Think back to your last weight lifting workout and answer me this one question.
Did you actually lift the weights or did the weights lift you?
Watch this video to see what I'm talking about.
What's up guys?
Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.COM.
That is an important question.
When you're lifting weights, are you actually lifting the weights or are the weights lifting
you?
It's a really important thing guys.
Because I find that no matter what gym I go into, I see more guys getting lifted by the
weights than them actually being in control and lifting the weights themselves.
Now it's a big, big determinate of the type of results that you see because when you aren't
using your own muscles to control the outcome of the movement, a lot of time guys those
muscles are given a break.
And we're not looking for breaks when we're in the weight room.
We're looking for hard work and effort again in a consolidated time.
So what am I saying here?
Let's take one example here.
A shoulder raise, a front shoulder raise with dumbbells, ok.
A lot of times guys will raise them up, ok and then kind of do that.
Ok, It looks ok.
You know by all, sort of, accounts it looks sort of, the way it's supposed to.
But if you were to look a little bit from the side, really what's going on is, after
I reach a certain point,
if I lean back, I'm giving myself the impression that I'm lifting the weight.
But I'm really not.
My deltoids, my front deltoids have stopped doing the work after they got to about here.
Because then what happens is guys, we know we need to get that weight from point A to
point B, which is the end of the exercise and we start to lean backwards, right.
A fixed arm, lean back and guess what?
Now it's up to parallel.
But we didn't do any extra effort to get it there.
So what's really important when you get into the gym, no matter what you're training, stop
thinking about point B and start thinking about how you got there, ok.
That's going to make all the difference in the world.
So when we think of an exercise, like the front shoulder raise, we want to make sure
that when we're lifting,
we're using the front delts to engage not just from here to here but all the way up
to the end.
And then back down, here to here and all the way up to the end.
On this particular exercise what I usually advise my athletes, if they can't do it without
any of that momentum, is to take it away.
And the way we take it away, is we get our weight forward.
If we get our weight forward we can't really come back.
Especially if we do it on our split squat stance.
So I get them again into a more athletic stance anyway.
And then I lean forward and then raise them up forward to parallel and then down.
Ok, up and then down.
Again, there's none of this because I'd really have to cheat to come out of that.
So up in front, here and come down.
Here and come down.
And again, I'm in control, and then down.
Alright, now here's the cool part about that.
Momentum plays a large part in athletics.
When we get onto the field we include our own inner driven strength with momentum and
become pretty powerful people.
All you have to do is look at a guy like Vernon Davis to understand the kind of momentum he
generates.
But I'll tell you this, he doesn't lack the strength.
You can go out there and try to rely on momentum alone and by doing this, all you're doing
is training momentum.
Ok, you're not training muscle strength.
Train muscle strength in a controlled environment, then take it out to the field, and then apply
momentum and you're a pretty formidable person to contend with.
So, that being said guys.
Stop focusing on point B and start focusing on how you get there, from point A to point
B. Quality instead of just accomplishing the goal.
Alright guys.
This is how we train at ATHLEANX.
Ok, even the small things we try to focus on because the small things done well,
accumulate to big things that mean a lot more in terms of results and a lot more in terms
of the speed at which you see them, ok.
So if you haven't already and you want to start training a little bit more wisely, then
come over to ATHLEANX.COM and grab our training program.
Start training like an athlete.
Start focusing on everything, overlook nothing.
And get into the best shape of your life here in 2014.
Alright guys, leave me a thumbs up if you found this helpful.
And if you're one of those types of guys that does this, try that little momentum shift,
that little tweak that I showed you here and you'll see much better results.
Talk to you guys in a few days.