Thread: My chest routine

It makes you sore because of the high rep range. Are you progressing regularly? that's the only good way to tell if a routine is working.

Push ups?..Fail.

spam-o-saurus

Originally Posted by DiGiTaL

Push ups?..Fail.

Pushups unil failure is always a good idea. Thanks so much for your input.

Originally Posted by onthesetflickr

Pushups unil failure is always a good idea. Thanks so much for your input.

dude its hard to criticize someone with a build like he does in his avi

Originally Posted by DiGiTaL

Push ups?..Fail.

Explain?

Originally Posted by onthesetflickr

Try it. My trainer gave it to me and it works. Sore every week.

-Flat bench heavy press 8 reps. Rest. 8 Reps again the cut it in half for 12 more reps. Rest. Then 20 reps.
-Incline bench press. Same routine
-Incline flies. Same
-Pushups... 4 sets of 20. Add a plate on your back if you can.

Next week do same routine but substitute the bench press with dumb bells and do flat flies.

Untitled | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Weighted dips are excellent for pec development as well. Your trainer should of told you about those

Originally Posted by cujo

dude its hard to criticize someone with a build like he does in his avi

Not him in his avi FYI.

I think push-ups with your hands together making a diamond shape on the floor with thumbs and index fingers hits my inner chest better than anything else. Put your feet on a bench and try them after your normal chest routine, you will feel it.

You can't work the inner chest. The muscle contracts or it doesn't.

Originally Posted by ihateschoolmt

You can't work the inner chest. The muscle contracts or it doesn't.

I'm not trying to get all scientifical, and you are probably right, I don't even really know what you said.

I probaly said "inner chest" incorrectly, I mean the area that forms the line between your chest muscles, like cleavage area on a girl .

So decline bench doesn't work the lower chest more and incline the upper chest more, the muscle just contracts in both movements? I think you can target chest regardless of whatever study you read, but thats just my opinion.

The difference between incline and decline bench is just what muscles are getting worked more. You can't grow just the bottom part of your chest. The striations in the inner chest are shown when the chest is full and the body fat is low. It's not really my opinion it's a fact that you can't target certain parts of one muscle. Put your hand on any muscle and try to see if you can make part of it contract without the whole muscle doing so. It's a common misconception though. I'll see if I can find some proof that will explain this better than I can.

LOL at scientifical.

It's not that difficult to contract different areas of muscles that have different heads. As far as different exercises don't help develop the inner chest? cable crossovers develop the inner chest very well if you know how to do them because of the constant tension on the inside of the chest. Idk who you got your info from ihateschoolmt, but based on your avi, maybe you should listen to some of the dudes around here and approach this stuff with a bit more of an open mind.

That is where I got the information...Other exercises other than Incline Press to stimulate upper pecs?

Originally Posted by Phineas

First off, just to be clear, you can't "isolate" a portion of the chest. Not that you used that word, but usually this sort of question is getting to that. You might put a little extra emphasis, but mixing angles, grips, etc, is just to give the chest, as a whole, different stimulation. It works as one muscle.

Secondly, I know a lot of people use a 45 incline, but, in my opinion, that's a bit too high. That's getting to the point where it's going from a pec-dominant push to a delt-dominant push -- more along the lines of a shoulder press. I've always used 25-35. It's enough that it's a very different experience from a flat press, but remains a chest-dominant lift

On another note, I had a neat idea for a incline chest exercise, which you might try. I haven't tried it yet. It's a cross between corner press and incline press:

Grab an olympic bar and place it in a corner. Set up an incline bench in line with the oly bar (doesn't matter about sides because the oly bar can just pivot to each side). Raise the olybar and lay down on the bench to get into position. Now, with one arm at a time, press the bar from your incline position. So, basically, it's stuck in the corner on one end and the other end is close to where you're holding it (with a neutral grip, of course) and then you bring it down and press it. a different approach to a unilateral incline press. In this case, your arm will simply be going up and down, not inwards like when using DBs. Nevertheless, the chest is still working

need to fill in upper chest, need a killer workout...

Originally Posted by Gazhole

If your chest is growing it is growing. What your chest looks like is entirely genetic. It might just take you a little longer to see development in the "upper" part, but you cant specifically target that area.

If what you are doing is working and your chest is getting bigger, then great.

There's a million threads like this were people argue about if you can work part of a muscle. Basically, muscles are made up of fibers, string like things, and they either contract or they do not. You can't make half the fiber contract.

That is me after taking a 4 year break from lifting and I have gained 17 pounds back in 1 month. The first year I trained when I was new I gained about 38 pounds because I listened to this forum. I'm not trying to start a flame war though, it's ok to disagree with someone, and not insult them.

We have some great articles in the sticky section definitely worth reading.

Originally Posted by ihateschoolmt

That is where I got the information...Other exercises other than Incline Press to stimulate upper pecs?


need to fill in upper chest, need a killer workout...



There's a million threads like this were people argue about if you can work part of a muscle. Basically, muscles are made up of fibers, string like things, and they either contract or they do not. You can't make half the fiber contract.

That is me after taking a 4 year break from lifting and I have gained 17 pounds back in 1 month. The first year I trained when I was new I gained about 38 pounds because I listened to this forum. I'm not trying to start a flame war though, it's ok to disagree with someone, and not insult them.

He's right.

The misconception comes from the "burn" people feel in their bodies. When doing crossovers, for examples, they feel a major burn in the "inner chest" and assume that's what they're working. The burn is really just a collection of lactate...Gaz can explain this scientifically...something to do with nitrogen ions, or some weird shit like that.

All that matters is it's lactate...a byproduct of muscle contractions....it fills your muscles and "burns" because the rate of lactate production comes to exceed the rate of lactate removal. As you get stronger and particularly as you develop more endurance in that activity the rate of removal increases and you won't feel the "burn" as fast.

Anyway, the burn is really random. Just like pumps (blood filling muscles). It can be because of your angle and position that the lactate focussed in that area. It doesn't mean that's the only part being worked..or even that it's the part being worked the hardest.

When I do high rep sets of squats my glutes tend ot burn before my quads, even though it's a quad-dominant lift. You don't see me calling squats a glute exercise.

There are technically I think it's 3 muscles that form the entire chest...pectoralis major, pectoralist minor (not sure of the spelling..this is off of memory), and the last one I can't remember but it's a small one that attaches the other two to the shoulder. Major is upper, minor is lower. Don't take this to mean your decline bench is actually useful because it's not.

All muscles of the chest contract together. I'm sorry guys but that's how the body works. Just like how you can't isolate the "tear drop" portion of the quads you can't isolate upper, lower, inner, outer, or mid chest. You work the whole thing at once.

There's benefit to training to different angles and that's to strengthen the chest from different planes. It gives it a more balanced pushing force. But really, aside from flat and a minor incline (I'm talking no greater than 20 degrees or so) there's not really much else you should do. Decline in particular is terrible on your shoulders, and also has terrible carry over to your regular bench as it doesn't even come close to mimicing your body position. Your legs are awkward locked in to a bench, your upside down, blood is rushing to your head, gravity is fucking with your sense. It's ridiculous.

I don't do "chest" workouts. I have bench press day. The only chest movements I do are bench press and bar dips as an assistance movement on my military press day. If you're looking for chest development, don't go nuts on how many exercises you use. Choose absolutely no more than 3 and make them count. Bench, incline bench or dumbbells, bar dips, and then just bench variations like dead press, floor press, close grip..depending on where your weakness is. If you want to improve your bench, I'd stick to bench variations (no dips or isolation) so you can work on leg drive and how to go about the lift itself.

So you're saying you want cleavage like a girl?

Originally Posted by gtbmed

So you're saying you want cleavage like a girl?

lol...man cleavage....meavage. Moobies.

Originally Posted by DiGiTaL

Push ups?..Fail.

tell that to evan centraponi....he does pushups...and just took 1st in the Flex bro..hahah

But i feel you bro! Pushups?! LOL

I guess I am confused. Now, with the bar, I am only doing straight benches and tricep benches (I don't know the term, but hands close together on the bar and lifting from about the stomach level on the down to shoulder level when up.)
But when I was going for a 1RM, I did more chest work on the bar.

I found I could exhaust myself doing pyramids and such with my straight bench until I could barely lift my arms, much less a barbell, but I could immediately jump to the decline and do 4 sets of 8. If the decline and the straight bench are using the same muscles, why could I lift fairly easily what I couldn't lift at the conclusion of my straight bench?

I m not arguing here. I just want to understand.