Chest Growth

**growstrong** · 03-28-2008, 01:48 AM

This is prolly the worst muscle group for me. I am pretty much horrible at flat bench and my pecks always seem to be dragging behind the rest of my muscle groups. What can i do to really increase the size of these muscles. I feel as if it hinders my other growth!

What lifts could I do to help?
Ideal Reps and # of sets?

Thanks

**Gixxer82** · 03-28-2008, 02:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by growstrong

This is prolly the worst muscle group for me. I am pretty much horrible at flat bench and my pecks always seem to be dragging behind the rest of my muscle groups. What can i do to really increase the size of these muscles. I feel as if it hinders my other growth!

What lifts could I do to help?
Ideal Reps and # of sets?

Thanks

I have the same problem as you, except my chest is one of my strongest muscle groups, but its still pathetically small...pisses me off to no end, you don't want to be around gixxer82 when hes pissed off at his chest growth.

**growstrong** · 03-28-2008, 03:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gixxer82

I have the same problem as you, except my chest is one of my strongest muscle groups, but its still pathetically small...pisses me off to no end, you don't want to be around gixxer82 when hes pissed off at his chest growth.

haha yea i hear ya bro... i would say my chest is very strong for its size... but looks like hell

B-natural · 03-28-2008, 05:59 AM

well well, there are several issues that could be involved here....
1. Are your shoulders pulled back? If not, your front delts take over most of the load, keep a focus on keeping your blades pulled back, FEEL your chest contracting
2. Proper speed? If you aren't controlling the weight down, momentum is causing you to draw in more muscle groups/fibers to power the weight back up, I like to take 2 sec-4sec down phase, with a 1sec pause, then 1 sec back up...

Exercises that seem to help?
I prefer to isolate the chest with cable incline flyes using a bench, crossoversits too easy to involve other muscles.

Then,I either use inc bb bench or DB, depends on my shoulder

I really like flat bb bench and bringing the weight down to my clavicles, but keep the weight light as this can put added stress on your rotator cuff.

1n a half's may be a good finisher for you.... since the chest works through the bottom half of the movement, bring the bar down to where it almost touches your chest (grazes it) bring it up half way, then back down to grazing your chest and all the way up, its tough, you'll use a decent amount of weight, but get tired that much faster.....

So...
45 deg. Inc Cable Flyes 3 x 12-15
35 deg. Inc BB or DB Bench 3 x 10-12
Flat Bench (to clavicles) 3 x 10-12
15 deg. Inc Bench 1.5's 2 x 10-12

Right Hook · 03-28-2008, 07:33 AM

Like B-Natty said in #1 keep your blades back and down if that makes sense (do it and you will know what i mean).

Also for me I noticed the greatest size/strength growth once I started working the weakest part of my chest. So as a newb I always always decline benched a lot, eventually I wasnt making any progress so I started doing lot of incline (hardest for me), now I would say my incline has caught up to my decline and my flat almost seems like the weak point.

usf97j4x4 · 03-28-2008, 08:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Travis

Like B-Natty said in #1 keep your blades back and down if that makes sense (do it and you will know what i mean).

Also for me I noticed the greatest size/strength growth once I started working the weakest part of my chest. So as a newb I always always decline benched a lot, eventually I wasnt making any progress so I started doing lot of incline (hardest for me), now I would say my incline has caught up to my decline and my flat almost seems like the weak point.

Ditto.. I started on decline, jumped to incline... now my incline is my strongest and my flat sucks.

I think the key is to keep switching it up with exercises though, I do a mix of DB and bench. This may be unrelated but after I started training my rotators I noticed I could control the weight much easier which has allowed me to throw up more weight. Just a thought.

GeneGnome · 03-28-2008, 05:57 PM

Lyle McDonald - How to Bench Press with the Pecs | Lyle McDonald Speaks

**xjsynx** · 03-28-2008, 07:02 PM

Flat BB bench is a horrible chest exercise. Do Incline or decline.

Also, when doing flat, take a wider grip, and keep your elbows flared out.

Some routines I bench to wide-grip to the neck.

**xjsynx** · 03-28-2008, 07:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gixxer82

I have the same problem as you, except my chest is one of my strongest muscle groups, but its still pathetically small...pisses me off to no end, you don't want to be around gixxer82 when hes pissed off at his chest growth.

Sounds like someone needs some implants

**Gixxer82** · 03-28-2008, 07:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xjsynx

Sounds like someone needs some implants

ahhhhhhh...yes I do.

I don't particularly care for that bench press article. They make it over complicated. All you have to do is keep your shoulders back and down, this all but eliminates them from the movement. Another mistake people do is they push too far up, rounding off their shoulders...completely unnecessary. Start doing some half reps, you get a way better stimulus.