JEFF: Jesse, Jesse!
What the f%#$ are you doing now?
And what is up with that hair?
JESSE: Oh, I copied it.
JEFF: I don’t care what you – what are you doing, most importantly?
JESSE: All right, so you remember that really stupid, really bad, dumb chest exercise that
I came up with?
JEFF: Right.
JESSE: Yeah, the one where I didn’t copy.
I used my own brain.
JEFF: You mean the one that has 17 concussions?
JESSE: 18, but yes.
That one.
JEFF: Right.
JESSE: I made it better.
JEFF: You made that piece of shit better?
JESSE: As a matter of fact, yes I did.
Okay.
So you remember how the problem was standing here, and then I turned into it?
JEFF: Right.
JESSE: That was bad.
JEFF: Worthless.
JESSE: Worthless.
I figured it out.
I’ve got to stand out here, and then turn.
JEFF: Mm-hmm.
JESSE: Watch.
Adduction.
JEFF: Yep.
JESSE: Isometric.
JEFF: Hmm.
JESSE: Isometric adduction.
JEFF: Wow.
JESSE: And-
JEFF: What?
Not full adduction.
Don’t understand strength curves.
And no active adduction.
So basically, still a piece of shit.
JESSE: Is it really?
JEFF: Yeah.
Jesse, will you leave the exercises to me?
Just keep copying what I do.
That’s what I said.
JESSE: Fine.
JEFF: All right?
Can I go show everybody what they’re really supposed to do?
JESSE: Yeah.
JEFF: Jesse, Jesse, Jesse.
Okay, this is for more than just Jesse.
We have to fix Jesse, but we have to fix anybody that has been using any of those variations
of a chest fly because there are some fundamental things that are wrong here.
I want to make sure I cover them so we do make this worthwhile and educational.
Most of all, I want to show you what to do instead, if this was your original intent.
Originally, Jesse said he came up with this idea where he would actually do this.
He would keep this cable here, and then he would isometrically contract his chest, and
then turn into it for this really intense contraction.
I went on to correct him and say “Jesse, this is probably the dumbest exercise you’ve
ever come up with” because I said “you’re actually using no chest here.”
Basically, this line here of this cable is parallel to your arm.
Meaning, there’s really no force being directed onto your chest.
So by You spinning like a top here, you’re doing nothing for your chest.
So Jesse said “I’ve got it!
I’ve watched enough of Jeff’s videos.
I know how to copy what he does.
I know how to make my own stuff up.
I’m going to do something different.
I’m going to make it better because I watched your video, and I understand it has to be
perpendicular.
So I can do that.
Jeff, watch.
I learned how to spell perpendicular, and I know what it means.
It means that this line now has to be forming a right angle to the arm.
So I go here, now if I spin like that, look!
Now I’ve got adduction.
And look, now I’ve got tension on my chest because I started with tension, and now I
finished with tension.”
And obviously, as you saw, I proceeded to tell Jesse he still doesn’t’ know what
the hell he’s talking about, and this is why, once again.
First of all, we don’t have – in this position here – we don’t have full horizontal
adduction of the chest.
Not at all.
What we’ve done is, we’ve brought ourselves back up to the point where our arms are straight
out, in front of our body.
But we’re certainly capable of bringing the arm much more across the body to engage
the chest much more, and to create that much more of a full chest contraction.
So there’s strike one.
Second thing: we know that we still don’t have active adduction at the shoulder, affecting
the chest because all we’re doing is, once again, spinning like a top while we’re holding
this one, isometric contraction.
So that’s strike two.
The third thing, kind of where this whole damn thing falls apart is, if I have my arm
in this position to start the exercise, and I’m claiming it’s going to be such a great
exercise for getting a peak chest contraction, I’ve just completely thrown all reason out
with that.
The weight that we’re using for this exercise is going to be determined by our strength
in the weakest position of the exercise.
Meaning, if I have to be out here to start the exercise and hold it, yes, by the time
I get to the peak contraction of the chest I’m able to handle a lot more here.
I’m able to handle a lot more because I had to start with a super light weight in
order to be able to start the exercise in the first place.
I’ll show you why.
If I were to put 10 plates here I can’t even get it off the stack.
But I could hold it out here because I’m a lot stronger in that peak contracted position.
But I’m dictating that the weight that I have to use is light because I have to start
from here.
So it’s completely flawed, based on that.
What we can do instead is actually take advantage of a better knowledge of where we’re strong,
and where we’re weak, and have a better exercise in the process.
So I’m going to show you what that’s going to look like.
So if we’re going to break out the cable machine in the first place, we might as well
train our chest the way we’re actually attempting to in the first place.
That is: you can grab cables like this, come down to the bottom position here, and perform
a fly – if that’s what you’re going for – and get a better resistance that matches
what it is you’re trying to accomplish.
If we wanted to max out the resistance in our peak contracted state, right off the bat
we’d use cables like this.
With the cables, what that provides us is, at the top of the fly – or even this crossover,
if you want to call it that – number one, note that we’re actually getting across
the chest.
Number two: note that we still have peak contraction here, and peak tension coinciding, and overlapping
because the cables allow us to still have tension at the top that dumbbells might not,
and certainly that exercise minimized.
Here, we’ve got that.
Now we can take advantage of the eccentric here, by actually allowing ourselves to go
down, and resist, and resist, and resist.
And if you want to, you can hold the isometric here, down in that position if you were trying
to strengthen that.
Remember, the goal of the isometric training is to take advantage of the fact that you’re
stronger isometrically than you are concentrically.
So you want to take advantage of heavier loads.
Even if the – the good thing about this variation, you guys know I’m not a big fan
of the fly, is that I have a safe bottom here.
I’m not going to overstretch my shoulders and jeopardize the health of my shoulders
in this position.
If we wanted to do that we could, but then we have the benefit of saying “In the hardest
position here, I’m not limited to my strength.”
That means I could use heavier weights because all I have to do is shorten that moment arm
by bringing my hands in, and no I get the benefits of the full adduction by going up,
and across.
So now I’m up and across, I’ve got a heavier weight matching my ability to hold heavier
weights here, in a peak contracted state, and I still have the eccentric overload here.
I have the optional isometric hold at the bottom – if that’s what you were going
for, and trying to include that, that’s fine – but then I can still get another
rep out by shortening that moment arm, and coming here.
As opposed to taking a weight that I could only use, and control here, and saying “All
right, use that.”
Then when I get to the top it’s where I’m limited, and it’s going to be too light,
and too weak for me.
It’s not just bad exercise selection by Jesse, and hopefully keeping him behind the
camera from now on what we really need to do is figure out what we should be doing.
Guys, I hope that I just demonstrated to you why you need to be doing it the way I’m
showing you here.
Of course, there are lots of other options.
If you’re looking to actually train your chest there are many more ways to train it
the right way.
If you’re looking for those, guys, we have a whole channel full of them here.
You can get them in a program over at ATHLEANX.com, in our ATHLEANX training system.
I hope you’ve found the video helpful.
Make sure you leave your comments and thumbs up below.
Let me know what you want me to cover here – not Jesse – what you want me to cover,
and I’ll do my best to do that for you in the days, and weeks ahead.
All right, guys.
See you soon.