Thread: Is this possible?

I don't know the answer to your question but it seems like everything is working fine now. Just remember to keep proper form and ROM in the future...

Is it possible stronger arms enabled you to do heavier bench and dumbell presses.That would account for chest growth.

If your arms were the weak part of your bench, then yes your chest could have in theory never been very taxed because your arms were doing "all of the work" and tiring out quickly.

One way to get around this would be pre-exausting the chest with a couple sets of a 'concentration' style movement like cable Xover or dumbell flys.

when doing bench i usually dont feel it too much in chest
but it sure is sore the next day

It weird

cuz i feel my triceps way more in bench but they are never sore from doing bench the next day, but my chest is, even thought i didnt feel it as much during the w/o

oh well

You may also be using your arms and shoulders more than you think when you are training chest. Also the type of exercises you are doing have an effect too. Bench press for example focuses on your triceps and shoulders a lot, depending on your form. If you really want to isolate your chest, do exercises like wide grip dips, dumbell flies and dumbell instead of barbell bench press.

try widening your grip on your bench press. if you get your grip within chest with or closer you will start to to hit your tris more than your chest. and remember to do incline and decline exercises plus some wide grip bench movements this will all help to target your whole chest instead of just one area.

Some people never like bench for a core chest movement, some of it is technique and some of it is build. I go a little wide but not too much, otherwise the shoulders will bitch.

When doing bench, try putting your thumb over the bar together with other fingers, don't go under with it. This is a small trick but could make difference in feeling it more in chest than in your forearms and tri's. It worked for me.

Well, even though I felt my chest working yesterday, I am not sore today I don't understand why it is so hard for me. I am going to try doing twice as many reps on my next bench workout and see how that feels.

If my arms were the weak link, I don't mind waiting for them to catch up. That would keep me from doing any pre exhaustion exercises. Just seems to me when everything is putting forth the same effort, it will be better for me.

My grip is just barely wider than shoulder width which is probably close for you guys considering my small build. I will try a bit wider on the next few workouts. Also, the grip where you put your thumb on the same side as the rest of your fingers, is kind of scary. I have heard of some people losing the bar that way.

don't go over doing it michael. just cuz you not sore the next day doesn't mean you didn't put in a good workout. your body just might have a high recovery rate while sleeping. and instead of doing double the reps for your chest workouts try changing the order you do your exersices and even right up 2-3 different chest workouts with different exersices replaceing others. and also add about another 10 to 20lbs to your bench press and if you use dumbells for bench press movements take them up 5-10lbs. may not sound like much but at the end of the day you think otherwise.

Originally posted by twizted110
don't go over doing it michael. just cuz you not sore the next day doesn't mean you didn't put in a good workout. your body just might have a high recovery rate while sleeping. and instead of doing double the reps for your chest workouts try changing the order you do your exersices and even right up 2-3 different chest workouts with different exersices replaceing others. and also add about another 10 to 20lbs to your bench press and if you use dumbells for bench press movements take them up 5-10lbs. may not sound like much but at the end of the day you think otherwise.

Well, twice as many reps for me would be eight. I do 4-5 every set unless I do doubles or triples of course. I will just do some reps for my next workout. At least on the flat bench. I may add some weight to my dumbells though. I don't know how you bigger guys can handle those big ass dbs. I have trouble controlling these weak 65lb things.

well if your in the 4-5 rep ange you must be tossin out some high weight for that right? well you can try droppin the weight down some (ex: 250 go down to 200-210) and run 4-5 sets of 8-10 reps. and drop about 10 lbs. on the dumbbells and do the same thing. maybe trying that and getting them pumped like crazy, strained, sore, and wanting to kick your ass might help you get that sore feeling your lookin for the next day. in my own opinion doing this should get what your lookin for no problem. if it don't work then i'll post for you Markus Ruhl's chest workouts. both normal and wide chest.

I use my middle finger on the "ring" area of the Olympic bar, hopefully that makes sense, I think nearly all bars will have that. I have about an 80" reach @ 6'2"

Its not too much wider than shoulder width, but if I go even one finger inside (both hands of course) then I feel it more in the arms for sure, I ONLY do this if my shoulders bother me that particular day. If I go one finger out, then I definitely feel it in my shoulders more than I like and it bumps up my bench maybe 5 whopping pounds.

I have a bench form link in my sig if you haven't seen it.

true true mudge. if you get yourself within chest width or closer it just starts on your tris. but maybe you might be going to wide if its hittin your delts cuz when you do wide grip bench presses its supposed to take the stress off the front delts. and target more on the compleate pec area.

Well, I wouldn't call it high weight For me it is. I can't get a fifth one out. Tonight I am doing a workout and will try to hit the 8-10 range.

Mudge, I did read the article you link to. Compared to a lot of other people I see, my grip looks narrow, which would explain the extra tri work. I don't have an Olympic bar so I can't relate to positioning as you have.

Some people you may be watching go very wide, dunno. I used to go wider but it would bother my shoulders. When you can go really wide you reduce the distance traveled to lock, so it ups your bench a tad.