Tag: jeff cavaliere

Mid Back Stretch and Rhomboid Release (HOW TO TARGET THIS!)

Stretch like a pro athlete (and follow their exact workout program) here… http://athleanx.com/x/workout-like-a-pro

By far, one of the most difficult areas to stretch is the middle back and upper back. Not so much because the back muscles are too thick to effectively target, but because most people are not targeting them the right way with the right back stretches. In this video, I show you the best way to stretch out the rhomboids, upper traps and lower traps using either a cable machine or a simple doorway if you do this at home.

The key to figuring out how to stretch the back and the best exercise for getting the middle back muscles is to reverse engineer the function of the muscles you're looking to release. The rhomboids retract the scapulae or pinch them together while the middle and lower traps assist with this and also depress the shoulder blades.

To stretch these muscles in the mid back you have to try and take the shoulder blades in the opposite directions. I show you how to abduct and protract the scapulae while elevating them against their desire to remain depressed. This combination is a very effective way to stretch out the lower and middle trapezius muscles while also targeting the rhomboids.

Rhomboid stretches are generally performed incorrectly. Often times they wind up stressing more of the posterior capsule in the shoulder or the lat muscles. Not that this is a bad thing but it's not what you are after if you're trying to stretch out your back.

Any home stretching routine or specific back stretching routine should include this stretch. If you just stretch out your lats and ignore the muscles in the middle and upper back, you are going to create an even bigger imbalance that can lead to you feeling even more stiff than if you had ignored stretching all together.

If you want a complete workout program that teaches you how to train like an athlete and supplements that training with back stretches like these, then head to http://athleanx.com and get the complete ATHLEAN-X Training System.

For more back stretch videos and how to stretch out all areas of your back be sure to subscribe to our youtube channel at http://youtube.com/user/jdcav24

Muscle Soreness Mystery – Should You WORK OUT or NOT?

Fast muscle recovery leads to faster muscle gains with ATHLEAN-Rx
http://athleanx.com/x/fastmusclerecovery

If you have been working out for any length of time or especially if you are new to lifting weights, you have no doubt felt muscle soreness. The question everyone who has felt this wants to know is, "should I workout if my muscles are sore"?

In this video I cover the answer to that question and start by getting you to ask an even more important thing. That is, what type of soreness do you have? Are you really experiencing muscle soreness after your workout or is it joint pain or tendon discomfort.

There are a few quick and easy ways to tell the difference between joint pain and normal post workout soreness. The first of these is to palpate the muscle that is sore and determine where you are feeling the pain. If your muscles are sore in the belly of the muscle rather than either of the two endpoints (origin and insertion) then you are more likely dealing with normal DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness).

Next, if your muscle soreness seems to come on immediately after your workout rather than 24 to 48 hours after, then you are likely dealing with something other than normal discomfort.

Finally, if you can get someone to move your affected muscles through space (like lifting your arm up over your head for you if you have a sore shoulder), you can determine if the pain is more joint or muscle in origin.

In terms of recovering from muscle soreness the absolute best way is through proper rest and supplementation. Providing your muscles with the right nutrients is absolutely the fastest way to speed up muscle recovery. For an example of this, read this email that I received from an ATHLEAN-Rx supplement user Nate Eswine. Yep, he's a bit crazy with this workout he did, but the take home message is how he recovered from such an insane assault so fast.

EMAIL FROM NATE:
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Jeff!

I hope you are able to read this.

My friend and I are 18 years old and have been following your programs since AX-1, and truly respect your knowledge, creativity and craft with fitness. We've been taking your RX supplements like it's our religion. And I can honestly say they are without a doubt the best supplements on this earth. We've tried everything on the shelf, and nothing compares to the purity and power inside each of those three little black tubs.

With all of that in mind, we got inspired by all the challenges in the AX programs- and we decided to push ourselves with an INSANE challenge that we created.

This definitely falls into the realm of overtraining, but keep in mind this was only done once and absolutely not weekly!

The challenge (inspired by the 300 workout) was as follows:

1. Pullups (143 reps, assisted)
2. Deadlifts (143 reps, 95lbs)
3. Pushups (143 reps)
4. Box Jumps (143 reps, 24inch platform)
5. Leg Lifts (143 reps, holding a 95lb bar over our heads)
6. Single Arm Clean and Press (70 reps each arm, 15lbs)
7. Pullups [again!] (143 reps, assisted)

This completes 1 round. The challenge was to finish 1 round in under 1 hour, and do a total of 3 rounds. We finished each round with 2-3 minutes to spare before hour 2 and hour 3 hit- and we were back at it!

In the end, we accomplished a total of 3 rounds- finishing with a total of 3,003 reps!!

If you've read this far, I'm sure you're convinced that we are mental- and truth be told, we are. BUT, we were smart with our supplementation.

We took a scoop and a half of your pre-workout before hand, and 3,000 reps later took 2 scoops of the post-workout. We went home and took 2 scoops of the recovery shake and crashed haha. We were out until later that evening, and took two more scoops and fell asleep again until the next day!

Here's what's crazy (besides the challenge we conjured up)- we WERE NOT that sore….like at all. My only guess is it had to be the supplements….

It's true we trained hard, and we trained long, but it would have been one or the other without your supplements, motivation, inspiration and a little insanity.

Thanks again Jeff for everything, you have been such a great fitness mentor!
-Nathan and Gabriel
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To get the same muscle recovery stack that Nathan used be sure to head to http://athleanx.com/x/fastmusclerecovery

For more videos on what to do when muscles are sore or workouts to make your muscles bigger, be sure to subscribe to our channel at http://youtube.com/user/jdcav24

How to Fix “Low Back” Pain (INSTANTLY!)

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Subscribe to this channel here – http://bit.ly/2b0coMW

Low back pain is by far the most common source of discomfort we deal with. The irony is, a lot of times what we feel is rooted in the lower back is actually caused by muscles not in the back at all. In this video, I’m going to show you how the glute medius could be the real cause of your back pain and a quick exercise you can do to relieve your discomfort instantly. Once gone, I’m also going to show you a few additional exercises you can do to make sure your low back pain never returns.

The gluteus medius is sandwiched between the glute maximus and minimus and lies in and around the hip area. The role of the muscle is to abduct your hip or lift your leg out to the side in either standing or side lying and to keep your pelvis level whenever you take a step. Prolonged sitting during the day as well as an unequal weight distribution when standing are two of the most common reasons for this muscle to get weak and imbalanced.

You can quickly test to see if you have the makings of a weak glute medius by standing with your feet shoulder width apart and lifting one foot off the ground. First take note whether or not your opposite hip drops significantly. If it does, this would indicate a glute weakness on that side. You would repeat with the opposite foot as well. When you do this you would also want to see if you had to dramatically shift your weight to one side just to lift that foot off the ground. If you do, this would indicate that you have an unequal weight distribution when standing and it would be especially troublesome when squatting.

To fix this quickly, you will want to lay down on the ground with your affected side on top. If your right lower back was bothering you then you would want to lie on your left hip. From here, take your thumb and place it on the area most sore. You should feel that this is going to happen just to the outside of the bony prominence of your pelvis. From here, push to hold back the trigger point and start flossing your leg down and in front of you and then back and up. Your hip should be extended and then lifted into abduction towards the ceiling (being sure to point the toes down to keep the glute medius in focus). Do this about 10 times until you feel the tension in the muscle release.

Now, you can burn out the spasm in the trigger point by getting into the fully contracted position of the glute medius muscle and holding as long as you can. Generally, because this muscle is often very weak, this may not be any longer than 30 seconds to a minute. Once you cannot hold it any more you will stand up and you should notice an immediate relief of the pain on that side.

This is the quick but not permanent fix for this problem. Since the underlying cause is weakness in the gluteus medius muscle you will want to back this up with some exercises for your low back that you can do a few times a week. I show you three options for this. The first is the hip bump against the wall. The second is called the sack swinger, and can be done with a dog leash if you don’t have a formal dip belt. The last is actually doing the same movement that you did for the treatment, but this time as a strengthening exercise for your low back.

Whatever you do, just be sure you are consistent. You will also see that as you relieve the tension in this muscle that your squat performance improves as well. Your depth should be increased and any low back pain that you felt by doing the exercise should be gone since you will now be able to do them with equal force through each leg.

If you are looking for a program that puts the science back in strength in every workout, head to http://athleanx.com and get the ATHLEAN-X Training System. Start not only looking like an athlete but feeling like one as you take your training serious and take your results to the next level.

If you are looking for more exercises and stretches for low back pain as well as workouts you can do with lower back pain, be sure to subscribe to our channel here on youtube at http://youtube.com/user/jdcav24

Top 3 Rotator Cuff Exercise Mistakes (FIX YOUR SHOULDER PAIN!)

Fix your shoulder pain by working out like an athlete here
http://athleanx.com/x/fix-your-shoulder-pain

The rotator cuff muscles are the most overlooked and misunderstood shoulder muscles and are usually ignored in most workout programs. When you realize that these small muscles are the only ones you have to counteract the overwhelming imbalance established by the more attention getting chest, back, and arms, you start to see their importance.

In this video, I show you the top 3 biggest rotator cuff exercise mistakes and how to fix them. You see, even when people do buy into the concept of incorporating these exercises into their workout programs it doesn’t mean that they get them right.

First, when performing any band or dumbbell external rotation exercise for your shoulder, you have to be sure to keep your elbow and upper arm tucked closely to your side throughout. Very commonly, people tend to let their elbow drift away from their body as they complete the external rotation range of motion. This activates the lateral deltoid which quickly tends to dominate the movement. The problem with this is that an overactive delt is a major contributor to the imbalance that already exists between it and the rotator cuff muscles on that arm.

Allowing the deltoid to dominate the strength balance will lead to a migration of the humeral head upwards as you raise your arm overhead (as in a shoulder press). To keep the humerus centrally located in the glenoid fossa you need to have adequate strength of the rotator cuff. You will do this only if you don’t allow it to be overshadowed when doing isolated external rotation rotator cuff exercises.

The second mistake is performing your rotator cuff exercises with a rounded shoulder. Round shoulders come from poor posture. Strengthening your rotator cuff muscles with poor posture is only reinforcing the issue you have already. To do this correctly, you have to align your shoulders back and down and then perform your rotator cuff exercises.

Continuing on this point and leading into the third mistake, control of your shoulder blade will help dramatically. To position your shoulder blades “in your back pocket”, you’ll need to have adequate strength of both your serratus anterior and lower traps muscles. In the video, I show you two exercises you can do to strengthen these indirect shoulder muscles using as little as your own bodyweight.

The bottom line is, in order to have a fully functional shoulder without shoulder pain you need to strengthen your shoulder completely. This means making sure your rotator cuffs are strong. If you are looking for a workout program that can help you with your shoulder pain while allowing you to build much bigger shoulders, chest and arms…be sure to head to http://athleanx.com and get the ATHLEAN-X Training System.

For more videos on how to fix shoulder pain with the right rotator cuff exercises and stretches, be sure to subscribe to our channel here on youtube at http://youtube.com/user/jdcav24

Knee Pain With Exercise (SURPRISING CAUSE and HOW TO FIX IT!)

No Pain, MORE Gain with the joint supplement trusted by today’s top pro athletes – http://athleanx.com/x/mechan-x-joint-recovery

Knee pain is one of the most debilitating discomforts that you can feel when you're working out, especially during a leg workout. Pain in your knees can come in many different forms. You can get ligament pain usually seen from an injury to the ACL or MCL. You can get meniscus pain that usually results in a knee that gives out or locks unexpectedly. You can also get arthritic changes to the surfaces of the bones in the joint that makes movement difficult.

That said, the most common cause of knee pain in those working out is patellofemoral or patellar tracking dysfunction. In this video, I show you the root cause of the knee pain and more importantly, how to fix the pain. There are many exercises for knee pain but if the ones you're doing are only focusing on the quads and the muscles around the knee, then you're not looking at the complete picture.

Most pains are caused by dysfunction at joints above or below the site of the pain. In the case of the knee, you have to look up to the hip or down to the ankle for the real cause of the pain. Patellofemoral exercises are usually the focus of treatment for knee pain. They even are considered the best workout for knee pain. That's a mistake.

There's more to getting rid of knee soreness than just working on that VMO. Knee pain on squats is common when there are tracking issues in the kneecap. Most often, weak hips (glute medius exactly) cause the femur to track incorrectly. You want to do exercises for knee pain that strengthen your glutes.

I show you the easiest and best way to do this so you can start fixing your knee discomfort and soreness starting now.

For a more comprehensive treatment for knee pain, you may want to check out the latest in sports nutrition and science. The ATHLEAN-Rx joint supplement – MECHAN-X is revolutionizing joint recovery and helping guys who have suffered with pain in their training, workout without pain for the first time in a long time. You can see more about it at http://athleanx.com/athleanrx/mechan-x

For more videos on exercises for knee pain and how to squat without pain, be sure to subscribe to our channel here on youtube at http//youtube.com/user/jdcav24