The Best and Worst Stretches For Your Chest

Video Description

If you wanted to know the right way to stretch your chest, then you have come to the right place. In this video, I am going to show you the best way to stretch your chest that will not not only help your posture, but will make sure you continue to have healthy shoulders in the process. Not only that, but I am going to show you how utilizing stretch can lead to a bigger chest as well. It starts with acknowledging the anatomy of the chest. With the help of the muscle markers, you will see that the two muscles that make up the pecs are the pec major and pec minor. While the pec major is what we consistently train in order to have a big chest, the pec minor can’t be ignored either. When the chest, especially the pec minor, is tight; you will quickly notice it by the appearance of your posture. Rounded shoulders coupled with internal rotation of the shoulders, will lead not only to postural deficiencies, but will also compromise your shoulder mechanics as well. With a slumped, rounded shoulder posture, try lifting your arm directly overhead. You will notice that you can’t get your arm into position as there is a block in the shoulder joint caused by this posture. If you are looking to maintain shoulder mechanics and health, then stretching your chest the right way should be your priority. So it starts with knowing how not to stretch the chest. You might have been told or have instinctively tried to stretch your chest by grabbing something sturdy and simply turning your body away from it with a straight arm. The problem here is that you are throwing the upper end of you humerus into the anterior shoulder capsule which will lead to instability and potential injury in the process. To avoid a shoulder injury, you will want to stretch your chest the right way. To get the pec minor muscle on stretch you want to be sure you reverse the actions of the muscle. The major actions of the pec minor are to tilt the scapula forward, rotate it downward and protract the shoulder blade forward. You use a doorway to slide your arm up the jamb and aim for the exact opposite motions just listed. This will help you to upwardly rotate the scapula and retract it while tipping it back towards vertical. To stretch the pec major we have to be sure we retract our scapula and keep the head of the humerus positioned back in the shoulder joint. We want to try and avoid stretching our pecs by holding onto the corner of a door frame and leaning through the door. This can create an overload on the structures in the anterior shoulder capsule which can do damage over time. Instead, you want to position yourself in a door frame with your humerus anchored and supported against the frame. You want to lean forward just slightly and pinch your shoulder blades behind you and rotate away from the door jam. Now, when it comes to building a bigger chest, recent research has shown the importance of the loaded stretch portion of an exercise when it comes to muscle growth. The lengthening of a muscle under load has shown to induce hypertrophy, so it's important to find exercises that can explore the stretch tension on a muscle. But, not all exercises are created equally. You might have heard, when it comes to building a big chest, that you need to do chest flys in order to get maximum stretch on the pecs. The problem however, is that you are not getting any "extra" stretch on the chest by doing this exercise and like the incorrect way to stretch the chest, you are providing instability in the shoulder capsule and allowing the humeral head to create stress on the anterior shoulder capsule. Instead, look for exercises that can stretch the pecs while keeping the shoulders in an uncompromised position. You can do this with a simple cable crossover or cable fly. You will notice that the stretch position of the exercise mimics the proper way to stretch the pecs using the door jam. By using the same mechanics as the stretch, you will be able to explore that stretch tension while keeping the shoulders in a healthy position. This exercise is a great way to include stretch into your chest workouts. The Right Way To Stretch Here - https://athleanx.com/x/chest-stretch Subscribe to this channel here - http://bit.ly/2b0coMW If you are looking for a complete workout routine and meal plan to compliment your flexibility and mobility routine, be sure to head to athleanx.com and check out the program selector tool. It will take you just minutes to find the exact plan that fits your current goals and will help you to build ripped athletic muscle quickly. For more home stretching routines and the best stretches for your hips, back and shoulders be sure to subscribe to our channel here on youtube via the link above and remember to turn on your notifications so you never miss a new video when it’s published.