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  • What's up, guys?

  • Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.com.

  • If you're like most men, you have a problem in either one of the three main areas.

  • That is: accumulating too much fat either on your belly, on your chest, or in the love

  • handle and waist line.

  • Today I'm going to show you how we can conquer those three trouble spots.

  • Most importantly by taking a phase by phase approach.

  • It doesn't matter if you have all three.

  • I'm going to show you how we're going to hit them all in this one video.

  • Right off the bat, guys, the one thing that all three of these areas have in common is

  • that they are body fat issues, first and foremost.

  • Meaning, if your nutrition is not in check, if you're not following a proper nutrition

  • plan, you're never going to be able to conquer these things, and get them to look better.

  • However, you don't necessarily have to be able to dial it all the way down to single

  • digit body fat levels to be able to start to see improvement.

  • I believe that small improvements are what give us the motivation to continue to make

  • bigger improvements.

  • So when you just get started, the one thing you want to do from a nutrition standpoint

  • is take out the obvious crap.

  • Go through, make one pass through.

  • You know the things you shouldn't be eating.

  • Start eating less of those, or start drinking less of the stuff that you know you shouldn't

  • be drinking, and I promise you, as your body fat levels start to decline you're going to

  • be able to see the impacts that the first level Phase I changes will make.

  • We start right there.

  • When it comes to the abs, and this belly area the one thing you have to start doing is,

  • you need to be able to feel the abs contracting.

  • I know when you have a lot of mass in that area it doesn't really feel like anything

  • is working.

  • As a matter of fact, when you try to crunch things get in the way.

  • So what I want you to do is, I want you to lay down on the ground first, Phase I, and

  • just learn how to activate the muscles under there.

  • The key here is to try to do two things.

  • One: cross your legs over each other so you can squeeze the adductors, squeeze your thighs

  • together as hard as possible, and then pull down on your belly.

  • Try to flatten out what we call the 'transverse abdominus'.

  • In other words, we want to act like we just went into this freezing cold lake, and the

  • water is so cold that we have to pull back, and in.

  • When you get the ability to feel that contraction, even though it's under layers, and layers

  • of fat, potentially, the ability to feel that contraction is going to be a key first step

  • to getting you further down the road in Phase II.

  • Next, moving onto the chest.

  • We can do things here too, in phase I that don't require having to have those low body

  • fat levels.

  • That means we can start just by stretching the chest muscles themselves and strengthening

  • the muscles on the other side of the shoulder joint.

  • This is what I'm talking about.

  • If we have a problem with chest fat, we have these rounded shoulder, likely, because everything

  • is brought forward.

  • Especially if we have the belly here in front as well.

  • A flattened out, rounded shoulder look is going to take a bad chest and make it look

  • worse.

  • What we can do, just by getting our chest open, and strengthening the muscles in the

  • other side, is going to get the chest to instantly look better.

  • Right off the get go, that's what we're trying to do because we haven't had that chance yet

  • to make those drastic changes through nutrition.

  • So here are a couple stretches.

  • You do this stretch right here that I've shown you before for the pec major, and as you get

  • this stretch, and you sink it in here – I'll link the video at the end of this so you can

  • get an in-depth on how to do every, single step hereyou also want to stretch the

  • pec minor as well, because that's going to pull your shoulder blade forward, too.

  • But we get both of these stretches done, and then of course we want to work on that rotator

  • cuff.

  • We do that through some of the banded external rotation work here.

  • I know it could be boring, but I promise you, even a little bit of this added to what you're

  • doing right now could have a major impact on your posture.

  • When you add toas I've devoted a whole video to beforethe face pull, in just

  • a few sets here at the end of your workouts is going to go a long way toward improving

  • your posture.

  • But this is Phase I, and it will allow you to see a better look to your chest, even as

  • you're carving away, and chopping away through your nutrition at those body fat levels.

  • Now, when it comes to the love handles we have to understand the anatomy of what we're

  • talking about first.

  • That is, it's the oblique muscle covered, again, in too much body fat.

  • What we can do here, from the beginningagain, realizing that we haven't really gone too

  • far yet with our nutrition improvementswe can at least start working the lats.

  • The more we can get a lat differential here with the waistline, you're going to start

  • creating that visual tapering that will be important for you as you start to get more

  • encouraged by how you look, as you're making those changes.

  • The big key I always point out here is, you want to make sure you're taking all of your

  • lat exercises to a full contraction.

  • We short change them constantly.

  • Every rep, we try to move as much weight as we can without focusing, maybe, on dropping

  • the weight just a little bit so we can get a better contraction.

  • The lats will always insert all the way down here, low on the waistline, and if we allow

  • it to get a full contraction on every rep we get a better development of the entire

  • muscle.

  • We want to take advantage of that.

  • So don't shortchange your reps, and certainly don't overlook your lats when it comes to

  • making quick changes to the visual appearance as you're continuing to work on those body

  • fat levels.

  • Moving onto Phase II now.

  • Things are getting a little more serious.

  • Your nutrition is getting a bit more in check.

  • You're starting to care a bit more about the macronutrientsmaybe not just getting

  • rid of the obvious stuff, you've done thatbut now you've got to get a bit more fine-tuned

  • on optimizing the good things that you are putting into your body.

  • I'm going to tell you, it will become a lot easier for you, and you're going to become

  • a lot more interested in it because you've already started to see the changes, which

  • have inspired you to keep going down this path.

  • So when we go back to these three problem areas, Phase II now, of what I want you to

  • do when it comes to that belly fat, and that lower abdomen is I want you to start including

  • some direct training for the area.

  • Not just feeling the contraction, but using rotational ab training.

  • You can see that I love doing rotational ab training here, and all it takes is a single

  • band.

  • You need to do this because a lot of times people at this body fat level don't respond

  • well to crunches because their own body fat gets in the way.

  • As they start to crunch up everything crunches up together.

  • They never feel a really strong ab contraction.

  • They get frustrated, and it's not the way to go.

  • You can totally train your abs using rotational ab movements, and it's definitely something

  • that's appropriate now, at this stage of the game.

  • As far as the chest now, we have another target area that I want you to start incorporating.

  • That is the serratus.

  • A lot of people are thinking "Why am I training something that's not related to the chest?"

  • But it is.

  • Even just by its own anatomical positioning here, the serratus muscle, which is activated

  • when we push our arms away from our body, almost acts like an internal bra for men.

  • The more you can develop this muscle underlining the bottom, and lower area of the chest, or

  • the outer area of the chest, the more you're positioning your body to look better.

  • Especially as you carve out those body fat levels.

  • So the way we can hit this muscle, again, is with anything that helps us to protract

  • our arms away from our body.

  • We can do that in a simple pushup position, as I'm demonstrating here.

  • Instead of just going down, and up, down, and up, we can go down, and up, and then push

  • away, keeping our arms straight, and trying to push our hands through the floor.

  • We could also do it from a dip position.

  • Whether or not you even have the strength to do dips yet, that's fine.

  • You don't necessarily have to do them, but you can still do the plus portion of that,

  • which is going to train the serratus.

  • You can even take cables, or a band, and work on straight arm punching, away from your body.

  • The fact is, this area is going to become more visible, and it will respond to your

  • early training.

  • Especially if you have not trained it yet, at all.

  • So it's going to allow you to start getting a visibly better looking area around that

  • chest, as you continue to work toward dropping those body fat levels.

  • Okay, wrapping up Phase II here, we're actually back on the love handles.

  • Really, we're back on this abdomen area.

  • The focus is back on ab training again.

  • You see, the more you can start to develop the rectus abdominus here through our rotational

  • ab movements, if that's all you're going to do at the moment; that's enough to allow us

  • to start seeing some changes, even at the top row of our abs.

  • We know that when it comes to dropping body fat, especially in guys, it works its way

  • from the top, down.

  • The lower area being the last to go.

  • But as you start to see those top two rows of abs there, it starts to visibly look better,

  • and start tapering in, and allowing the obliquesas they start to come in as wellto

  • look better overall, as we've framed out something here in the middle.

  • Whereas before, it was pretty much absent.

  • So you want to keep focusing on this as you continue to move onto Phase III and dial it

  • all in.

  • Phase III now, you're now locked in.

  • You're not just caring about macronutrients, but you're actually caring about micronutrients

  • as well.

  • You realize that the small details matter and they can manipulate your body fat levels

  • even a percentage point up, or down.

  • And that's where it starts to really, really show.

  • In Phase III there are things that we can do to really bring out those three areas that

  • were once trouble spots that are now starting to look great for you.

  • When it comes to the abdomen what we can do here is actually start to do dedicated ab

  • training.

  • I recommend doing it at least five times a week, up to seven times a week.

  • Yes, it sounds like a lot, but we're talking about short, condensed workouts that pack

  • a punch.

  • We have posted many, many videos here on this channel that are really short, but effective.

  • Our Six Minute Ab workoutthat, again, I will link in this video as well, and down

  • belowis one that you can try, just to feel what it's like when you actually go through

  • all the major functions of the abs.

  • From the top, down, the bottom, up.

  • The rotational top, down, and bottom, up, and using your midrange, and your obliques

  • as well.

  • When we tie it all together it's a pretty impressive impact you can make on your abs,

  • and it's something you're going to want to focus on now because with those body fat levels

  • dropping, you want to develop those muscles as much as possible.

  • Moving onto the chest here in Phase III, the key point, once again, is you want to train

  • these muscles if you want them to look their best.

  • With the body fat now stripped down because of your efforts through your nutrition, you're

  • going to have the opportunity to really start showing off something that was once not impressive,

  • that now can be.

  • I like to use this very, very simple band/tubing series that you can use with a cable, and

  • load it up with a lot heavier weight.

  • But the concept is watching where I'm trying to target.

  • Watching the direction of the band here, as I try to hit the different areas because the

  • chest is divided into different areas, providing us the opportunity to hit different areas.

  • For instance, if we want to hit the lower portion of the chest we have something called

  • the abdominal head of the chest, which is all the way down at the bottom.

  • We can take the band and move it across our body, as I'm doing here.

  • Just from the side, and across.

  • Of course, we can take it from a high position, and then come down, and low.

  • Again, you can use cables, and heavy weight if you want here, but what we're doing is

  • simulating a dip, which we know works more of the bottom portion of the chest, which

  • is more technically this abdominal head.

  • So we can come down, and across, but we also know that we have our upper fibersthe

  • clavicular fibers of the chestwhich are oriented more in this direction.

  • We can hit them by reversing the direction, having our arm low from here, and coming up,

  • and across our body.

  • So now you can see we can hit these upper chest fibers with a better angle, just by

  • changing the positioning of our arm, and we can wrap it all up by allowing ourselves to

  • make sure we get toward a full contraction of the chest.

  • No, we can't preferentially target the middle of our chest, but we can make sure that we're

  • fully contracting the chest.

  • Meaning, we're bringing it all the way across the body here, into a full contraction, which

  • is going to give us a better opportunity to make sure the entire chest is fully developed.

  • Again, you can do this with any, single implement here with a cable, or with a piece of tubing

  • here.

  • But the fact is, you want to make sure you're training, and hitting your chest from all

  • angles if you want it to look its best.

  • Especially now as it's in its full glory, at its lowest body fat levels.

  • Finally, when it comes to the love handles, guys, the reason why I've been talking about

  • the obliques all along, from the very beginning of this video, was the fact that these muscles

  • that once looked so bad, that were once those big, thick areas that had all that fat hanging

  • over them; this is what they actually look like if you can get rid of that.

  • You see, the oblique is the muscle that is going to be responsible for causing that "V"

  • shape, that "V" line down into the abdominal area, into the groin, that's going to make

  • you look a lot leaner, and more ripped.

  • The people that tell you to avoid it don't necessarily understand the main goal of what

  • you should be focusing on.

  • So I want to implore you, train your obliques.

  • Now is the best time to do it.

  • Here are a couple of options right here that I've shared before in a video that, again,

  • I can share and give you here at the end of this video so you can watch it in full.

  • But there are ways to train your obliques that don't require a lot of fancy equipment,

  • or even a lot of sets, and reps, and time.

  • The fact is, now, at the right time, with those body fat levels primed, and ready to

  • show them off, you want to make sure that you're doing the right things.

  • So there you have it, guys.

  • There's a three phase attack plan to get you to start hitting these big problem areas once,

  • and for all.

  • Most importantly, giving you a strategy for not getting discouraged along the way.

  • I know the hardest thing to do sometimes is to lock in that nutrition, but the thing is,

  • it doesn't necessarily have to be perfect from the beginning.

  • Especially if you have these other tactics in place that are going to allow you to start

  • seeing the early results that will keep you motivated to keep working on that nutrition,

  • and keep allowing you to see the results that I know you can make.

  • If you're looking for a day by day, step by step plan where we lay out everything for

  • youmeal plans, workouts, everythinghead to ATHLEANX.com and get one of our ATHLEANX

  • training programs.

  • In the meantime, if you've found this video helpful leave your comments and thumbs up.

  • Let me know what else you want me to cover here on this channel and I will do my best

  • to do that here for you in the days, and weeks ahead.

  • All right, guys.

  • See you soon.

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