Can't Feel Your Chest When Lifting | How 2 Solve That Problem

Summary

In this fitness-focused video, John Meadows and Eugene discuss strategies for effectively activating the chest muscles to enhance workouts and improve overall health. They emphasize the importance of establishing a strong mind-muscle connection through basic anatomy understanding and simple bodyweight exercises. The video demonstrates activation techniques, including proper positioning and isometric contractions, to maximize chest engagement and minimize shoulder strain. The hosts also highlight the significance of shoulder joint stability for injury prevention and optimal chest development, offering practical tips for integrating these methods into a workout routine.

Takeaways

• 💡 Activating the chest muscles is crucial for proper form and to prevent injury during workouts.
• 🏋️‍♂️ Bodyweight exercises are recommended to establish a mind-muscle connection before adding weight.
• 🔍 Understanding basic chest anatomy helps in effectively activating the pectoral muscles.
• 🤔 The goal of chest activation is to bring the two attachment points (sternum and arm) closer together.
• 🚫 Avoiding shoulder forward movement is key to maintaining chest activation and preventing shoulder strain.
• 💪 Exercises that involve pulling the elbow back towards the body can help supercharge chest activation.
• 📉 Adjusting the angle of the arm can target different areas of the chest, such as the upper and inner chest.
• 🔄 Practicing isometric contractions can help in creating stability and strength around the shoulder joint.
• 🧠 Strengthening the neuromuscular connection can lead to better chest activation and shoulder health.
• 📈 Incorporating these activation techniques can lead to improved performance in heavy pressing exercises.

Q & A

What is the main focus of the video?

The main focus of the video is on activating the chest muscles and improving the mind-muscle connection for better chest workouts and overall shoulder health.

Why is it important to activate the chest before adding weight to exercises?

It is important to activate the chest first to create a strong mind-muscle connection, ensuring that the chest is properly engaged during exercises. Without this, the work may be transferred to other muscles and joints, leading to potential injury or reduced chest development.

What anatomical areas should you focus on when activating the chest muscles?

You should focus on bringing the attachment points of the chest muscles closer together. These points are located near the sternum and ribcage and connect to the upper arm.

What is the benefit of learning the basic anatomy of the chest?

Understanding the basic anatomy of the chest helps in effectively engaging the chest muscles during exercises by focusing on bringing the muscle’s attachment points closer together, thus maximizing muscle contraction.

What is the first step in activating the chest, according to the video?

The first step is to use simple bodyweight movements to create a mind-muscle connection. The focus is on feeling the chest contract by bringing the arm across the body while keeping the shoulder stable.

Why does the video emphasize avoiding shoulder drift during chest activation?

Shoulder drift lengthens the chest muscle and deactivates it. Keeping the shoulder stable ensures the chest muscle remains engaged and contracted, improving the effectiveness of chest exercises.

What technique is used to 'supercharge' chest activation?

The technique involves pulling the elbow back while bringing the arm across the body, which maximizes chest muscle shortening and contraction for greater activation.

What role does shoulder stability play in chest exercises?

Shoulder stability is crucial because it helps prevent injury and ensures that the chest muscles, rather than other areas like the tendons or joints, are engaged during pressing exercises.

How can you create stability around the shoulder before heavy pressing exercises?

Stability can be created by performing isometric contractions, such as pressing the wrist into a rack while bringing the arm across the body and holding for 10 seconds. Alternating between this and pulling motions helps wake up the chest and mid-back fibers.

What should you feel after completing the back-and-forth chest activation and stabilization routine?

You should feel more stability in your shoulder, better chest contraction, and improved strength in the chest muscles, preparing you for heavier pressing exercises.

Outlines

00:00

💪 Activating the Chest Muscle

In this segment, John Meadows and Eugene discuss techniques to activate the chest muscles, particularly for those who struggle with mind-muscle connection in their chest area. They emphasize the importance of understanding basic chest anatomy, including the pectoral muscle's attachment points on the sternum and the arm. The goal is to bring these points closer together to maximize muscle activation. They demonstrate exercises that involve bringing the arms across the body and pulling the elbows back to compress the chest. The focus is on creating a strong mind-muscle connection before progressing to more complex exercises. This activation is crucial for preventing injuries and ensuring that the chest muscles, rather than other body parts, are the primary movers during pressing exercises.

05:02

🏋️‍♂️ Enhancing Shoulder Stability for Pressing Exercises

The second paragraph delves into methods to enhance shoulder stability before engaging in pressing exercises. Eugene introduces a rack exercise that involves placing the arms at a 90-degree angle and pushing the wrists into the rack to create an isometric contraction. This exercise is performed at a low intensity to build a neuromuscular connection and stability in the shoulder joint. The routine also includes pulling the arms outwards to engage the mid-back muscles, which are crucial for shoulder stability. By alternating between these movements and holding for about 10 seconds each, the exercise aims to wake up the fibers and prepare the shoulders for heavy pressing exercises. The summary concludes with a call to action for viewers to try the exercises and share their feedback.

Keywords

💡Mind-muscle connection

The mind-muscle connection refers to the ability to consciously engage and activate a specific muscle group during exercise. In the video, the presenters emphasize that before adding external weight, it's essential to create a strong mind-muscle connection in the chest. This foundation helps ensure proper muscle activation and minimizes the risk of injuries.

💡Chest activation

Chest activation involves engaging the chest muscles to ensure they are working properly during exercises. The video focuses on simple bodyweight exercises to achieve this before progressing to heavier weightlifting. Proper chest activation helps build a foundation for effective growth and prevents other muscles or joints from taking over the movement.

💡Pecs

Pecs (pectoralis muscles) are the muscles located in the chest, which play a crucial role in upper body movements like pushing. The video explains the basic anatomy of the pecs, discussing their attachment points from the sternum to the arm, and emphasizes the importance of bringing these points together to maximize activation during exercises.

💡Shoulder girdle

The shoulder girdle refers to the set of bones and muscles that support the shoulder joint. The video highlights the importance of creating stability around the shoulder girdle during pressing movements to avoid pain or injury. Exercises like horizontal and incline pressing are mentioned as common movements that can strain the shoulder if not stabilized properly.

💡Horizontal pressing

Horizontal pressing includes exercises like the bench press, where the arms press weight horizontally across the body. The video mentions that instability or pain during horizontal pressing could indicate poor chest activation or shoulder instability. Proper activation drills can help correct this.

💡Isometric contraction

An isometric contraction involves tensing a muscle without changing its length or moving the joint. In the video, the presenters use isometric contractions by pushing the wrist into a rack to enhance chest activation. This technique is used to help establish the mind-muscle connection and build stability before moving on to more dynamic movements.

💡Neuromuscular connection

Neuromuscular connection is the communication between the brain and muscles that enables movement and muscle contraction. In the video, the presenters mention using low-intensity isometric exercises to improve the neuromuscular connection, especially in the chest and mid-back, to increase stability and effectiveness during pressing exercises.

💡Sternal fibers

Sternal fibers are the muscle fibers of the pectoralis major that attach to the sternum. The video discusses how to target these fibers by positioning the arm correctly during chest activation exercises. Squeezing and compressing these fibers through the right movements helps improve the mind-muscle connection in the chest.

💡Instability

Instability refers to a lack of control or support in a joint or muscle group, often leading to discomfort or increased injury risk. The video highlights how instability around the shoulder girdle can be problematic during pressing exercises, and offers techniques to create more stability by activating the chest and mid-back muscles.

💡Compression

Compression in this context refers to bringing two points of muscle attachment closer together to fully engage the muscle. In the video, the presenters emphasize compressing the attachment points of the pecs (sternum and arm) to activate the chest fully. This is key to achieving proper chest activation before moving on to heavier exercises.

Highlights

John Meadows and Eugene discuss tips for activating the chest muscles.

The importance of mind-muscle connection for chest activation is emphasized.

Suggests starting with body weight exercises to establish the connection before adding extra weight.

Anatomy of the chest muscles and their function in activation is briefly explained.

The goal is to bring the sternal and humeral attachments of the pectoral muscles close together.

Discusses the mechanical position for maximal pec activation.

Mention of not causing significant growth with this method but establishing a foundation for muscle connection.

Explains how incorrect form can lead to stress on joints instead of muscle growth.

Demonstrates how to activate the chest by bringing the arm across the body.

Shows how to supercharge chest activation by pulling the elbow back.

Discusses the importance of keeping the shoulder back to maintain chest activation.

Introduces a rack for creating stability around the shoulder joint before pressing exercises.

Describes an isometric exercise using the rack to create a low-intensity contraction.

Highlights the need to stabilize the shoulder joint for healthy chest workouts.

Demonstrates an exercise to activate the mid-back fibers for shoulder stability.

Encourages viewers to try the techniques and share their feedback.

Transcripts

hi everybody John Meadows here we're in

Australia I'm with my man Eugene and he

has some great tips for you how to

activate your chest so if you have some

problems filling your chest and

activating it we're going to talk about

that and Eugene's also want to talk

about how this can actually increase

your health all right so two things

looking at is first of all how to

activate and correct that that

mind-muscle connection through the pecs

because if you can't create that just

body weight if you can't create that

without any external whoa I believe and

I think you might agree that you

shouldn't be adding extra exercise there

extra body weight particularly to your

movements start with this very simple

body weight movements and create that

one loss of connection now what its

growth no not at all we do need to take

that beyond and then integrate it into

other exercises what I'm also going to

show you guys a couple of activations we

like to do at the start of the workout

if you're getting any pain when pressing

or a feeling the instability around the

shoulder girdle when you're doing any

kind of horizontal or inclined pressing

sorry the first part I want to look at

is how do we activate the chest in the

first place so what we need to look at

is understand some really really really

basic anatomy in terms of what the chest

is where it attaches on the body and

they want us some of its functions sorry

do you need to know all the exact

anatomical cues and functions of the

pack you certainly do not all you need

to know is that the pecs attach

somewhere around here on the sternum

around the ribcage area and the other

attachment site is up around here in the

arm somewhere now the goal when we're

trying to get that chest activated is we

want to bring those two points as close

together as possible simple as that that

will create the mechanical position

where the pecs will fire maximally and

again just a boiler we're here we're not

going to cause a lot of growth not going

to stimulate much growth at all but

we're taking that first step and that

first if is about creating the my into

muscle connection so you can then go and

do your pressing your heavy barbell

worth your machine work chains and bands

and actually stimulate some growth in

the right areas the fact is if you're

doing any of those exercises and you

can't do your chest when you're moving

away from A to B movement is still

occurring but if it's not being centered

around here it's being centered around

somewhere else and where's that my step

tendon supraspinatus I see joints elbows

brachialis it's banging up all those

joints instead of growing your pecs so

they just have to correct that

connection that's why it's so so

important like first you want to play

with is simply bring me on from the side

of the body you can face that way John

and we

is to attach concise we want to bring

that points together it's all in there

dude it's great if I'm across his body

and you're gonna feel that contraction

because these two points start to

compress now the thing is if we go and

bring his shoulder forwards those two

points have now lengthened away from

each other while Spencer and you'll lose

that effect you lose that one loss of

connection

whereas if you try to bring that

shoulder back now that distance just

compressed and when you squeeze in even

more you're gonna get an even shorter

pack so this is the first way to give

you a sensation still Wow okay

that is my chest that's what it feels

like again not going to grow much but

it's about that mind-muscle connection

so we start with this bringing it across

and just play I want you to play with

that humerus head or the top of the arm

joints that positioning play words and

backwards to feel those two attachment

points coming in together close up and

drifting away now the next part how do

you supercharge this let's take that arm

from here pull the elbow back towards me

ovejita now again two points we can get

them super super short if we bring his

arm right across the body feel that

super right there up to that upper PEC

and this is where we can start playing

as well with some of the angles some of

the lines of cool if I get John pressing

down hits he's gonna get right through

here coming run around in the u-shape

quite get him twisting around slowly

and press see huh where is that going up

towards that upper inner chest region is

he asked letting up here in the chest

and oh he's not but he's getting that

section maximally compressed and

shortened by bringing those two

attachment sites super close together

hold that position now again what are we

thinking about if that shoulder now

drifts forwards man chest gets

deactivated so we're going to keep that

shoulder packed in tight so what will I

do now

I would start a work now and just crimp

that connection spend five minutes 10

minutes at most it's going to do some

reps squeeze contract squeeze contract

like that position

in terms of rotating your units to

really compress those middle fibers

those sternal fibers to create that

connection that's the first part now

where we get to actually training once

you've felt that we want to create some

stability around the shoulder joint and

that's what we've got this rack for so

what I love to do before doing any

pressing work is simply coming up to a

to a rack like this degree Miami and

doing that exact same motion it's all

you job to do is place the Machine and

bring his arm across and step or just

slightly and he's pushing his wrist into

the rack at a very low intensity like at

three to four out of ten contraction and

he's just squeezing trying to get those

two points closer together to create

that contraction on an isometric

contraction for about ten seconds then

what is going to do is we need to create

stability not just activation so what

stabilizes that shoulder joints what

we're looking at there's all the stuff

behind his shoulder the result the

mid-back the roamers

sorry shipping across and all we're

gonna do is go backwards do the exact

same motion but pull outwards and again

don't crank on it we're looking at

creating this a low-grade neuromuscular

connection from the brain to his

mid-back fibers hold for about 10

seconds possibly feel that affects

quality waking up some of those fibers

and then switch around go to the go to

the chest again

about 10 seconds what I guarantee you'll

find is after five or six back and forth

ten seconds each you're gonna feel a lot

more stability you're gonna feel much

more contractile ability and strengthen

that pant and your shoulders are gonna

feel much much healthier and it's gonna

prepare you to then go into your heavy

press on your heavy dumbbells have you

slipped the shame presses you heavy

barbell presses all right

all right guys give that a shot I want

you to try it and I want you to comment

below and let us know what you think so

thanks for watching and catch the next

video

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