Help my chest!

[arms]

I have been training for about 18 months and i am having trouble developing my chest. I am benching around 90Kgs for 4 sets of 6 to ten. Also i am using dumbell flys, and either incline or decline press. Ihave to do around for sets on these exercises to get a pump. But i dont seem to be getting very good results should i train my chest twice a week. Any advice?

[jono]

change to doing lots of db press, and pull your shoulders back whe ur pressing.

ive been basing my chest workout around incl db press for a while now .. and my chest is growing pretty fast

[bleat]

As Jono said use dumbells more often, but switch it up everynow and then. I've just had my db bench form changed around and the pointers I got were:

- Bring the dbs as low as possible then just explode to get them up. Think of two stages: up or down, no inbetween.

- Drop the decline press.

[jono]

As Jono said use dumbells more often, but switch it up everynow and then. I've just had my db bench form changed around and the pointers I got were:

- Bring the dbs as low as possible then just explode to get them up. Think of two stages: up or down, no inbetween.

- Drop the decline press.

on the decline press issue, drop it and do weighting leaning forward dips !! they are great.

[Growth]

You could look into trying to work your chest twice a week, you should probabley give it a go, it may lead to an increased chance of injury but if you feel it is then go back to once a week, at least you gave it a shot.

I remember reading an article ages ago, it was either a DC or HST training principle which roughly went,

Say for every chest workout you do you gain 1/52th of an inch on your chest measurement, over the course of a year that equates to a one inch gain around your chest. Now if you were to work your chest say twice a week, given that you space the two workouts far enough apart to ensure your chest has fully recovered, then theoretically you would add 2 inches to your chest measurement.

Now of course this is a very "ideal" philosophy, but the basic principle is true.

You could space it out say 5 or 6 days apart so that some weeks you do it once, other weeks you will do it twice.

Worth a shot though, some peoples bodies will tolerate the muscle being worked more often.

[Marcus]

Also, don't neglect other bodyparts. Legs are a must.

Incline DB's for chest though.

[deegee]

some good stuff here, I second the dips and db press, just try to mix it up every so often if you find you stop making progress in weight

[Cornfed]

In addition to the above, you could try to isolate your chest when bench pressing by taking a wide grip and holding the weight on your chest for a second at the bottom of the lift. If you have disproportionately strong triceps then pre-exhausting them by doing, say, rope pulldowns before bench pressing would force the chest to do more work. If your chest is relatively undeveloped, training it twice a week probably would be a good idea. I wouldn't worry too much about getting the pump - progression in the weight lifted is more important. Otherwise, keep doing what you're doing.

[Pseudonym]

I'd suggest a fence-sitting approach - do both.

Use DBs, AND hit chest twice a week. Only thing is, make the second chest workout an "incidental" workout. For instance, say you do the full chest workout on Monday (with DBs). On Thursday, do triceps and include exercises like dips or close-grip bench that work the pecs as a secondary muscle.

[Flex]

Make sure that your back training matches your chest training - push / pull. By increasing your back strength your bench will go up and should result in your chest following along. Most guys tend to neglect the back as you can't see it in the mirror and make the mistake of thinking that everything revolves around the chest and biceps. Train your back and your chest will thank you for it.

[Mossley]

I agree with the opposite muscle training. I'm trying to get my partner to train biceps and triceps, at the moment we split chest and triceps. He reckons it's too hard to do biceps and triceps together whereas I find it hard to do triceps after a hard chest workout.

Anyway, the other thing I agree with is try training it twice a week. Before my comp my trainer had me do back once a week but twice a day. Once in the morning and once in the evening. It really worked! I had huge growth but you know it's working because I've never had such a hard workout!

[AuckTrainer]

You have already had plenty of sound advice so i will put my two cents worth in. Incline presses are the cornerstone to a well developed chest. One thing i might suggest is to do triceps on a separate day. Just do chest by itself. That way all your focus goes into that muscle group. Heavy close grip bench is good as well. The stronger your tris are the more weight you can handle on your chest

[Growth]

6'4" and 134kg :shock: :shock: :shock: Good effort mate.

[jono]

6'4" and 134kg :shock: :shock: :shock: Good effort mate.

i agree .. huge

[deegee]

Yep thats a lot of muscle alright, welcome to the board look forward to hearing more from you

[muffinman]

chest can be a slow grower, its also kinda tricky to get the technique spot on, alot of people tend to push with their tris when benching taking the emphisis of the pecs, you know how guys can make their pecs jump up and down by flexing them? well do that and hold it lying on the bench, and concentrate on really squeezing the pecs as you push up with the bar, if you can tense the muscle before you work it with the weight you will get a much bigger burn and workout, and pyramid your weights up, even if your last set is only 2-3 reps, its not a good idea to stay on the same weight as your muscles will get used to it, maybe be better to start on 80kg finnish on 100-105?

as for training chest twice a week, only your body will let you know if this is a good idea or not, everyone is different, personally i wouldnt but it may work for you?

dumbell press is a great workout especially if your weaker on one side this will even you up great, and dont lock your elbows at the end of each rep, that will give your muscles a breif 1-2 second rest, you want to keep peaking the muscle up and up and up,

make your body mad and pain is your friend.

[Mossley]

Well I may be slightly bias in this case (for those that haven't worked it out, muffinman and mossley are item thanks to the gym and a common interest) but I agree with these theories.

I actually started to develop really good pec muscles(for a girl anyway) doing bench press and as my left arm seems to be weaker we started doing dumbell press to even it up. It is still weaker but there is no obvious difference visually.

We usually pyramid but every so often do a high rep low weight day to shock the muscle. Our rep range tends to be in the 6 - 10 range with the heaviest weight (last set) only allowing 2 or 3 reps.

It was a hard technique for me to learn as I can't actually squeeze my pecs to see them move (would be a scary sight, probably not all that feminine :nod: ) but one that I don't really have to think about now and although you're triceps do get a workout it doesn't burn as much.

I think I'm going to have to try and convince muffinman to start training bi's and tri's together as I can't handle tri's after a good chest workout!

[muffinman]

ok we will do bi's and tri's, as long as it is bi's first. cant use preacher curl bench after tri's, the pressure of sqaushed triceps after a work out is not a good feeling.

[jono]

ok we will do bi's and tri's, as long as it is bi's first. cant use preacher curl bench after tri's, the pressure of sqaushed triceps after a work out is not a good feeling.

lol. want a pillow for those tris ? :grin: :grin:

[muffinman]

feels like that sometimes, its like sticking yah head in a vice and tightening it up, ( dont try it )