If you ever wondered what a complete chest and back workout would look like if you traded volume for intensity, here you go. Jeff Cavaliere takes you through a complete chest and back workout that will help you build maximal muscle in just 30 minutes. This is an example of a once popular low volume, high intensity chest and back workout that has since been overshadowed by high volume proponents. That being said, when performed correctly, this may not only be a preferable way to train, but science can back it up as a smarter way to train. This is particularly true when you have underlying orthopedic issues that are exacerbated by high volume workouts. So, this chest and back workout consists of just 2-3 chest exercises and 2-3 back exercises. The key is to first identify if your chest and back are strong muscle groups for you or if they are lacking in development. There are two simple ways to determine this. First, you can simply look in the mirror. What does your chest look like? Is it in line with the rest of your development or do you think it’s a little behind? Second, what is your ability to contract the muscle to the point of discomfort. This is an indication of a mind-muscle control. When it’s lacking, it’s usually a sign that points to a difficulty in developing that muscle. If you lack good muscle development in the chest or back, you’ll perform two sets of what’s shown here, called the conscious mass sets, and just one set of the pre-exhaustion compound exercise combo. If you have a good mind-muscle connection with the muscle, you’ll turn it around and perform two of the pre-exhaustion compound exercise sets with just one of the conscious mass sets. For the chest, we’re choosing two exercises to be performed in a back-to-back superset fashion. For maximum chest effectiveness and gains, you want to eliminate almost any rest time between the two component exercises. In this case, I’m choosing a dumbbell fly over the floor and immediately following it with a dumbbell bench press. Flyes on the floor are done to pre-exhaust the chest. You need to take this to complete failure. As soon as the set is complete, run to the bench and perform the second half of the superset. Grab a dumbbell weight that allows you to fail within 6-8 reps if possible. If you can't achieve that, simply adjust the weight on the next set or the next workout if you're only doing one set. Just make sure you take it to absolute failure. There is controversy surrounding whether you need to take sets to failure or not to see muscle growth. Research shows that doing sets a couple of reps shy of failure is almost as effective, if not as effective, as taking it to failure. The problem is that many people don't know what true failure looks or feels like. They end up coming in well short of failure when they try to stop dead. When using a very low volume training approach, going to failure ensures that you did it right without hurting your next workout if your workouts are structured properly. The next part of this chest and back workout is the back. Here I’m performing a straight-arm pulldown into a lateral pulldown. The same concept applies. Pre-exhaust the lats and then incorporate the biceps, brachialis, upper back, and rhomboids into the lift to help push them further to exhaustion. Follow up with a conscious mass set with higher reps to absolute metabolic fatigue using the straight-arm pulldowns once again. Here’s the chest and back workout: Dumbbell Floor Fly Superset with Dumbbell Bench Press: 1-2 sets to failure Crossovers to failure: 1-2 sets Use a weight that will cause you to fail in the 6-10 rep range on both ends of the superset and 15-20 reps on the crossover. Straight Arm Cable Pulldown Superset with Lat Pulldowns: 1-2 sets to failure Straight Arm Cable Pulldown to Failure: 1-2 sets Use a weight that will cause you to fail in the 6-10 rep range on both ends of the superset and 15-20 reps on the pulldowns. Build athletic, defined muscles here: https://athleanx.com/espanol Subscribe to this channel here - /athleanxespañol