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Be prepared to hear a loud back crack and pop as Jesse gets his upper back mobilized and you learn how to do the same thing to yourself. In this video, I’m going to show you how to restore thoracic extension so that you can stand up straighter with better posture and perform some of your bigger lifts more effectively. The squat, front squat, row, overhead press and deadlift are just a few of the exercises that require that you have adequate thoracic extension to perform them properly. This self mobilization will make sure you do every single time.It start with understanding how the spine is set up. The spine is divided into three different zones; the cervical, thoracic and lumbar areas. The cervical spine consists of 7 vertebrae and runs to about the level of your shoulders. The thoracic spine consists of 12 vertebrae and runs down to about the navel. Keep in mind however, the curve in this area is not all convex. This will be key when it comes to performing this adjustment properly. Finally, the lumbar spine has 5 vertebrae that ultimately meet with the sacrum at the level of the pelvis.When we perform weightlifting, the demands of thoracic extension are high. In order to properly elevate our arms overhead without compensation or maintain a proper posture we have to make sure that we maximize the full available extension through the thoracic spine. Unfortunately, it is quite common that we start to round our shoulders and assume a slumped posture that limits our ability to keep the proper posture when we need it the most.That is where the self adjustment comes in here. You want to be able to push your vertebrae that are in the rounded, flexed position back into extension. You may never actually get into extension with the mobilization but you will be extending them from the flexed position they are stuck in. First, it is easiest to visualize if someone else does it for you.You can see that this is what I’m doing to Jesse in the video. I ask him to lay flat on the floor on his stomach and rest his arms at his sides. This will open up the thoracic spine and get the shoulder blades out of the way to allow for a good spinal adjustment. I feel for the area of stiffness between the level of his shoulders and the bottom of his shoulder blades. I ask him to take a deep breath in and then slowly exhale. While he does, I direct the sides of my hands down and up to create an anterior force which will generate the extension.To perform this yourself, all you need is to have a heavy medicine ball or object that you can place on your chest and a foam roller (a weight plate will do as well, but you just need to remember to hug around the plate to create the space needed in the back when the shoulder blades are cleared). Line up the area of your upper back that feels most stiff and slowly allow the ball that starts resting on your chest to drop over and back down towards your chin. This will drive you into a posterior direction that will accomplish the same thing as the partner assisted mobilization.If you perform this a few times to the areas that are stiff just prior to training, you will find that all of the exercises mentioned earlier will be easier to perform properly and your posture will be much better. If you are looking for a complete program that puts the science of physical therapy back into every workout you do so you get better results, click on the link below to start training like an athlete today.For more videos on joint mobilizations for working out and the best way to loosen tight hip flexors and hamstrings, be sure to subscribe to our channel here on youtube below and turn on your notifications so you never miss a new video when it’s published.Build Muscle in 90 Days - http://athleanx.com

If your hips feel tight when you squat, and you’ve tried every stretch to try and loosen them up and it isn’t working, then you need to watch this video. Here I’m going to show you the real reason why your hips feel tight and what you can do to make your squat better. I will take you through a step by step process for identifying the real root cause of your hip tightness and how to fix the problem without ever having to stretch your hip flexors.We start with an evaluation that can be done at home just laying on the ground. You want to test your range of motion of each hip into flexion, internal rotation and external rotation. While this is easier if you have a therapist to do it for you it isn’t necessary to get the information that you need to move forward. Once you find the restriction in your range you can start to address the issue. In Jesse’s case he has tightness into external rotation of his left hip.This is actually quite a common problem. Hip internal rotation restrictions are also common but more often when the issues are driven by arthritic changes in the hip or from an acetabular impingement that would likely cause a good amount of pain with the testing. If you are looking for things that you can fix more easily however, you will likely find that external rotation is limited.This is especially important when you realize that it is often coupled with a limitation in flexion. The combination of flexion and external rotation is something that is critical to performing a properly executed squat. The first thing you can do is skeletally make some changes to ease the demands on your body. You would want to rotate your legs outward (not just your feet) and take a somewhat wider stance. These will allow the bones in your hip to clear into flexion without experiencing a natural anatomical block.If this improves your range but you still feel issues and tightness in your hips then you want to move to the next level and look at the hip capsule. Here is where most of the restrictions will lie. Try the combo hip external rotation and flexion mobilization shown here and assess how you feel in the squat once again. If you see complete correction then you know you need to work on this more. If you see some improvement but not all then you need to keep going to the point of evaluating the muscles around the hips.The hip has many muscles that cross it or influence its motion. It’s not just the flexibility of these muscles that matters however. You also want to evaluate their strength and their stability. If the hips are tight they are likely getting called to do a job they aren’t supposed to be by a stabile joint that isn’t doing it’s job. The hip tightness is being recruited as a compensation for instability elsewhere, often in the low back. Watch as this unfolds and how to correct this.Finally, you want to check for the intrinsic strength of the hip rotators. You will likely be shocked at just how weak your hips are. With the right strengthening exercises, you will be able to quickly address your weaknesses and get your hips feeling right again every time you squat.If you find this video helpful and think you could benefit from a step by step program that puts the science back into strength, head to the link below and get one of the ATHLEAN-X Training Systems. Start approaching your training seriously like a pro athlete would and you will start seeing the benefits of doing so.If you want more videos to help you correct other hip related issues like anterior pelvic tilt or tight hamstrings, be sure to subscribe to our channel here on youtube and turn on your notifications so you never miss a new video when it’s published.Build Muscle in 90 Days - http://athleanx.com/x/m

When it comes to doing abs, people every day are making some big ab workout mistakes that are making it take longer to see results. In this video, I’m going to show you the biggest ab training problems that I see and help you to fix how you do your ab exercises to get much more out of them. The best part is, the issues shown here can apply to almost every single ab exercise that you do, instantly making them work when you include them into your workouts.The first thing most people do wrong when it comes to training their abs is speeding through their reps. This is obviously something that people do on other lifts as well but it seems to be even more common on ab exercises. You get no points for finishing more reps of ab work. Instead, you get better results when the reps you do are high quality.This is something that we have mentioned many times before in our ab videos and that is, stop counting reps and instead make your reps count. Every rep should be initiated by the muscles of your core that you are trying to train instead of using momentum and assistance from every muscle but the one you want to develop.The next thing people mess up is the tendency to cut the range of motion short on all ab exercises. All you have to do is look at a standard floor crunch to see this in action. Most lift their shoulders off the ground at the very start of the exercise and then never put them back down again until the set is over. That isn’t correct. Instead, take every rep through its full available range of motion (which is already short in most ab exercises) and you will get more out of every set you do.Next is the incorporation of an incorrect breathing pattern on every repetition. It is generally accepted that when you exert yourself on a rep of an exercise you should exhale and breathe out. That is good. The issue comes with what you allow your abdomen or belly to do when you do this. You want to exhale your breathe but pull down on your belly and cinch it tightly to your spine via the contraction of the transverse abdominus muscle. So think not about blowing your belly out as you blow the air out but tightening the waistline as you blow the air out and you will get this right every time on every ab exercise.Next up is the tendency of people to skip oblique training for fear that it will give them a blocky waistline. This couldn’t be further from the truth. As a matter of fact, at higher body fat levels, the upper obliques are actually something that could still be visible and would contribute to a tapering effect of the torso. When the lower abdominal fat is lost over time, the development of the lower obliques is going to give you that much desired V taper that only comes from training the obliques.Finally, we can never talk about getting great looking abs without making sure you realize that your ab training begins outside the gym. Nutrition is and always will be the key to seeing your abs (or not). Start including some calf and jaw exercises into your workouts and I promise you’ll start to see the results of your ab exercises and workouts much sooner. Remember, no ab exercise by itself will ever hold the key to getting a ripped six pack. Only the right nutrition plan combined with smart training will.If you’re looking for a step by step meal plan to go along with your daily ab exercises, head to athleanx.com at the link below and start seeing what it’s like to train like an athlete. For more videos on how to get abs fast and the best exercises for a six pack, be sure to subscribe our channel here on youtube at the link below and turn on notifications so you never miss a new video when it’s published.Build Muscle in 90 Days - http://athleanx.com/x/my-workoutsSubscribe to th

People say that how much muscle you can build is entirely determined by your genes. Could that be true? While the shape of your muscles, and overall skeletal frame are heavily influenced by your parents and the genetic code they’ve passed on that doesn’t mean that you’re destined to a life of baggy shirt sleeves. In this video, I look at a few different formulas that just MIGHT give you a glimpse into your genetic potential for building muscle. One particular test is centered around your wrist circumference.Why the wrist?The wrist is a pretty good objective measurement of your overall skeletal structure. What’s more, the wrist doesn’t store a lot of body fat so even if you go up and down in weight your wrist circumference is likely to remain relatively unchanged.So what’s the test?You start by taking an accurate measurement of your wrist then add 10 to that number. That should give you the genetic potential for you upper arm. These formulas go even deeper into ‘predicting’ your maximum body weight. That’s right, there’s a formula that supposedly can predict your overall size potential. To get that you would simply take your height in centimeters and subtract 100. That gives you your max potential body weight at a 6% body fat. For those in the US, convert to pounds by simply multiply the number by 2.2What if you’re not at 6% body fat?There’s a formula for that too, just add 10lbs, or 4.5 kg, to that final number for every additional 2% of body fat that you’re storing.Tests like this are a lot of fun to do, especially when they prove to be accurate, but does that make scientific? At ATHLEAN-X we put the science back in strength, with that said, these type of formulas are fun but I wouldn’t put TOO much stock in the answer. Either way it shouldn’t make you feel deflated about your own potential. No matter what your genetic make up is, I’ve never met an athlete, soccer mom or average joe who wasn’t able to make their body look, feel and move a whole lot better with the proper training and nutrition. Does that mean anyone can be the next Arnold, Dwayne The Rock Johnson or Antonio Brown? Unfortunately no.If you’re 5’9 with tiny bone structure there’s no amount of training that’s going to turn you into one these iconic monsters, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make significant improvements to how you look. Growing up I knew I didn’t have the genetics to be the next Arnold, so although I admired his physique and work ethic I looked to others. Guys like Sylvester Stallone, Frank Zane, Jean Claude Van Damme and others all built iconic physiques on frames much more similar to my own. If you take away anything from this video I hope it is that anyone can improve their body, movement, and the way they feel. If you have a good work ethic, a good training program and a clear goal, anyone can make that change. I say it all the time, if you change your body, you’ll change your life! When you are ready to make that change and take your body to the next level, be sure to head to http://athleanx.com check out the ATHLEAN-X Training System. You can start building a ripped, athletic body regardless of what you feel is lacking right now.For more videos on how to look, feel and move like an athlete be sure to subscribe to our channel here on youtube at the link below…Build Muscle in 90 Days - http://athleanx.com/x/my-workoutsSubscribe to this channel here - http://youtube.com/user/jdcav24

The 90’s were known for bodybuilders that rocked Zubaz pants, fanny packs and even sunglasses in the gym. Beyond that however, there were some ridiculous training programs, beliefs and practices that we all would love to forget in addition to the fashion. In this video, I’m going to cover the 8 things we don’t miss at all about nineties bodybuilding and what we can learn from these mistakes.We start with excessive spotting. It seems that no matter where you turned in Gold’s Gym, somebody was getting spotted through an exercise. Heck, even if you didn’t want one someone was always willing and ready to give you a lift no matter what you were doing. Whether it was curls, bench press, or even tricep pushdowns, someone was there to help you lift the weight and do at least fifty percent of the work for you. Today, your muscles are better off for your move to independence. Let’s keep it that way.Next, it only takes a brief skimming of one of the most popular bodybuilding magazines of the day - Ironman Magazine - to see how too many sets were being prescribed in every workout. They literally had us doing 29 sets for chest on a Tuesday and then coming back on a Friday to finish up with another 31. That is just pure insanity. Today we have learned how more is less when it comes to balancing out the quality of the training you do with the time it takes you to do it.It gets worse however when you look deeper into those marathon workouts. For shoulders for example, it was not uncommon to be asked to perform 7 different variations of side laterals alone. From standing side laterals to seated side laterals to even machine assisted. I’m not saying that there is anything particularly wrong with any of the variations, it’s just that we certainly didn’t need to include them all in the same workout.Moving on, the anabolic window is something that took an even longer time to fade away. In fact, to this day some still believe that the critical 30 minutes post workout is all you have to get your nutrients in or forever waste an opportunity to feed your starving muscles what they need to grow. This simply isn’t true, especially if you have eaten within a couple hours prior to training. The protein your body is still digesting from your meal prior to working out is still available and ready to help you after you’re done lifting.The next thing that had us a bit hesitant to jump on a treadmill and do anything but walk slowly was the fear of cardio eating up your muscles. Now, a fitness regimen consisting primarily of long endurance activities at the expense of heavy explosive lifting will definitely craft a body that is less impressive. That said, a little cardio here and there is not going to hinder your ability to pack on muscle and will actually help you to get to a level of leanness that will show off the results of your hard work even a little bit more.As for the local gym “pharmacist”, it seems that every gym had a creep like this. Even when you did your best to avoid him around the gym itself, he always seemed to appear when you were just trying to get changed and get home after another hard, unassisted workout. Turn down his offers and you might just get a first hand look at his drug induced rage.Finally, while I believe that functional training has gone way too far there was a time in the 90’s when bodybuilding did everything it could to be anything but functional. Every exercise was performed on a machine and the very thought of having to do something with your own bodyweight without being strapped to some contraption was nothing but inferior training. Thankfully times have changed.As you can see, there were quite a few pitfalls that you wanted to avoid if you trained through the 90’s bodybuilding era

If you want to build bigger rear delts, the first thing you need to do is stop doing reverse dumbbell flies with light weights. In this video, I’m going to show you the fastest way to bigger rear delts by properly overloading the muscles with a better exercise alternative. As a matter of fact, we are going to use a traditional back exercise to get the job done most effectively.First, you want to start by looking at the function of the rear delt. It is best activated by getting the upper arm into extension behind the body. Some take this to mean horizontal abduction (or the opposite of the horizontal adduction that happens with chest fly exercises). The issue is, if you anatomically move the arm back behind the body into horizontal extension with the elbow straight you actually limit the range of motion at the shoulder joint and therefore the activation of the rear delt.Instead, what you want to do is realize that by bending the elbow you are going to be able to extend the arm much further back behind the torso and therefore get better recruitment of the posterior delts. What this leads us to is the fact that the seated row is a much better way to build bigger rear delts. That is, if you perform it with some slight tweaks that I’m going to discuss here.The first thing you want to focus on is what attachment you are using to do the exercise. A lot of people will use the close handled v grip. This is a mistake when trying to build bigger rear delts, or even lats for that matter. The handle constrains your elbows to your side but more importantly limits the amount that you can get your humerus back behind your body.The handle will make contact with your stomach much sooner than it would if you had swapped to using even a straight bar as an alternative. The short straight bar however reveals the second limitation that needs to be considered. That is, because the hands cannot be spaced far out on the bar, the elbows will be forced to stay tight to the torso into adduction.This is one of the primary functions of the lats. If you keep the arms tight to your sides you are going to shift more of the workload to the lats rather than the posterior delts. We can fix this however by using a wide bar (like you would use on a lat pulldown) and spacing our hands far apart. The setup will demand that your elbows drift away from your sides and place more of the load on the rear delts in the process.Throw in the fact that the heavier loads capable of being used on a seated row are much more substantial than the light dumbbells being used in a rear fly and you can see how much easier it would be to progressively overload the rear delt and cause faster growth. The rear delt is always relegated to being the weakest of the three heads and somehow only able to handle light weights. This is simply not true. Just like the front delts and middle delts, heavier weights can be used for great benefits if you know how to use them safely to target the muscle you are trying to grow.If you are looking for a complete step by step program where you train like an athlete to start looking like one, head to the link below and start building ripped athletic muscle now. Stop taking a casual approach to your workouts and start training with the focus of a pro athlete. Great results await you.For more videos on how to build big rear delts and the best dumbbell shoulder exercises, be sure to subscribe to our channel here on youtube and turn on your notifications so you never miss a new video when it’s published.Build Muscle Fast - http://athleanx.com/x/my-workoutsSubscribe to this channel here - http://youtube.com/user/jdcav24

It doesn’t take long to get “bigger” muscles if you know how to improve the muscularity of your physique. In this video, I’m going to show you 4 workout techniques that you should start implementing into your training right now to start seeing fast changes in the way your body looks. With Summer just around the corner, you are going to want to use these tips to get bigger muscles quickly.It starts with the realization that you don’t have to actually grow bigger muscles in order to have bigger looking muscles. This has to do with the key difference between muscle size and muscularity. This is good news however since making true muscle gains at any appreciable rate becomes much more challenging the more training experience that you have.Beyond that, ultimately your genetics are going to have something to say about the size that you can eventually become. No matter how hard Jesse trains he is never going to be a 300 pound beast unless he figures out a way to go back in time and choose different parents. That said, when you realize the advantage in training for muscularity you can quickly see new changes with not much having to change at all about your current workouts. It comes down to the following four workout strategies for building bigger looking muscles. Make sure that you apply these to your accessory lifts and not necessarily your big compound strength movements. Keep your foundational training the same and incorporate these as an adjunct to increase the rate of muscle gains and muscularity you see.First, you want to make sure that you limit the amount of momentum you use in your lifts and make your muscles do the work instead. This can easily be seen in the example of a side lateral or front shoulder raise. If you swing or bounce the weights at all you are likely to shut down the amount of work being done by the very muscles you are trying to hypertrophy. Drop the weight you are using and make sure that every rep is being initiated and controlled by the delts and not only will they be doing more of the work at the end of the day but you will see size gains because of it.Second, stop counting reps and start making reps count. You can do this by not worrying about just getting the weights from point A to point Z but by enjoying the journey from B to Y on every single rep you do. In the case of the crossover, you don’t just want to get your arm across your body to engage your chest but you want to appreciate the benefits that additional internal rotation below shoulder height and keeping the shoulders back can have on increasing the output and gains seen by the chest as a result.Thirdly, you want to learn how to squeeze every rep as if it’s the only one you are going to do. Don’t worry if you are going to have anything left in the tank for the 12th rep. Instead, focus on getting the most you can out of the rep you’re doing and let the rest take care of itself. I apply this to the lat pulldown and you can see even additional muscle fiber recruitment as you squeeze and hold from the first second to the last.Finally, in some cases the working muscles will actually do more work if you let the muscles around them help them to do so. In the case of the dumbbell curl, the activation of the abs is going to help stabilize the body and give the biceps more leverage from which to pull from. Likewise, the activation of the chest and lats is going to prevent the elbows from drifting and cheating the work the biceps are doing, therefore giving them more stimulus for faster muscle growth.If you find this video helpful, you will love the way our complete programs help your body to see fast muscle gains by training like an athlete. Start putting the science back in your strength and conditioning workouts by heading

I’ve been saying it for some time now, “You need to do your face pulls!?” and it’s still 100% true! Face Pulls are one of the best exercises to help offset your poor posture, shoulder dysfunction and a host of other issues you likely face. While the face pull is simple to perform I’ve seen a lot of examples of people doing it incorrectly which will diminish the results you could be getting.Because of the angle of the movement it’s important to use the proper equipment, I recommend a band or cable machine as the line of resistance can be better controlled. These implements also offer the proper strength curve which is important. One of the most common errors I’ve seen when performing the face pull is the placement of the anchor point of the band, or the area of origin in the case of a cable machine. In order to properly target our rotator cuff and not turn the movement into a bastardized row or shrug we need to ensure that the anchor is positioned above your head. Often I see people pulling from chin level or even worse, chest height. This positioning puts too much emphasis on the muscles of the upper back almost removing the rotator cuff from the movement. Another common error is grip. Athletes should use an underhand grip as opposed to overhand. While performing the face pull it’s also important to make sure that you are taking a strong, stable athletic stance and leading with your hands and not your elbows. You never wants to lean backwards as this allows the lower back to contribute. If you find yourself doing this fault it’s likely because you’re making another common error… using too much weight. The weight you use on the face pull should be enough to get meaningful contractions in the target muscles for building strength but not so much weight that you need extra momentum or backward lean in order to move the weight. This is NOT a power move or an opportunity to demonstrate your strength. If you’re finding it hard to put your hands first, check out the video for a great tip you can perform from the floor to ensure you’re doing it right. Once you’ve mastered the basic face pull you can start implementing some modifications to help make the exercise even better. One of my favorite modifications is to perform the hands up (think over head pressing movement) at the end of the pull. Performing your face pulls this way engages all the muscles we want but also brings the lower traps into the mix to get them some much needed attention.Wether you’re going to perform the standard face pull or a modified version it’s important to do them correctly so you can get the results you want.if you’ve been following me on YouTube I don’t need to tell you when to perform this exercises…the answer is simple….everyday. That’s correct. The face pull is so important and gives attention to such under used muscles that you can perform it every single day.While there are no magic bullets in the pursuit of fitness and athleticism the face pull is as close to one as we’re going to get. People who properly perform the movement have reported improved posture, elimination of neck, back and shoulder pain as well as a reduction in chronic headaches. Wether you’re training for size, strength or to look good on the beach you always want to stay healthy so throw in some face pulls at the end of your workout. For a complete training program that not only trains you with the right accessory exercises to take your gains to another level faster, be sure to click on the link below to head to http://athleanx.com where you can start training like an athlete today.For more videos on everything from strength and building muscle to fat loss and pain relief, be su

Even if you’ve been performing the best lifts and exercises for muscle growth, you may not be seeing all the gain you should be from your training. In this video, I’m going to show you the 6 best lifts you can add to your main foundational strength exercises to get much more from them. You have to remember, you are and always will be only as strong as your weakest link. The goal of this collection of movements is to show you how to strengthen those weak links once and for all.We start with the deadlift. One of the hardest parts of this exercise is the initial break of the bar off the ground. It is literally why this movement is called the deadlift since this requires that you are able to perform this from a dead stop without momentum. The ability to do this well is going to depend on your ability to drive force into the ground through your legs and to have strength and stability in your upper back when you pull.If you find that you are not able to drive through the ground with force, you will want to start incorporating heavy dumbbell lunges as an accessory movement in your leg training. The lunge forces you to have to push hard through the foot into the ground to not only drive the weights you are holding but your entire body back up to a standing position. You want to handle heavier weights than you are used to in order to get the most carryover to the deadlift.On the other hand, if you are able to generate good force through your feet but cannot maintain the stability of your upper back through the initial pull then you need to do something about this. I found that the chest supported barbell row was one of the most helpful accessory exercises I could do to improve this. By removing the legs from the equation, I learned how to be able to pull heavier weights with just the strength of my back, so that when the legs were added back in as during the deadlift, I was able to pull significantly more weight as a whole.The squat is another movement that can be aided with the right accessory lift. Here you want to figure out a way to strengthen your glutes since they need to be the main driver and initiator of the upward lift of the bar from the bottom of a squat. The weighted hyperextension is a great way to do this.To improve your ability to do the overhead shoulder press you want to consider just how much your body will rely on your feet and legs if you give it a chance. Even if you are not doing a push press and are trying to be more rigid with your form by performing a strict press, the ground reaction forces initiated during any standing variation of the press is going to incorporate the legs too much. In order to get stronger in the OHP you would want to sit down and perform a Z press as shown to isolate the strength of the shoulders.The video wraps up with discussions of how to improve scapular strength for the pullup by doing weighted scap pulls as well as the face pull for improving pretty much every lift you do. The main point is, there are big lifts that you should be including in your training in order to compliment the heavier compound foundational movements in your training. Doing them both will make your performance on the big lifts improve that much faster.For a complete training program that not only trains you with the big lifts but shows you the right accessory exercises to take your gains to another level faster, be sure to click on the link below to head to http://athleanx.com where you can start training like an athlete today.For more videos on how to get stronger and the best way to perform a deadlift, be sure to subscribe to our channel here on youtube via the link below and turn on your notifications so you never miss a new video when it’s published.Build Muscle in 90 Days - htt

The demise of the bench press has been greatly exaggerated. In this video, I’m going to show you how the deficiencies of the bench press as an exercise are easily overcome and therefore are no reason to avoid the exercise all together. There have been many to say that when it comes to building muscle, bench pressing is inferior and incapable of doing a good job. I disagree and I’m breaking out the muscle markers to prove my point.That said, it begs to reason that we would start with a discussion of the main function of the chest at the shoulder. The movement called horizontal adduction is what the pecs are most responsible for. This is the act of bringing the upper arm from a position away from the midline of the body to a position closer to the midline of the body.This does not have to cross midline or even reach midline to be considered horizontal adduction in the same way that bending the elbow just a little bit during a curl is still elbow flexion (albeit not full flexion of the elbow). This brings us to the question of whether or not the bench press is training the key function of the chest at all. Many people that concentrate on only what the forearm is doing when the arm is moving will say that the arms are not horizontally abducted during the bench press and therefore not working the chest as well as it should (or at least not as much as the shoulders and triceps).That is false. If you look at the demonstration of the upper arms in both the bench press and the crossover you will see that the mechanics are very much the same. The only thing that is slightly different is the amount of range of motion that the upper arm is going through into adduction during the movements. There are other differences however that need to be considered. While the range of motion of shoulder adduction are less in the bench press than they are in the crossover, the amount of weight that can be loaded during the bench is superior. This means, that you are able to overload the chest more effectively with the bench despite its shortened range.That doesn’t have to be the end of the argument however. Since we know that full chest activation can be achieved by performing loaded horizontal adduction across midline, we can simply opt to compliment or accessorize the bench as the main lift with a few sets of crossovers for max chest recruitment. This is something we have covered here before by including some high to low or low to high crossovers after your main bench work for the day.Those that use the range limitations are selling this exercise short and not understanding the full picture. In much the same way, the deadlift is an exercise that we all will readily agree is capable of building a bigger, stronger back. However, if you look at the range of motion of the lats and other back muscles in the lift they are surely not being brought anywhere near the limits they are capable of by acting on the joints the muscles cross. This doesn’t hold back the movement from being a gains producer however.The bottom line is, you have to define your training goals. If hypertrophy is your main goal then you will want to find ways to make sure you leave no gaps in your training. Perform the complimentary exercises to fill in range gaps or strength curve gaps. If you are simply looking to build strength in the bench press, as a competitive powerlifter however, seeking ways to expand the range beyond what would be needed for the lift is unnecessary.If you’re looking for a program that will help you to build muscle and get ripped like an athlete, head to the link below and start training with the ATHLEAN-X Training Systems. Start seeing gains faster by training harder and smarter in the next 90 days.If you’re lo