Am I overtraining my chest?

[DomH]

I am concerned that I am overtraining my chest. Compared to my other areas it is not increasing nearly as fast.

My chest workout is:

3 x 10 Flat bench
3 x 10 incline bench
3 x 10 decline bench
3 x 10 flyes

Can any one tell me if this is too much or a better chest routine?

Thanks

 

[NickB]

Better yet, can someone tell us the symptoms of overtraining please? :]

 

[pumpit]

You start to feel tired when you should'nt, loss of hunger, injury's, weakness and feeling ill too often and no muscle gains at all.
Bearing in mind you might only feel some of these.
As for you DomH you might be doing to much work on the chest if your a newbie if you I'd stick to:
Dips 3x6-8reps
Flat BP 3x8-10 reps
Flat Fly's 2x10-12 reps

 

[Josh]

Originally posted by DomH
I am concerned that I am overtraining my chest. Compared to my other areas it is not increasing nearly as fast.

May be not overtrained, but not using correct form. My chest seemed not to grow at all until I learned how to do bench press properly.

- Josh

 

[Fade]

Insomnia and increased resting heart rate are a couple more signs.

 

[Twin Peak]

Is that too much?

It depends upon a number of factors including most importantly, how intense each set is and how many days between the workouts. Also, how long have you been training.

If you take each "working set" to failure or beyond and you do that twice per week its way too much.

Assuming you are a relative beginner, and you get sufficient rest (at least 4 days between workouts for chest) that is an adequate volume. As you get more experience and learn how to push your body harder you'll want to increase rest time and decrease volume.

If you chest is not growing, I'd switch to inclines first in the routine and perhaps try dumbbells.

Also, if you are fairly consistently increasing strength it is not overtraining but indicative of something else.

 

[Brad224]

I use those same exercises in a slightly different order (flat bench, decline, flyes, incline) but only do eight reps and only 2 sets of each, except flat bench, which I do 3 sets. I also do the flat bench with a wide grip. I do chest work once a week to allow plenty of recovery time. (All this per gopro's advice on set guidelines per muscle group)

It's been working pretty good for me, but I try to change it up every so often, adding some supersets, dropsets and switching the exercises about once a month, incorporating dips, pec deck, dumbbell chest press, etc.

 

[Mudge]

I would say 12 sets is definately ALOT of work, back maybe not but chest yes. I'm not personally huge on flys, FWIW.

 

[Arnold]

Originally posted by NickB
Better yet, can someone tell us the symptoms of overtraining please? :]

article on overtraining

 

[Mudge]

Have you ever seen a program that gave equal attention, such as the number of sets, to each exercise? I call this program a "standard sets" approach???multiple sets, usually at the same load. (You're probably doing one at the moment!) Whenever I see the old 3x12 or similar (3-5x12, 3-5x10, or 3-5x8), I see a historical mistake being repeated???a blatant acceptance of tradition without any questioning or thought applied. Devoting three or more sets to every exercise in the workout is a surefire guarantee of overtraining.