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Are you strong or do you just think you’re strong? I’m not trying say anything offensive since you should know that the most important role of my channel I believe is to help my viewers. That said, in this video, I’m going to show you there is a very important difference that must be accounted for when developing strength and the failure to do so can lead to many breakdowns and physical issues down the road.
First it helps to define strength. Strength is the ability to generate force against an external load or resistance. This means that the more force you can produce against an external load, the stronger you are. While this is absolutely the case, there is no discrepancy made here about the type of strength we are talking about.
You see, there is your true strength and your compensatory strength. They often times go hand in hand and where true strength leaves off, compensatory strength takes over. What this means is, on any given lift, your ability to perform it with good form and free of compensation (meaning that you are directing the force that you generate through the exact muscles you are trying to train and to the object you are trying to move) is paramount and reflective of your true strength. Should you recruit unwanted muscle action or make alterations in joint mechanics that while helping you to perform the lift also compromise the health and integrity of your body during the lift, then you have tapped into your compensatory strength.
Now, I’m not talking about the egregious examples of bad form. Those are obvious to anyone watching them and can be easily coached out in a few sets. I’m talking about the subtle compensations that occur sometimes within a joint, that are not very visible to an untrained bystander and sometimes to even the person performing the lift. Continue to either load these movements even more or rack up more and more reps with these compensations present and you are going to put yourself at risk for eventual breakdown from the accumulated damage these high load reps perform.
The importance of heavy lifting cannot be understated. After all, lifting heavy weights is one of the truest ways of developing strength. Progressively overloading the bar provides an objective way for you to increase your strength and get bigger over time. The thing that you need to question however is the timing of the increases. The goal should not be to push as hard as you can as fast as you can. Instead, building the base foundation should be something that takes place first (free of subtle compensation) before pursuing weight increases as the sole goal of each session.
Now, strength will increase over time (especially if you are new to lifting). You may see dramatic increases in strength in a short period because of a more efficient neuromuscular patterning being developed on each lift. These increases may well come without any change in body mechanics that lead to compensation and should therefore be encouraged and embraced. What I am saying is that if the increases come at the inclusion of compensations (biomechanical) then you need to reevaluate the importance of those in the first place and the repercussions of doing so.
The ATHLEAN-X Training System is a program designed for pro athletes that has been configured to accommodate all strength and ability levels. The principles of training like an athlete remain the same and the refusal to compromise on them is what has allowed the program to be so successful and helpful to those using it. To start using it yourself, head to and get the ATHLEAN-X Training System and start training like an athlete.
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47 comments
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when i squat, i feel a little soreness in my lower back, but it's never amounted to something serious. Is that a compensation?
That’s me at 9:50
Very good content!
That’s why one of my gluteus are bigger then the other 😂
We have no idea how lucky we are to get reminders like this from knowledgeable sources. My first time ever getting into lifting was probably around 2005/6 and I remember buying a book on lifting from Barnes and Noble. This was before YouTube even became a website. So I appreciate this.
If you live in a town where Jessie looks like the girls you have my condolences.
che nunca hablo de como entrenar TENDONES verdad?
Oh yeah I definitely like this video… so many compensations due to tight muscles alone, don't forget to either stretch or work opposing muscles equally
I do compensatory strength
Of course people are saying dumb shit about Jesse. The fitness community is made up of some of the most toxic and insecure people on earth.
Before I watch the video, I know I'm not as strong as I think. Every day I think I'll not watch an Athlean X video, but alas…I end up watching an Athlean X video.
Jesse is the man, he is awesome
I actually have a problem of this kind rn and I am tryin to fix it. I started training without any guidance and I naturally had a dominant right hand and I never felt it really until now when I got more into everything I have found out that my arms are uneven
What I like about chin ups and pull ups is that it's easy to do it in a perfect way, you can only cheat if you really want.
Big props to Jesse… He's overcome some big obstacles, made great progress, and is a real inspiration to all of us. It just goes to show that we're all capable of making big changes to our own bodies with proper nutrition and training. Jeff, thanks for all you do to contribute to the fitness community. It's nice to know (with all the crap out there) that there is a place where I can come to gain real knowledge and the right way to do things. I've been paying special attention to your shoulder workouts lately as I've noticed some pain/impingement. There were a handful of things I was doing wrong that contributed to this and have since adopted some different exercises you recommended. Keep up the good work!
Thanks Jeff, you are the best brother. So insightful.
Thanks for a great video Jeff. Watching it now in 2020, the Corona outbreak forced me to train at home with no barbells and made me realize just that: doing pistol squats I noticed how much stronger is my right leg is than left. Doing heavy single dumbell shoulder press made me realize how my right arm is stronger than left, going to use this time to address these issues.
I just wanna say I appreciate the captions, didn't realise this channel had them.
I bet the dickhead talking shit about Jesse is some fucking fatass brah thinking he is a fucking bad boy or some shit >:v
Awesome video i really needed to hear this one
This is not a algorithmic comment .
Hey Jeff, your knowledge is great, you're talking about every important things. But, you're in the US, unfortunately for me. Can you break down here or make a separate video on how to choose the right trainer in a gym? The one that will care about the true strength and health during workouts and will notice that small issues?
🙁
Very true. My left leg muscles apart from glutes are stronger for compensation, and a visible "hole" on the left side for lacking core muscles on that side prevents from training upper body with pushups at its full potential. With more exhaustive set, at the end of the set, there's a swing of the left arm, increased weight on shoulder and right side core and glute trying their hardest to get the body up when the left side of the core isn't doing its job.
Result? Bigger left arm muscles, tilted shoulders, both shoulders tense too high and curled forwards, the big muscle from shoulder to neck being very small on the right side compared to the big one on the left side. Hip tilted backwards on one side, the ribcage tilted forwards on one side, one leg pointing different direction, all the left leg muscles very tight, right side of the back starting to burn when trying to sit on a saddle chair… The list just goes on and on.
And the worst part of it is the lack of gains from not being able to train effectively until the imbalance is fixed. The body will hardly compensate and increase the imbalance if trying to work too hard to get those lacking gains up to date. Thankfully athlean has released probably every possible fix.
In light of the recent dramas, I feel like this video needs to be revisited. There are some golden nuggets in this video for those who insist about Jeffs approach to strength training.
Most trainers just tell you what – I like Jeff cause he tells you what, how and why.
He is right, i mean look at people who compete in strongmen, they often go to their physio therapist and say "oh man i cant even sit in toilet or i cant raise my shoulder, half of my face is paralyzed now what do i do?, my hand shakes like hell when i point at something. That is why if any thing related to strength that is allowed in Olympics is Weightlifting. Because it has a less injury rate in long term and instead of making your nervous system weak, it actually make thier nervous system stronger.
"dont do this dont do that" you are doing this wrong, you arent strong" thats the only vibes from these videos
Ty, form. Mind muscle connection.
Hold it right there Jeff!!! You're telling me I'm weaker than what I thought I was…..that ceirtanly seemed impossible to me
I was just benching and I didnt feel anything till afterwards now my shoulder blade is in constant pain idk wtf
So what should i do
I watched this video and it made me feel so stupid but also made me have aajor realization. I stopped hitting PRs as soon as I started putting on as much weight as I could handle. And because of that, I've started having knee problems because I was piling on too much weight.
9:43😳😳
I already knew that I had some compensation, but I thought it would get better over time. This is certainly an eye opener. Thanks Jeff , as always
I'm gladI watched this with a back pain issue after deadlifting 1.5BW
Basically go for the lighter weights that your body can handle. Settle your pride and ego and fix those compensations with lighter weights and build off from that. Going with what you think you can do rather then what your body can do doesn’t go a long way…
Well this video didn’t age well
Why would you insult such a kind and goofy treasure of a man ? Especially when he's working his ass off to improve himself I swear even the biggest Saint if he's ascending to heaven in everyone's eyes there will still be people to call him a devil or someone unworthy.
Fuck such people
i thought i was strong then i made jesses challenges, lol it was sad
Depends how strong i think i am, or what?
Jeff you are so helpful and informative, I really appreciate what you do. Keep up the excellent work!!
People think they can train on their own until they’ve experienced a serious injury. Once that has happened then they wish they had help in understanding why they developed an injury. Form is difficult to ascertain alone, pace in developing strength is way more difficult to be unbiased on.
Be like ultra instinct 🔥🔥
judging from the views, people don't like hearing the truth
Please, you should post this video on Spanish channel. Thanks!