View Full Version : Need Help brothers. Chest related
Whats going on guys. Forget the fluff, so I'm going to get right to the point.
I train hard, every part of me has grown a good amount within the passed year, besides my height (still the same old 5' 5"). Hah. Anyways, this is with the exception of my chest.
My chest has gotten a good deal stronger, but I haven't seen much growth in volume. I have done 5x5 programs, 10x10, and applying my knowledge to my own workouts for feel.
Anyways, with the lack of progress in size, I am thinking about adding a second "chest day" to my split. Maybe having Mondays more of a heavy, low rep workout, along with having a light, high rep workout somewhere else along the week (with at least 3 days rest). Or should I just throw in a couple sets here and there with my other bodyparts?
Need opinions please.
You want to bring your chest up, start hitting chest as the first workout of the week where you can give your most energy towards it. Throw in some rest-pause sets to make sure you are fully burning yourself out. You say you train hard so I don't think an extra day in the week is absolutely necessary. When my chest was my lagging bodypart, one thing I added in was a hammer strength week. I did all hammer strength chest movements and for a majority of the sets I used a training partner and did all negatives with it. I did that once every 4-6 weeks and got great results from it. Another thing you can do is go back to the basics and do a routine like this.
Bench Press 4 sets x 4-8 reps (Power move)
Incline Press 3 sets x 11 reps
Cable Crossovers 3 sets x 12 reps
Fly superset with DB Press 3 sets x 12-15 reps
Dips 2 sets x failure
Go hard with it and give full intensity for each set. Let the mind override the body.
What is the routine you've been following bro? Post it up
Another thing I remembered was that you might want to add to your routine is doing static contractions at the mid point of say a chest press. When your doing a chest press and say your goal is 10 reps, when you get to that 10th rep, lower the bar to midway down your chest and hold it there for 8-10 seconds. Let those fibers burn and when you get to the time, slowly lower the weight and feel the negative.
My routine varies workout to workout. I just finished a 6 week 10x10 I wanted to try out. Didn't see much results from it, but at the same time I wasn't expecting to (only consuming about 170-200grams of carbs daily-cutting phase for the summer months-I weigh 150 pounds). Im not expecting to gain muscle during the summer, a hopeful number is 2 lbs of lean muscle. My chest 10x10 consisted of a compound (switch every week, Incline BB/DB, flat BB, Flat DB, decline DB/BB, Free and smith), then an isolation motion such as cable crossovers, incline/flat/decline flys according to the compound done that day, sometimes reverse grip bench press.
-Now Im off 10x10. Going by basically feel now. General guideline, start with a plyo movement (2x6 plyo pushups warmup), go on to a low rep/heavy movement, then higher volume range, iso-dips etc. then finish with a 2 sets of 50.
Big Wides
07-31-10, 11:04 am
what's your diet like?
Machine
07-31-10, 12:09 pm
My friend Paul DeMayo had the same problem and was built the same way you are...there was a few things that Paul utilized to bring up his lagging chest that I could share with you...
But not until you tell me who Paul DeMayo was and what he did with his life...
I have the answers you need...you must pay your rspects to get them though.
MACHINE
Paul DeMayo.. first thing first, holy quads. He was a IFBB competitor who actually grew up not too far from where I grew/ am growing up outside of Boston. Signed with Met-Rx, which seems to me to be more of a disadvantage than an advantage in his career (my perspective), forcing him to compete in the 1995 Olympia.
-My diet is pretty spot on, just finished breakfast which consisted of a whey shake, 30 min later 1 cup of oats, 3 egg 1 egg white omelette with 3 oz steak cut up, 1 slice american cheese. -snack will be 1 cup of greek yogurt along with an oat bar with 40 grams of carbs along with 10 grams protein.
- basically my diet consists of about 230 grams of protein, and 170-200grams of carbs (cutting phase).
intoodeep25
07-31-10, 2:34 pm
during a cutting phase is probably not the best time to drastically improve your lagging chest my friend. if you want to add slabs of mass to your chest i would do something along the lines of what legacy has recommended, focusing on the negative portions of your lifts, lifting heavy, and eating like a horse. cant go wrong with heavy incline bb press, flat bb press, and dips along with tons of food
intoodeep25
07-31-10, 2:35 pm
and when machine gets back to you, pick his brain as much as possible. home boy has a wealth of knowledge
charlievanriper
07-31-10, 2:53 pm
I still have one of his posters!
suicidegripme
07-31-10, 3:08 pm
A few things that has helped me...
1. Utilize different rep ranges. I tend to go heavy on my first compound lift (anywhere between 3-8 reps). The following excercises I try to keep in a 6-12 rep range.
2. Try to mentally focus on the muscle. When I do incline bench presses, I try to imagine bending the bar inwards.
3. Do not lockout on every excercise. I lockout on heavy benching just out of habit now, but my accessory work I try to put emhpasis on chest, not tris.
4. Utilize different movements. I used to be really simple, flat, incline, flyes done. Since I started working on weighted dips and hammer strength presses, I started filling my chest out in places that never grew before.
5. Do not ego lift. Self explanatory.
6. Do not over-emphasize lagging muscles in some situations. Sure more volume is a good way to shock growth, but sometimes lowering the volume and upping the intensity has the same results.
You are probably more advanced than me and this is all common knowledge but its some stuff that Ive noticed this past year.
during a cutting phase is probably not the best time to drastically improve your lagging chest my friend. if you want to add slabs of mass to your chest i would do something along the lines of what legacy has recommended, focusing on the negative portions of your lifts, lifting heavy, and eating like a horse. cant go wrong with heavy incline bb press, flat bb press, and dips along with tons of food
I said in an earlier post that this summer I'm only looking to gain maybe 2 pounds of lean muscle, which I personally think would be great. That's why my carb intake will never fall below 170 grams. No, I know I'm not eating like a horse in any way, shape, or form, but I am leaving for my freshman year of college in about 3 weeks and want to look good for the ladies. Haha. When fall/winter months roll around, here comes the force feeding. My carbs will be up to around 400 grams and protein down to around 200 grams.
- If anyone is wondering if I hit legs to increase growth hormone levels, yes I do, once a week, heavy with lots of different rep ranges.
- Looking forward to what Machine has to say.
zubda345
08-01-10, 3:29 pm
My friend Paul DeMayo had the same problem and was built the same way you are...there was a few things that Paul utilized to bring up his lagging chest that I could share with you...
But not until you tell me who Paul DeMayo was and what he did with his life...
I have the answers you need...you must pay your rspects to get them though.
MACHINE
Machine If U have anything like this 4 me, I might say now, I am raised in a quiet different environment, No co-curricular, no nothing. I might not know much about personalities or other things related to it. So go easy on me man. i have a same growth problem (Till now) but it's with my Arms.
AntoineV
08-01-10, 3:52 pm
Whats going on guys. Forget the fluff, so I'm going to get right to the point.
I train hard, every part of me has grown a good amount within the passed year, besides my height (still the same old 5' 5"). Hah. Anyways, this is with the exception of my chest.
My chest has gotten a good deal stronger, but I haven't seen much growth in volume. I have done 5x5 programs, 10x10, and applying my knowledge to my own workouts for feel.
Anyways, with the lack of progress in size, I am thinking about adding a second "chest day" to my split. Maybe having Mondays more of a heavy, low rep workout, along with having a light, high rep workout somewhere else along the week (with at least 3 days rest). Or should I just throw in a couple sets here and there with my other bodyparts?
Need opinions please.
Maybe it's just the way you press. If you don't stick your chest out enough, your delts are taking the work... and if you do alot of presses and not enough fly movements.. again your delts are working alot.
Try starting your workout with 5 to 10 sets of incline dumbell flies.. with 2 seconds stretches at the bottom. Then go do your presses. (It's called prefatigue technique... start your workout with an isolation movement and then go do the compounds ones..)
peace!
So much of our sport can amount to the WAY we do the things we do...all of the NASCAR drivers have basically the same fuel and the same engines and chasis...its the way you drive the motherfucker that wins the race!
First you must understand the way to properly set up your lifting posture.
1. lay down on bench and squeeze your shoulder blades together while pushing your ribcage high and sliding yuor ass towards your head.
2. as you grind your shoulders into the bench pull them farther back towards your spine.
3. lock your shoulders in place as you unrack the weight.
4. stop pressing barbells with your grip outside of the width of your shoulders. Move your grip to no wider than your thumbs touching the outside of your shoulders as the bar lies across your chest.
5. Stop pressing the barbell at the bottom of your chest...you need to lower the barbell to your upper chest as you flat bench press...well above nipple range...try for the same placement on every rep.
By stacking your grip inside the power range of your triceps and shoulders, by properly aligning your self to place the anotomical stress of the press on the chest muscles proper, and by lowering the barbell closer to your throat than your lower rib cage...you are already 10 times better than you were from an athletic standpoint. It really has so little to do with weight utilized and rep schemes...widen your gaze.
Good Luck.
MACHINE
So much of our sport can amount to the WAY we do the things we do...all of the NASCAR drivers have basically the same fuel and the same engines and chasis...its the way you drive the motherfucker that wins the race!
Good Luck.
MACHINE
Couldn't have said it any better bro. Its not about what you do, more about how you do it.
Thanks boys. Tonight I had a pretty killer chest workout, started with plyo pushups for a little pre fatigue, heavy flat bench (4 setsx4-7 reps), incline DB (3x10-12 reps), cable crossovers( 2x8 reps), decline flys (2x8, i wanted to switch it up because i do crossovers much more often than DB flys), pushups till failure (which at this point was around 12-15 hah), then a burn out set of 50 hammer strength