The best chest workouts begin with the best chest workout techniques. In the above video, Jeff Cavaliere shows you a tip that you can apply to just one chest exercise and turn it into a total workout that is capable of building up your chest, big time. The technique is called triple contraction, and it takes all of the available types of chest contraction to the limits to help you build a bigger chest fast.
Before beginning, however, you need to understand that the different types of contractions available to you are capable of different strengths. For instance, your concentric strength is the weakest of the three available contractions. This unfortunately, is where many of us stop our exercises, the moment we reach failure concentrically. If this is you, I am telling you that you are leaving lots of potential results and gains on the table.
To get the best chest workout possible you would want to learn to incorporate advanced techniques to your training. Triple contraction allows you to program three successive failures (concentric, isometric and eccentric) into one chest exercise to get not just to failure but through it for even greater size gains. It starts with the selection of the exercise.
The cable crossover actually gives you a great way to make sure you hit all three in just one exercise while hitting each of the major functions of the pectorals. You will want to use an exercise that you can load safely and will resist your upper arm through flexion, adduction, and internal rotation. The crossover exercise shown here will do just that.
Begin by grasping the handle of the pulley (or just anchor a piece of tubing around a sturdy post if you are training at home) and then pull the handle across your chest. This is the positive or concentric portion of the chest exercise. Use a heavy weight that causes you to go to failure in the 10-12 rep range if possible. From here, do not put down the weight. Instead, keep the weight the same and use your rested arm to help position your arm across your chest in the contracted position.
The goal here is to hold this single isometric chest contraction as long as you possibly can. If you are strong here you might be able to hold it for 30-45 seconds. That said, with your chest in a state of pre-fatigue, you might find it much more difficult to do. That is ok. The key point is that you are going beyond the ordinary first level fatigue.
Once reaching failure here you still are not done. You will now use your unused arm and help to pull the cable across your chest. From here you want to eccentrically lower the weight stack without losing control of the contraction. Keep doing this until you no longer have the ability to steadily decelerate the stack back to it’s resting position.
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