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The Key to Bigger Pecs (AND HEALTHY SHOULDERS)

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Rating: 4.0; Vote: 1

When you are trying to build bigger pecs and a more muscular chest, you have to do so without compromising the health of your shoulders. In this video, I-m going to show you one postural adjustment you can make on every chest exercise to get more aesthetic development from your pecs without compromising the shoulder joint in the process. It starts with an understanding of the position of the upper arm in the socket and how this impacts your pressing. Your arm can either be titled anteriorly, which is incredibly common due to postural maladjustments, neutral or posteriorly tilted. In order to get your joint away from this anterior position you need to be sure you have adequate flexibility in your pec minor first and foremost. This is covered in another video on this channel where I show you how to stretch your pecs most effectively. Even with a somewhat tight pec minor however, you can still manually make this adjustment by focusing on the position of the sternum during every chest exercise. Likely, you will find that your sternum is angled down and forward before starting even your first rep of a bench press or dip. This is incorrect. You want to get it lifted until the top of it is flat and angled parallel to the floor. This automatically sets your shoulders down and back. It doesn-t just retract your shoulder blades, which is a common misconception of what is needed to get into the healthy pressing position. Instead, it will put your shoulders not just back but down as well which will stabilize the ac joint and give your glenohumeral joint more space to move through superiorly to avoid impingement. This is a very easy adjustment to make and one that can get you feeling the difference within the first few reps. This can be applied to not just the bench press and dip, but the pushup or floor fly as well. The key is that by establishing a down and back position of the shoulders you allow your joints to be more protected while giving you a better mechanical advantage to execute from. This latter point is explained by the position of the insertion of the upper pecs on the humerus. When you shrug your shoulders, the muscle fibers of the upper pecs become more slack and the prestretch capable of producing a more forceful contraction is lost. As you can see, when you are developing your chest or any other muscle group for that matter, it isn-t just the aesthetics that matter but the longevity with which you are training that muscle should matter as well. Both do at ATHLEAN-X and if you head to and get our ATHLEAN-X Training System you will see first hand just how much more successful you can become in your training if you get this right
Date: 2022-04-22

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Comments and reviews: 10

Slider617
Right around the 5-minute mark, you show a part of the shoulder where I think I'm having a muscle strain. the pain is pretty intense and has been like that consistently for over a month now. In the mornings it's so painful that I have to use my other arm to assist the right one to move it/adjust it (specifically when I'm still in bed, but by the afternoon after I've moved it around, it feels a lot better even to the point where I feel good enough to hit the gym. I need some advice or help on how to -fix this- or better myself. Should I stop working out for the time being and go get this X-Ray'd? I went for some massage therapy which felt good, but even now at 11pm I can feel it start to nag me. I know you're not a doctor but you know A LOT about the body and all the muscles, figured I'd ask. Thanks for your time.
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sport
-Muscle-Marker- Tease ALERT!
It's like watching a -highlight- reel w/o the highlights! Wait for it. not gonna happen.
There's even a picture of Muscles Marked! But no -real- Muscle Marker usage during the entire video.
So basically suck in my gut, stick out my chest and arch my back when doing Press movements! Got it.
Still feel a bit jipped.
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David
I don't normally comment but I just had one of the best chest days I've had in a while thanks to this video. I would always try to bring my shoulders back because that's what I was told to do, but I don't think I was getting proper form even then. I focused more on the position of my sternum than my shoulders today and I felt a noticeable difference.
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Jennings
Heck telling us the what without the why can be harmful. I-ve been so mindful of good habits for so long but I didn-t understand enough detail to make the correct change. So I just formed another bad habit. For example, dropping my shoulders back and my head leaning forward. Thanks for the help Jeff!
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Suzy
Hi Jeff, in one of your other videos you speak of shrugging your shoulders forward at the top of the lift to activate the serratus, the -boxer's- muscle. Are you correcting an earlier training tip or is the serratus forward shrug something you can safely do at the top of the lift?
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Paul
Thank You! Jeff. You put so much thought, and effort into your videos, and all for free. Very informative and in the last 8 months, I have made Great progress in my training, using the knowledge I have gained from your videos along with a good diet etc. Thanks from Ireland.
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akanafan
I really like his videos, and is very helpful, but, one thing that I want to see most of the times, is the position of the legs, because I am sure that some times I do one excercise in the wrong way, I hope they read the comments, because this will help me a lot.
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Hulk
Try Ballroom dancing best way to keep posture and shoulder everything aligned and when you train them it will get strong and stay aligned. Trust me I know been involved in Ballroom dancing and professionally and I had posture issues not anymore nor the students
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justmyself1000
If only I knew about this when I was younger! To younger people: PLEASE take this advice! 2 messed up shoulders and I've never had the best bench press. back in the day, we were taught that doing it this way was cheating. Thank You, Mr. Cavaliere!
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Jimmy
Jeff is the most knowledgeable man in the fitness industry. Most of the -experts- and the lies from the bodybuilding industry and magazines is straight horse crap if not dangerous. Jeff is the godfather of the underground natural training movement.
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