Crossover to the pectoral muscles: correct technique

Ideally, a bodybuilder's pectoral muscles should look like two massive plates, clearly separated from each other, with clearly defined edges.

This cannot be achieved with basic exercises; in order to give your breasts beautiful definition, you need to include isolating exercises in your training program.

This can be the bringing of hands together in a crossover. This is an isolation exercise for working the chest, which is practically useless for gaining muscle mass, but it can improve the shape of the pectoral muscles.

Thanks to him, they will become clearly defined, take on defined forms, and their aesthetics will improve. First of all, advanced level athletes should include crossover crossover exercises in their program. Beginners should first build chest volume with basic exercises such as flat and incline bench presses.

Exercise options

The exercise can be performed with blocks located at different heights. They can be at chest level, above or below it.

In the first case, the pectoral muscles are fully loaded with work, while the emphasis is on their middle part. With the lower placement of the blocks, the main part of the load is taken by the upper chest, and with the upper one, the lower part.

It is the last option that is the main one when performing this exercise. Along with this crossover, it is worth including in the training program the combination of arms to work the chest in a sitting machine.

When working, the entire chest is involved, but the main emphasis is on the inner part of it, which allows you to clearly separate the left and right halves. These two exercises complement each other well.

Which brand of crossover sports trainer should you choose for your gym?

Professional Cable Crossover exercise machines are designed for installation at home, office gyms, budget gyms and elite fitness centers. The Fitness Project online store recommends purchasing solutions from the Italian brand Panatta for all these objects.

They have a lot of advantages:

• built-in horizontal bar;
• blocks that rotate 180 degrees and allow you to start exercises from any side of the block frame;
• easy weight fixation and forced blocking of the “weights” with a magnetic pin;
• possibility of branding and making the frame in several colors;
• Compatible with more than 10 types of handles.

The Fitness Project company, as the official representative of the Italian brand, is engaged in the selection of Panatta equipment, will help purchase the equipment directly from the manufacturer, deliver it in Moscow and Russia, assist in installation, configuration and, if desired, provide after-sales service.

Tags: Gym equipment / professional strength training equipment / block weight training equipment / abdominal exercise equipment / professional cardio equipment / treadmills for fitness clubs / professional elliptical trainers / multifunctional strength training equipment

Execution technique

• Take the starting position: grab the handles and pull them towards you, lean forward slightly, your gaze should be directed forward.
• As you exhale, smoothly bring your hands together, bringing them close to each other.
• As you inhale, slowly return to the starting position.

Find the optimal position of your legs and body: your pectoral muscles should feel a slight strain in the starting position, while keeping your elbows slightly behind your body. Move back and forth to find the optimal position.

There are different opinions regarding how the legs should be positioned. Most practitioners believe that they should be spaced apart, placing one forward and the other backward. In this position it is easier to maintain balance.

However, the load turns out to be slightly asymmetrical: either the right or left half of the body does most of the work. In order to avoid this, your legs can be placed at the same level.

If you, like most athletes, choose a non-parallel position of your legs, periodically change their places, bringing your right or left foot forward.

When performing hand pikes in a crossover, the pectoral muscles are under load throughout the entire range of motion. In this way, this exercise compares favorably with lifting hands with free weights, which are performed while lying on a bench: in this case, when the weights are at the top point, a significant part of the load is transferred to the hands.

To get the best results from working the pectoral muscles in a crossover, perform a peak contraction, holding for one or two counts in a position where your arms are almost close to each other.

Common mistakes

There is no need to bend or straighten your elbows; they must be fixed. Make sure that flexion occurs exclusively in the shoulder joints. The body must also be kept motionless. In this case, the arms should be almost straight - many bend them at the elbows at an angle of almost 90 degrees, but this is wrong.

Also make sure that your hands move in the same plane parallel to each other; your hands should not move from side to side while performing information. Another common mistake is bringing the arms together due to inertia, when at the very beginning of the positive phase of the movement the athlete makes a jerk. This makes it easier to handle more weight, but this is wrong.

If you cannot mix with the correct technique, reduce the load.

Common mistakes during training

Bent elbows protect the hands from sprains when unclenching

There are several common mistakes that novice athletes make:

• When performing exercises on a crossover, it is forbidden to round your back.
• The elbows should be slightly away from the body; they should not be pressed.
• When returning to the starting position, movements should be smooth.
• The body cannot be tilted.
• The bend in the elbows should also not be large.

At the end points, the position is delayed for several seconds, the hands remain closed. The hands should slide at the same time; one should not be allowed to be higher or in front of the other.

Interesting Facts

The combination of hands in the crossover is described in Dmitry Murzin’s book “Arnold Schwarzenegger. Signature Exercises,” which can be an interesting and useful read for every bodybuilder.

Iron Arnie devoted a lot of time to performing such information, noting that they not only contribute to the creation of defined contours of the pectoral muscles: thanks to the inclusion of this exercise in his training program, the chest begins to “split”, that is, a pronounced division of the pectoral muscles into bundles appears, and it looks very spectacular.

However, it is also known that Schwarzenegger was a big fan of dumbbell flyes lying on a horizontal bench, and they were his main isolation exercise for working the chest. In general, in those days when he won tournaments, athletes attached much more importance to working with free weights than today.

Video with the technique of performing hand folding in a crossover

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This is an isolated single-joint exercise for training the chest muscles. This exercise allows you to work all parts of the pectoral muscles, due to the fact that you can adjust the position of the handles. Since the information in the crossover

is not a basic exercise, there is no need to use heavy weights; anyway, this exercise does not so much grow muscles as give them shape.

This exercise resembles lying dumbbell flyes, only in an inverted position. Only unlike the fly, where the load leaves the muscles at the top point, everything is different in the crossover. Due to the fact that the cable is constantly pulling at an angle, we have tension throughout the entire amplitude of movement, and this is great for working out the inside of the chest if you make a slight delay when contracting the muscles.

Execution nuances

1. It is necessary to stand exactly in the middle between the blocks, grab the handles, take a step forward, and bend at the lower back so that the pectoral muscles are already stretched in the starting position. Do not round your back under any circumstances, otherwise the load will be removed from your chest.

2. The angle at the elbows should be approximately 130 degrees, it should not be sharp, but at the same time the arms should be slightly bent at the elbows. If the angle is sharp, then instead of flattening you will get a bench press.

3. Be sure to perform a peak contraction when mixing, this allows your muscles to squeeze, which ultimately gives them a more beautiful shape.

How to shift the emphasis to different areas of the chest?

Upper chest workout

In order to shift the load to the upper chest, it is necessary to perform mixing in a crossover through the lower blocks

. If your crossover has the ability to adjust the height of the handles, then move the handles to the lowest position. From the bottom position, you need to do a reduction to the top of the chest.

Mid chest

You can leave the handles in the up position, or you can lower them to the height of your shoulders. It is necessary to bring it down at the level of the middle of the chest, so that the elbows look to the side and the position of the arms is parallel to the floor.

Bottom of chest

It is necessary to mix in the crossover through the upper blocks

. The movement of the arms is strictly from top to bottom, to the very bottom of the chest.

Let's sum it up

• The basic version of this exercise involves pulling the handles from the top down, but you can also pull them from the bottom up or horizontally.
• Find the optimal starting position, in which at the starting point your elbows are slightly behind your back and your chest feels a slight load. To do this, try moving your legs and body back and forth in the machine.
• The legs can be placed parallel, with the feet at the same level, or one can be placed forward and the other back.
• The arms must be fixed at the elbows throughout the entire approach; it is necessary that flexion and extension occur only in the shoulder joints.
• Make sure that the handles move parallel to each other when bringing your arms together, and that your hands do not move from side to side.

Features of a crossover on a block frame

First rule

– the body must be symmetrical. Often you can encounter a situation where a person deliberately puts one leg in front of the other. This is not worth doing, because... the balance of the body is disturbed - one side becomes slightly stronger than the other.

Shoulders, pelvis, knees and feet should be symmetrical relative to each other. This way we will make sure that there is no imbalance. The strength level of your body is the same on both the left and right.

Second rule

– the inclination of your body and its position should ensure a good stretch of the pectoral muscles at the top point. Start by choosing a position in relation to the machine “closer/farther”. Find the best option for yourself - there are no standard tips here.

Already in the starting position you should feel tension in your chest. Your arms shouldn't just dangle like whips.

Third rule

– fix the peak contraction at the lowest point. Take care to pause for a second at the moment when your hands are brought together. A special feature of the block frame is that the lower the handle goes, the harder it is for you to perform the movement. Therefore, the lowest point is the peak of the load and at the same time the maximum contraction of the pectoralis, in terms of amplitude.

Fourth rule

– Your chest should be filled with air and pushed forward. Don't arch your chest, creating a sunken chest. At the moment of raising your arms (stretching your chest), fill your lungs with air to the maximum. It’s as if you are creating additional force from within to stretch your chest muscles.

Fifth rule

– movement occurs in the shoulder joint, elbows are fixed. The main function of the pectoral muscles is to bring the arms (or more precisely, the elbows) towards each other at the shoulder joint. If you start bending your elbows, helping to overcome the resistance of the blocks, you will simply make the work easier for your pecs, which will not lead to anything good.

There is an opinion that by changing the height of the handle attachment points, you can specifically load different bundles of the pectoral muscles. For example, the handles are at the bottom, and you bring your hands up from the bottom position. This option, in theory, should load the upper part of the pecs.

In practice, a muscle cannot contract partially, in separate bundles or segments. It either contracts completely or does not contract at all. On the other hand, by changing the load angle you force your muscles to adapt to such work differently, and you have the right to count on new microtraumas and some increase in volume.