Train Like an Athlete by ATHLEAN-X (Video Podcast)

Science based chest exercises should theoretically be much more effective than random chest workouts and pec exercises since they should be proven. In this video, I’m going to show you how to get a bigger chest using a technique that has stood the test of time in the rehabilitation field. Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) utilizes the concept of diagonals when it comes to getting muscles to work harder and more forcefully.

In order to train your chest you need to take the muscle through its full range of motion and provide optimal resistance to the muscle throughout the exercise. We know that the pecs will adduct the shoulder the arm across the chest (acting at the shoulder), internally rotate the shoulder and drive the arm out in front of the body. In its stretched position you would do the opposite. Horizontally abducting the arm and externally rotating the shoulder will put the pecs on a greater stretch and eccentrically position the arm into a ready state to perform the next rep.

Using the concept of PNF diagonals, you can turn your ordinary cable crossovers into something that is much more effective for building a bigger chest. This is due to the fact that you can increase the strength of contraction by doing this and therefore drive more tension into the muscle rep after rep after rep.

If you want to build a big chest you need to adduct against resistance. You simply can’t think that performing adduction at the shoulder without the concentric or eccentric resistance is going to be enough stimulus for growth. It is not the motion at the joint alone, but rather the resisted motion that counts.

The dropping down to the ground during this exercise allows your arm to be positioned in an elevated abduction. This places a greater stretch on the chest due to the anatomy of the muscle and the angling of the fibers out and up. From this stretched position, you can drive the arm out in front of your body while contracting the pecs and pushing the arm across the body. Finish off the movement by simultaneously internally rotating your shoulder and you will feel a contraction like never before.

Not just a chest contraction however, since that can be achieved once again just by placing your arm in the position of adduction across the chest, but rather in a resisted state. Remember, with cable training the orientation of the cable represents the line of force. If it is parallel to the arm (the area controlled by the pecs in this exercise) then you are driving very little force into that muscle. If perpendicular (as it would be at the peak contraction of a cable crossover) then you are maximizing the work done by the pecs and thus stimulating them for maximal growth.

If you are looking for a complete program that puts the science back in strength and allows you to see much faster results because of this, head to http://athleanx.com and get the ATHLEAN-X Training System. No shortcuts. No imitations. Just real science proven with real athletes.

For more science based chest workout videos and science based exercises for building a bigger chest, subscribe to our channel here on youtube at http://youtube.com/user/jdcav24