
JEFF: There you go.
This is a chest video, right?
JESSE: Also, incorporate alternating dumbbell movement.
JEFF: Exactly.
Thanks for reiterating everything I just said.
JESSE: You’re welcome.
JEFF: You can sit there and work on that intro for a while if you want.
Guys, I hope you’ve found the video helpful.
If you leave your comments and thumbs up below, let us know what you want us to cover and
we’ll do our best to do that for you.
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And all our programs incorporate that “how” of what we’re doing.
The ‘how’ matters, but also the ‘why’ matters.
So, when you go back to your workouts you have the freedom to bring these things into
your training and benefit from them, rather than saying “Hey, Jeff told me to do a bench-press.
So that’s all I’m going to do.”
I don’t think that’s enough.
All our programs have that built into every, single workout we have.
If you’re looking for those, they’re over at ATHLEANX.com.
In the meantime, stay tuned for this idiot’s intro and I’ll see you in a few days.
JESSE: It’s going to be glorious.
JEFF: See ya.