Is your chest definition lagging behind other muscle groups progress? When you train your chest does it feel as though you're only tiring out your arms? If so, this article is a must read!
How many times have your arms fatigued before your chest during a workout?
That’s my question to you.
I can’t even count how many times I’ve heard fitness fanatics cry about how their pectorals (chest) aren’t responding to their training program because another muscle group is performing the brunt of the work.
Yes, I’m sure you’re well aware that when you work any particular muscle the goal is to isolate it to the fullest extent. As a result, forcing the muscle fiber to break down to the MAX… leading to the ultimate in results!
However, all I see these fitness fanatics or shall I say ‘outsiders’ do is grind away… set after set on the bench press, dumbbell press or machine press trapped inside their limited cage of thought.
What aren’t they aware of?
How are they missing out?
Well, follow along as I explain how this 1, ‘Little-Known’ Secret Technique can promise to give you the ultimate chest workout of your life!
The Thief:
I’m about to introduce the sneaky thief who’s majorly responsible for your lack of a tighter, shapelier and more muscular chest. This muscle group is robbing you blind and you may not even know it!
But before I do, allow me to explain the mechanics of a popular chest exercise, along with the anatomic parts that move the joints during the lift… trust me, this will explain everything.
The Lying Dumbbell Press
Step 1: Start the exercise by lying with your back on a bench while keeping a right angle in your arms as you hold a pair of dumbbells with an overhand grip.
Step 2: Keep your elbows out to the side as you press the dumbbells up in an arch and over your eyes.
Step 3: Squeeze your chest muscles briefly at the finish position and then lower the dumbbells back to the start.
If you didn’t know already, now you understand the correct form… the mechanics of the movement.
But what joints are moving and what muscles are moving those joints during the exercise?
Specifically, when you rise out of the start position, what you’re doing is flexing the shoulder joints and moving the anterior deltoid (front shoulder) and the pectoralis major (upper chest) in order to accomplish that task.
As you continue to hoist the dumbbells up in an arch above your eyes, it’s then your elbows that begin to straighten and the muscle group responsible for that function is your chest’s worst enemy… the thief… your triceps!
If you’re like most people, your triceps lack a lot of punch compared to the chest in terms of strength.
So, as you advance rep by rep through the set is it your chest that normally fails against the weight of the resistance or the weaker triceps instead?
You guessed it… it’s the triceps!
Unfortunately this doesn’t inspire the greatest results for your cheated chest as workout after workout… week after week… month after month it gets ridiculously robbed.
Ahha!
Now you’re aware and discovered how you’re missing out… so here’s what to do about it.
I’ve been teaching this ‘Little-Known’ Secret Technique to my clients for years now and it’s been allowing them to feel an INSANE burn in their chest unlike anything they’ve ever felt before implementing the special technique.
Also, cutting down their workout time and pumping up their flat chests to a shapely and beautiful degree!
So I’m rolling the red carpet under your feet and revealing…
Pre-Exhaustion!
Here’s what you do.
Instead of starting your chest workout with a dumbbell press, or any type of pressing motion for that matter, begin with a chest fly. <!--[endif]-->
Here’s 3 optional exercises for you;
Flat dumbbell fly
Seated machine fly
Cable crossover
Now let’s take the flat dumbbell flye as an example;
This exercise is very similar to the flat dumbbell press that I talked about earlier on.
Except on this lift your elbows remain bent at a 45 degree angle and your palms face each other.
As you press the weight upwards in an arch to a point above your eyes, your elbows remain bent in that fixed position and because of this they don’t extend and your triceps are almost entirely removed from the motion!
Straining towards the final rep (if you’re working towards building muscle and losing fat then go for 12-17) that you can hardly complete… your chest feels numb… your arms feel very fresh and you toss the dumbbells at your sides.
Voila!
You’ve just pre-exhausted your chest.
Immediately afterwards, you sprint over to the seated machine press… popping the pin into the selected weight and now that your chest is already pre-fatigued and your triceps are fresh… let the games begin!
Come 15 repetitions into the set you are easily able to straighten your elbows but then to your dismay the dumbbells plummet downwards at a lightning quick speed and then you’re stuck in the bottom position and you can’t budge an inch.
Well that’s not what you’re used to.
Normally you fail and stop the set when your elbows are already beginning to straighten.
Congratulations you now know the secret!
… and your triceps are no longer a weak link for you.
© Adcidia™ 2010 (Article99.com)
