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If you want to build big biceps then you need to stop only focusing on doing curls. In this video, I’m going to show you how to build bigger biceps by turning your body into the resistance and performing a variation on the popular chin up exercise to turn up the heat on your arms and get those gains coming again.One of the absolute favorite exercises in the gym is the weighted chin up. I believe it is one of the best exercises for packing size on the biceps while additionally being one of the best and most challenging pulling exercises at your disposal. That said, there are a few things you can do to the standard chin up that will turn it into more of a biceps driven exercise than a lat driven one which will help you to see much faster gains on your biceps in the near future.The first thing you want to focus on is your grip. Obviously, with this being a chin up and not a pull up you want to grab the bar with an underhand grip. That said, the most important thing you can do at this point is establish the proper width of the hands. Anatomically, we want to try and match the angle of the elbow and hands that is preferred when the arm is placed into full elbow flexion (like we would be at the top of a curl). This means that the hands are to be placed slightly outside the width of the elbows.Since you cannot move your hands during the curl as you could if you were doing this with a pair of dumbbells, it is important that you establish this first before even doing a single rep. You will know if you are doing this right since you will feel a more intense contraction of the biceps when you get to the top of the chinup than you would if you didn’t set up the right grip first.Next, you want to bend the wrist back slightly and be sure to grip the bar deep in the palm of your hands. This modification helps to take the forearms out of the exercise so that the biceps can do more of the work. The key is to keep the bar deep in your hands however so as not to overload the middle deep finger flexors, which can lead to medial elbow pain quickly if you forget to do this.Now, as you lower and raise your body to the bar there are two things you want to be sure you do. The first is, you want to maintain an open angle of the elbow at the top. Too often, people confuse the cue to “get the chin over the bar” as something that you need to do while bringing your body close to the bar and your chin to the other side. This is incorrect. You only want to get your chin higher than the bar but you need to maintain distance away from it so as to keep tension on the biceps in that more closely approximated 90 to 120 angle of the elbow.Second, in order to do this you will find that you will likely have to arc your body as you bring it up on each rep. This should mirror what that barbell does when you curl it up on a standard barbell curl. Obviously, the bar does not travel in a straight line up and down on every rep. Instead, it follows a definitive arcing pattern. You once again cannot move the pullup bar, but you can relatively move your body in relation to the bar to mimic the same mechanics at the joint and take advantage of the varied strength curves throughout the exercise. This exercise will build your biceps faster than any other because it is progressively loading you in a way you are likely not used to at the moment. Though the lats do contribute to the performance of this exercise, you will be forced to handle fairly heavy loads since you will have to lift your own bodyweight. The percentage of work done by the biceps will often be higher than it would be if you were to try and apply the load through a standard barbell curl.Give this a shot and if you are looking for a complete program that will help you to not only bu

The plank is one of the most common core and ab exercises performed every day in ab workouts. The problem is, there are a lot of mistruths about the exercise that simply are not to be believed. In this video, I break down the truth about planks so you can separate the fact from the fiction when it comes to what this exercise is actually good for.We start with the claim that this is a great core stability exercise. While the plank certainly is an exercise that requires you have stability from the multiple muscles of the core (not just the abs) it is only challenging that stability in one plane - the sagittal plane. I would argue that what is much more important is that you have the ability to prevent and control motion in the rotational plane than front to back. Therefore, there are better options for core exercises that you can do to promote this rotational stability while at the same time getting on your feet. It is well accepted that training on your feet has much more athletic carryover and is something that should be a goal during your ab workouts.Next, some will say that the plank is great for developing and strengthening the glutes. This is simply not the case, on multiple levels actually. Firstly, there is no progressive overload (or significant load of any kind for that matter) on the glutes during the plank. In fact, directly the opposite is true. If you were to relax your body at the top of a plank you would find that your body comes crashing down to the floor. This is due to a deactivation of the hip flexors, not the hip extensors or glutes. Actually, if you were to contract your glutes while laying on the floor, your hips would be driven even further into the floor rather than lifting them back up to the top.What really happens is that your hip flexors contract through the contact points of your toes on the floor to lift your body up into the plank position. This is an antagonistic muscle action to glute activation and something that actually sets you up for more problems down the road as I’ll discuss in a minute. Some will say that you can squeeze your glutes hard at the top of the movement and really feel it. Squeezing is contracting but contracting under load is a whole new challenge. The contraction that occurs at the top of a plank is not contraction under load.When the hip flexors become overreliant or dominant over time from this imbalance, it tends to have implications on the lower back. We know that overly tight hip flexors in the presence of weak glutes will not be good for long term low back health. The exercise that you are doing that is supposed to be fortifying your lower back could actually be doing more harm than good when this is realized.Finally, people will say that the plank exercise is great for posture. Somehow, performing this core exercise is going to promote good posture of your upper back and shoulders. You are told that you want to tighten up your torso and create stability through the scapula by squeezing them together. Once again, this is an artificial tightness that is nothing more than a contraction of the rhomboids and traps without the presence of significant load.Now, you can address each of the flaws of the plank and perform them under a progressively overloadable resistance by flipping the plank over into a reverse plank. I demonstrate the importance of the movement and how it can be scaled from rank beginner (by performing it over the top of a bench) to more advanced (performed straight out on the floor) depending on your strength. If you were performing the plank because your core was weak however, be prepared to be shocked at how much weaker your posterior chain is than even that. We simply do not train this side of our body enough.If you found this video hel

Do you have a forward head or slumped posture that you wish you could fix? If so, you will definitely want to watch this video. I’m going to show you how to fix a forward head and rounded shoulders the right way by focusing on what is really causing these problems. Here’s a hint. If you followed other posture correction videos for a forward head you likely never fixed the root of the issue and only did a temporary solution.When trying to correct any issue in the body, it is good practice to not focus on the site of the issues when looking for the solution. Instead, you need to look for the source. For instance, when it comes to fixing the position of the head and neck you cannot just look at the muscles that surround the area for the answer to your problems.This is especially true if you realize that the neck is just a portion of the spine. The spine is an incredibly long structure that has elements in the neck, mid back and lower back. Doing anything to a region of the spine down below is going to have repercussions on the levels above by virtue of the fact that it is one big interconnected chain.That said, the positioning of the neck into a craned position is often the result of a compensation of the eyes to make sure we are looking straight ahead. When the thoracic spine is excessively curved below we wind up rounding forward, with our head following. This takes our eyesight line down towards the ground. The craning of the neck back to horizontal is simply a reaction to the position of the thoracic rounding and not necessarily something in need of fixing directly.The same can be said of the lumbar spine and pelvis. If you place your pelvis into posterior tilt, you will affect the position of the thoracic spine as well. This is once again due to the connectedness of the entire spine as a whole. The key is to try and break this pattern up. You want to reverse the excessive posterior tilt and restore lost extension into the thoracic spine. When this happens, the cervical spine will often times correct itself. To work on doing this you will want to do the exercises shown here. First, to mobilize the area of the thoracic spine that is most restricted while at the same time establishing proper pelvic position you would do the bench mobility combo demonstrated. From here, you want to hold the position for a minute which is going to provide not just mobility to the tight areas but an isometric challenge to the deep flexors of the neck which tend to get weak over time from adaptations of the faulty posture.If you’re just beginning, one minute three times per day of the first variation is enough. If you are more advanced you can place the arms overhead for more of a thoracic mobility challenge. Finally, the most advanced can add a weight plate to the front of the head for additional neck flexor strengthening.Finally, you want to reinforce the corrections you make with the use of a face pull overhead raise. The addition of the overhead raise helps to hit the lower traps which will restore normal positioning of the shoulders and correct the forward rounding that promotes the neck adapatations in the first place.For a complete program that puts the science back in strength, head to the link below and check out the ATHLEAN-X Training Programs. Train like an athlete and overlook nothing in your workouts and nutrition.For more videos on how to fix anterior pelvic tilts and the best way to get perfect posture, be sure to subscribe to our channel 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

If you have ever wanted to be stronger, more ripped or feel less achy and beat up from your workouts then you are going to want to watch this video. In it, WWE Superstar Sheamus shares the steps he took to transform his body and lose over 40 pounds in less than a year. From changing his training to the nutrition approach he used to fuel his hard workouts, see what was done in this one on one interview.As you can imagine, the entire process starts with a defining of your specific goals. For Sheamus, he was at a crossroads. He was torn between wanting to continue bulking up and taking on a look more similar to Brock Lesnar. I advised against this. Not only was this not necessarily something I felt he could replicate, but I didn’t think it would be the best long term plan to achieve what it was that Sheamus was looking to accomplish.The decision was to train for more athleticism while losing weight and changing the focus of his weight training to be more focused on quality over quantity. This included the use of metabolic circuits that utilized some foundational compound exercises along with the built-in correctives needed to address the multitude of imbalances that had been created over the years.Nutrition was focused on creating a caloric deficit and being the main driver of the deficit (rather than trying to do that all with cardio or conditioning). As Sheamus points out, it is important to be aware of how much food you are eating since even great food choices eaten in significant excess can lead to extra body fat deposition. That said, when smart food choices are made, it becomes much more difficult to eat in calorie surplus due to the nutrient density of these options.The mindset is also an incredibly important hurdle to overcome when trying to get this process right. Many people in his shoes might have a reservation of “losing size” for fear that they will lose muscle in the process. This absolutely does not have to be the case. If you include enough strength maintenance work throughout the training and adequately feed your trained muscles enough to ensure their recovery, the loss of muscle mass is not only diminished but eliminated.What you are left with is a better conditioned body at a lower body fat level with a preservation of strength that keeps you feeling peaked. There does not have to be a trade off of muscle density or appearance when losing fat either. As a matter of fact, the better scripted your training plan is the more easily avoided this consequence of trading unwanted fat can be.As always, the key to keeping these gains and improvements for the long haul is consistency. Here again, Sheamus is positioned to do this much more easily than others since his plan to get here wasn’t based on short term deprivation or temporary fixes. Everything he has done to this point has been something that he can do for a lifetime since it is part of a lifestyle that has now become almost second nature.If you want to build a strong, ripped, more muscular looking body without feeling banged up and beaten up by your training then it’s time to start training like an athlete. Head to the link below and start training with the ATHLEAN-X workouts. Each one includes a complete meal plan and nutrition plan as well as step by step workouts to get you looking, training and feeling like an athlete.For more transformation videos and the best body transformations tips for workouts and nutrition, 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

The Push-Up is one of the most commonly performed exercises in the gym, unfortunately it is also one of the most often misperformed exercises. In this video, I’m going to give you a step by step checklist to make sure that you are nailing every piece of the pushup correctly so that you get nothing but gains and avoid the pains that come from doing this wrong.The first thing that is helpful to do however is to see the similarities between the pushup and the bench press. If you visualize the movements, they are essentially the same in terms of the mechanics of the press except one is done with a barbell as the resistance and the other utilizes your own bodyweight.If you work your way from the top down, you will want to be sure that you’re fixing each area of the chain that could present a weakness. It starts at the head and neck. When you bench press you want to avoid pushing the back of your head into the bench as you press the bar up. This often occurs as people try and generate a counter force to the bar being pressed away from them. On the pushup the head is often driven downwards. The reason here however has more to do with visually trying to cheat the rep. Making your eyes think they are closer to the ground than your body actually is. In either case you want to keep the head in neutral throughout the exercise.Next is the shoulders. It is important on both the bench press and the pushup that you unshrug your shoulders prior to starting the repetition. This puts your shoulders in a better position and with less likelihood for impingement. It also naturally helps to correct the position of the elbows during the descent which is something that we will cover later.The next place to focus on is the upper back and scapulae. You need to realize just how important this area is if you want to perform a bench press or pushup with maximum force generation and stability. Just as you would not attempt to perform a max vertical jump off of an unstable base like sand, you would not want to try and press from one either. The stability of tightening the shoulder blades and squeezing them together is something that can improve the force with which you can push off of them. Be sure to tighten yours and keep the bar over this area at the beginning and end of every rep.Finally, the last set up checklist item is the activation of your glutes. On the push-up in particular, this will create a rigidity in your entire body that will make the transfer of force much more efficient and less likely to be lost at any point in the press. Really squeeze your glutes tight or drive your feet into the floor if you are pressing and you will find that you instantly increase the strength you have on the lift.When you begin the press the most important thing you can do is focus on the position of the elbows as they relate to your body. Instead of letting the elbows flare out to the sides be sure to drop them from the horizontal about 30 degrees. This will once again protect your shoulders and actually put you into a more biomechanically strong position to push from.Finally, the bar path is critical. Most have heard that the path of a bench press is straight. That is true but that doesn’t mean that it is straight up and down. To perform a bench press properly you want to press on an angle, from low on your chest to back up directly over the position of power and stability that we talked about already. Pausing at the bottom of each rep here will reinforce that you got here with control and not momentum.The details like this matter no matter what exercise you’re doing. If you’re looking for a complete program where we put the science back in strength on every exercise to create the best results you are capable of, head to

When it comes to building big traps, it starts with making sure you’re not forgetting to train two thirds of the muscle you’re trying to grow. In this video, I’m going to show you a huge trap workout mistake that many people make, and it winds up costing them the overall size and development of their trapezius muscles.The first thing you want to do is make sure you understand what the traps muscle actually encompasses before you start training it. Because the muscle is essentially divided into three zones, due to fiber orientation changes along the belly of the muscle, you realize that a straight up and down shrug is not enough to hit the entire muscle optimally. The traps are comprised of an upper, middle and lower portion. These are aptly named because of the orientation of the muscle fibers of the muscle belly within each of these zones. Since we always say here on this channel how important it is to follow the fibers when you are trying to optimally train a muscle, you want to be sure you have exercises and strategies in place for doing this in your traps training.Since the upper traps are often times targeted with shrugs, most people who lift do not need to get any additional coaching on what exercises to do to hit this area. For those that do however, be sure to watch our traps workout videos here on this channel for more science based exercise options for how to do this properly. The important thing to note however, is that overdevelopment of the upper portion of the traps at the expense of the middle and lower will create muscle imbalances that feed into shoulder dysfunction and faulty posture over time.This is something you definitely want to avoid. For this reason, many times I will not directly program exercises for the upper traps specifically into my programs. I know full well that performing the heavy compound lifts like the deadlift, row and carry are an incredible way to build bigger thicker upper traps without having to add in specialty exercises on top.That said, you can perform these big compound moves and still be lacking development in the other two thirds of the muscle. So, when you want to effectively target the middle fibers of the traps you should really look into performing the wrap around row exercise shown here. This should be done with the elbows bent to minimize the action of the rear delt and make the scapular retraction come primarily from the middle trap fibers.Likewise, if you don’t focus on specifically trying to target the lower traps then you are likely to have weak or undeveloped muscles in this area. The prone dumbbell press is a great exercise option for hitting this area. The key here is not to focus on the amount of weight that you are lifting. Instead, focus on the quality of each contraction. These lower trap fibers are usually very underdeveloped and need your improved mind muscle connection in order to flourish.Keep the weights low but the tension high and you will find that your overhead pressing mechanics will improve as well as your shoulder safety as this gets stronger.If you are short on time and want to use one exercise that you already should be doing already, then you have the option of the face pull press modification. This is an absolutely tremendous way to train your traps without having to add in many additional sets of separate exercises. Perform the face pull as you normally would and then add the additional overhead press to engage the lower traps. The act of pulling back on the cable or band alone is enough to fire up the middle and upper traps into the exercise.For a complete step by step program that guides you through every workout with the same science applied to exercise selection as in this video, head to the lin

These 6 muscle building techniques and mindset tips will help you to grow bigger muscles no matter what decade you trained in. In this video, I’m going to show you some of the greatest principles that you should apply to your workouts to get the most muscle gains out of your hard work. We will dip back into the strongman era and show you the most effective movements and strategies that have stood the test of time up to today.We start by looking at the common thread of using ground based compound movements as the basis of training. It doesn’t matter which exercise you look at, the strong men of old performed most of their feats of strength with both feet planted firmly on the ground. There is a good reason for this. When you are lifting and want to be athletic, you want to spend as much time performing ground based, closed chain movements as possible.Exercises like the squat, deadlift and clean are all performed off the ground. The feet have the opportunity to generate force into the ground which then transfers up the kinetic chain and across multiple muscles and joints. This symphony of movement is something that allows us to hit many muscles at once and allows us to maximize our strength output and progressively overload most effectively. When we are looking to build muscle, we know that progressive overload and getting stronger is one of the ways that we will be able to do this most effectively.Next, we also realize that training bilaterally alone is not enough. Real athletes and strength coaches realize that the benefits of unilateral training cannot be ignored. Training one side at a time not only helps us to address muscle imbalances hidden by the bilateral movements but to challenge the core more significantly during the exercise. These exercises also allow us to challenge planes of motion that normally don’t get incorporated by always training in the same plane.Bodyweight movements are also critical to creating a complete physique. It isn’t enough to just get strong. You need to be able to apply that strength to moving the most important weight that you’ll ever lift - your body. This is where calisthenics and bodyweight exercises come in so crucial. You want to be sure to include some bodyweight exercises into your workouts and I will show you some examples of that here.Finally, you want to be sure that you are not overlooking the value of isometric exercises into building muscle. While the action of an isometric alone is not necessarily a significant muscle hypertrophy stimulus, it is the impact they have on muscle fiber recruitment and the efficiency of this into any other big exercise that you perform that holds the real impact these exercises can have on your muscle gains. Learn to recruit muscle better into your big lifts by not forgetting to include isometrics into your complete routine.From a mindset standpoint there are two other points worth mentioning. The first is, don’t approach your workouts like exercise, but rather as training. The difference between the two lies in the purpose behind it. If you are just drifting from workout to workout without a plan, then you are exercising. If you are following a path and know where you want to get to, the you are training. The second is no matter how you slice it, there is no escaping hard work. The only formula that will ever matter is that consistency plus intensity equals results. You cannot skip scheduled workouts and lack consistency and think you should get great results. Likewise, just showing up is not enough. If you lack intensity in your training then you will never see the gains you are trying to achieve.If you are looking for a complete workout program that puts the science back in strength and shows you how wh

This 10 minute leg workout will bring you to your knees quickly. The effectiveness of this three exercise circuit is that it has a cumulative metabolic training effect that is perfect for testing your will while also training your legs athletically. If you want to train like an athlete, you need to include ground based leg exercises (not leg extensions) and get your hips and legs to work together as they should.This requires good hip mobility as well as proper loading mechanics through the quads. The exercises of choice here are the barbell front squat, reverse dumbbell lunge (which provides a critical unilateral exercise option as well) and the grueling “walk the box”. The goal is to proceed through each of the three leg exercises without resting. Each of the exercises is performed with a slightly different loading pattern. This acts as a mechanical drop set that enables you to keep going even when fatigue sets in and mounts. The first exercise, the barbell front squat, is capable of being loaded the heaviest of the three. In this particular video and workout, with the Uso’s and Sheamus preparing to wrestle later that night, we opted to keep it on the lighter side. This is the spot however that the heavier leg exercise could be performed and would be done in the 6 to 8 rep range.Next up is the dumbbell reverse lunge. The reverse lunge provides for an effective stress on the quads due to the upright positioning of the torso while saving the knees (particularly for those who have patellar tendonitis and other knee inflammation). You want to perform 10-12 reps on each leg in alternating fashion here making sure to drop back deep enough to keep the quads on the front leg loaded up.Finally, once again without rest, proceed to the “walk the box” exercise. This is deceptively hard. It looks like a simple bodyweight leg exercise that requires you only have to walk in a square a few times. That said, placed at this point in the circuit and throw in the added requirement of having to keep your arms overhead and therefore test your thoracic mobility and extension, this one can be brutal.The goal here is to stay as low as you can without compromising the positioning of your spine. This will be difficult, especially as you fatigue in your quads. Next, you want to make sure that you are aware of the mobility of your hips as you do these. Don’t just slide from left to right or front to back. Instead, aim to open up the hips and externally rotate them with the step backs and step forwards. Loosen up the groin and sink deep into the hips with each step and with each susequent round to reap the most benefits from this exercise.The entire circuit is to be performed 3 times through. This is only the first part of a complete anterior chain focused workout. For the upper body pulling and pushing anterior chain workouts, be sure to head over to Celtic Warrior Workouts at the link below and subscribe while you are there. The remainder of this series is there as well as some other incredible workouts featuring ATHLEAN-X and other WWE Superstars. I highly recommend you do check it out. The specific workout in question is also linked as well.If you are looking for a complete step by step workout program that trains you like an athlete so you can look like an athlete, head to the link below and get your ATHLEAN-X program at athleanx.com. Start training exactly like a professional athlete today with the exact same workouts and programs.For more leg workout videos and exercises for your legs, be sure to subscribe to our channel here on youtube at the link below and be sure to turn on your notifications so you never miss a new video when it’s published.See the Other part of this video

Whether you’re trying to gain size, strength or both there are a few tried and true exercises that will get you there. Any coach worth his or her salt will tell you to stick to the basics, big compound lifts that put the muscle through its full range of motion while allowing you to move maximal weight. The problem is, for most gym goers, they’re choosing the right exercise but they’re making some mistakes which can not only hinder their progress but ultimately lead them down a path to injury.First up is the squat. Referred to as the ‘King of All Exercises’ the squat is a fixture in almost every program. Yet, walk into any gym in the world and you’ll see people performing it wrong. One mistake that almost always slips under the radar is that little hip tuck that happens at the end of the movement. This is a common error on the deadlift as well. You’ll often see people throw their hips forward going into posterior pelvic tilt in an attempt to exaggerate lock out. Ditch the hip tuck from both of these movements and you’ll be glad you did when you avoid a potential injury down the road.Next up is the barbell row. Perhaps one of the greatest back thickening exercises around, the row is a staple move that everyone should be doing. The mistake happening a lot with the row is improper hand placement. By simply moving your hands closer together you’ll be able to not only stay tighter, but also get much stronger contractions and recruitment from the muscles you’re trying to train. You also have to adjust your elbow positioning otherwise you’re moving out of the scapular plane and putting yourself at risk of getting shoulder dysfunction. By narrowing the grip you are not only able to stay in the scapular plane but you’re also able to maintain overall tightness plugging up strength leaks and allowing you to lift more weight. While there are a million variations of this great exercise the error pops up in almost all of them. It has nothing to do with what implement you use or even how much you swing the weight…but don’t swing the weight! The mistake made on the lateral raise goes straight to hand positioning. We’ve all been taught to ‘poor out the pitcher of water’ when doing lateral raises. That is, start with the thumbs up and then lower them at the top of the movement. The problem is, that motion does nothing to stimulate the medial delts and serves almost no purpose but to put your shoulder into impingement. Instead of doing this the old school way, do your shoulders a favor and point your thumbs up. Not only will you receive the same benefits but you’ll also keep your shoulders safe and functioning properly. Shoulders take a beating in the iron game, there’s no reason to go out of your way to beat them up even more!As we come to a close on our list of the 7 mistakes made on common exercises we narrow in on the triceps. One of my favorite exercises for hitting the triceps is the lying triceps extension. This also happens to be the one that people mess up the most. The error in this movement comes right out of the gate at the starting position. Typically people will begin with their arms perpendicular to the floor which is the perfect angle for gravity to pass right through and put almost 0 stress on the muscle. You’ve probably noticed when you perform this exercise that you’re able to stay at the top position with almost not effort… that’s why! The fix here is simple enough but once you apply it, you’ll never feel the same about this exercise. By moving your arms slightly close towards the floor you are able to start the movement with the triceps in a fully contracted position with all the weight (courtesy of our friend gravity) applying force on the intended target.. your triceps! From there

NFL Prospect Wide Receiver D.K. Metcalf is the talk of the combines after registering a 1.6 percent body fat level and showcasing a combination of athleticism rarely seen. In this video, I’m going to answer the question of whether or not I believe this body fat reading to be accurate, and even more importantly, healthy for a competitive athlete.When you initially look at D.K. you realize that he is certainly in incredible shape. He has a level of muscularity not often seen in other wide receivers and nobody would argue he has low body fat levels. The question is, whether they are to be believed to be at such an incredibly low level such as 1.6 percent fat.When you consider the preferred method of testing in the NFL Combine it becomes apparent quite quickly that the reported number is likely not accurate. You see, the combines have been using the Bod Pod to determine body fat levels for almost 13 years now. This form of fat analysis relies on volume displacement of air (very similar to the underwater testing being a volumetric measurement of water displacement). The data is collected and the body fat level is determined by a serious of mathematical calculations, not actual limb by limb measurements. The accuracy of these readings can error by as much as 5 percent body fat. When you consider that this could apply to the measurements Metcalf received you realize that this could take his body fat levels all the way up to between a six and seven percent fat.Just this season, the NFL started to use the DEXA scan as an additional measurement of body fat in the competing athletes. While more accurate due to the data being determined by a series of specific measurements, there is still a margin of error here and the data is more comprehensive making it more diffitcult to easily spit out a quick answer. To this point, this in depth analysis is privy only to the scouting departments of these teams and the media does not have access to them.Regardless of the actual validity of the number, what should be more concerning to you is whether or not this low a body fat level is even desirable. Some may not like the way it looks aesthetically, but I’m not going to get into that since that is due to personal preferences. Instead, we want to look at the science of this type of body fat level and the medical concerns with being this low.It is not uncommon for people at less than 5 percent body fat to have negative hormonal implications, impacting their testosterone levels and their virility. Beyond that however, the function of the brain can be incredibly impaired. Brain fog, confusion, and lack of concentration are all risks of carrying too low of a body fat level that definitely don’t mix well with being a high performing athlete. Add in the high risk of joint injury that occurs from having poor lubrication of the joints at too low of body fat level and you have the recipe for a disaster. The key is to maintain fat in the 8 to 12 percent range to allow for maximum performance without having to risk getting too low in the pursuit of it.If you’re looking for a complete meal plan and workout program that will help you to get to these levels of body fat safely and keep you there long term, head to the link below and check out the ATHLEAN-X Training System. Start training and eating like an athlete and you will be surprised how quickly you change the way you look and feel.For more videos body fat and the best way to calculate your own body fat at home, be sure to subscribe to our channel 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/use