How Do You Work You Upper Chest?

[Mystery Man]

Hello Everyone,

I want to work on my upper chest, I want that big chest look.

I don't have gym membership so I do what I can at home.

All I have are 25lb dumbells and some pushup bars, I know thats not alot.

I will get more equipment in the near future.

Can anyone suggest some exercises I can do at home?

If you do suggest something, please give an explaination of the exercise or somewhere I can see a photo of the exercise.

I'm not familiar with the names

Thanks in advance

 

[Hoglander]

First off, have Your boyfriend Danny mount you and then hit the push up bars. Since you want to hit the upper chest you need him to pull it out on the ups and push it in on the downs. If it's not enough weight or when it's time to move up... have BoneCrusher mount Danny and he should do the opposite of Danny with maximum thrusts on the ups.

 

[Mista]

25's DB ain't shit. You would be better off doing push ups at different angles, and widths with the weights in a bag on your back.

 

[SnowManSnow]

You're going to need to goto walmart and pickup some more weight JMO

B

 

[SnowManSnow]

....welcome!!

 

[go4kj]

Incline exercises are the best for the upper chest. Inclined DB presses and DB flyes should do the trick. If you can afford it buy a bench that will incline. Hope that helps....

 

[KelJu]

Incline exercises are the best for the upper chest. Inclined DB presses and DB flyes should do the trick. If you can afford it buy a bench that will incline. Hope that helps....

 

[go4kj]

Enlighten me Kelju, what's up? Did I say something wrong? This guy asked a simple question and I gave what I thought was the right answer. Inclined presses and flyes are good exercises for the upper chest.

 

[KelJu]

Enlighten me Kelju, what's up? Did I say something wrong? This guy asked a simple question and I gave what I thought was the right answer. Inclined presses and flyes are good exercises for the upper chest.

You are correct that they are all good exercises. You are incorrect that there are good for upper chest. There is no such thing as isolating upper chest. Upper lower chest isolation is a myth.

The shape of your pectoral major is genetic. You can not emphasize one part or another. You either hit it or you don't.

 

[go4kj]

I beg to differ Kelju. Incline chest exercises will target your upper chest more than the lower chest.

Follw the link:

Chest work out routine. Chest muscle building exercises.

 

[Metallibanger]

I beg to differ Kelju. Incline chest exercises will target your upper chest more than the lower chest.

Follw the link:

Chest work out routine. Chest muscle building exercises.

You will find a lot of "myths" like this here



































^

 

[go4kj]

If it's not true, then I apologize for the post. Are you guys 100% sure that the statement is not right. Incline chest exercises target the upper chest MORE than the lower chest and decline chest exercises target the lower chest MORE than the upper chest.

Provide me evidence. I'm an evidence based man and I provided a link that supported my claim. Provide me a link that supports that it is a myth.

Cheers...

 

[KelJu]

If it's not true, then I apologize for the post. Are you guys 100% sure that the statement is not right. Incline chest exercises target the upper chest MORE than the lower chest and decline chest exercises target the lower chest MORE than the upper chest.

Provide me evidence. I'm an evidence based man and I provided a link that supported my claim. Provide me a link that supports that it is a myth.

Cheers...

This is your chest.
Pectoralis Major (Sternal Head)

You can't isolate regions within a muscle. The muscle will contract from origin to insertion. This means throughout the entire muscle, but not localized to one part. People use incline bench presses, for example, because they think it will work the pec major more. This is not the case. You are simply taking less focus off of the chest and more on the delts. Flies will do the exact same thing as flat bench with the exception of training different stabilizer muscles. There is no such thing as outter or inner. There is only pec major and minor.

The debate about whether you can effectively isolate the major or minor using different exercises needs to die. Major and minor provide the exact same movement functions, which means both will be worked at any angle. Different motor patterns will probably be recruited, but this will not necessary means more hypertrophy. The different exercises will put the chest at a stronger point and secondary muscles, like shoulders and triceps, at weaker points.

 

[kshort]

Idiot

You are correct that they are all good exercises. You are incorrect that there are good for upper chest. There is no such thing as isolating upper chest. Upper lower chest isolation is a myth.

The shape of your pectoral major is genetic. You can not emphasize one part or another. You either hit it or you don't.

Dude there are excellent isolation workouts for your upper chest and if you don't realize this then obviously you were raised in a barn...

 

[GreatWhiteTruth]

Dude there are excellent isolation workouts for your upper chest and if you don't realize this then obviously you were raised in a barn...

Just like doing ab workouts will help you get a six pack right? Just like pink magic will make you jacked out of your mind? Just like how muscle turns into fat and vice versa?

The pectoralis major is a single muscle with different "peaks".

Common misconception. But it's ok. You are forgiven.

The debate about whether you can effectively isolate the major or minor using different exercises needs to die. Major and minor provide the exact same movement functions, which means both will be worked at any angle. Different motor patterns will probably be recruited, but this will not necessary means more hypertrophy. The different exercises will put the chest at a stronger point and secondary muscles, like shoulders and triceps, at weaker points.

It's basic muscle mechanics. I don't think you can describe it any better than this. The keys are range of motion and load balancing. It is a science yes. And it's proven.

A DEAD THREAD REVIVED! Just in time for Halloween.

 

[banker23]

You are correct that they are all good exercises. You are incorrect that there are good for upper chest. There is no such thing as isolating upper chest. Upper lower chest isolation is a myth.

The shape of your pectoral major is genetic. You can not emphasize one part or another. You either hit it or you don't.

Any authoritative sources to substantiate this? This is the second time in two days I have seen this premise put forward but every published source that I own is very clear that you can and should do exercises that focus (not isolation but emphasis) on different parts of the chest.

You say two things in this post: one is true and the other is not. First you said "there is no such thing as isolating upper chest." This was true. Then you followed with "you cannot emphasize one part or another." This is untrue. When someone asks about "isolating" I don't get too semantic I just interpret the question in light of most people's ignorance of the difference between the two terms.

I know any chest exercise hits the whole chest, but the way one does it effects which part of the chest is emphasized...not "isolated" of course but certainly emphasized. Joe Weider and Arnold Schwarzenegger both support this in their respective encyclopedias of bodybuilding and my experience and the experience of anyone I've ever met bears it out.

 

[Merkaba]

 

[banker23]

This horse won't die...it keeps poppin' up in here!

btw great pics and impressive especially for all natty! I especially like the purple shorts homage to the Hulk!

 

[banker23]

This is your chest.
Pectoralis Major (Sternal Head)

You can't isolate regions within a muscle. The muscle will contract from origin to insertion. This means throughout the entire muscle, but not localized to one part. People use incline bench presses, for example, because they think it will work the pec major more. This is not the case. You are simply taking less focus off of the chest and more on the delts. Flies will do the exact same thing as flat bench with the exception of training different stabilizer muscles. There is no such thing as outter or inner. There is only pec major and minor.

The debate about whether you can effectively isolate the major or minor using different exercises needs to die. Major and minor provide the exact same movement functions, which means both will be worked at any angle. Different motor patterns will probably be recruited, but this will not necessary means more hypertrophy. The different exercises will put the chest at a stronger point and secondary muscles, like shoulders and triceps, at weaker points.

because you say it and provide a link to a picture of a chest it must be true! All this time Arnold and Joe and every other written, published source, and every chiropractor Ive ever known is wrong

 

[GreatWhiteTruth]

because you say it and provide a link to a picture of a chest it must be true! All this time Arnold and Joe and every other written, published source, and every chiropractor Ive ever known is wrong

Yes, but just to play to devil's advocate here, how many doctors have you EVER met that have been RIGHT about lets say steroids???

Doctors simply use a plethora of knowledge to make good guesses, that's it. How many people said the world was flat until it was disproven? And like I said before. Do you believe you will get a six pack by doing crunches and ab workouts? Because that is what 95% of everyone in the world believes because it's what they are told by trainers or someone else trying to sell something. Progress is only made when we challenge the satus quo. We become so accustomed to pre-determined schools of thought that we just accept it for what it is, based on evidence or not, without ever expanding our knowledge or pushing the envelope.

 

[banker23]

Yes, but just to play to devil's advocate here, how many doctors have you EVER met that have been RIGHT about lets say steroids???

Doctors simply use a plethora of knowledge to make good guesses, that's it. How many people said the world was flat until it was disproven? And like I said before. Do you believe you will get a six pack by doing crunches and ab workouts? Because that is what 95% of everyone in the world believes because it's what they are told by trainers or someone else trying to sell something. Progress is only made when we challenge the satus quo. We become so accustomed to pre-determined schools of thought that we just accept it for what it is, based on evidence or not, without ever expanding our knowledge or pushing the envelope.

I respect you and everyone else who questions accepted premises, and you are dead on calling out doctors who spread false information about steroids. I also agree with your overall training philosophy which I've seen expounded upon in other threads.

I don't have a problem questioning the doctors but I am not going to tell Arnold he's wrong until I've surpassed his level of development at his best...we'll be waiting awhile for that I am sure. I could be wrong about this (impossible to tell without a time machine going back and retraning without incline work) but I guess I am too much of an Arnold fan-boy to let go of this until I see it disproven by someone that I respect at least as much.

p.s. the funny thing is the guy who wrote this post had two 25 lb dumbbells and wanted to build a big chest and this thread morphed into a training debate. The guy's probably like, "shit this is way more involved than I expected, where's my ice cream?"

 

[Gazhole]

Any authoritative sources to substantiate this? This is the second time in two days I have seen this premise put forward but every published source that I own is very clear that you can and should do exercises that focus (not isolation but emphasis) on different parts of the chest.

You say two things in this post: one is true and the other is not. First you said "there is no such thing as isolating upper chest." This was true. Then you followed with "you cannot emphasize one part or another." This is untrue. When someone asks about "isolating" I don't get too semantic I just interpret the question in light of most people's ignorance of the difference between the two terms.

I know any chest exercise hits the whole chest, but the way one does it effects which part of the chest is emphasized...not "isolated" of course but certainly emphasized. Joe Weider and Arnold Schwarzenegger both support this in their respective encyclopedias of bodybuilding and my experience and the experience of anyone I've ever met bears it out.

Whenever this topic comes up anywhere people always ask for proof or a source that you can't work the upper chest, that the chest is one muscle and can't be isolated in terms of the minor and major pecs etc.

My problem with this is that there's no reason to prove it. The only reason this sort of training myth was perpetuated is because back when this gym thing was starting, the average Joe had absolutely no knowledge of anatomy besides what other people in the gym told him.

It's like the myth that wide grip pullups build a wider back, presumably because of sharing the word wide. It's a false logical premise. Humans are great at finding patterns and links where there are none. Just because the bar is in line with the upper part of your chest when you bench on an incline doesn't mean it'll build that part.

Thing is, people also make false connections that back up what they think i true. We're fragile creatures mentally and don't like the thought that we're wasting time or looking foolish.

People add incline into their routines, it's a different exercise, they get sore, they attribute this to building their upper chest. Because of the change in stimulus, their entire chest grows, but of course they're only LOOKING for growth in their UPPER chest. They see the growth there. They attribute the growth to the exercise.

 

[banker23]

Whenever this topic comes up anywhere people always ask for proof or a source that you can't work the upper chest, that the chest is one muscle and can't be isolated in terms of the minor and major pecs etc.

My problem with this is that there's no reason to prove it. The only reason this sort of training myth was perpetuated is because back when this gym thing was starting, the average Joe had absolutely no knowledge of anatomy besides what other people in the gym told him.

It's like the myth that wide grip pullups build a wider back, presumably because of sharing the word wide. It's a false logical premise. Humans are great at finding patterns and links where there are none. Just because the bar is in line with the upper part of your chest when you bench on an incline doesn't mean it'll build that part.

Thing is, people also make false connections that back up what they think i true. We're fragile creatures mentally and don't like the thought that we're wasting time or looking foolish.

People add incline into their routines, it's a different exercise, they get sore, they attribute this to building their upper chest. Because of the change in stimulus, their entire chest grows, but of course they're only LOOKING for growth in their UPPER chest. They see the growth there. They attribute the growth to the exercise.

I'll give you guys a shot in my next on cycle training plan...maybe my shoulders will actually end up thanking you in the end. I will do flat bench only instead of flat bench followed by inclines. Since starting this topic and looking at my "upper chest" a little more critically I come to realize that my squarish upper pecs are actually my front delts running across the top of my chest and that's the same with arnold. I think alot of people who want a big "upper chest" that's really what they are looking for and erroneously calling it upper pectorals.

I figure I can work those muscles better and give them more time to grow by bombing them hard on shoulder day: military press, bent over reverse db flies, front lateral raises, and side db raises. Normally I do chest and back two days later on Sunday but the incline bb press kind of hits the delts harder again, interrupting some of their recovery and growth time. This may actually result in more growth and strength and efficiency in the training plan. I will give this strategy at least 60 days and will consider it a success if my overall chest development at least stays proportional to its current state.

If my chest starts to sag, I will blame you guys

 

[Merkaba]

Whenever this topic comes up anywhere people always ask for proof or a source that you can't work the upper chest, that the chest is one muscle and can't be isolated in terms of the minor and major pecs etc.

My problem with this is that there's no reason to prove it. The only reason this sort of training myth was perpetuated is because back when this gym thing was starting, the average Joe had absolutely no knowledge of anatomy besides what other people in the gym told him.

It's like the myth that wide grip pullups build a wider back, presumably because of sharing the word wide. It's a false logical premise. Humans are great at finding patterns and links where there are none. Just because the bar is in line with the upper part of your chest when you bench on an incline doesn't mean it'll build that part.

Thing is, people also make false connections that back up what they think i true. We're fragile creatures mentally and don't like the thought that we're wasting time or looking foolish.

People add incline into their routines, it's a different exercise, they get sore, they attribute this to building their upper chest. Because of the change in stimulus, their entire chest grows, but of course they're only LOOKING for growth in their UPPER chest. They see the growth there. They attribute the growth to the exercise.

"You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Gazhole again."

...I don't have a problem questioning the doctors but I am not going to tell Arnold he's wrong until I've surpassed his level of development at his best...we'll be waiting awhile for that I am sure. I could be wrong about this (impossible to tell without a time machine going back and retraning without incline work) but I guess I am too much of an Arnold fan-boy to let go of this until I see it disproven by someone that I respect at least as much....

The problem is that Arnold knew alot of shit but didn't know everything. You're almost raising him to God-hood...figuratively yes we all should...but not literally. I take nothing for gospel.

p.s. the funny thing is the guy who wrote this post had two 25 lb dumbbells and wanted to build a big chest and this thread morphed into a training debate. The guy's probably like, "shit this is way more involved than I expected, where's my ice cream?"

With that being about 3.5 years ago and he only had 7 posts...I'm betting that he found that ice cream.

 

[SFW]

Hello Everyone,

I want to work on my upper chest, I want that big chest look.

I don't have gym membership so I do what I can at home.

All I have are 25lb dumbells and some pushup bars, I know thats not alot.

I will get more equipment in the near future.

Can anyone suggest some exercises I can do at home?

If you do suggest something, please give an explaination of the exercise or somewhere I can see a photo of the exercise.

I'm not familiar with the names

Thanks in advance

Push ups with someone on your back.

You can also affix those 25lb DB's to yourself and perform dips using two sturdy chairs, or even a chair and an equally high counter or table. You can hold the db btwn your feet or throw em in a book bag, either way. As far as rep/set ranges, experiment.

 

[hill450]

The key is in the way that the fibers run. I'm not going to claim that incline works only upper chest because it is all one muscle with a wide origin and a very small insertion point.

However I will say that I believe that incline is better for working upper chest fibers/front delt and decline is better for the lower chest fibers. I also believe that both of these exercises do a better job than flat bench (not a fan because of shoulder problems).

I use almost all dumbells and here is another way to solidify this statement. My lower chest isn't sore after days I've done upper chest and vise versa. At the same time I have trouble "filling in" my upper inner chest. Whatever works for you.

 

[Gazhole]

Of course all of this is assuming that the body can respond to exercise on a fibre-specific level. This would presuppose an internal ONLY mechanism for muscle growth in local fibres, as opposed to the growth mechanisms affecting the entire muscle.

All fibres in the pec muscle contract when you do ANY bench press variation, therefore all of them are receiving a stimulus for growth. Doing squats and eating a lot will make you grow all over even though you're not training the muscles directly.

Doing rows will make your biceps grow faster than just curls. Doing bench makes your delts and triceps grow as well as your pecs. Probably makes your biceps grow too while we're on the subject.

The more specific the process the less effect it has on the body. Assuming you can target specific areas of the muscle, are the possible returns from this specialization really enough to justify the effort?

Where is the mechanism that allows the "upper" fibres to grow more than the "lower fibres"?

Are the upper fibres contracting more? If that were the case i should think you'd get some nasty cramps or pulls considering all the fibres insert in the same place. If one "half" of that tendon is more taught than the other half, surely thats a bad situation?

Occam's razor suggests the simpler explanation is usually the true one, so i'm gonna assume that the upper chest is just a bunch of anecdotal bullshit stemming from a time before sports science really existed.

After a while it's like trying to justify that the world is round. It IS round, it's clearly round, theres more evidence for it being round, but if enough people believe it's flat no amount of proof will ever be enough.

There are still people out there that believe the Earth is 6000 years old, and there are still people out there who believe you can shape a muscle, make your cock bigger, and get rich filling in surveys over the internet.

 

[yeksetm]

Hold on a second there Gaz!!! Your contradicting yourself.

Doing squats and eating a lot will make you grow all over even though you're not training the muscles directly

and then you say

there are still people out there who believe you can shape a muscle, make your cock bigger

I personally believe your a cock grows best with high rep repetative movements, unfortunately I struggle with the high rep part

 

[Gazhole]

The cock isn't a muscle, silly boy.

It's a bone.

 

[yeksetm]