ATHLEAN-X™

The one thing every skinny guy trying to build muscle will tell you is, it’s not easy. In this video, Jesse from ATHLEAN-X is going to take you through some of the successes and failures during his muscle building transformation that have gotten him to where he is now and are setting him up for greater mass gains in the near future. If you are not aware of Jesse, you likely haven’t been watching the videos on this channel for very long. For those who are seeing him for the first time, it takes a glimpse back in time to appreciate just how far he has come with his body. Jesse started at just under 130 pounds of body weight. He was painfully skinny and very weak.Beyond that however, Jesse had a history of head trauma that prevented him from leading a normal life and certainly made it difficult to engage in physical activity without repercussions. As a youth lacrosse player, he suffered multiple concussions which left him with severe post concussion syndrome and he was forced to stop playing all together. The risk of another concussion was too high and it was feared that any additional head trauma could lead to permanent brain damage.As he began his quest to try and build muscle while still maintaining the athleticism and all around performance ability he had on the field, he was met with complications from exertion during lifting. Even the slightest amount of stress, strain, overtaxing of the body during a lift would leave him with a headache. Sometimes, he would even black out during a set which became an incredible risk to his health considering he would be doing this with weights in his hands or on his back.Doctors forced him to scale back his training greatly while they helped him to identify the exact causes and triggers of his issues and how to better prepare for them over time. He essentially had to rebuild from the ground up. Not to mention, along with the neurological issues, Jesse brought with him a host of postural imbalances and dysfunction that further contributed to his disability and made proper form lifting a challenge.Over the last couple years, he worked very hard on overcoming the postural imbalances that were holding him back. The fixing of his pelvic tilt, neck, rounded shoulders and thoracic extension limitations were key to getting him to function better everywhere, not just in the gym. In addition, while the body was being fixed the aggravation of his neurological symptoms was improving as well. Ultimately, in February of this year he was cleared to begin increasing the exertion of his training.In just the last few months, Jesse has added a considerable amount of weight to his lifts and is performing them with good form and solid control due to the removal of compensations from his movement patterns from his early restricted work. His legs have grown in size and he is noticeably bigger in all areas of his physique. As you will see, he still has some things that he is struggling with while building muscle. Namely, his love of endurance training and long distance running combined with a healthy eating plan that makes it difficult for him to consume enough calories to put on extra muscle.The bottom line however is, he is on the right track and continues to be a motivational figure for any skinny guy who ever struggled putting on muscle. The sky is the limit for him now that he is able to push himself in his training without restriction. I fully expect him to keep getting stronger, bigger and maintain his overall athleticism while continuing to be able to enjoy the athletic endeavors that have driven him to where he is today. We will all keep rooting for this skinny guy to keep overcoming the issues that have once held him back.For a complete plan where you too can make a step by step transfor

If you’ve been around any gym or online forum these days you’ve likely heard that training volume is the key to all muscle growth and gains. In fact, of every other element of your workouts, the amount of training volume you accrue over a single workout or multiple workouts is supposed to be the main driver of muscle growth and size. In this video, I’m going to debunk the value of volume. In fact, I’m going to show you how volume can be almost entirely negated in the absence of something far more important - training intensity.Much like functional training was the buzz word of the early 2000’s, volume has become the equivalent for 2019. We have been led to believe that simply adding more sets and time to our workouts is going to equate to faster and more significant muscle growth. This has led to an epidemic of people spending more time than ever in the gym, getting far less results than ever before.Not to mention, with all the additional volume being misdirected towards their joints and tendons there are more people gaining aches and pains from their training than they are hypertrophy. Why is this? Because accruing volume for the sake of volume is one of the biggest mistakes you can make in your workouts. The best thing you can do is trade in some of that volume for intensity if you really want to see increased muscle mass and development.As it is, I believe that many people in the gym simply don’t train hard enough. The adoption of volume as the driver of gains and the focus of many people’s workouts is something that easily fits that narrative. Rather than work harder with less, all that is required to obtain more volume is time. If you have additional time to spare, you can add more sets to your workouts. That said, the only way you are going to add more intensity is with more effort. Effort is something that will not come easy. Effort is going to demand that you look for ways to intensify the state of your workouts. Adding paused repetitions, reducing rest time between sets, pushing to actual failure at least a few times during your workouts are all things that are going to require a higher level of output and effort than simply adding more time.If you want to see greater muscle growth from your workouts you are going to have to be willing to push harder. What winds up happening when you trade in workout length for intensity is that you see what science has shown and that is, even as little as 4-10 productive high effort sets is all it takes to elicit a muscle hypertrophy response from your training. There is no need to spend hours and hours in a gym trying to get results when far less time is capable of doing the same.If you are looking for a program that shows you how to train hard and not have to train long, then click on the link below and get the ATHLEAN-X Training System that best matches your goals. Start training like an athlete and get more out of your workouts every time you step into the gym.For more videos on how to build muscle fast and the right way to split your workouts for maximum muscle gains, be sure to subscribe to our channel at the link 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/x/my-workoutsSubscribe to this channel here - http://youtube.com/user/jdcav24

Dumbbells do not have to be a sacrifice when it comes to building bigger triceps. In this video, I’m going to show you the best dumbbell exercises for triceps to fit any goal you may have with your training. If you’re just looking to build the strength of your triceps, want to make them more powerful and explosive or just build them bigger and add size I’m going to show you the best exercises you can do to accomplish each.We start as we have in this entire series with the strength exercise. Here we have a tie between two exercises, the close grip dumbbell bench press and the weighted upright dip. Different than in the swap between a barbell and dumbbells in the traditional chest bench press, the narrowing of the grip allows far less torque and resultant stability demand to be placed on the shoulder joint during the cgbp. This keeps the weight high enough to let you still pursue strength on the lift.Likewise, on the upright dip, we can simply swap out plates for a single heavy dumbbell as the resistance with little to no drop off. The ability to progressively overload this movement is easy and therefore very conducive to those looking to build strength in their triceps with nothing but dumbbells.If power if more your goal, then the JM Press is a great option. The ability to initiate the movement with your elbows driving your triceps into position rather then the triceps overcoming the inertia on every rep is a significant advantage. An object in motion will tend to stay in motion. Getting the dumbbells moving will allows the triceps to kick in and explosively keep them moving up to the top of the rep. No sacrifice of the weight used needs to be made here and the built-in additional acceleration makes this a great dumbbell power option.If hypertrophy and bigger triceps is the goal and you feel as if you have used up your newbie strength gains to drive this, you can always focus on an exercise that will eccentrically overload the muscle. This is where the lying dumbbell triceps extension with a forced negative only rep finisher is bet. The position of the arm back behind the head throughout this exercise allows for a greater stretch on the long head of the triceps and the best stimulation of the triceps eccentrically.There also can be gains made through the use of lighter dumbbells and a metabolic training effect. Here we showcase a bodyweight combination that is performed in descending ladder fashion that actually uses the dumbbells as props to keep the wrist in a healthy and neutral position. Alternate between reps of seated floor dips and close grip pushups for a great burn and an opportunity to resist it for tricep muscle gains.Total body options from the modified overhead extension thruster to correctives like the dumbbell devils are additional exercise selections that will hammer the triceps and help to achieve a secondary benefit as well. It depends on the goal of your training.Finally, in order to fully shorten the triceps muscle you must at some point load the triceps in a position behind your body with the elbow straightened. This is the only way to place the muscle in a maximally shortened position. Now, while you may not be able to handle very heavy weight here it does not mean that you should avoid it. In fact, you need to do this if you want to stimulate maximum triceps activation. The dumbbell kickback is the best dumbbell option here by far.If you are looking for a complete step by step workout program that will help you to put the science back in strength and already selects the best exercises for each muscle group of the body, be sure to click the link below and sign up today to start training like an athlete with any of our plans.For more videos on how to build big

Have you been told that strength is everything when it comes to seeing gains from your workouts? If so, you are making the biggest workout mistake you can be making and you’re definitely going to want to watch this video. Here I am going to address the big fat strength lie that is more rampant now than ever before. Now, don’t get me wrong. Strength training is and always will be the cornerstone and the focal point of your workouts. That said, doing this without focusing on the roots of that strength is going to lead you down a troubled path.So you may have been told that strength is the most important element you want to address in your training. Without it, everything else will suffer and therefore you need to make sure you are maximally strong at all costs. While being strong is crucial, building strength on a weak foundation is one of the biggest workout mistakes that you can make. The key to building true strength is to realize that just like a tree, you’re only as strong as your roots.In the world of training this means that if there is something that can be impaired that takes your strength away from you, then the strength is not the foundation. Much like a tree may look strong above the ground, if you examined below the surface and saw weak and dying roots that tree is not going to be standing for much longer - no matter how big and strong it may appear.So what you need to focus on is prefacing your strength progression with a solid base of full flexibility, mobility and stability. Now many people will look at this and say to themselves that they are getting it right because they are doing at least 30 minutes of mobility work and stretching before they work out. That is not necessarily even a good thing. Why? Because if you are just adding additional range of motion to a system that is not stable, then you are going to be even more likely to break down and commit this devastating workout mistake.Stability is not strength. It is a form of strength that is not measured by the contractile force of a muscle but rather the ability to control the contraction throughout the range of motion (and even at both extreme ends of it). In the example of a squat, a person that is incredibly stable will be able to perform the squat and pause at the bottom of the rep. Beyond that however, they need to be able to return to the top in one piece without desegmentation of the body on the way up. They need to be able to not have their knees drift in or out, or their hips waver side to side at any point.When one is maximally stable, they are maximally efficient in their bar path during the squat and have no wasted motion. Their rep speed is unhindered or unslowed throughout the entire range of motion. This may mean that you need to drop the weight that you are using a bit in order to realize this level of control. If so, then do so. The goal is not to simply chase numbers at the expense of your stability. Working on your mobility and flexibility as well are going to be vital to getting through a full range of motion and commanding the true strength you do have along the way. If and only if you do this will you ever realize your true strength without risk of incurring injuries like hip labral tears, low back blowouts and unnecessary hip joint and muscle pain.If you are looking for a program that overlooks nothing in the way the workouts are put together and puts the science back in strength from the first day to the last, then head to the link below and get the ATHLEAN-X Training System that is best matched to your current goals.For more videos on how to squat more weight and the best workout to improve strength, be sure to subscribe to our channel here on youtube and turn on your notifications so you never m

In today’s video we look at the best dumbbell exercises for biceps. We’re going to focus on several areas of training: from strength, to power as well as hypertrophy and a few others you’d expect along with the best way to train the brachialis muscle of the upper arm, which supports the size and appearance of the biceps.First we cover strength. The key, just like in our chest video, is that there are two non dumbbell exercises that fit perfectly here and that is the barbell curl and the weighted chinup. As we know from the dumbbell bench press however, there is a drop off in the amount of weight you can lift when you move from a barbell curl to individual dumbbells. That is, unless you split them up into alternating arms. Here your core doesn’t have to work as hard to stabilize the upward motion of the dumbbells and you can handle more weight for an easier progressive overload.That said, I don’t believe this is the only option when it comes to building the strength of the biceps. I would suggest you also do the weighted chinup. Unlike the barbell bench to dumbbell bench however, you don’t have to experience a drop off in the weight you use just because you switch from weight plates to a dumbbell. Just hook the dumbbell up the way I show you and you are all set and ready to perform the weighted chinup and load up the biceps for growth.Next we focus on power. The element of speed is critical to maximizing the effect of power training for our biceps. Here as well, you want to try and find a way that you can release the load during the repetition to realize true power development. The best way to do this is with the weighted plyometric chinup. The goal is to explode your body up and over the bar with a quick catch and release of the cross bar. If you cannot handle the additional weight around your waist, use the dumbbell as a step up to the bar.The goal, as with any power development training, is to stay sub maximal in your effort and focus on moving as much weight as you can control with an increased rep velocity. If you find that the weight you select is so heavy that you have to either cheat the form too much or you cannot maintain proper speed, lower the weight used and start again.For hypertrophy you want to explore eccentric muscle damage. The best way to do this is with the seated incline curl. Pick up a pair of dumbbells and curl them but don’t forget to actively contract the triceps at the bottom of every rep to enhance the stretch reflex and strength of contraction on the biceps. You can see me do this on every rep in the video demonstration. Once you reach failure, one of the most effective things you can do is take the reps beyond. You can do this with an eccentric only rep performed by sitting up at the end of the bench and then slowly lowering your body and the dumbbells back down.A slight variation on this is shown to achieve a metabolic stress as well. Here you want to establish a burn in the working muscle and try to keep it there for as long as possible. I use an additional position that allows me to get some drag curls in at the end of the combination to do this really well.We always want to keep an eye on the correctives on this channel as well. In the case of the biceps, we focus on maintaining health of the elbow. As anyone who has had issues with medial elbow pain while curling or doing any pull movements for that matter can tell you, it can hamper your ability to get results. Remember to load the dumbbell deep in the palm of your hand to avoid overstressing of the distal finger tendons. This can be achieved through either a dumbbell wrist curl if you can handle lighter weights only or a carry if you are up to the task of heavier weights.Included are a few other ex

The pushup is one of the most popular exercises in the world. Every day, hundreds of thousands of push-ups are done in gyms everywhere, and unfortunately many of those reps are wasted. In this video, I’m going to show you the biggest mistake people make when performing this popular chest exercise and how you can easily and instantly fix it for better results.What most people do when they perform pushups is they set a target number in their heads or at the very least, concentrate on counting the reps as they perform them. Different than most other exercises, this one becomes one that has the counting of the reps become the major motivator, and the more of them you do supposedly the more you get out of the exercise.This couldn’t be further from the truth. In an attempt to make the numbers go up, what often times happens is the range of motion used on the exercise becomes shorter and shorter. Even if this is just by an inch or two at the top and bottom of the exercise, the impact this has on the effectiveness of the exercise is significant. Not sure you believe me? Fair enough. Let’s try it out for yourself. Take whatever number you think you normally do on the pushup and use that as your benchmark. Now, do the exercise as I show you in the video. Take a nice steady cadence from rep one to the last. No slow down of the exercise is allowed at all. The second you notice a decrease in rep velocity it ends your set, as if you couldn’t complete the rep at all. Now, make sure at the bottom of the rep that you touch your chest firmly to the ground (without letting go of the tension completely) and fully extend your body back up to the top by locking out your elbows. You may notice that you only have an extra inch or two of motion at the top of the exercise to get you into full extension, but that is fine. Normally, this is not a large movemeent that needs to be made, however it is very impactful in terms of how much more it will take out of you to finish the set like this.It is not uncommon for you to see a 60 percent drop in your performance on a set of push-ups by just making these two simple switches. Don’t worry. It’s not about the number of reps that you can count up, it’s more important that you make the reps you do perform count. Stop focusing on just racking up junk rep after junk rep and worry about getting the ones you perform to work the muscles you’re trying to work as hard as possible.The pushup can be a great exercise for developing the chest, triceps and shoulders. It is something you can perform anywhere without any equipment at all, and as you’ll see, get much more out of it in a shorter period of time if you trade in the length for some intensity. I saw a humbling drop from about 100 reps of pushups to 40 just by implementing the changes I showed you here.If you’re looking for a complete step by step program that focuses on the details when they matter, knowing how much faster you can see results when you do, then head to the link below and get the ATHLEAN-X Training System. Start training like an athlete and see the difference it makes to the muscular body you can build when you do.For more videos on how to do pushups for a bigger chest and the best pushup variations for building a big chest, be sure to subscribe to our channel on youtube below and turn on your notifications so you never miss a video when it’s published.Build Muscle in 90 Days - http://athleanx.com/x/my-workoutsSubscribe to this channel here - http://youtube.com/user/jdcav24

In today’s video we look at the best dumbbell exercises for chest. We’re going to focus on several areas of training: from strength, to power as well as hypertrophy and a few others you’d expect along with the best way to train adduction of the chest muscles.First we cover strength. The key here is that we actually have two non-dumbbell exercises that have their own benefits and those are the bench press and the weighted dip. While both are fantastic moves for building bigger pecs (as well as shoulders and triceps) there is a unique advantage that the dip has when you convert it to a dumbbell only option that the bench press lacks, and that is maintained stability and better carryover of the load.Since strength training should be focused on safely lifting heavier and adhering to progressive overload you do not want to not have to sacrifice shoulder stability if you can avoid it. When moving to the dumbbell version of the bench press you will often find that your shoulder instability from holding separate dumbbells is going to undercut your overall strength to a much greater degree than what would happen with a dip. Strap a dumbbell up to a dip belt and keep pushing the heavy loads that are already additive to the weight of your own body.Next we focus on power. The element of speed is critical to maximizing the effect of power training for our chest. Here as well, you want to try and find a way that you can release the load during the repetition to realize true power development. If you chose a dumbbell bench press and opted to accelerate the weight as fast as possible you would find that your body actually inherently slows the weight down as you approach full extension as a protective mechanism for the joints and to prepare for the next rep.Performing an explosive plyo tap pushup allows you to fully express your power by accelerating through the rep, unhindered by the length of your arm as in the bench press.For hypertrophy you want to explore eccentric muscle damage. The best way to do this is with the floor fly. Pick up a pair of dumbbells and press them to the top as you would with a normal bench press. Then slowly lower them as in a fly, concentrating on the eccentric lowering of the weights to put the stress on the pecs. Because you can cheat the rep to the top and don’t have to worry about the health of your shoulder because of the floor, you can actually use heavier than normal weight here to maximize the muscle growth effect even more.We always want to keep an eye on the correctives on this channel as well. In the case of the chest you can use your dumbbells as a method of lightly overweighting a chest stretch. Here we want to stretch the pec minor, which is a muscle that can get tight and pull your shoulders up and forward which ruins your posture and shoulder integrity when it does. Lie on a foam roller and place your arms in the position shown with the dumbbells in your hand to get a nice stretch on the pec minor and prevent tightness from occurring.Included are a few other exercises to emphasize adduction of the arm with dumbbells, which we know is a key function of the chest that doesn’t get hit with just bench press, pushups and dips. Also, a total body option that reinforces the mechanics of the thoracic spine that has carryover to other areas of our training as well.Give these exercises a shot whenever you don’t have access to the standard barbell moves or just want to an extra challenge. If you are looking for a complete program that will help you to not only build strong, muscular shoulders but also develop a complete athletic body, be sure to hit the link below and grab one of the ATHLEAN-X Training Systems.For more videos on training, be sure to subscribe at

Here’s a home workout that will take you just 10 min to do that will make you feel as if you’ve been training for an hour. The key to workout effectiveness is intensity. I say it all the time, you can train hard or you can train long but you can’t do both. In this video, I’m going to show you a 10 minute home workout that requires no equipment at all and will give you an incredible conditioning effect.The key to the success of this home workout is its simplicity. Simple however does not mean easy. What I’m referring to is that the complexity of the exercises themselves (both in the number of them and the mechanics and coordination required to perform them) is not difficult. The ability to perform the workout without a high effort however is not possible. You need to be committed to working if you want to see the results from this.What I have done is make sure that we are meeting the minimum requirements of training like an athlete in this workout. That means, that we want to make sure we are training in all three planes. Too often, our weight training focuses on performing movements that exist almost solely in the sagittal plane. Without training or moving in the all important frontal and transverse planes as well, we are not training athletically and are setting ourselves up for developing muscular and strength imbalances.The key to this workout is that it is something that you can do anywhere, without any equipment at all.Each of the three exercises in this home workout are to be performed for one minute straight. Choose the ability level that most accurately matches with yours. You can do this at the beginner, intermediate or advanced levels.The three main exercises in the workout have a variation for each level. Mostly, the differences in the exercise variations are determined by the speed at which you perform the exercise. For instance, in the case of the mountain climber, beginners can deliberately step into each rep while the most advanced can sprint through the reps.The goal is to complete 3 straight minutes of work at a level that challenges you the most. It is ok if you want to vary the ability levels across the three exercises in this home workout. For instance, you may be great at mountain climbers and want to do them at more of an intermediate or advanced level but have a hard time with the kickthroughs because your current training has led to weakness in the transverse plane, and therefore want to do this at a more beginner level. Whatever you do, choose the levels that challenge you the most.At the end of each round of the three movements you will earn a 30 second rest. Repeat for two more rounds with another brief bout of rest in between the second and third. This will result in a total workout time of 10 minutes.Try this with your friends and see who can last longer. Again, this is a simple workout but by no means is it easy. I’m expecting that your heart will be pumping and you will be sweating by the time these 10 minutes are over. It shows you once again that you don’t have to train for a long time if you want to see results. You just have to be willing to put up a good effort.Recapping, the exercises in this workout are as follows:Minutes 1, 4, and 7 - Mountain Climbers with beginner, intermediate and advanced modifications.Minutes 2, 5, and 8 - Skier Hops with beginner, intermediate and advanced modifications.Minutes 3, 6, and 9 - Side Kickthroughs with beginner, intermediate and advanced modifications.If you are looking for a complete step by step program that shows you how to train like an athlete and gives you daily meal plans to get you ripped and muscular like one as well, be sure to click the link bel

The squat is one of the most important exercises you can include in your leg training. That said, if you experience knee pain while doing it or just don’t have the strength you think you should with this staple leg exercise, then you need to watch this video. I’m going to show you one thing you need to do before any squat that will instantly help you decrease knee discomfort and put more weight on the bar as you realize your true strength.The effectiveness of this relies on the dysfunctional recruitment of the posterior chain (namely the glutes and hamstrings) that most of us have from muscle imbalances we have developed over time. When you perform a squat you need to be able to load the muscles on the back side of our bodies to handle as much weight as we are capable of. All too often, we tend to shift the load too much to the anterior chain muscles which winds up hurting our knees and limiting the amount of weight we can lift.There are two major requirements of a properly performed squat biomechanically. You need to have proper amounts of knee flexion and hip flexion. One without the other can lead to one ugly looking squat. That said, if you can marry the two and optimize the contributions of each you are going to have a squat that is not only capable of handling maximal loads but is going to do so as safely as possible on your joints.That said, since we know the squat is a glute driven movement it makes sense that in order to neurologically wake up the posterior chain we would want to perform a quick warmup with an exercise that does so directly. In this case, it’s a weighted glute bridge or a barbell hip thrust depending on your available hip range of motion and level of training experience.I like to start everyone on the floor if they have not done this exercise prior to squats before. The key to the effectiveness of the movement is that it trains the glutes to be the primary driver of hip extension while working in concert with the hamstrings (which is their secondary function). With both the knees and hips in flexion, we are better mimicking the true function of the lower body during the squats.When you perform your weighted bridge you want to be sure that you are feeling the hinge take place in your hips. A lot of times, the proprioceptive awareness of what true hip hinging should feel like is lacking. This leads to an overreliance on the quads to try and take the brunt of the load on the squat. After performing the bridge however, the glutes are more prepared to allow the posterior loading of the body during the descent. Likewise, the hamstrings are more alert to their role as eccentric controllers of hip flexion during the down portion of the squat and are therefore more capable of giving you stability that you have not had.On the way up, the activation of the glutes provides you with keys to the ignition of the main driver of the ascent on the squat. While the quads are important for getting out of the hole, it’s the glutes that are primarily responsible (with their immense strength capacity) for getting you up and out with minimal disruption to your bar path. Those with weak glutes will demonstrate ugly looking squat form out of the whole. Often times, these guys and gals will lurch their bodies forward, raising the hips and shifting the load to their low backs to compromise for their weaknesses in the glutes. Over time, this will lead to chronic low back pain and is completely avoidable.A couple sets of 6-8 reps of the barbell glute bridge or barbell hip thrust with a 4 second hold at the top is enough to warm up the body to perform the squat to your maximum potential. Neurologically this will allow you to tap into strength reserves you never knew you had all while building up your

In today’s video we look at the best dumbbell exercises for shoulders. We’re going to focus on several areas of training: from strength, to power as well as hypertrophy and a few others you’d expect.First up is strength.While I truly believe the barbell overhead press is the best choice there are reasons why you may not be able to perform the exercise. Injury, lack of access to equipment are just a few. Just because we don’t have a barbell doesn’t mean we have to go without getting the benefits of this great movement. In order to get the most out of the dumbbell option, make sure you perform this exercise standing and not in the seated position. The seated overhead dumbbell press interrupts scapular rhythm and provides a ‘cheat’ in the form of added stability from the use of a bench. The strict dumbbell standing press is a great exercise for building strength but don’t be surprised when the added stability challenge requires you to use less weight than what you can on the barbell version. Our next category is power. For power I love the jammers or viking press. The problem with them is that most people don’t have access to the required equipment. Even many commercial gyms lack the proper tools for these exercises. We can get a similar training effect by performing the dumbbell push press. When performing this move be sure to hinge at the hips and get your legs involved for added power. As always power training should be kept to around 7-8 explosive, crisp reps. This is not a move you want to take to failure.As we move on to hypertrophy we look to one of the most effective techniques used for achieving muscle growth, eccentric overload. We combo up cheat lateral raises with a more strict version of the lateral raise. Cheat lateral raises allow for eccentric control with the heaviest weight while the more strict version allows you to train not just too failure but through failure which provides increased intensity that will assist with stimulating growth.Next up is metabolic training. Again, we utilize the concept of training through failure by using the metabolite build up to induce muscular stress. Perform a mechanical drop set going from move to move without stopping. This creates a significant lactic acid build up. The specifics for this can be seen in today’s video.For a total body movement there was a toss up between the thruster and the power clean over. Since I like the aspect of going from floor to overhead I chose the latter, plus it’s a little more explosive than the thruster. Short on time? Do a few rounds of the power clean over… it will crush you!As you’ve come to expect from ATHLEAN-X we always have an eye on injury prevention so I’d be remiss to not include a corrective exercise for shoulders. For our corrective exercise I chose the prone floor press. It has very similar mechanical elements to the face pull and works all the muscles of the inter scapular/posterior upper chain.Since you can never give enough attention to your rear delts, I also included a great move to target them directly. The rear delt row was a top consideration but for me, the Urlacher ties in the rear delt and rotator cuff. That one, two combo sealed the deal in choosing the final exercise.Give these exercises a shot whenever you don’t have access to the standard barbell moves or just want to an extra challenge. If you are looking for a complete program that will help you to not only build strong, muscular shoulders but also develop a complete athletic body, be sure to hit the link below and grab one of the ATHLEAN-X Training Systems.For more videos on training, be sure to subscribe at the link below and turn on your notifications so you never miss a new video when it’s publishe