Reverse-Grip Bench Press Live Training Q&A Transcript

Note: This tutorial video was recorded as a live Facebook event. The text below is an edited transcript of the tutorial intended to provide members with a convenient means of referring to and further researching the topics and content detailed in the video.

Transcript

Hey JYM Army, I'll go a little slow and let some people join here before I get going, but I'm opening this live session up to a training Q&A. I'm here at The JYM, my gym studio, so it makes a good opportunity to field some training questions because I can demonstrate them here. Shoot any training questions that you want, I'll hopefully get time to answer them right here.

Intro to the APRE Strength Challenge

While you guys are joining, I'll start off with talking about my Train with Jim APRE Strength Challenge, which is my free challenge that's going on on my social media right now. It's a 3-week strength-training program, full-body...

Over the course of those 3 weeks, we're going to not only be getting stronger but you'll also be gaining muscle mass and dropping body fat. That's one of the most prominent benefits of full-body training, is the fat loss benefit. Because it literally keeps all your muscle cells in most of your muscle for the body activated. Keeping those genes turned on keeps you burning calories, burning fat, and optimizes fat loss.

Today, we're in Week 2 of my APRE Strength Challenge. However, if you're just waking up to my Train with Jim series and going "What do you mean? You're posting free workouts?" Yes, every day on my social media, I'm posting free workouts. You can follow along with me by the day, or you can go back and follow along at any point that you want.

I started my 3-week APRE Strength Challenge last week. We started off using 10 rep max; this week we're up to 6RM; and the next week we're going to be jumping to 4RM. The APRE portion means you're basically going to be adjusting the weight that you use based on your performance for that day.

One of the problems with periodization is the fact that as you go through the program it's prescribed for you, how heavy you're supposed to go. Well, some days you may not be 100%—so what you're able to lift for your 6RM may be different today from tomorrow. So what the APRE allows you to do is sort of test your strength and see where you are. Then based on how many reps you're able to get, you adjust on that 4th set—increasing the weight, decreasing the weight, or staying the same.

It's all on JimStoppani.com. Head there now; completely free program. Like I said, you can start this anytime. You can go back and start it on your own. It's 3 weeks, and it'll give you a whole new perspective on what full-body can do not just for fat loss but also in the strength gains.

Today happens to be the squat day. My APRE Strength Challenge has three different workouts: Mainly a deadlift workout, a bench press-focused workout, and then a squat-focused workout. However, all three of those workouts are full-body workouts.

So on the deadlift day, you're not just doing deadlift, back, and leg stuff—you're doing chest as well. On bench press day, you're not just focusing on the bench press—you're also training legs, back, arms. Then on your leg day, squat day, you're not just doing legs—you're training upper body as well—but the main focus that day is on squat. That's the first exercise that you're going to do.

Even though today is the squat day, I posted a squat tip today—and last week I also posted a squat tip, on doing the high-bar versus the low-bar squat; you can check that out right here on my social media, go back to last week—the second exercise, even though today is the squat-focused workout you're still training the full body, so we're doing chest as well. Today's chest move is the reverse-grip bench press.

Revisiting the Reverse Grip for Upper Pecs

For many JYM Army members, you should know that I'm a huge proponent of using the reverse-grip bench press for upper chest development. The reason that I'm such a proponent of the reverse-grip bench press—versus an incline bench press for upper pecs—is the reverse-grip is actually better for hitting upper pecs than an incline bench is.

This is based on not just my personal opinion, this is on real data that we have from the lab. And what the research shows is that when you're doing a bench press in your standard overhand grip, we know that this mainly hits that middle area of the pecs. You're not using much of the upper pecs when you're doing a bench press on a flat bench with an overhand grip.

What the research shows is that simply taking your grip from this overhand position and flipping it around so that you have a reverse grip, that simple flip of the wrist right here increases upper pec use during the bench press—still on the flat bench—by 30%, just from flipping your grip around to a reverse grip.

Now, let's compare that to the incline bench press. What does the data show on the incline bench press? Well, we know that the incline changes the body position so that, now when we're pressing, we're pressing not just completely perpendicular to our body like on a flat bench but we're pressing a bit up.

What that does is it does hit more of the upper pecs, but it also hits more of the deltoids, because now what we're doing is we're basically at the halfway point between a bench press and a shoulder press if you really want to think about it. Your bench press is flat; your shoulder press is completely vertical; and your incline bench is somewhere around a 45-degree angle—about the halfway point.

So it makes sense that as the incline comes up, the more shoulder involvement you're going to get. You are getting more pec involvement, too, on the incline bench press—but you're getting a lot of shoulder involvement. In fact, what the research shows on the incline is that when you switch from a flat bench to an incline bench the increase in upper pec muscle activity is only about 5-10%.

Remember what I said on the reverse-grip bench press: 30% more muscle activity in the upper pecs. The real reason isn't the fact that the incline is such a poor exercise for the upper pecs, it's just that the shoulders really take over on the incline. So you're getting more shoulder involvement as you go up on the incline, and that sort of takes over the movement—lessening the involvement of the upper pecs.

Whereas with the reverse grip, you don't have as much increase in the shoulder involvement when you're flipping your grip around, but you do get the increase in upper pec development.

How to Perform the Reverse-Grip Press

A lot of people ask how should you do this exercise, and if you've watched me do this before—if you watched me right here just a few minutes ago—I lower the bar to my chest and then flip the grip. So for those of you who train alone, you really—you could rack it with a reverse grip, but it's very awkward especially if you get heavier in weight.

Racking it with the reverse grip gets pretty cumbersome. It's easy to re-rack at the end, but starting—especially if you get really good on the reverse-grip bench press and you're doing over 225lbs? It's going to be tough to unrack it here without a partner helping you to set it up.

What you can do is simply—if you're training alone or even if you have a partner and just prefer doing it this way—I like to set up my reverse grip while the bar is on my chest. I can't really feel precisely where I want to be when it's on the rack. So what I do is I do a regular bench press, just to lower it to my chest. Then here, it's balanced, so I can just quickly flip my grip around and then I'm doing my reverse-grip bench press. And here, it's pretty much easy to re-rack it.

Grip Tip: Does it Matter for Reverse-Grip Bench Press?

Another question I get is on open-grip policy. I'm a firm believer in using open grip on the overhand, regular bench press. It sets the bar in your hand better—watch my video on pressing—you're applying that force directly from the elbow up the forearm bones to the hands. With the open grip, it's a stronger push—and you feel more chest involvement.

So the question I get is: On the reverse grip, should you do that as well with an open grip? And that's really preference. With the reverse grip, it's a completely different grip due to the way that the bar sits in the hands. It's already low on the palms, so you really don't need to worry about using an open grip where the thumb is underneath the bar because the bar is already low in the palms.

Keeping that thumb under there isn't going to make any difference, and so it's better for safety to have that thumb—especially with the reverse grip if you're not used to doing it. It's not going to make a difference whether the thumb is over the top of the bar or under, as far as the biomechanics go. So open grip on reverse grip is really your personal preference.

Now I'll start opening it up to your questions.

New to Working Out? Here’s Where to Start

Question: "What do you recommend as a starter workout?"

The best starter workout would be my Beginner to Advanced program at JimStoppani.com, or if you want—coming up at GNC, we have my Results Station that will be landing in stores pretty soon, close to the New Year.

There are four different programs—free programs of mine—they're 4-week programs, and one of them is a get started program. It's a 4-week program that you can start with. You can wait for that to show up—all the GNC and ask if they have the Jim Stoppani Results Station, and you'll be able to pick the starter workout there. I also have a Get Lean workout, Muscle Building workout, and a Strength Gaining workout. All 4-week plans, all completely free—just head to your local GNC. Those should be starting to appear in stores after the New Year.

Or you could head right now to JimStoppani.com and do my 12-week Beginner to Advanced program, which basically fast-tracks your training going from beginner—in the end you're doing split training that's fairly advanced. So check that out, either one of those programs.

Another option is you can just join in on my Train with Jim series and start doing full-body training. What I would recommend for beginners is to modify it as you go. You could either do less intensity—not going to failure on every set—or you can do fewer sets. You don't have to do all 4 sets. You could even shorten some of the exercises—if you don't want to do forearms that day, or traps that day, or abs that day, you can switch and wait, and add them to another day.

So there are ways to modify it, and the best part is I'm here to help you modify. You're not out there on your own going, "I hope this is okay," just ask me—hit me up on social media. I'll get you an answer, and if it's not fast enough from me you could always go to the JYM Army Facebook group page, get an answer from one of your peers.

Most of them have probably asked me the same question and already had a response, and they can share with you much quicker than I can get you an answer. So check out the JYM Army Facebook group page as well. But like I said, you can modify—anyone can take my Train with Jim series and modify it. If you have questions, just ask.

A Question of Frequency – How Often Should You Do Reverse-Grip Bench Press?

Question: "How often is reverse-grip bench press good to do?"

If you check out my programs, I've included it pretty frequently. But that's going to depend on the person's goal. If upper chest is an area that's lagging for you, it happens to be an area that's lagging for a lot of guys. It's my personal weak area on my pecs—I'm very lower and outer-pec heavy—so I use a lot of the reverse grip to make up for the lack of upper pec involvement that I have when I do normal bench press.

Our biomechanics and our individuality change the way your body responds to an exercise. Some people do the flat bench and it hits their upper pecs, their middle pecs, and their lower pecs quite evenly and effectively. They don't really need to worry about doing reverse-grip bench press.

If, however, that's not you and you do have lagging upper chest, then you might want to consider including the reverse-grip bench press weekly in your training. If you're doing full-body training maybe even every few days to hit that area. But again, it depends on the person's goals how often you're going to use it. But I definitely recommend using it from time to time so that you're hitting all three areas of the chest—the upper, the middle, and the lower.

Changing Variables Like Attachments and Hand Position on Straight-Arm Pulldowns to Maximize Results

Question: "Straight-arm pressdown with the bar versus the rope—what's better?"

Pressdown or pulldown? I think you're talking about pulldown. I know, the names get confusing. The pressdown is for the lower traps, where you put the bar behind you and push down with straight arms. It's difficult to do with a rope, so I'm pretty sure he's talking about doing straight-arm pulldowns where you can either do it with a straight bar or you could put on a rope.

The difference here is on hand position, but also range of motion. With the bar—like a straight bar, like the lat bar—my hands are in an overhand position. So now I'm pressing down with an overhand position until the bar hits my thighs, and that's where the range of motion ends—so from about arms perpendicular to the body down to the thighs. That's going to use a lot of the lower lats to pull that down.

When we switch to the rope our hand position changes a bit, but also so does our range of motion. Instead of pushing down on a bar we're sort of pulling, if you will. You still want to push, but what you're going to do is put your hands so that the pinky side really presses down on the end of the rope here. Now what you're doing is pushing with the palms instead—you don't want to pull—you want to focus on pushing this down.

Now this rope is a little short so you don't get much of a range of motion, but if this were a longer rope what it would allow me to do is bring my hands to my sides, and so—remember, with the straight bar I have to stop here—with the rope it gives me a little bit more of the range of motion, which means I'm going to be hitting more lats—especially the lower lats because I'm really bringing that elbow back. Remember, the lats are bringing the arm back, so the further you can go behind the body the more lat involvement, particularly the lower lats.

So that's where doing the rope—and like I said, this is just a short rope; it's not long enough to get the true benefits—but it's allowing you to go a little past the thighs, increasing that range of motion. Then also your hand position is a little different here, so you're basically using a neutral grip to bring it down versus an overhand grip. It's really not a huge difference in biomechanics. However, as I always say, those small changes in hand position and angles make big differences on muscle involvement.

It's going to vary from person to person but you'll notice that on pressdowns you also feel it in the triceps. Do you know why that is? It's because the long head of the triceps passes the shoulder joint. This is why—to hit the long head—you want to do overhead, because you want to stretch that muscle. Because it crosses the shoulder joint, when you do this the triceps are contracting to assist the lats to bring the arms down.

So you're using triceps on the straight-arm pulldown as well as lats—you're even using some of the chest. But if you keep the movement short and as far back as you can, you don't need to go any higher—the higher you go, the more chest involvement you're going to get. You really don't need to go any higher with the bar, about shoulder height down. That's where you're maximizing your lat involvement.

You're also hitting that long head of the triceps, and you may find that either position minimizes the triceps involvement. It's going to be an individual thing. Some people, when they have their hand on the bar and press down with an overhand grip, feel more in the lats and less in the triceps. Some people, when they use the rope and switch to a neutral grip, feel less in the triceps and more in the lats. Some people feel more in the triceps when they switch to that neutral grip with the rope, so try each one. Those are the main differences, you're just going to pick your preference.

But remember, even if you have a preference for one over the other, you still want to use both. It's always best to use variety. Those small little adjustments—the bar, the hand position, the range of motion—all can make big differences in the results you get. Use both, and use them frequently.

Train for Goals, Not for Gender

Question: "What's your best program for girls to get shredded?"

That would be my JYM Girly-Girl Girly workout.

Just kidding. My philosophy is "Train for your goals—not your gender." For females, it's the same as males: If your goal is to drop body fat, your goal is to drop body fat. It doesn't matter if you're male, if you're female; if you're old, if you're young; if you're caucasian, asian, African American—the same program is going to apply because you want to train for your goals, not your gender. Shortcut to Shred, Super Shredded 8, any one of my programs—and particularly my Train with Jim series. It's a free workout, it's my personal workouts that I'm doing.

The full-body training is ideal for shedding body fat, and training the whole body each and every day not only has benefits in fat loss, strength gains, and muscle mass, but also health benefits as well.

Grip Tip: Don’t be Afraid to Use Lifting Straps

Question: "What is your opinion on weightlifting grips like Versa Gripps?"

So the Versa Gripps—I love Versa Gripps. These are the wrist straps that I love, because it provides such a tight grip. You'll hear a lot of people say, "When you're training back, don't use any wrist straps because you don't want to weaken your grip." Look, if you want a strong grip you need to train grip, you need to train forearms. If you follow my Train with Jim series you'll see every single day we do a forearm exercise. It's important, your strength really starts at the hands.

However, I'm not one of those guys—and really, I have a very strong grip. If you know my father, it's genetics. I really don't need much help for my grip; it's rarely my weak link on doing things like deadlifts and pulldowns. However, we did a study on trained lifters using wrist straps or without wrist straps during a typical back workout. And a lot of people will say when your grip starts fatiguing is when you should start using the wrist straps. No, what we found was that the typical weightlifter like you and I basically got at least one if not two more reps on every set from start to finish on their back workout by using wrist straps.

One to two extra reps—every set. So it wasn't even once the workout was halfway through and their grip was starting—right off the bat, set number one of their back workout. Using wrist straps they were able to get at least one if not two more reps than they were able to get without wrist wraps.

If you want to do more reps with the same weight for a target muscle, you're going to get better results if you're able to go heavier or you're able to do more reps for that muscle group. They're very beneficial, and like I said if you're going to focus on your grip strength and worry about your grip strength, you should be training your grip strength in addition—you shouldn't be training your grip strength during your back workouts.

You're going to fatigue when your grip fatigues—doesn't mean that the lats are fatigued, which means you short-changed your lats. That might be the reason why your back isn't growing, or why you don't really feel your lats. They don't get that fatigued because your grip gives out before the lats really do. So I'm a firm believer in using wrist straps.

You can use the old canvas style or whatever, I just happen to prefer the Versa Gripps. People see me talk about Versa Gripps a lot—I was at their booth at the Olympia—but I have no affiliation, other than the fact that I love their grips. They don't pay me. I'm not endorsed by them. I make nothing off of Versa Gripps—other than the satisfaction of you guys getting good grips that actually work. So I'm very happy to promote a product like Versa Gripps because in my opinion it is superior to regular grips. I just happen to like them, and so I recommend them.

They're very easy to use, they're very easy to get out of the way—you don't even have to take them off, you can just flip them around. So if you're doing supersets where you're doing bench press and rows, you don't have to take them off and put them back on. Or you can even bench press and use this as a palm protector during your bench press. I love these. So to answer your question: Firm believer in using this. Train your grip on its own—don't limit your back strength and development due to your lacking grip strength.

Meal Timing After Gastric Bypass Surgery

Question: "What are your thoughts for those that cannot eat full meals, such as those who've had gastric bypass?"

That's a great question. With a gastric bypass, basically—and look, I'm no medical expert on the procedures—but there are numerous ways that you can basically—you're basically reducing the size of your stomach. And so what happens is you have to have smaller meals.

So what can you do? Well clearly something like intermittent fasting wouldn't be ideal for someone who has had the surgery, because there's no way you're going to be able to consume adequate amounts of protein, carbs, and fat in your diet in the limited time, because like I said you don't absorb as readily and can't consume as much food as a normal person.

So intermittent fasting would definitely be out. I would focus on using as much of the day as possible to eat, in that case, and going with very small meals. Just make sure that each one of those meals is a protein—the focus should definitely be on protein, less on the carbs and then don't forget the healthy fats as well.

But just sticking with small but frequent—I mean, you know it's like with weightlifting—one person who's had the same exact surgery, the same doctor, their eating habits could be completely different. It's just the way that the body is. We react differently. So you will know what issues you have with what foods and which ones to avoid, but essentially like I said I would try to maximize my day because you can't maximize each meal.

Get more hours in the day of feeding with smaller, more frequent meals, as long as you're capable of doing them more frequently.

Triple your Triceps Exercises to Maximize Growth

Question: "What is your best tip for all three heads of the triceps for size?"

My best tip for hitting all three heads is to make sure you're including exercises that hit all three heads—not one exercise that focuses on all three heads, but three different exercises. And I've already talked about the long head of the triceps, so with the triceps you basically—and it's hard to see, depending on the light, my sodium levels, and the tattoos, the different heads—but you have your lateral head here on the side. That's that one that you can see from the front. Then you have the long head, which makes up most of the mass on the back of the arm. And then on the underside here, you have the medial head of the triceps.

What we know from years of training and data in the lab with EMG studies is that when we do exercises with a neutral grip—arm at the side like rope pressdowns—that tends to maximize the involvement of the triceps lateral head on the side. It doesn't mean it isolates it—they all work together—but those different biomechanics change which head is providing the majority of the force. Exercises where the arms are at the side—particularly with a neutral grip—tend to target more of that lateral head.

With the long head, remember I talked about how it's the only head that crosses the shoulder joint out of the three; the other two end on the humerus, which is your upper arm bone. Only the long head crosses the shoulder joint.

What we know about muscle physiology is that when you stretch a muscle before you contract it—like, say, the biceps—it can contract with more force when it's stretched. That's why I recommend behind the back biceps curls and incline biceps curls, because the long head of the biceps—like the triceps long head—is called "long head" because they both cross the shoulder joint. So bringing the arm back stretches the biceps, so when you stretch it before you contract it, it can contract with more force. And if that's the force that's contracting with more force, that's the one that's going to take on the majority of the force for that exercise.

So with the triceps, to stretch it you have to bring the arms in front of the body to overhead. The more you go overhead, the more stretch you get and the more involvement you get from that long head. You want to do some type of overhead—whether it's dumbbell overhead, whether it's cable overhead—in addition to your pressdown.

Now, the medial head tends to work best with a reverse grip. Reverse-grip pressdowns work well, but also even reverse grip bench press hits a bit of the medial head. So if you're doing reverse-grip bench press in your training, you're getting a bit of medial head involvement there. If you're doing a lot of reverse-grip bench press, you don't have to do too many on the reverse-grip pressdowns but occasionally—and you'll see with my Train with Jim series—I include that reverse-grip pressdown, and that's to hit the medial head.

You don't have to have every workout hitting all three heads, but each week at least—or at least every other week—you should be hitting all three heads in your training. Like I said, whether you do all three in one workout or you have one workout that's more lateral head focused, one workout that's more long head focused, one workout that's more medial head focused; you definitely want to be considering different exercises that hit those different heads.

And then, for overall mass, you can't go wrong with a multi-joint movement like close-grip bench press and dips which are going to utilize all three heads and really maximize the overload that you place on them. So in addition to those three different exercises that you want to try to hit the different heads, you also want to be including some multi-joint moves so that you can maximize the overload that's placed on the triceps.

Big on Volume but Short on Time – Supersets and German Volume Training

Question: "I need to cut down on my time in the gym. I'm currently on your German Volume Training. Is supersetting the exercises alright?"

Yeah, as a matter of fact if you go back to when I was doing the German Volume Training, I actually recommend supersetting. With the German Volume Training, remember it's not full-body training because doing 10 sets of 10 different exercises for 10 reps would literally take you hours in the gym. I split it up into two workouts to split up the body, just during the German Volume Training. So you're doing 5 different exercises each workout.

What I recommend—obviously you can't pair all of them, you can only pair four of them up, right? Two and two. So you'll pick the two that you want to pair up—doesn't really matter which ones you pair up—you definitely don't want to be pairing up biceps with forearms as your superset. You want to choose the exercise that's not going to affect the other muscle group, or at least the one that will affect it the least, and pair it up that way.

But yes, I highly recommend—like I said, watch my video on doing just that, the supersets. You just really need to be cognizant of the time, because remember you're giving yourself one minute of rest between each of those sets. When you have two different exercises going on, you have two different time points that you're watching. If you're just using a clock, you have to remember when each one of those—however, with apps now you can run several different timers.

However you want to do it, it works fantastically well. It's really the only way I like doing German Volume Training, because I hate spending so much time in the gym and a minute of rest, as short as that seems to most people, for me is like an eternity. I'd rather get a set of another exercise done in part of that rest time. So definitely use supersetting with German Volume Training.

My Thoughts on the Keto Diet

Question: "What are your thoughts on the ketogenic diet?"

So I've done—if you go to my YouTube channel you can see I have a video on the ketogenic diet. Now, I am a firm believer in manipulating carbs to lose body fat. You need adequate protein for muscle mass. You need adequate fat—particularly males, need adequate fat for testosterone levels, but even females—you go on a low-fat diet, it wreaks havoc on the body for numerous reasons. Males lose their testosterone levels, you'll notice differences in your skin quality with a low-fat diet.

There are essential fats and there are essential amino acids, which make up protein. There are no essential carbohydrates. Your body can make carbohydrates—your liver and your kidneys both can produce glucose to run the body. So I'm a firm believer in axing out the carbs. What I don't like about the ketogenic diet is the way those carbs are removed.

By that I mean they're removed sort of all in one fell swoop. They're just all axed out. So you take someone who might be eating 600g of carbs and now you're expecting them to eat less than 50g of carbs a day. Yeah, they're going to lose a lot of weight—rapid fat loss, because they've axed all those carbs out and all those calories.

However, something happens when you diet: The body adjusts. The body is always trying to maintain homeostasis, where all systems are in check. So what happens when you start lowering your calories—your body doesn't just keep losing fat, or you'd disappear. You'd literally burn everything up, right? So it safeguards your body. How does it do that? It lowers your calorie needs.

"Ok, if I'm only getting 1000 calories I'll conserve more, and make it all happen with those 1000 calories." So the body adjust, and you stop losing body fat. So what happens on the ketogenic diet? Ask everyone who's been on the ketogenic diet for six months or longer and they'll tell you: Eventually it stops. The fat loss stops.

Your body adjusts to those extremely low carb intakes and calorie intakes, and the fat loss stops. So what do you do? What do you take away when you've taken all your carbs away? Now you have to start whittling away at your protein and your fat to continue losing body fat.

A better plan would've been—instead of just taking all 600g of carbs and removing them—to slowly lower carbs over time. Eventually, you may get to a ketogenic diet. In fact, in many phases of my diets I'm in a pretty much ketogenic state. However, I don't consider myself as following a ketogenic diet. I follow a carb cycling diet where I have higher carbs and lower carbs.

That's the other reason, with low carb diet—if you stay low carb for too long, not only does the body adjust but things like leptin levels are affected, That's where your metabolism starts dropping, when those leptin levels are affected. So when you're bouncing around from low carb to higher carbs, it keeps those leptin levels maintained and it keeps the metabolic rate up.

Dieting 101 for Sustainable Fat Loss

So a better plan, instead of just axing all your carbs out and going no-carb, is to assess where you are—read my Dieting 101, I teach you how to do this—assess where your carbs are right now, because where you are right now is going to be a huge determination of where your diet should go. You can't just take somebody who's eating 50g of carbs and another person who's eating 600g of carbs and give them the same diet, "Here you go!" Doesn't work that way. It's where your starting point is with all those macros.

So a much smarter plan is to assess your carbs—how many you're currently eating—and then start slowly cutting those back over time and, like I said, follow my Dieting 101 plan. If you keep following that diet plan, and as you hit plateaus you'll see I keep dropping carbs, and dropping carbs, etc. If you're going long enough you're going to get to a point where you're on a ketogenic diet. However, to get there it didn't go from carbs to no carbs, it went from carbs to a little less, to a little less, etc. That way the body has points that you can keep adjusting.

If you take out all the carbs, when you hit that plateau you have less to take away. If you're eating carbs and then you just take away a little bit of carbs, you're going to lose body fat. Then you're going to hit a pleateau. Then you take away a little more of the carbs. Fat loss continues. Then you're going to hit a plateau, and you take away a little more. So it's a step-wise progression.

It's free, guys—Dieting 101, JimStoppani.com, JYMSupplementScience.com—it literally teaches you how to make your own diet for you. It's not a "one-size fits all" diet, "Here you go, you have to follow this plan no matter what you were eating and no matter what your goals are." No, this is the plan that teaches you how to make your own diet, particularly for you. It's going to be completely different for me than yours, from your mother's, from your father's, your sister's, your brother's, your friend's—it's for you. And that's the only way you're really going to lose body fat and continue losing body fat to reach your goals.

That's the thing—people focus on the body fat thing, and so with the ketogenic diet you hear about all these people losing so much body fat rapidly. Which is awesome, but it's not long lasting. You hit that plateau, and then you're screwed. And if you're trying to go from being completely out of shape to looking like a cover model hitting a plateau—you're going to hit many plateaus along the way. So if you've axed all your carbs out, the only way to continue losing body fat is to basically eat back up—reverse diet to get your carbs back up—and then going back down. So don't drop all your carbs in one fell swoop.

If you want to get ready for a vacation or a wedding? It's fine. You can do it. A few weeks of ketogenic dieting will drop rapid amounts of bodyfat—BUT if your goal is long-term fat loss where you're going to get down to the point where you can see your abs, jumping from a regular diet to a ketogenic diet is the last thing you want to do. Like I said, go to my Dieting 101. I'm not trying to sell you on anything, guys, it's free. Completely free. And the results are there.

What time is it? It's after 4, right? 4:32, so let's take one more, guys. It's my feeding window, so I'm losing important time to be getting in my protein and my fat. I'm going to take one more question and then I'm going to go eat my Pro JYM. I think I'm going to do Gingerbread Cookie today.

Cable Crossovers Bad for the Sternum?

Question: "The gym owner told me that crossing over on cable flyes is bad for the sternum. Is that true?"

Well, the sternum which is basically the bone in the center of your chest—crossing over isn't going to be bad for the sternum. The sternum is just there supporting the muscle. When you do a cable crossover, crossing the arms is just increasing the range of motion that the pecs normally do. So, no it's not bad for the sternum, it's actually good for the inner pecs because, like I said, that fuller range of motion is going to help to increase the activity of the inner pecs. You really don't have to worry about your sternum, it's a little bit of—one of those weird myths that you hear.

Anway, thanks for tuning in guys. I hope, for those of you that had questions answered, those were helpful. For those of you who didn't, at least you got some help out of those answers because a lot of times somebody asks a question and it's a question that we all have, we just didn't want to ask it or didn't have the time. And so when someone else asks, you're basically getting your question also answered. Thank you guys for joining in, and check back for my next live session. And as always, stay JYM Army Strong.

Related Articles

• 
  Exercise Doctor: Reverse-Grip Incline Press

  Another Classic New Movement

• 
  Jim's 15-Second Tip: Reverse-Grip Triceps Pressdown

  Build bigger, better triceps by adding this grip tweak to your arm-training repertoire.

• 
  Smith Incline Reverse-Grip Press: A New Move for Bigger Upper Pecs

  Add size to your upper chest with the standing Smith machine incline reverse-grip press.

• 
  Reverse-Grip Bench Press Master Class

  Perfect your technique on the reverse-grip bench press to maximize upper chest development.