We ruffled some feathers last week.
we are going to revisit that point last week about the chest fly fallacy
And I am going to show you how to apply again some muscle physiology
To show you that you can actually train your upper chest without an incline bench.
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What's up guys?
Jeff Cavaliere AthleanX.com
As I pointed out we did We ruffle some feathers last week when I kind of addressed the chest
fly.
Now I think we got a little bit off track.
Some people thought I said the chest fly didn't work the chest.
That's not what I said.
Guys what I said was, people do the chest fly exercise
Because they are going for the additional stretch that you get on the bottom portion
of the move
That allows you to get a greater contraction of the chest.
That's the argument people make for doing the chest fly.
I showed you that it absolutely has no merit.
Now I am going to revisit that here in a second.
You have got to remember here guys.
Athlean-X is about applying actual science behind what we do.
Now I am a physical therapist.
This is what I have studied for my entire life.
So there is no weekend course that I have tried
To pass on my information that I have learned over the last 3 days
To help you guys get bigger, in better shape.
This is a lifetime full of work and that's what I am trying to do.
Put this to you.
Now guys maybe you are not going to be comfortable with every single thing I have said.
And maybe it is going to fly in the face of what people accept as fact.
But when you apply real science to it, it doesn't stand up.
It doesn't hold up.
If you want to hear what you want to hear
There's other channels on YouTube for that you guys.
Here at Athlean-X we are talking about building muscle
And getting in the best shape of your life.
Again, I see guys mentioning guys like Ronnie Coleman, and Dorian Yates
I'll tell you what guys
If you think that those guys built their bodies with just chest flys
And it didn't involve anything like a $50,000.00 supply of something else
Then you are probably mistaken.
We don't do that at Athlean-X.
We are about building bodies the natural way
And building athletes stronger and functional
Not just looking like a big bag of meet up on the stage.
so now, here is what we are talking about again with that chest fly
Yes, you guys are talking about feeling contraction at the top of the movement.
That is what the chest does because it abducts the arm
Meaning it brings the arm across the chest.
OK?
So you are getting that squeeze on the chest.
My argument is, you do not get an extra stretch on the chest muscle, the chest alone, by going
into this position for the fly-
Or a regular bottom position of a bench press.
You don't.
There is no extra stretch given, based upon physiology
That allows the chest to be stretched more out here.
Again, you stretch that other muscle that we talked about last week.
In this position, with this much weight, you could tear a chest muscle.
It is not worth it.
so how do we get the benefit of the abduction at top?
Simple, we do our regular bench press with dumbbells
Here we bring them up, we turn them and squeeze them together.
So now I have the benefit of the abduction of a fly.
It is the end of the fly movement
Without having to put myself in that position way out here that I don't like.
So maximum stretch of the chest right here, up in the middle.
Alright?
So that solves that.
And again, guys, like I said, you might find what you want to hear other places.
But I am recommending that that is not always the best advice.
Now the next thing we want to do is address how do we do the upper chest on a flat bench.
A lot of guys don't have an inclined bench in their house or at their disposal but they
still want to train their upper chest.
So here we are going back to the physiology and I am going to show you how.
The chest has fibers called the clavicular part of the pec major
And basically the fibers run from right up under your clavicle and the run down this
direction, OK?
So what it will actually do is flex the arm
And you can see that as I flex the shoulder here, all these fibers get activated.
So how can we flex the arm more in doing a flat bench.
we have to reverse our grip.
So we come down, dumbbells face me; my hands are facing me directly.
That will be facing you; right here facing me.
And I keep my elbows in tight to my side.
So the second benefit of this exercise is you are going to get some triceps recruitment
too.
But as I come up, watch what happens to the arm.
And you will see from the camera angle here, more on the side a little bit
As this arm comes up, it is coming up and backwards,
And you can see that I just flexed the shoulder, OK?
Here, it's coming up and backwards to a point where it is straight up over me.
So if I were to sit up it is the same movement as if I were to go from here to here.
It's just that I am laying down, so I am going here to here.
So the way this looks; you want to stay nice and slow
In control, palms facing you, come up, push up right up over your chest.
And you will see those upper fibers of the chest are really activated up top, OK?
Watch.
Down in here, right down to my sides
As I come up, I am going to push up just like that.
And you can see how much those engage and be activated.
Down, up, squeeze it, up to the top.
Again, we still have that abduction that I showed you, the dumbbells coming together
at the top of the movement.
That we had the other day here from the other exercise.
So just like that.
So having that in that position forces the arm not just to come out
Because if we are out here, we are not getting that flexion in the shoulder.
We are only getting the abduction across the body.
If we are here, we are going to get some of that flexion in and tie it up together.
So guys, like I said before at Athlean-X
It is about creating strong, lean athletic muscle.
This is not about becoming a bloated body-builder.
It is not about looking puffy.
It is about being functional, taking the muscle that you gained, take it out to whatever it
is you do.
Whether you are a weekend warrior, or whether you are a guy that competes.
On the field, in real competition like the pro-athletes I work with.
That's about excelling in what you do.
And that is what Athlean-X is all about.
If you haven't guys already, you want to become part of this movement
You want to be Team Athlean, we have spots for you.
If you haven't already, head to AthleanX.com grab the Athlean-X training program.
Get yourself in the best shape of your life.
Become the most functional athlete, inner athlete that you have inside you.
Be the best that you can be guys.
I will be back here again next week.
More stuff, more videos.
I appreciate all you guys who like the science behind this
And enjoy what I am bringing to you each and every week.
Again I will see you on Team Athlean
And I will see you back here in about 7 days.