That is where I got the information...
http://www.ironmagazineforums.com/t...-than-incline-press-stimulate-upper-pecs.html
http://www.ironmagazineforums.com/training/80337-need-fill-upper-chest-need-killer-workout.html
There's a million threads like this were people argue about if you can work part of a muscle. Basically, muscles are made up of fibers, string like things, and they either contract or they do not. You can't make half the fiber contract.
That is me after taking a 4 year break from lifting and I have gained 17 pounds back in 1 month. The first year I trained when I was new I gained about 38 pounds because I listened to this forum. I'm not trying to start a flame war though, it's ok to disagree with someone, and not insult them.
He's right.
The misconception comes from the "burn" people feel in their bodies. When doing crossovers, for examples, they feel a major burn in the "inner chest" and assume that's what they're working. The burn is really just a collection of lactate...Gaz can explain this scientifically...something to do with nitrogen ions, or some weird shit like that.
All that matters is it's lactate...a byproduct of muscle contractions....it fills your muscles and "burns" because the rate of lactate production comes to exceed the rate of lactate removal. As you get stronger and particularly as you develop more endurance in that activity the rate of removal increases and you won't feel the "burn" as fast.
Anyway, the burn is really random. Just like pumps (blood filling muscles). It can be because of your angle and position that the lactate focussed in that area. It doesn't mean that's the only part being worked..or even that it's the part being worked the hardest.
When I do high rep sets of squats my glutes tend ot burn before my quads, even though it's a quad-dominant lift. You don't see me calling squats a glute exercise.
There are technically I think it's 3 muscles that form the entire chest...pectoralis major, pectoralist minor (not sure of the spelling..this is off of memory), and the last one I can't remember but it's a small one that attaches the other two to the shoulder. Major is upper, minor is lower. Don't take this to mean your decline bench is actually useful because it's not.
All muscles of the chest contract together. I'm sorry guys but that's how the body works. Just like how you can't isolate the "tear drop" portion of the quads you can't isolate upper, lower, inner, outer, or mid chest. You work the whole thing at once.
There's benefit to training to different angles and that's to strengthen the chest from different planes. It gives it a more balanced pushing force. But really, aside from flat and a minor incline (I'm talking no greater than 20 degrees or so) there's not really much else you should do. Decline in particular is terrible on your shoulders, and also has terrible carry over to your regular bench as it doesn't even come close to mimicing your body position. Your legs are awkward locked in to a bench, your upside down, blood is rushing to your head, gravity is fucking with your sense. It's ridiculous.
I don't do "chest" workouts. I have bench press day. The only chest movements I do are bench press and bar dips as an assistance movement on my military press day. If you're looking for chest development, don't go nuts on how many exercises you use. Choose absolutely no more than 3 and make them count. Bench, incline bench or dumbbells, bar dips, and then just bench variations like dead press, floor press, close grip..depending on where your weakness is. If you want to improve your bench, I'd stick to bench variations (no dips or isolation) so you can work on leg drive and how to go about the lift itself.
.
