Can I Change the Shape of My Pecs?

I don’t know how to train my Chest because I simply don’t know if I have a weak lower chest or a poor shape.

Can anyone help me out ?

Step one…stop looking in the mirror. Its not helping you.

Step two…drop all physique goals. They are not helping you.

Step three… stop looking at others. Its not helping you.

Step four… pick 3 or 4 chest exercises and over the next 6-12 months turn your 10 rep maxes into your 20 rep maxes. And turn your 5 rep maxes into your 10 rep maxes. Pick whatever routine or progression plan you wish to acheive it.

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Work the big compound exercises of your entire body. As body conscious as you seem to be about specific muscle groups you need more muscle. Additional muscle everywhere always helps symmetry and shape concerns.

That said, we all have genetic muscle shape limitations. We are definitely not all blessed with full muscle bellies.

IMO, you need much more muscle before trying to focus on “shaping” what you currently have.

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I do dips as well but my lower chest sucks.

You do not need to focus on your lower chest. Most guys do not have underdeveloped lower pecs. It’s the upper pecs you want to hit.

  1. Bench
  2. Incline bench/incline DB’s
  3. Flys
  4. Dips (with or without weight, assisted or non-assisted)

Run with this for a while. And for the love of all things that are holy, please eat more.

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You can’t really change the basic shape of your muscles. You can make them bigger or smaller, that’s pretty much it.

Now, the chest do have several regions and exercise selection might put A BIT (emphasis on “a bit”) more emphasis on a section. But it’s not going to change the design of your muscle.

But I agree with an earlier answer: stop being obsessed and just work hard. We do all have our strengths and weaknesses and even in our final form (best physique) we will always have body parts that we are not satisfied with.

There is no training approach or exercise that will change the shape of your muscles or your structure. Just focus on getting better over time and working hard.

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Agreed

Thank you coach. I keep bothering you guys every other day.

I also want thickness on my chest. I do train heavy mostly in 6-10 rep ranges but my chest is lagging. I have a pretty dominant back maybe because I’m a tall long limbed lifter but I’ve poor chest. I’ve been hitting heavy weight for chest too.

But you’re absolutely spot on that some parts will be lagging behind than others.

Please don’t

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no it isn’t. not based on that picture, at least. lagging behind what, exactly? It’s proportional to your arm/shoulder size. Possibly even a little MORE developed, if anything.

As others have said, keep working consistently, work hard while you’re at the gym, keep eating appropriately for your goals, and you will see results. Based on what I’ve seen in your other threads, you’re 100% focusing on the wrong things. You’re simply NOT at a point where you should be considering things like how your lateral/posterior delts appear in certain poses. You’re not at a point where limb length will really matter. You’re not developed enough at this point to know what your chest genetics really are. To me, it appears you have a relatively well balanced physique as a starting point. Just keep adding muscle, everywhere, and when you’ve got some decent size, maybe start assessing problem areas.

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Okay coach. But I’ll be back after a week with an intersting topic. Not on me but generally.

What lifts have you mostly done for your chest?

It takes time. I began my weightlifting journey when I was 18, at 5’11, so it sounds like it was around the same age as you. I weighed 130 lbs then. And I put on similar weight in my first 4-5 years, I got up to around 160 pretty quickly. But, I still barely looked like I lifted. Over time, however, I made progress. Year after year after year. And eventually, I got what I wanted out of the gym. When I started, I didn’t really believe I had the genetics for success, but I was able to overcome that through consistent hard work over a long period of time. That’s why I’m making the recommendations that I am. I’ve been there, I know what it takes, and I know how brutal it can be, at times, to feel like you’re just spinning your wheels.

Trust the process.

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I might disagree here. Thigh length can be a problem for quad and hamstring development, if that interests you at all.

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Do you think that, as a young lifter, this should have much impact on exercise selection overall? I’m open to changing my opinion on this. From my perspective, that would more likely affect stance and technique, more than anything else. So I guess I should alter my original statement.

Limb length can/should absolutely affect the WAY one performs various lifts, but for me, it doesn’t change whether or not most of the basic movements should be done. I would also say that, after a certain point in development, when there is enough of a muscular base to truly identify imbalances/weak points, that THAT would be the time to maybe move away from things that aren’t working.

Thoughts?

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Yes you’re right. :100:

Assuming you plan on sticking around on T-Nation for awhile, I highly suggest starting a training log, and putting most of your posts there. When you have a specific question for CT, posting in his coaching forum makes sense, but for more general training stuff, and when you’re looking for advice from the community as a whole, it makes sense to do it in your own log. We don’t want to clutter CT’s coaching forum with basic ‘here’s my workout split what does everyone think?’ stuff. You can always tag me or anyone else in your log if you want us to see a post/respond there.

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I’ll do that.

How to start my log? I’m new here and i don’t know.

PRAISE THE LORD!!!

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