chest growing problems... help!

[Arnold]

First off your doing too many exercises, and too many reps! Even though you already said this...1300 calories and you want to gain size? I'm not sure that's feasable....general rule of thumb in bodybuilding is either try to gain size or get lean, but not simultaneously!

Try picking two excercizes for chest, and two for shoulders. Stay in the 6-8 rep range and increase to around 5 sets on each exercise.

Have you ever tries upright rows on a smith machine? Try a smith in place of the cables.



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train hard!

 

[EarWax]

Thanks Prince. I guess I will have to choose to get lean if I had to choose. I'll knock down the exercises and try the 6-8 rep range in 5 sets. How does this sound.

Bench Press 5x(6-8)
Bench Dumbell Flyes 5x(6-8)
Military Press 5x(6-8)
Upright Rows with Smith 5x(6-8)

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Lift well! But don't forget to put it down afterwards.

 

[Charger]

Earwax, This is probably a stupid question but are you taking any of these to failure? or beyond? Other than that I might drop your sets down to 6 to 8(increase weight) and maybe drop one of the pressing movements for shoulders. I have a hard time working chest and shoulders together.
I also agree with Prince,if your trying to cut you can't build, just maintain.

 

[Arnold]

looks good, make sure you mix it up though. Alternate exercises each chest work-out. You listed four exercises for chest, alternate them each time.

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train hard!

 

[Large And In Charge]

The first thing you need to understand thermo boy, lol, is that everybody is a little different. Unfortunately, there is no magic formula and if there is please let me know because I haven't found it and I've been doing this for 17 years, boy am I tired lol

I think you need to lower the reps and try working in the 6 to 8 range, like Prince said. I think you should go with 3 exercises per muscle group and stick with dumbbells and cables. Barbells are great because you can do more weight with them. But with dumbbells you get a better range of motion so they work the muscle(s) harder. Also with dumbbells you can not cheat the weight up like you could with some barbell movements. Cables are great because you put constant tension on the muscle(s) throughout the positive (concentric) and negative (eccentric) phases of the lift! Increase the weights on the exercises to work the muscles harder and use a weight so when you approach that 6-8 rep range, you go to muscle failure. This will overload the muscle and force it to grow!

Try this routine out for a while. Let me know, either by AIM or posting on the board, how it's working. If it doesn't seem to work for you don't worry because I have many ways to torture a person, LOL

CHEST

1. Incline dumbbell bench press 4 sets, 6-8 reps
2. Flat dumbbell press 4 sets, 6-8 reps
3. Incline dumbbell flies 4 sets, 6-8 reps

Every third chest workout, for 1 workout only, do the following and then go back to your regular chest workout:

1. Incline dumbbell bench press
2. Flat barbell bench press
3. Cable crossovers
Same number of sets and reps

This alternating schedule will shock the muscles because they will be use to doing the regular schedule!

SHOULDERS

1. Seated dumbbell shoulder press 4 sets, 6-8 reps
2. Upright rows, (try the smith machine or a straight bar) 4 sets, 6-8 reps
3. Seated dumbbell lateral raises 4 set, 6-8 reps

Every third shoulder workout do the following for 1 time and then go back to regular schedule:

1. Military press
2. Front cable raises
3. barbell shrugs
Same number of sets and reps

Try this for a little while and let me know how it works out, good luck

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If you build it they will come

 

[MightyKing]

You should try doing negatives on flat bb bench sometimes. 8 reps of doing 40% more of what your normally rep.

http://wannabebig.com/negative.php

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"The Greatest Mistake You Can Ever Make Is Continually Fearing That You Will Make One"
-Elbert Hubbard

 

[EarWax]

Wow, thanks people. Let's see, I think I will try what Large says for two months and hope it doesn't "chip the paint" so to speak, heh.

Charger, actually, I am taking all to failure. The shoulders wimp out on me pretty quickly, but they recover rather quickly between exercises. Maybe it's because I use the machines? Actually, my shoulders seem to have gained some vascularity, but no size, probably due to lost weight.

Large, do you think I should try to do more than 1 chest/shoulder routine a week? Thanks for the detailed message, I like the idea of changing it up faster (rather than waiting a month). I've never done the crossovers, but I'll give it the old xtreme-forum try (whatever that is). I've actually never done more than 3 sets of an exercise, so that is why probably I need a lot of volume currently.

MightyKing, I've read about negatives in Testosterone online mag. I don't have a spotter so that's why I'm a little hestitant to do those. I try to make controlled movements (slow on the negatives if I can).

Thanks again people. I owe you all a bottle of vintage earwax.

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Lift well! But don't forget to put it down afterwards.

 

[MightyKing]

Currently I work the chest twice a week, but if your going to do that, you might want to work back twice a week also, so you don't lounge forward due to your chest being more developed then your back. Also, I have read, try taking 10 seconds to do the concentric part of the lift. This helps build mass, but you might also want a spotter, unless you can judge when you are going to give out...Take a shot.

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"The Greatest Mistake You Can Ever Make Is Continually Fearing That You Will Make One"
-Elbert Hubbard

 

[EarWax]

Ok, next week begins my new chart for the month and I need your help developing my chest. The Back is doing the best. Arms are making good progress. Legs are making minimal progress. But my chest and shoulder routine just ain't cutting the mustard at all and I thought they were until I measured.

I'm looking for size... not necessarily strength or endurance. I also have cut my calories down to around 1300 a day, so some of you might think this is a futile endevor. But please help anyway you can.

Current chest/shoulder routine (with an example of a single set...usually 3 sets each):
Barbell Bench Press 10x155
Incline Bench Press (Dumbbells) 10x(2x40lbs)
Pec Deck Flyes (Machine) 10x90
Dips 10x
Lateral Dumbbell Raises (Machine) 10x70
Overhead Press (Machine) 10x70
Seated Dumbbell Press (Dumbbells) 10x(2x35lbs)
Upright Rows (Cable) 10x110

Feel free to trash this... cause it ain't working well for me.

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Lift well! But don't forget to put it down afterwards.

 

[Charger]

Hey Large, I like that routine, I don't work shoulders and chest together but I think I will still try it just on different days. I like the volume and change. I get my best pump from DB's.

 

[EarWax]

I tried your advice Large and it was pretty darn good. I should have tried 4 sets long ago. I heard some snickers though when I did light weight flies (i tried to concentrate on form because I never did them before). The upright rows on the smith machine are killer on the shoulders and forearms. Thanks, I think this definitely is a better shoulder/chest workout. I'm still not sure I'm doing the flies correctly but I'll keep trying them.

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Lift well! But don't forget to put it down afterwards.

 

[Large And In Charge]

EarWax

I would just hold it to 1 chest/shoulder workout a week for a couple of reasons, 1. your shoulders already get worked allot doing chest so if you do shoulders and chest twice a week, that is like hitting your shoulders up to 4 times a week and that is a little much. And 2. you said on AIM that if you did chest/shoulders twice a week then you would be on a 5 day split. I've never liked 5 day splits because you build muscle outside of the gym with proper recovery time. So if you're in the gym 5 days a week, I feel you're not giving your muscles enough time to recover from the previous workout.



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If you build it they will come

 

[EarWax]

I agree Large,

5 days a week doesn't allow enough time to recover. 4 days I find is perfect for me.

And now to back to our country station:

"In john deere green...on a hot summer night... he wrote billy bob loved charlene..."

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Lift well! But don't forget to put it down afterwards.