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

There are exercises you likely avoid because you either don’t want someone seeing you doing them or you have heard them called “sissy” exercises by other gym goers. In this video, I’m going to show you not only why you need to be doing these but how not doing these is actually holding back the muscle gains that you should be seeing from your workouts.

There are 7 exercises in particular that I’m going to showcase. The first is the much maligned triceps kickback. This is supposedly one of those “muscle shaping” exercises for your triceps that is incapable of building muscle mass. This couldn’t be further from the truth. When you realize that heavy weights are not the only way to add mass, but focused tension to the working muscle then you see how powerful the kickback can become.

Due to the fact that the triceps are being fully contracted through both elbow extension and shoulder extension, the long head of the muscle is maximally hit. Stop avoiding this exercise because you have to use lighter weights to perform it. Instead, try to generate as much tension as you can on every rep and you’ll start to see triceps size because of it.

Next is the angle and devil exercise for your upper back. Here you are likely to use either 5 pound plates or nothing at all, showcasing yet again that heavy weights is not the only key to muscle growth. In this case, it should underscore just how imbalanced the strength is between your front sided muscles like your chest and shoulders and those in your upper back and give you even more reason to make sure you start doing more of these.

The shoulder side lateral raise is another one of those exercises that people tend to want to load up to perform it with heavy dumbbells. The problem is, when you do this you wind up using a lot of momentum and ruining the focus on the side delt head. Instead, what you want to do is drop the ego and the weights you’re using to slow down the reps and force the middle delt to do more of the work. You should feel the incredible burn if you are doing this right.

Next we have to hit the legs and here it is even harder to convince someone to use light weights to perform the exercises. In this case, the exercise itself is a tough pill to swallow since it is one of the classic old school exercises done in Jane Fonda aerobics, the side left lift. That said, you are likely going to be shocked by how weak you are in your muscles in and around the hip. Do 50 of these and see if you can tolerate the burn (or even complete all the reps).

Finally, any exercise using the physioball may come with a stigma of being outdated or ineffective. Neither of these could be further from the truth. In fact, the physioball allows us the opportunity to do closed chain hamstring work without having to risk damage to our hip flexors from doing the standard machine version of the movement. We can also hit the often underdeveloped glutes for a double bonus on the equipment.

If you are looking to get the most out of every single exercise you do and are less concerned about your ego since you’re focused on getting crazy fast muscle gains, then you should start training like an athlete. There are no unimportant muscles in the ATHLEAN-X program available at http://athleanx.com and your body will quickly realize it. Start training like a pro today and watch how quickly you make gains never thought possible.

For more videos on the worst exercises to avoid and the best exercises for building muscle, be sure to subscribe to our channel here on youtube at http://youtube.com/user/jdcav24