hitting the pecs on presses

[forum9351]

Whenever I do some sort of an incline, bench, or decline press (with dumbells, bar, or machine), I always have a hard time hitting the chest in the later sets. As I start each chest lift, I feel a good strech in my chest, but as I get into my third and fourth sets, my triceps seem to be doing much of the work. I know that "feeling it" in a certain muscle isn't really a good scientific observation, but it sometimes gets to me considering I have a slightly underdeveloped chest with respect to the rest of my body. My elbow joint is at a 90 degree angle when I bring the bar down and if I go any wider I put stress on my shoulder joint. anyone have any advice or a good way to target the chest on presses?

 

[P-funk]

fatigue happens towards the last couple sets. What do you expect? You can't be as strong on your 3rd and 4th set as you are on your 1st and 2nd. Or, I should say, you can be as strong on 3 and 4 as you were on 1 and 2, but that would probably mean that you weren't working to hard on 1 and 2.

Quality of quantity.

 

[Arnold]

how about dumbbell flyes?

 

[forum9351]

how about dumbbell flyes?

I get great isolation when I do flys; however, with presses it's tougher for me to target the chest. I feel secondary triceps A LOT when doing presses. My grip is at a 90 degree angle when my arm is parallel to ground and I bring the bar or dumbells down to about my middle chest or nipple. Should I feel fatigued and expect my triceps to work harder in later sets? Am I doing something wrong?

 

[SAMIAM]

You didn't state your "training age" ie. how long you've been at this so assuming you are not a "noobie" and it's not a simple case of strengthening the weakest link over time till the exersize is effective as intended; here's an easy example of that I think everyone can relate to: When as "noobs" we first begin BarBell Rows it is absolutely normal to feel it in your lower back and feel almost nothing in the lats and rhomboids (at first), we are tempted to "give up on the exersize" as it's not only not "apparently" hitting the target but in the rows case it's DAMN UNCOMFORTABLE!But as we hang in there it's usually a case of just a few weeks till the lower back is strengthened to the point that now we can do them and they feel "right", and it seems as is we've managed to take the lower back out of the equation (freeing it up for some limb ripping deads as it should be).Assuming this is NOT the case...



That said, I wonder if you may just have unrealistic expectations of the feel of chest pressing , take it on faith that the pec IS getting hit, I would put the percentage of lifters who DON'T "feel more in either the tri's or front pec as the marked minority.Some react to this dynamic by switching to flyes and/or dips, some deal with it by "putting the mind into the muscle" both valid .In the pursuit of MASS and STRENGTH (don't know your goals), there is yet to be discovered a chest exersize that allows us to use as high a load as pressing in it's various forms so we judge our progress by the mirror, tape and weight progression, and while being tuned into "feel" we don't make that the final word unless it's warning us of pending injury.


I don't in any way mean to state the obvious but as you gave no info on goals, training experience ect. I addressed the basics. If you are a lifter of vast experience and this is like remedial kindergaden for you please excuse me I meant no offense. (and would say "have you tried weighted dips?")

 

[forum9351]

I played football in high school and and lifted on the BFS program and other programs during high school. I have been lifting for roughly a year with my training based on Arnold's Encyclopedia. My goal is lean mass.

 

[SAMIAM]

I played football in high school and and lifted on the BFS program and other programs during high school. I have been lifting for roughly a year with my training based on Arnold's Encyclopedia. My goal is lean mass.

If you are natural , Arnolds book may not be the best reference ,to put it mildly.Are you seeing growth(pec) from the pressing but are thrown off so to speak by the "feel" of it hitting your tri's? Or has growth(again pec) been less than optimal and you are addressing that?

 

[forum9351]

Both, I feel it more in the triceps more and more as I get into my later sets and press lifts; however, I don't see how this could be a good scientific indicator. I am more concerned about having a slightly underdeveloped chest and if anything, my triceps are the largest muscles proportionally with respect to the rest of my body since I payed special attention to them in high school.

 

[SAMIAM]

Nothing I'm reading in your descriptions seem out of the ordinary, your tri's will fail long before the pecs, just as your grip will fail long before posterior chain in deadlifts; this doesn't mean pecs or posterior chain isn't being hit and hit sufficiently in either case.Flyes as you've stated will "feel" more intense to the pec and pec alone but aren't going to give you anywhere near as much "bang for your buck" as any of the benchpress's or weighted dips.

Weighted dips may be "your" exersize, won't know till you give them a whirl, they are easy to manipulate by body angle and are a quality, worthwhile alternative to bench; my only concern would be that I can guarantee we will be having the same discussion about them once you try them, as you are going to feel them in your tri's in much the same way and proportion as you do in bench.


Really what it boils down to is that all the bench presses are compound exersizes hitting pecs,tris and front delts as you know, and what you are describing sensation wise is absolutely normal , the tri's are brought into play more and more the higher up towards lockout you go in a press, no way around it, and they will always fatigue first. But also no reason to throw out what's arguably the best mass builder for pecs.(IMHO)

If your chest is lagging , I would examine your routine for clues, and not so much examine the lift ...I will reiterate one more time that nothing you are describing sounds anything but normal if your chest is lagging lets examine your routine.

 

[forum9351]

Thanks for the help SAMIAM. truely some good advice

 

[Arnold]

and to add to that, you can use a wider grip to reduce the tricep involvement.

 

[Quixote]

Hi all,

Though usually I try partial reps ( bottom-third ) mainly to get over the sticking point, I also use this when I want to put more emphasis on my pecs.
I do full rep and partial rep alternately for tempo's sake. (one partial rep between full reps)

Using weight around 85% of 1RM for total of 6-8 rep range, I start to lower the bar when I sense the slightest slack in my pecs' tension during the lifting.
By design I do not use power rack and pins for partial reps, for that reason (I want to think) I have developed a much stronger neural connection between my mind and pecs.

I hope this is not irrelevant to your problem.

 

[forum9351]

Hi all,

Though usually I try partial reps ( bottom-third ) mainly to get over the sticking point, I also use this when I want to put more emphasis on my pecs.
I do full rep and partial rep alternately for tempo's sake. (one partial rep between full reps)

Using weight around 85% of 1RM for total of 6-8 rep range, I start to lower the bar when I sense the slightest slack in my pecs' tension during the lifting.
By design I do not use power rack and pins for partial reps, for that reason (I want to think) I have developed a much stronger neural connection between my mind and pecs.

I hope this is not irrelevant to your problem.

not at all. partial reps sound like a good idea. i'll try that

 

[slip]

I never really 'feel' it in my pecs, but I try to concentrate on their contraction. They are coming up fine, getting DOMS, and getting stronger.