– English Lyrics

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

And so even though I love Arnold, the  Bench Fly still gets the big red X.  

What's up, guys, Jeff Cavaliere, athleanx.com.  So, what you see behind me is a bunch of different  

chest exercises likely that you recognize because  you re wither doing them right now, or you ve done  

them in the past. However, today I'm going to  rank them from the worst to the best so you can  

be sure that you're only focusing on the ones that  give you the gains that you're after. So, by the  

time this video is over, you're going to want to  keep some of these and others that you're going to  

want to kind of just throw away. So that being  said, let's start ranking them one by one.  

All right, so as we work our way from the bottom  up, it's important to point out that the exercises  

are placed into these categories for a reason.  There are some criteria that goes into selecting  

where an exercise will fall. For instance, we  want to make sure this is an exercise that can  

actually deliver results. But we don't want it  to be something that is insufficient and being  

able to challenge you into cause growth. We also  want to select exercises or favor those that are  

multidimensional. They are good for building  muscle, but they're also capable of delivering  

good strength gains. We're going to favor  those. We also have some exercises that are just  

downright dumb. We'll get to those too, and then  we have the exercises that kind of invite injury  

risk. And that's something we want to avoid,  especially if we have better, safer options.  

And that's why we start at the bottom of the  list right here with the Bench Fly. Now, look,  

I understand that Arnold loved this exercise, but  just because he loved the Fly and I love Arnold  

doesn't mean that I have to love the Fly.  Not because I want to dislike the exercise,  

but more so that my physical therapy background  tells me that there's reasons to dislike it.  

When you perform it on a bench in this unsupported  way with no safety net, you increase the risk of  

damage to the anterior shoulder capsule. That is something that you don't want to damage  

ever, because it's very hard to repair and  restore normal mechanics after that happens.  

Not to mention increased risk of pec tear that  happens because of the extreme positioning of  

your arms during this exercise. Again, all of  this negated most of all by the fact that there  

are better alternatives to this that I will cover  for you later on down this list. The fact is, for  

all these reasons, guys, I have to put the big red  X first and foremost through the Bench Fly.  

All right. So next up in the category of worst is  one that might actually come as a surprise to you,  

because you know how often I like to train on my  feet, if at all possible. But it's the Standing  

Cable Press. The issue with the Standing Cable  Press is it provides more of a challenge to your  

core than the muscles you re actually trying to  build. And just getting into this position here  

with any type of heavy weight is going to make  my abs work much harder to make sure that I don't  

fall backwards when I'm doing the movement. And  even if I do this out of a split stance where I'm  

leaning, my weight forward is still not optimal if  I'm going to press the weight that's necessary to  

cause that overload and growth that we're looking  for. For all these reasons, guys the Standing  

Cable Press is just not the best press to do  when you're looking for gains in your chest.  

So, a couple of big red Xs on the board behind  me. We're still not out of the worst category yet.  

Here we have to throw in the Incline Bench Press.  Now, wait, before you riot, understand that just  

like size matters, angle matters too--a lot.  And when it comes to the Incline Bench Press  

what angle are you setting it at, because it  really matters in terms of the gains that you  

see from the exercise, especially up here in  the upper chest. We know that the front delt  

and the upper chest fiber's share not only a  close proximity to each other anatomically,  

but they share some function too. Well, we know that if we were to get  

completely upright, we would shift the majority  of that function to the front delt, as we would  

in an Overhead Press. And if we got completely  horizontal, most of the work would be done  

by the chest. Well, that being said, we have to  find that happy medium. And once you cross 50,  

55 or 60 degrees, you're actually starting to go  into that realm of less work for the chest and  

more for the front delts which is not why you're  doing the exercise in the first place. If you  

want to maximize your gains on the Incline Bench  Press, we're going to choose a lower angle, we'll  

cover that one later. But for now, the 60-degree  Incline Bench Press has to get the big red X.  

No time hasn't made it any better,  it's still fucking stupid.  

So, now those gladly behind us I get to break out  my blue marker as we work our way up the rankings  

into the Better Category. I say better, not best,  because there's still some limitations here that  

I think it's important for you to be aware of.  And we have to start right here with the king of  

all of the better exercises, it s the Pushup.  And I say the basic pushup because the basic  

pushup is oftentimes, as I pointed out in our  major criteria in the beginning of this video,  

not challenging enough. It's just simply not driving  

enough of a stimulus to cause change in the size  of your chest because you can do too many of them.  

If you're ripping off 30, 40 or 50 repetitions  per set, there are variations that are going to  

provide a better challenge in the basic pushup  no longer is it. Now, if you're a beginner who's  

still getting challenged by this exercise, then  by all means you continue to build your strength  

up with it before you move on. But that being  said, guys, most of us are beyond the point  

now where this is where we should be focusing  our efforts. So, for that reason, I got to give  

it a Better listing, but not Best yet because  we know there's better variations to come.  

So, since Betters are all about improvement,  let's go back to those flys again, because I  

wouldn't leave you hanging, I wanted to give you  an improved version of it or a safer version of  

it. And for that, we have to look at the Floor  Fly. I'm a much bigger fan of this exercise  

because it gives us a chance to have resisted  adduction, but we get a chance to do it in a  

safer setting with the floor acting as the safety  net protecting that anterior shoulder because we  

don't have those extreme ranges of motion at the  bottom. Now, some would argue you don't get the  

same amount of stretch, but I don't even know  if that's the real benefit of the Fly anyway.  

Beyond that, we do get to increase  the weight that we use on a Floor Fly  

versus the weight that we can handle to ensure  that safety on a Bench Fly. And for that, we can  

create more overload with this in an eccentric  manner, which is going to give us an opportunity  

for more growth. For all these reasons, the Better  version of the fly is definitely the Floor Fly.  

And wrapping up our better category here is  an often-overlooked exercise that I believe  

deserves a second look, and it's the Underhand  Dumbbell Bench Press. And the best thing about  

this exercise is it provides those that don't have  access to an incline bench to still work their  

upper chest, especially better than that 60-degree  incline dumbbell bench press. EMG studies have  

actually shown superior activation of those chest  fibers during the underhand version rather than  

too high of an incline press. That being said,  it doesn't come without its limitations.  

Namely the fact that you're not going to be able  to load this exercise as much and that's mostly  

due to the fact that there's a lack of stability  at the bottom for some. You have to have enough  

shoulder external rotation to be able to get your  body in the right position with your elbows tucked  

at your sides and your hands, elbows in line to  support the dumbbells, to be able to drive them  

up and that low to high dumbbell path to get that  good upper chest activation. And if you don't have  

that or you're simply looking to load the exercise  as heavy as possible, then this one might not be  

the one for you. But it still deserves its Better  recognition and that's why we're going to put it  

right here at the end of the Better category. And now we continue our way up the chart from the  

worst to the best chest exercises. And we land  here squarely in the Even Better Still category,  

meaning better than what we just did, but not  quite in the best yet. But I have to start here  

with that variation of the pushup that I promised  you before. This is called the Twisting Pushup.  

And the main thing we're getting here is this  additional relative adduction that small but  

incredibly important addition to the basic pushup  that will take whatever repetition you can do of  

the basic pushup and bring it dramatically  downwards. But at the same time increase  

the effectiveness of it and that's really all  that matters. No matter what count you can do  

of your regular pushup right now, I promise  you, less pushups here, but more from it. For  

that reason, we give the Twisting Pushup the  first in the Even Better Still Category.  

And speaking of adduction, our next exercise  and are Even Better Still Category is one that  

focuses on that adduction function of the chest  better than the things we showed you already,  

including even the Floor Fly and it s the Cable  Crossover. So, the thing about the Cable Crossover  

is that it not only gives us a chance to get  more production because you're getting our hands  

slightly across midline, but it also gives us the  chance to have peak tension. We tend to lose it in  

either version of the dumbbell fly floor or bench.  But the limitation here comes in the same thing  

that we dealt with the Standing Cable Press. I believe the Cable Crossover is an exercise that  

we can load up much heavier than we traditionally  do. But as we do, we can see we have the same  

stability demands and the demands placed on  the core to keep us in this upright position  

that might limit the amount of weight that we can  use. If we limit the amount of weight we limit,  

the amount of overload, and by limiting  the amount of overload, we limit the amount  

of growth. For that reason, guys, the Cable  Crossover is my induction exercise of choice,  

at least for now when we're talking about the  Better Still exercises. More on that to come.  

Next up, the Better Still Category is another  variation of a bench press, it s actually one of  

my favorites when your goal is mostly hypertrophy  and a little bit less than a focus on strength.  

It s the Lying Cable Bench Press. And what this does is it provides  

you with a better strength curve, with more  resistance throughout the entire strength curve  

on the bench press because of the use of  the cables. If I set the cables out wide,  

the line of resistance is the cable itself. So,  you can see that it maintains its perpendicularity  

throughout a greater range of motion than,  let's say, on a typical bench press. So,  

at the top of the exercise, when I've reached my  peak contraction in my chest, I actually still  

have a lot of tension here that I wouldn't  have with a typical barbell or dumbbell.  

That being said, the difficulty still lies in  the fact that I have to get this into position  

to do a heavy weight. But again, when it  comes to placing tension on the chest,  

this is one of the best. I'm going to place  it here in this category for that reason.  

And concluded or Better Still Category is one of  those chest exercises that people sometimes don't  

even realize works the chest and it's the Dumbbell  Upper Chest Pullover. And I'm careful to add the  

designation of upper chest to make sure people  understand that there's a way to perform this  

to favor the upper chest rather than the  lats. We know the typical dumbbell pull  

over works the last because we're driving it  with our elbows in this flare position.  

However, if you do the opposite of that, you  bring your elbows as tight together as possible.  

You can quickly shift the focus to the upper chest  because it's got all the components of a great  

upper chest contraction. Our arms are elevated up  over our head, remembering that we go from this  

low to high position to get those upper chest  fibrous activated. And we have the squeezing,  

the abduction of the elbows as close together  that really lights us up. Throw a dumbbell on  

our hand. We get the overload we're looking  for and that's the reason why I don't want  

you to overlook this exercise any longer. And so, some tough contenders left on the board.  

We move into our Almost Best Category, and I get  to break out my green marker and we start right  

here with the Dip. And for me, the dip is the best  version of a pushup. If you think about it, the  

dip is essentially a suspended pushup, especially  if you angle your body more forward to favor the  

chest rather than staying upright in favor of  your triceps. That being said, the opportunity  

here to load this exercise is going to be much  easier than we have in a pushup. I could strap  

a weight around my waist and do a weighted dip and  continue to provide the progressive overload.  

We need to drive both the strength and the  size gains that this exercise provides.  

Not to mention I could do a couple of other  unique things, like adding a small twist,  

which would be similar to the twisting pushup  to get just that little bit of extra adduction,  

which will bring that rep count down for the  effectiveness of the exercise up. For all these  

reasons, the dip is going to get my first in the  Almost Best Category, and it belongs there.  

So, if you haven't caught on by now, you know  that I like adduction and we want to try to  

get into the chest exercises we perform if we  want to see the best gains from it. And that's  

why I got to go back to it once again with my best  option here and this is the Heavy 1-Arm Crossover.  

And how is this different from the crossover?  Well, in a very important way. Number one,  

much more stability. Instead of having to move  both arms at one time, which let's say you have  

80 pounds in each hand, you're not going to  be able to stabilize the total 160 as well  

as you can't the 80 one arm at a time. Which is  going to eliminate those balance limitations and  

allow your core to take a back seat to the  muscle you're actually trying to build.  

And what I like to do here, as I mentioned, is go  heavy because you have the opportunity to do that.  

Stop doing this exercise as a 30 rep burn out  at the end of your chest workout. Instead,  

prioritize it as one of those great ways  to get adduction. Not just adduction,  

but full adduction across midline better than in  any other exercise we performed so far. This is  

going to be my adduction exercise of choice for  those reasons, it is going to belong firmly up  

here at the top and my Almost Best Category. And concluding now our Almost Best Category and  

giving those that are still hyperventilating  after looking at the thumbnail a reason to  

breathe easy. We have the Incline Bench  Press up here at the top. The reason, though,  

is we're putting it at that 30-to-45-degree angle,  not the steeper angle that we talked about before,  

Because as I said, the angle matters. It's been  found that the perfect angle to engage the upper  

chest without over activating the front delts  is going to be this 30-to-45-degree angle. Now,  

whether or not your bench goes to the  specific degree doesn't really matter.  

Just try to go on the shallower side versus  steeper, when the upper chest fibers you're  

looking to really engage is the chest that you're  trying to grow rather than your shoulders. This  

is my choice right here firmly at the top. And so, then with any list ranking, the best chest  

exercises from worst to first, there can only be  one first. There can only be one best and it s  

the one that s been staring at you the whole  time, right here dead smack in the middle,  

The Barbell or the Dumbbell Bench Press. And I'm  giving you the option. Why? Because I just want to  

make sure that you're doing one of them. And the  reason why we put this at the top of this list  

is because it gives us the best opportunity to do  the one thing that we know can continue to drive  

both strength and hypertrophy and that is overload  his movement. The Barbell or the Dumbbell Bench,  

it's something you can easily continue to  up the weight on, which is going to continue  

to progressively keep those gains coming. Now, look, the choice between the two exercises is  

going to be up to you. Some may find the dumbbells  are going to give you a little bit more adduction  

at the top because you can move your hands closer  towards each other. And others are going to find  

that's a little bit easier on the shoulders to do  the dumbbells versus the barbells. Others who are  

looking to just prioritize strength are likely  going to choose the barbell variation because it  

gives you that extra 20% bump in your total. The  fact is this gets the top spot when we re looking  

at the best chest exercises for strength, size  and growth of your chest. Or wait, maybe not.  

And so, since the goal of this video is to  give you the best possible information I  

could. You're going to have to allow you to  bend the rules just a little bit. You see,  

because the best chess exercise is actually not  chess exercise at all. It's a combination of  

exercises from the Bench Press down into that  Heavy 1-Arm Crossover. Realizing that you're  

going to get that all important adduction, the  only missing element from the back bench press  

to create the perfect complement and take the best  exercise and make it the greatest of all time.  

And so with that, guys, hopefully you now know  which of the chess exercises you should be doing  

and which of the chess exercises maybe you want  to ditch. The key is understanding why we pick  

what we pick, because the size of the selection  matters. As always, we put the science into all  

we do here. All of our programs available over at  Athleanx.com. If you found the video helpful, make  

sure that your comments and the thumbs up below.  Tell me what other things you want me to cover  

in the ranked series, and I'll do that for you in  the future videos. And speaking of future videos,  

if you haven't already done so, make sure you  click subscribe and turn on your notifications,  

so you never miss one when I point out.  All right guys, I ll see you soon.

Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
exercise /ˈɛksərsaɪz/ A2	noun - an activity requiring physical effort done to improve health or fitness verb - to engage in physical activity to improve strength or fitness
muscle /ˈmʌsəl/ A2	noun - tissue in the body that can contract and produce movement
strength /strɛŋkθ/ B1	noun - the quality or state of being physically strong
gain /ɡeɪn/ B1	noun - an increase or improvement, especially in amount or size verb - to obtain or achieve something beneficial
risk /rɪsk/ B1	noun - the possibility of harm or loss verb - to expose to danger or loss
injury /ˈɪndʒəri/ B1	noun - physical harm or damage to a person’s body
perform /pərˈfɔrm/ B1	verb - to carry out an action or task
challenge /ˈtʃælɪndʒ/ B2	noun - a difficult task or problem verb - to invite or confront someone to a contest or fight
grow /ɡroʊ/ A2	verb - to increase in size or develop
weight /weɪt/ A2	noun - the measure of how heavy something is
resistance /rɪˈzɪstəns/ B2	noun - the act of opposing or withstanding something
stability /stəˈbɪləti/ C1	noun - the state of being steady and not changing
activation /ˌæktɪˈveɪʃən/ C1	noun - the process of making something active or operative
hypertrophy /haɪˈpɜrtrofi/ C2	noun - the enlargement of an organ or tissue from the increase in size of its cells
overload /ˌoʊvərˈloʊd/ B2	noun - an excessive load or amount verb - to put too much load or work on something
variation /ˌvɛriˈeɪʃən/ B2	noun - a change or difference in condition or amount
adduction /ˌædʌkˈʃən/ C2	noun - the movement of a limb or other part toward the midline of the body