Alex I feel this needs to be said more; looking back, it is INSANE how far you've come from a quality standpoint. It's been great for years already, but the changes to lighting, sound, video segmenting and editing you've implemented over time make your channel stand out all on their own. Not to mention your pleasantly charismatic character and top notch information for NATURAL lifters, which most of us are. Your channel is a gold mine and it just gets better with every video you upload. We're all very proud of you Alex, keep it up 🙏
I used to be really good at squats and deadlifts and shit at presses and curls, did a whole 180 and am a lot happier lmao Was stuck on that bs pl dogmatic thinkin
Augustin-Dan Almasan make sure to leave the ego out the door too. Progressive overload is key for sure but your biceps are so much smaller than your back. I rarely do reps under 20. At the least I’ll do 10-10-10-10 alternating if I wanna use a heavier weight. But my arms have never looked better
@@AlexLeonidas dude I swear to god. Ive trained waaaaay harder than 99.99% people I see in the gym. Yet i have 48inch chest no pump and 13.5 biceps cold while all the lil kiddies with no technique or brainpower have 36 chest and 16inch biceps. It all comes down to genetics or at least 90% of it. I curl 90 for preacher curl EAAASSSYYY can do weighted pullups with 100lbs on me EAAASSY but can barely do 225 on bench for reps yet chest is big and arms small
@@AlexLeonidas i do mountain climbing + all kinds of calf exercises i run 1hour and half every 2 -3 days and my brother who doesnt do jackshit but sit on his gaming chair for years on end has waaay bigger calves than me. Genetics is 90%. Also I have a friend which has almost the same build as you, he outlifts me on ANY exercise without giving in much effort at all. Not sayong you didnt train hard just that people who have better than average genetics tend to think they are somehow doing the right thing and can tell others how to train because they made it. Once again you are an inspiration youve got great strength and a really insane physique but trust me, there ARE people who train hard as shit but cant compete because of genetics this is me btw m.imgur.com/gallery/IwGtdzF really wish youll see my comment and give me your opinion on this
Alex bro you've been one of my favourite yt'ers for years now the contents too real. Soon your channel is going to get the recognition it deserves. I cant think of anybody else delivering content as concise, real and effective as yours
You reckon front delts are better with low reps, and middle and rear with high reps? Just curious to see why you think that, and have you had good experience doing this?
The best results I've had for rear delts is doing 15 to 20 reps for 3 sets and really feeling the muscle. Side delts 12 to 15 for 3 sets. One thing about side delts is to train them without using any trap muscles. If you really want to grow the side delts you want to limit the trap use. There are times when using your traps can help but focus on the side delts first. When you train a side delt raise learn to feel the muscle when you contract it. You should be able to use no weight and squeeze the muscle so hard it'll start burning. That's when you know you can feel the muscle.
That’s what it was for me when I first started going into gym. I wasn’t even in the gym for 2 months doing a modified bro split and kept finding muscles that were lagging, or so I thought.
You're one of my favorite fitness UA-camrs now, you go straight to the point instead of beating around the bush. I can actually sit and watch the +10min videos without having to skip or anything.
My comments never show up here for some reason,there are so many questions I want to ask you. Anyways thanks for the great content (hope this question is visible in the comments section lol)
Hey Alex i would love if you could make some of these videos if youre running out of things to make vids about(not that I think you are - full day of eating+recipe - more workout videos I think you said something about having some old workout footage. I would love to see that -The celebreties workout(I know you dont wanna do Them but if you chance youre mind Henry Cavill and Tom Hardy would be my picks Tutorials/guides: pistols squats, weighted dips, front levers etc. Motivational videos Fellow subs feel free to Add to the list
AlphaDestiny: the gift that keeps on giving. Awesome content. My arms lagged; I picked three exercises for triceps and three for biceps, learned the proper movement patterns and trained the shit out of them 3 times a week: one heavy low rep day (3-5), one medium rep day (8-12), one high rep day (15-25) because I didn't know which ranges would grow my arms best. No more lagging arms. Gotta do that on my thighs next because they suck.
Hey, Alex, one thing that I see being very important and was left out here is posture. I see many guys who work in a good volume distribution but their posture, the whole day, makes the front part be more tense and the back part and they end up rounded... Maybe they would need to do 3x more back volume, compared to the pressing, instead of 2x just to compensate their life style. I find this to be true even for me: I raised 10kg on my bench and got winged scapula! How? Was using a bad chair at the time and working plus studying at home everyday... Was easy to fix, yet it happened. Good posture IS strength and need to be cared for, always!
@@GabrielMartinsFitness so do you think olympic lift could strenght en all of these muscles? I tested it yesterday and i'm extremely sore in my traps and this morning my serratus anterior was more visible, what do you think?
Well said! I'm focusing on my biceps triceps forearms and shouldersfor the next 26 weeks because they're extremely lacking! The way I'm going to do this is by training them 3-4 x week w them being at the beginning of the workout and having more exercise variation. I'm maintaining my chest my back and my legs at maintenance volume for this time. Everyone keeps asking me why I'm going to do arms at the beginning of the workout and why I'm prioritizing so much and simply put... because I want to. And I think that's a very important thing to ask yourself.
Thank you for this video. You've put into words exactly what I've been thinking. I've struggled with training my back for ages, to the point where I basically only have a lat on one side. I got there by focusing on one intense back movement per workout, either a row or pullup variation. I simply was not doing enough work, and was not using the correct form, which is why I wasn't seeing any results. After using lighter weight on a variety of exercises and focusing on actually contracting the muscle, I discovered just how weak my back is, how I've been doing my heavy movements wrong forever, and how sore I can actually be after back training done right! More variety and more volume is absolutely the way to go to grow. Looking forward to the gains. Much love from Toronto Alex.
Good advice brother I think people just needs to focus on what their personal goals are in training and just let it be a journey and take the necessary steps to get to where you want to be and also realize that you know everybody else's games and gross won't be the same for you
Something that blew my back gains up was training the back every other day, between 10 and 20 sets a day. I did this for about two or three months, while in a calorie deficit, and i grew so much that i got stretch marks on my lats and upper back. Will definately go back to that again.
I have amazing arms , and horrible chest. I push my hardest during chest days , and kinda slack on arms . My chest is my worst body part and my arms are huge. Genetics overpowers all other aspects for sure. You have to work with what you got
Quality content, given good advice and pretty much stated at the start all depends one what you’re training for which I believe is where most people fail
Mind muscle connection is really important. Most people never get that down in the first place. I think our lagging sides suffer from that. In my case it's the left leg. Whenever I squat I can feel my right leg working more even though the bar is straight. I have to practice that with lunges and other unilateral work. Also my right lat. I can easily flex my right one but not my left,
@Ardeshir oh dude. That was my mistake. You should start unilateral work whenever you start lifting. If you do a bench press, do a dumbbell press or cables. If you squat, do lunges, if you row, use dumbbells as well. Always. This will eliminate imbalances and improve your mind muscle connection.
No one is perfectly symmetric. Slight difference in limb lengths, joint anatomy, dominant brain hemisphere. It all adds up, everyone squats harder with one leg, benches with one arm... Unless your lifts are legit out of whack, it's nothing to worry about all that much.
Honestly this is exactly what I needed to hear. I always wish my arms were bigger - currently 14.5 inches at 5'9 and 180lbs bodyweight - but if I'm being honest with myself I don't do enough direct arm work. I follow a push/pull split and I usually only do 1 arm isolation on each of those days for triceps and biceps respectively
I don’t think my form is the issue but how I approached training my chest ever since you introduced weighted dips to me my chest is finally matching my arms so thank you g
Flexibility and mobility are also a huge factor. If your hips are tight and locked up, your hammies and glutes aren’t as engaged. This is just one example, imagine that for the rest of the body. These imbalances could also lead to injury. I’ve come to learn that many of us train hard, but just like nutrition, stretching is just as important piece of the puzzle as benching and squatting, etc
I have seen people with not great genetics not extra ordinary nutrition but with consistency and intensity in workouts devolpe very impressive overall physique . Alex bro you are a a bear incarnate .
Hey Alex, I’d love to see you review and talk about Josh Bryant and his training methods. He’s trained multiple world record holders in the bench press and he himself held the record for youngest person to bench press 600lbs in competition. I feel like he doesn’t get enough recognition
To anyone reading. I had lacking biceps but big triceps. Anyway just lowering the weight and doing curl with one arm to really focus on the mind muscle connection helped alot. I believe trying to increase the weight so hard on curls is a huge mistake. Only anecdotal evidence!
Very helpful! I thought my disproportionately large forearms were due to manual labor/farm-work and genetics. While that might be true to a certain degree, after watching this, I took a video of my workouts, and I'm curling my wrists like CRAZY on all my bicep exercises. I don't know how I didn't see this sooner! Either way, correcting that form issue should go a long way to bringing my biceps up to the level of my forearms. Thanks!
Hey Alex! You still have alot of arm potential. Even tho your arms are good in size, the bench is a chest exercise. Guess what, your chest is HUGE. Try getting your skull crushers and strict curls for 135 for 8-10 and you'll have damn lot bigger arms than if you benched 405 even. The bench and pullups are not great arm builders. I had the same ,,problem'' as you. What really helped me is cutting my volume by 30% on pressing and pulling and adding that volume to my arms so I can get the strenght up. Anyways, long time subscriber man, watched every video since years ago, enjoying the content as always, keep it up!
I'm a street lifter but I sometimes struggle to increase volume when I train with high intensity! So I switched to block training to have a ''volume hypertrophy'' block and then intensity block to go into a deload! It seems to be working but I'm recording myself and keeping logs to change things wherever needed.
Can't lie... 17.5" biceps with 14.5" forearms..most would hate it, but I like the disproportionate forearms 💪😂 And can confirm, I wrist curled the hell out of my NG chins 😂 still do..
Something that baffles me about people who worry about 'muscle imbalances' is that it's hard enough to actually gain MUSCLE as a natural, let alone develop imbalances. Majority of people shouldn't worry about it. People over complicate so much in the fitness industry. For the average person who just wants to be fit, look fairly jacked, and look fairly strong overall.... all they'll need to do is get as strong as possible on couple of key lifts. If you got your OHP up to 200 for reps, got your bench up to 315, and Trap bar deadlift up to 500, and threw out a few sets of pull ups, dips and curls at the end of your workouts etc.... THAT is all you'll need to focus on to completely transform your physqiue with very little imbalances!
Yeah, we tend to lean on our strengths while avoiding our weaknesses. My deadlift used to look like a stifflegged deadlift, when my squating improved back straigthened a bit and I could start using a lot more legdrive. Form is key, you are absolutely right.
@@ivanfl962 Make sure you're giving yourself enough time to recover between sets. For the compounds I give myself 2 to 3 minutes, for isolation movements, I give myself about 1 minute an 40 seconds.
Lol i looked at my program today and what you said about people emphasizing what theyre good at ... I realised based on depending on how you classify exercises . My volume for back is betweem 20 and 40. While my chest gets in between 12 and 15 .... Lets just say is im small overall but my back is extremely defined compared to my chest...
I snapped my collarbone on my left side snowboarding two years ago. I never went to the doctor and just let it heal which probably wasn't wise. Ever since the incident my tricep on that side has a completely foreign feeling contraction to the other. I still can produce force and get a decent pump in the injured arm but it doesn't feel like my other arm. I have noticed improvements to the motor-neural connection from exercise though I believe it to be getting stronger and I have no painful sensations when training, but I'm halfway convinced I tore my tricep that day.
Your Left Rhomboid comes out deeper than your right. I'm not sure if you're left or right handed, but you did mention getting there with one arm pullups. Did you ever consider revisiting the one arm pull up for the right? Also saw that you can hold a narrow grip, and work both one after another if you wanted. There's also one arm push ups, and I imagine you can definitely be strong on both sides with these if you tried these out again. Although it would have to be worked up to a high volume as you said.
The clip of you doing pushups made me think. I noticed that sense I switched to weighted pushups over heavy bench, my chest has exploded in size. Has anyone else experienced this? I did bench for years and my chest stayed small! It's crazy.
I long quit fapping, but I used to do it a lot when I was a teen (29 atm). But the consequences are still with me - my entire left arm - biceps, triceps, front delt - is more developed/toned than my right side. My left arm has this sexy vein on the biceps that my right arm is only starting to develop. Well, the good news is that it proves it conclusively - you get hypertrophy by putting in consistent VOLUME. Just don’t do it by fapping.
I think for me it's just I care more about certain body parts. The parts I really like I work harder. I workout mostly for strength and functionality over looks. Overcoming Isometrics have brought me a long way in that. Thanks for the great content!
Damn man 30 seconds in and you described me 🤣 although I don't half rep. I have recently hit 102.5kg for 3x5 on flat bench . I've also recently hit 77.5kg 3x5 on strict Overhead Press with more in the tank. My shoulder strength seems far to high in comparison to my bench and I don't know how to correct it or should I say vastly increase my bench
Hey Alex! I've been wondering if you could perhaps do a video in connection with posture. I feel like these days poor posture(mostly due to sitting in front of a computer desk 8 or more hours on a daily basis) is one of the most common (if not the most common) problem when it comes to developing muscular imbalances and experiencing pain at certain spots where you normally shouldn't (shoulders, neck, lower back, etc.). I'd be curious to hear if you've had any issues with it yourself in the past whatsoever, and if so I'd love to see what exercises you have been using or used in the past to fix yours.
For me my chest and delts grow a lot and it’s not from increased volume . Wether I’m bigger or leaner I always put back exercises before the ‘push’ exercises and I do more of them and even tho my back grows decent its not as much as my chest and delts with double the volume and atleast the same intensity. That’s the beauty and curse of genetics.
No, that's correct. Back needs FAR more volume than chest. It's nothing to do with you, or your body, it's normal. Hence why gym bros bench a lot, chest responds well and quickly.
Been lifting for 25 years. I have tried nuclear overload multiple times over the years. My body just must be odd because every time I've tried the body part got smaller everytime.
Aaron Williams yeah I’ve cut out flat bench from my routine. I just think it’s not in my genetics to grow a decent other chest or my lower chest is so dominant it looks like I don’t have an upper chest lol
I actually do isolation excersices for biceps but i still have bad mind-muscle connection and i still do not see that much of grow, i think that i have good form but still have those problems
Alex, what's your opinion on Mountain Dog John Meadows' training philosophy, i.e. his 4 stage (activation, explosion, pump work and stretch phase), he's recently started a bunch of choose your own adventure style videos for different body types. What do you make of this?
One of my rear delts is bigger than the other from doing archery for a while. Since then I’ve been training rear delts for a couple years and my lagging side still hasn’t caught up and problem won’t ever
Because it's easy. We DO exist. lol. Just because we don't have a 'channel' doesnt mean we don't train and know wot we're doing lol....... i would actually go as far to say that most of the people who DON'T have fitness channels are probably the ones who won't feed you any bullshit. Most of these fitness 'guru's' online are just tying to sell you THEIR opinions so you buy their programs and subscribe to THEIR channel etc.... (im not necessarily including alphadestiny in this) but you get my point..... If they all just gave you the 'basics' then they wouldnt need a channel would they? Its actually baffling how many 'fitness' channels they're are with a billion different ideas on how to GET BIGGER AND STRONGER! It's crazy. And to be honest, it's probably what is hindering most peoples progress, unfortunately! They keep jumping from one youtuber to another!
Hey Alex a quick question. Would you recommend one arm push ups or regular push ups for maximum strength and size gains, I was doing 345lbs for a great crisp rep until the lockdown happened... Been doing one arm push ups with pressing hand beneath pressing pec and feet shoulder width apart, I got up to 25 reps.... Each arm. And I made very visible gains on top of what I had. Really happy to say the least, very curious to bench again to see how much more I can do. What would be your recommendation between regular and one arm push ups? For maximum strength and size?
Man I always had a problem with my shoulders. For a long time I struggled with the mind muscle connection with all the shoulder presses except for deep arnolds with moderate weight
Hey Alex bro I've two questions please help: 1. I'm a novice lifter and wanna run your novice program can I build my first 20 pounds of muscle without properly following a diet or just eating alot would do the work. I'm a skinny fat 16 yo dude. 2. Plus my gym doesn't have a power rack for (squats) so what should I do until I found another gym having one. 3. Love from Pakistan!
@@AlexLeonidas Any Advice for recomping ? Im trying to lose fat ( I have a lot from going bearmode) while still gaining strength and size ? Almost an intermediate
Alex I feel this needs to be said more; looking back, it is INSANE how far you've come from a quality standpoint. It's been great for years already, but the changes to lighting, sound, video segmenting and editing you've implemented over time make your channel stand out all on their own. Not to mention your pleasantly charismatic character and top notch information for NATURAL lifters, which most of us are. Your channel is a gold mine and it just gets better with every video you upload.
We're all very proud of you Alex, keep it up 🙏
So true. Alex finally got me set on the right path in the gym. Always grateful for coming across that first video.
Thank you so much Skippy, that really means a lot!!
@@100based9 so true, been here for years and you can tell the dude is passionate about this. He's on a journey and it shows.
@@AlexLeonidas He went from dopey to super handsome in his 20s
Arnold said : Expose your weaknesses. Do what you do not like. What you like is what you are good at
That's a fact
I used to be really good at squats and deadlifts and shit at presses and curls, did a whole 180 and am a lot happier lmao
Was stuck on that bs pl dogmatic thinkin
@@immaletyoufinish same here. only deads and chins. my wife has bigger arms. I will start curling ☺
Augustin-Dan Almasan make sure to leave the ego out the door too. Progressive overload is key for sure but your biceps are so much smaller than your back. I rarely do reps under 20. At the least I’ll do 10-10-10-10 alternating if I wanna use a heavier weight. But my arms have never looked better
That's what I'm doing for legs. My weakness are split squats with weight and the hack squat.
its the mindset, you dont just go through your 3 sets of curls while watching the tv, watching the clock, etc
Word, especially if your biceps are lagging.
@@AlexLeonidas dude I swear to god. Ive trained waaaaay harder than 99.99% people I see in the gym. Yet i have 48inch chest no pump and 13.5 biceps cold while all the lil kiddies with no technique or brainpower have 36 chest and 16inch biceps. It all comes down to genetics or at least 90% of it. I curl 90 for preacher curl EAAASSSYYY can do weighted pullups with 100lbs on me EAAASSY but can barely do 225 on bench for reps yet chest is big and arms small
@@clunkydoo are you natural coz they're not
@@bigc181 i am but not for long. Tired of going balls to the walls and having 1/3 of the gains of someone who barely trains has easy genetics + gear
@@AlexLeonidas i do mountain climbing + all kinds of calf exercises i run 1hour and half every 2 -3 days and my brother who doesnt do jackshit but sit on his gaming chair for years on end has waaay bigger calves than me. Genetics is 90%. Also I have a friend which has almost the same build as you, he outlifts me on ANY exercise without giving in much effort at all. Not sayong you didnt train hard just that people who have better than average genetics tend to think they are somehow doing the right thing and can tell others how to train because they made it. Once again you are an inspiration youve got great strength and a really insane physique but trust me, there ARE people who train hard as shit but cant compete because of genetics this is me btw m.imgur.com/gallery/IwGtdzF really wish youll see my comment and give me your opinion on this
Alex bro you've been one of my favourite yt'ers for years now the contents too real. Soon your channel is going to get the recognition it deserves. I cant think of anybody else delivering content as concise, real and effective as yours
Especially for SHOULDERS, volume is key, side and rear delts can handle high volumen but alot of people undertrain them so hard unbelievably
You reckon front delts are better with low reps, and middle and rear with high reps? Just curious to see why you think that, and have you had good experience doing this?
Jay 1988 being Honest only front delt stuff you need to do is any form of vertical press ie z press, standing OHP or seated OHP
The best results I've had for rear delts is doing 15 to 20 reps for 3 sets and really feeling the muscle. Side delts 12 to 15 for 3 sets. One thing about side delts is to train them without using any trap muscles. If you really want to grow the side delts you want to limit the trap use. There are times when using your traps can help but focus on the side delts first.
When you train a side delt raise learn to feel the muscle when you contract it. You should be able to use no weight and squeeze the muscle so hard it'll start burning. That's when you know you can feel the muscle.
I can't handle volume tho, every time I try I go "Fuck that, I could be lifting heavy right now" LOL
if you have no weights
do the wall deficit hspu, great workout with no equipment
could also be a body dismorphia thing as well
Very true!!
That’s what it was for me when I first started going into gym. I wasn’t even in the gym for 2 months doing a modified bro split and kept finding muscles that were lagging, or so I thought.
True my arms are 18" at my current body fat and they look small to me but so do the rest of my muscles.
You're one of my favorite fitness UA-camrs now, you go straight to the point instead of beating around the bush. I can actually sit and watch the +10min videos without having to skip or anything.
Yo bro thanks for everything!
My pleasure Eric!
Ikr devon larratt is such a gym bro, only trains his right arm.
wait until u meet guy that trains only under a table
He wins with both arms
Listening to alphadestiny= better gains + good life lessons
You have a beautiful way of thinking about fitness, trully rare nowadays, keep up the great work Alex.
My comments never show up here for some reason,there are so many questions I want to ask you. Anyways thanks for the great content (hope this question is visible in the comments section lol)
It's here brother, sometimes the spam filter can be weird. Feel free to ask my any fitness questions, especially for the upcomign Q&A video.
AlphaDestiny when is the q&a going live?
Man the lighting in this video is really good, more than usual.
Hey Alex i would love if you could make some of these videos if youre running out of things to make vids about(not that I think you are
- full day of eating+recipe
- more workout videos
I think you said something about having some old workout footage. I would love to see that
-The celebreties workout(I know you dont wanna do Them but if you chance youre mind Henry Cavill and Tom Hardy would be my picks
Tutorials/guides: pistols squats, weighted dips, front levers etc.
Motivational videos
Fellow subs feel free to Add to the list
Thanks for the suggestions homie
AlphaDestiny youre welcome love your content
One of the best Video I have seen in a long time from all fitness youtubers.
Tonnes of value in this, thanks alex
AlphaDestiny: the gift that keeps on giving. Awesome content. My arms lagged; I picked three exercises for triceps and three for biceps, learned the proper movement patterns and trained the shit out of them 3 times a week: one heavy low rep day (3-5), one medium rep day (8-12), one high rep day (15-25) because I didn't know which ranges would grow my arms best. No more lagging arms. Gotta do that on my thighs next because they suck.
Hey, Alex, one thing that I see being very important and was left out here is posture. I see many guys who work in a good volume distribution but their posture, the whole day, makes the front part be more tense and the back part and they end up rounded... Maybe they would need to do 3x more back volume, compared to the pressing, instead of 2x just to compensate their life style.
I find this to be true even for me: I raised 10kg on my bench and got winged scapula! How? Was using a bad chair at the time and working plus studying at home everyday... Was easy to fix, yet it happened.
Good posture IS strength and need to be cared for, always!
Boa
How'd you fix it?
@lol what does my glutes have to do with my scapula??
@@mejl8526 simply working the muscles the control the scapula, serradus anterior, lower and mid traps, romboids
@@GabrielMartinsFitness so do you think olympic lift could strenght en all of these muscles? I tested it yesterday and i'm extremely sore in my traps and this morning my serratus anterior was more visible, what do you think?
Well said! I'm focusing on my biceps triceps forearms and shouldersfor the next 26 weeks because they're extremely lacking! The way I'm going to do this is by training them 3-4 x week w them being at the beginning of the workout and having more exercise variation. I'm maintaining my chest my back and my legs at maintenance volume for this time. Everyone keeps asking me why I'm going to do arms at the beginning of the workout and why I'm prioritizing so much and simply put... because I want to. And I think that's a very important thing to ask yourself.
Thank you for this video. You've put into words exactly what I've been thinking. I've struggled with training my back for ages, to the point where I basically only have a lat on one side. I got there by focusing on one intense back movement per workout, either a row or pullup variation. I simply was not doing enough work, and was not using the correct form, which is why I wasn't seeing any results. After using lighter weight on a variety of exercises and focusing on actually contracting the muscle, I discovered just how weak my back is, how I've been doing my heavy movements wrong forever, and how sore I can actually be after back training done right! More variety and more volume is absolutely the way to go to grow. Looking forward to the gains. Much love from Toronto Alex.
Good advice brother I think people just needs to focus on what their personal goals are in training and just let it be a journey and take the necessary steps to get to where you want to be and also realize that you know everybody else's games and gross won't be the same for you
Something that blew my back gains up was training the back every other day, between 10 and 20 sets a day. I did this for about two or three months, while in a calorie deficit, and i grew so much that i got stretch marks on my lats and upper back. Will definately go back to that again.
I have amazing arms , and horrible chest. I push my hardest during chest days , and kinda slack on arms . My chest is my worst body part and my arms are huge. Genetics overpowers all other aspects for sure. You have to work with what you got
I'm the opposite and I think you have it better bro js
@Boreeng Vajay but big chest is good for aesthetic tho
4O4ShacoNotFound - my right side is smaller than the left but it’s catching up
Great talk it brings up some concepts that i needed to hear
Quality content, given good advice and pretty much stated at the start all depends one what you’re training for which I believe is where most people fail
Mind muscle connection is really important. Most people never get that down in the first place. I think our lagging sides suffer from that. In my case it's the left leg. Whenever I squat I can feel my right leg working more even though the bar is straight. I have to practice that with lunges and other unilateral work. Also my right lat. I can easily flex my right one but not my left,
@Ardeshir oh dude. That was my mistake. You should start unilateral work whenever you start lifting. If you do a bench press, do a dumbbell press or cables. If you squat, do lunges, if you row, use dumbbells as well. Always. This will eliminate imbalances and improve your mind muscle connection.
No one is perfectly symmetric. Slight difference in limb lengths, joint anatomy, dominant brain hemisphere. It all adds up, everyone squats harder with one leg, benches with one arm... Unless your lifts are legit out of whack, it's nothing to worry about all that much.
@Ardeshir It gets flattened out as you progress, never disappears completely, but the more you lift the closer you get to the 50:50 involvement.
This is the first video that shows up for me from your chanel in so long I thought you hadn't uploaded. Damn youtube
Honestly this is exactly what I needed to hear. I always wish my arms were bigger - currently 14.5 inches at 5'9 and 180lbs bodyweight - but if I'm being honest with myself I don't do enough direct arm work. I follow a push/pull split and I usually only do 1 arm isolation on each of those days for triceps and biceps respectively
I don’t think my form is the issue but how I approached training my chest ever since you introduced weighted dips to me my chest is finally matching my arms so thank you g
I’d say being solely powerlifting was an issue for my chest as well.
Great stuff as always Alex 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Flexibility and mobility are also a huge factor. If your hips are tight and locked up, your hammies and glutes aren’t as engaged. This is just one example, imagine that for the rest of the body. These imbalances could also lead to injury. I’ve come to learn that many of us train hard, but just like nutrition, stretching is just as important piece of the puzzle as benching and squatting, etc
Amazing Video, straight up facts!!! Thank you Alex!!
I have seen people with not great genetics not extra ordinary nutrition but with consistency and intensity in workouts devolpe very impressive overall physique .
Alex bro you are a a bear incarnate .
looking good brah
Interesting video again, thanx Alex!!
Excellent video!
This video needed to be done. No one wants to talk about lagging body parts.
love the Vid. realy good work!
Great vid, man. Thanks.
Great video bro.
Hey Alex, I’d love to see you review and talk about Josh Bryant and his training methods. He’s trained multiple world record holders in the bench press and he himself held the record for youngest person to bench press 600lbs in competition. I feel like he doesn’t get enough recognition
To anyone reading. I had lacking biceps but big triceps. Anyway just lowering the weight and doing curl with one arm to really focus on the mind muscle connection helped alot. I believe trying to increase the weight so hard on curls is a huge mistake. Only anecdotal evidence!
hello Alex can you tell your next Q&A video how to warm up to your full body workout i have your enhanced book and it is awesome
Very helpful! I thought my disproportionately large forearms were due to manual labor/farm-work and genetics. While that might be true to a certain degree, after watching this, I took a video of my workouts, and I'm curling my wrists like CRAZY on all my bicep exercises. I don't know how I didn't see this sooner! Either way, correcting that form issue should go a long way to bringing my biceps up to the level of my forearms. Thanks!
I love this channel
Amazing video alpha 👍. Can you make a video about improving ankle mobility? For squats I mean
Awesome video
We need a hybrid program for bodyweight and lower body weight lifting
since you've pointed out your hypermoblie elbows I feel so nervous watching you bench. it looks like your arms are about to snap
Good video thx
For my case its not volume because i do more for my lagging muscles.
Its a mix between pain tolerance and genetic
Hey Alex! You still have alot of arm potential. Even tho your arms are good in size, the bench is a chest exercise. Guess what, your chest is HUGE. Try getting your skull crushers and strict curls for 135 for 8-10 and you'll have damn lot bigger arms than if you benched 405 even. The bench and pullups are not great arm builders. I had the same ,,problem'' as you. What really helped me is cutting my volume by 30% on pressing and pulling and adding that volume to my arms so I can get the strenght up.
Anyways, long time subscriber man, watched every video since years ago, enjoying the content as always, keep it up!
Thank you for the advice and kind words Martin! I appreciate it.
I'm a street lifter but I sometimes struggle to increase volume when I train with high intensity! So I switched to block training to have a ''volume hypertrophy'' block and then intensity block to go into a deload! It seems to be working but I'm recording myself and keeping logs to change things wherever needed.
what is a street lifter?
@@ok92computer heavy weighted calisthenics so basically powerlifting in calisthenics
Can't lie... 17.5" biceps with 14.5" forearms..most would hate it, but I like the disproportionate forearms 💪😂
And can confirm, I wrist curled the hell out of my NG chins 😂 still do..
Something that baffles me about people who worry about 'muscle imbalances' is that it's hard enough to actually gain MUSCLE as a natural, let alone develop imbalances. Majority of people shouldn't worry about it. People over complicate so much in the fitness industry. For the average person who just wants to be fit, look fairly jacked, and look fairly strong overall.... all they'll need to do is get as strong as possible on couple of key lifts. If you got your OHP up to 200 for reps, got your bench up to 315, and Trap bar deadlift up to 500, and threw out a few sets of pull ups, dips and curls at the end of your workouts etc.... THAT is all you'll need to focus on to completely transform your physqiue with very little imbalances!
Yeah, we tend to lean on our strengths while avoiding our weaknesses. My deadlift used to look like a stifflegged deadlift, when my squating improved back straigthened a bit and I could start using a lot more legdrive. Form is key, you are absolutely right.
05:20 weighted ball pulls. for the extra yoke
thanks a lot man, have a great day💪
Thanks man, you too 💪
progressive overload
negatives
static holds
full range of motion
high intensity
to me this is the bread and butter
Yup, my only problem when training is that fatigue really gets to you at some point and form becomes difficult to maintain.
@Boreeng Vajay Haha i'll keep that in mind.
@@ivanfl962 Make sure you're giving yourself enough time to recover between sets. For the compounds I give myself 2 to 3 minutes, for isolation movements, I give myself about 1 minute an 40 seconds.
Lol i looked at my program today and what you said about people emphasizing what theyre good at ... I realised based on depending on how you classify exercises . My volume for back is betweem 20 and 40. While my chest gets in between 12 and 15 .... Lets just say is im small overall but my back is extremely defined compared to my chest...
Finally!!! More frequency!)
You bet!
@@AlexLeonidas cheers from Russia Alpha), probably I may be the only one there knowing and using NE phylosophy
I snapped my collarbone on my left side snowboarding two years ago. I never went to the doctor and just let it heal which probably wasn't wise. Ever since the incident my tricep on that side has a completely foreign feeling contraction to the other. I still can produce force and get a decent pump in the injured arm but it doesn't feel like my other arm. I have noticed improvements to the motor-neural connection from exercise though I believe it to be getting stronger and I have no painful sensations when training, but I'm halfway convinced I tore my tricep that day.
Your Left Rhomboid comes out deeper than your right. I'm not sure if you're left or right handed, but you did mention getting there with one arm pullups. Did you ever consider revisiting the one arm pull up for the right? Also saw that you can hold a narrow grip, and work both one after another if you wanted. There's also one arm push ups, and I imagine you can definitely be strong on both sides with these if you tried these out again. Although it would have to be worked up to a high volume as you said.
The clip of you doing pushups made me think. I noticed that sense I switched to weighted pushups over heavy bench, my chest has exploded in size. Has anyone else experienced this? I did bench for years and my chest stayed small! It's crazy.
buyt I feel like my chest cant handle much volume. It recovers slower than my other muscles I feel like
I long quit fapping, but I used to do it a lot when I was a teen (29 atm). But the consequences are still with me - my entire left arm - biceps, triceps, front delt - is more developed/toned than my right side. My left arm has this sexy vein on the biceps that my right arm is only starting to develop. Well, the good news is that it proves it conclusively - you get hypertrophy by putting in consistent VOLUME. Just don’t do it by fapping.
Wow havent seen a behind the back deadlift in a long time
I think for me it's just I care more about certain body parts. The parts I really like I work harder. I workout mostly for strength and functionality over looks. Overcoming Isometrics have brought me a long way in that. Thanks for the great content!
Overcoming isometrics do not get anywhere near as much love as they should
Damn man 30 seconds in and you described me 🤣 although I don't half rep. I have recently hit 102.5kg for 3x5 on flat bench . I've also recently hit 77.5kg 3x5 on strict Overhead Press with more in the tank. My shoulder strength seems far to high in comparison to my bench and I don't know how to correct it or should I say vastly increase my bench
Being shoulder dominant is a good thing, aesthethic wise. Too many gym bros are chest dominant
Them traps almost rip your shirt apart😂
Looking great bro🤙🏽
Great work out. I wish to get training from you. Dear... I like all your videos.
Hey Alex! I've been wondering if you could perhaps do a video in connection with posture. I feel like these days poor posture(mostly due to sitting in front of a computer desk 8 or more hours on a daily basis) is one of the most common (if not the most common) problem when it comes to developing muscular imbalances and experiencing pain at certain spots where you normally shouldn't (shoulders, neck, lower back, etc.). I'd be curious to hear if you've had any issues with it yourself in the past whatsoever, and if so I'd love to see what exercises you have been using or used in the past to fix yours.
For me my chest and delts grow a lot and it’s not from increased volume . Wether I’m bigger or leaner I always put back exercises before the ‘push’ exercises and I do more of them and even tho my back grows decent its not as much as my chest and delts with double the volume and atleast the same intensity. That’s the beauty and curse of genetics.
No, that's correct. Back needs FAR more volume than chest. It's nothing to do with you, or your body, it's normal. Hence why gym bros bench a lot, chest responds well and quickly.
@@Jay-we2ek Still think it's genetic. Shoulders and arms grow stupid easy for me while chest is a real battle
Heavy half reps on bench will build mass over time on the pecs. Will take out a lot of the shoulder and tricep involvement by only going halfway up.
Do it with boards or off safety straps so you have a consistent range of motion, will drastically lower injury risk
Been lifting for 25 years. I have tried nuclear overload multiple times over the years. My body just must be odd because every time I've tried the body part got smaller everytime.
This says a lot about society
I realised that Alex looks pretty similar to young 1997-version of Glen Benton :)
I remember when I started filming my squat
My upper chest is lagging and this is especially true for me
Switch flat bench for incline and do ohp, fixed.
Aaron Williams yeah I’ve cut out flat bench from my routine. I just think it’s not in my genetics to grow a decent other chest or my lower chest is so dominant it looks like I don’t have an upper chest lol
I actually do isolation excersices for biceps but i still have bad mind-muscle connection and i still do not see that much of grow, i think that i have good form but still have those problems
Alex, what's your opinion on Mountain Dog John Meadows' training philosophy, i.e. his 4 stage (activation, explosion, pump work and stretch phase), he's recently started a bunch of choose your own adventure style videos for different body types. What do you make of this?
My Chest is lagging 😔😔
One of my rear delts is bigger than the other from doing archery for a while. Since then I’ve been training rear delts for a couple years and my lagging side still hasn’t caught up and problem won’t ever
I have always had the hardest time feeling the chest
who is he Arm man 7:36?
Ceff Javalier 😜
Facts 🔥💯
7:20 you talking bout Jeff from Athlean-X lol
I love the way everyone in the comments becomes an 'online coach' that holds the key to success lol
Because it's easy. We DO exist. lol. Just because we don't have a 'channel' doesnt mean we don't train and know wot we're doing lol....... i would actually go as far to say that most of the people who DON'T have fitness channels are probably the ones who won't feed you any bullshit.
Most of these fitness 'guru's' online are just tying to sell you THEIR opinions so you buy their programs and subscribe to THEIR channel etc.... (im not necessarily including alphadestiny in this) but you get my point.....
If they all just gave you the 'basics' then they wouldnt need a channel would they? Its actually baffling how many 'fitness' channels they're are with a billion different ideas on how to GET BIGGER AND STRONGER! It's crazy. And to be honest, it's probably what is hindering most peoples progress, unfortunately! They keep jumping from one youtuber to another!
Good content.
i have no arms because i dont train them
Loved the video , love from india
My body fat isn't lagging
Hey Alex a quick question.
Would you recommend one arm push ups or regular push ups for maximum strength and size gains, I was doing 345lbs for a great crisp rep until the lockdown happened...
Been doing one arm push ups with pressing hand beneath pressing pec and feet shoulder width apart, I got up to 25 reps.... Each arm.
And I made very visible gains on top of what I had. Really happy to say the least, very curious to bench again to see how much more I can do.
What would be your recommendation between regular and one arm push ups? For maximum strength and size?
this is so true
Man I always had a problem with my shoulders. For a long time I struggled with the mind muscle connection with all the shoulder presses except for deep arnolds with moderate weight
Who's the UA-camr with arms and nothing else? And why is it Jeremey Either
I was thinking Athlean X but I might be wrong.
@@pavelandonov3345 Athlean X is probably the most proportionate guy on UA-cam
@@bigc181 I am not gonna argue on that. However, a lot of people claim his arms are overshadowing his chest and back
Maybe soosh?
it's probably vegan gains. guy has nice biceps and mediocre everything else
I destroy the shit at my arms and there still not that big I even train on gymnastics rings
Can we have more workout videos Alex
Hey Alex if we’re bulking and running 3x per week should we not bulk on off days to avoid excess fat gain
Hey Alex bro I've two questions please help:
1. I'm a novice lifter and wanna run your novice program can I build my first 20 pounds of muscle without properly following a diet or just eating alot would do the work. I'm a skinny fat 16 yo dude.
2. Plus my gym doesn't have a power rack for (squats) so what should I do until I found another gym having one.
3. Love from Pakistan!
Reply em Alex!
Hey man, I'll answer this question in the upcoming Q&A video. Cheers!
Whoa Whoa I got a reply from Alex. You made my day man!
And thanks @popcornto and the other guy!
@OVERCOME72 tell him wassup
@@AlexLeonidas Any Advice for recomping ? Im trying to lose fat ( I have a lot from going bearmode) while still gaining strength and size ? Almost an intermediate
i need to focus on my left side