[quote]nightwolfer wrote:
everybody wannabe a bodybuilder but aint nobody wanna lift no heavy ass weights! [/quote]
haha GOLD! my favourite quote! he then goes on… “arrgghh, i’ll do it though!” then squats 800pounds!
I am surprised no one mentioned SHIPs here (Smith machine High Incline Presses). I do these for my 1st exercise every second chest workout. You set the bench to a low incline in the smith, and make sure the path of the bar comes down high, near the collarbone. This exercise blasts the shit out of my upper chest. I would also keep flys in your routine, although maybe not every chest workout. I’ve read many times that the primary function of the peck is not to simply press, but to also move the arm across/in front of the body. I take it this means that using regular flyes or a low incline type “arching” type of press with heavy weight might help build your chest. Worth a try anyway!
little heavy bench never hurt anyones chest development… just sayin
Nightwolfer,
your pics said the truth imo, you had nice developments but the chest is a little under compared to other areas,it’s genetic but will/volition and teeknique plays a role in training weak areas…
me too gets strong delt&triceps and a “flat” chest,
unfortunnally (this is for strenght fan…)on bench pressing I wasn’t bad (triceps plays a big role in this)but my chest still was flat.
so a bigger bench doesn’t mean a bigger chest (in my own experience).
a deeper chest contraction means a bigger chest (maybe…).
incidentally, one of my IDOLs (Dave Tate) can bench pretty heavy but his pecs are not Arnold shaped (but Dave triceps are huge…).
in last 6 months I forgot heavy weights,forgot FLAT bench,forgot powerlifting and concentrating in range of motion and go beyond failure
(call it heavy duty,high intensity or dog-crap or with the “new” name which it will be called next years :-).
slightly (10/30°??? boh! I use wood blocks to incline my bench…) inclined/declined bench (MightyStu advices hitted the point,really! thanx again Stu!).
one day just declined bench,just 2 set in rest pause mode: reps/failure/rest/reps/failure/rest/rep and so on.
after 5 or 6 day just inclined bench,2 sets only (imo,one set could be enough if you really push you over your limits…).
dbs could be better(rom) than bb but i train alone in my wharehouse gym and can’t lift dbs alone,positiong on bench and go to failure,its dangerous IMO.
about weights used;
ok,for me, best mix of load/reps is a load that causes me to failure about 6/7 reps in a very slow eccentric way (3/4sec) alias 30ish second of time under tension…so a RP set last for about 50’ of TUT…
my chest is now 55inch,same size but i’m 32lb lighter than 4 months ago,still not lean but I guess to have had a good chest/back improvement???
incidentally, my chest grew up but my strenght went down but as I’m retired from american football I just don’t care LOL.
Mikael from Italy
add some pics …
before
http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/3213/60911157917557969152865.jpg
[quote]buzza wrote:
Nightwolfer,
your pics said the truth imo, you had nice developments but the chest is a little under compared to other areas,it’s genetic but will/volition and teeknique plays a role in training weak areas…
me too gets strong delt&triceps and a “flat” chest,
unfortunnally (this is for strenght fan…)on bench pressing I wasn’t bad (triceps plays a big role in this)but my chest still was flat.
so a bigger bench doesn’t mean a bigger chest (in my own experience).
a deeper chest contraction means a bigger chest (maybe…).
incidentally, one of my IDOLs (Dave Tate) can bench pretty heavy but his pecs are not Arnold shaped (but Dave triceps are huge…).
in last 6 months I forgot heavy weights,forgot FLAT bench,forgot powerlifting and concentrating in range of motion and go beyond failure
(call it heavy duty,high intensity or dog-crap or with the “new” name which it will be called next years :-).
slightly (10/30Ã?°??? boh! I use wood blocks to incline my bench…) inclined/declined bench (MightyStu advices hitted the point,really! thanx again Stu!).
one day just declined bench,just 2 set in rest pause mode: reps/failure/rest/reps/failure/rest/rep and so on.
after 5 or 6 day just inclined bench,2 sets only (imo,one set could be enough if you really push you over your limits…).
dbs could be better(rom) than bb but i train alone in my wharehouse gym and can’t lift dbs alone,positiong on bench and go to failure,its dangerous IMO.
about weights used;
ok,for me, best mix of load/reps is a load that causes me to failure about 6/7 reps in a very slow eccentric way (3/4sec) alias 30ish second of time under tension…so a RP set last for about 50’ of TUT…
my chest is now 55inch,same size but i’m 32lb lighter than 4 months ago,still not lean but I guess to have had a good chest/back improvement???
incidentally, my chest grew up but my strenght went down but as I’m retired from american football I just don’t care LOL.
Mikael from Italy
add some pics …
before
http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/3213/60911157917557969152865.jpg
now
yeah dave tates pecs not looking like arnold might have something to do with hom ripping both of them off.Great advice you’re dishing out here cindy.
[quote]Cronus wrote:
I am surprised no one mentioned SHIPs here (Smith machine High Incline Presses). I do these for my 1st exercise every second chest workout. You set the bench to a low incline in the smith, and make sure the path of the bar comes down high, near the collarbone. This exercise blasts the shit out of my upper chest. I would also keep flys in your routine, although maybe not every chest workout. I’ve read many times that the primary function of the peck is not to simply press, but to also move the arm across/in front of the body. I take it this means that using regular flyes or a low incline type “arching” type of press with heavy weight might help build your chest. Worth a try anyway! [/quote]
wait, what?
in order to do smith high incline presses, you set the bench to a low incline?
wouldnt that be a smith low incline press? or a “slip”??
Old thread, but it reminded me of this exercise Dante talks about, a very wide grip incline smith press:
[quote]somespace wrote:
Old thread, but it reminded me of this exercise Dante talks about, a very wide grip incline smith press:
[/quote]
before everyone goes out and does smith incline like that, make sure you read his (dante) post on not complaining when you tear a pec or wreck your shoulders by doing it incorrectly.
Haha yeah, good point. I was too lazy to dig up the post… the main thing he mentions is to tuck the elbows (as Justin illustrates in the vid) instead of bringing them straight down “like a crucifix.” Basic bench technique, really.
[quote]somespace wrote:
Basic bench technique, really.[/quote]
hahaha you would think. you cant make that assumption though. a lot of people flare and get away with it, that does not transfer well to this variation. hence the warning.
[quote]actionboy wrote:
[quote]Cronus wrote:
I am surprised no one mentioned SHIPs here (Smith machine High Incline Presses). I do these for my 1st exercise every second chest workout. You set the bench to a low incline in the smith, and make sure the path of the bar comes down high, near the collarbone. This exercise blasts the shit out of my upper chest. I would also keep flys in your routine, although maybe not every chest workout. I’ve read many times that the primary function of the peck is not to simply press, but to also move the arm across/in front of the body. I take it this means that using regular flyes or a low incline type “arching” type of press with heavy weight might help build your chest. Worth a try anyway! [/quote]
wait, what?
in order to do smith high incline presses, you set the bench to a low incline?
wouldnt that be a smith low incline press? or a “slip”??[/quote]
O sorry about that, i mean “high” as in the bar coming down higher on my chest, not a greater degree incline. What’s a “slip”?
a slip is nothing. i made it up. high incline refers to the degree of incline the bench has not where the bar would hit the body. a smith high incline press is an incline press done with the bench set to a high incline. what you described is a low incline press. i think markus rhul (sp?) has a youtube video of himself doing smith high inclines, generally, i use them as a shoulder builder. go look up the vid. i think Frank Mcgrath also does them in the Animal shoulders video.
[quote]actionboy wrote:
[quote]somespace wrote:
Old thread, but it reminded me of this exercise Dante talks about, a very wide grip incline smith press:
[/quote]
before everyone goes out and does smith incline like that, make sure you read his (dante) post on not complaining when you tear a pec or wreck your shoulders by doing it incorrectly.[/quote]
a study of University of Queensland (AU)on EMG&bench press variations shows that a narrow grip stressed up much the clavicular head of pec (alias upper chest) than a wide grip…
incidentally in this work, there are some very interesting points about the % of pressing muscles (ant delt,pec and triceps)used at different angles of the bench.
I’m a huge fan of starting Chest workouts with Incline DUMBBELL presses and going HEAVY. Also I think a vid of your dumbbell pressing would be useful. I’ve noticed that a lot of guys do these in a way such that they’re putting more stress on their shoulders as opposed to the chest and there’s a simple tweak that might help you.
If you’re training chest twice a week doing push/pull/legs/push/pull/legs (which is what I’m doing currently) I’d say on monday try starting with incline dumbell presses (the traditional incline) and then moving to flat dumbbell presses then maybe later one in the workout have dips for triceps where you’ll get some more chest stimulation. On your other workout (thursday or w/e) start with lo incline dumbbell presses and move to decline dumbbell presses, you’ll get more chest stimulation in this workout from your overhead pressing if you do ships or w/e.
Sample routine (what I’m currently doing):
Monday:
Incline dumbbell - 4x 8,8,8, 4-8
Flat dumbbell - 3x 8,8,4-8
Seated dumbbell (overhead) - 3x 8,8,4-8
Dips - 4x 8,8,8,4-8
French Presses - 4x 8,8,8,4-8
Cable laterals - 5x 15,12,10,8,8
Thursday:
Seated overhead barbell press (butt slid forward so it’s more high inclinish) - 4x8,8,8,4-8
Lo Incline dumbbell - 4x 8,8,8, 4-8 (start with these since your focus is on chest)
Decline dumbbell - 3x 8,8,4-8
Decline CGBP - 4x 8,8,8,4-8
Dip Machine - 3x 8,8,4-8
Dumbbell Laterals - 5x 15,12,10,8,8
I included all of the exercises just so you could see where I’m getting extra chest stimulation.
Get that video of your dumbbell pressing up soon so we can see the form and see if you could be putting more stress on the chest with them. It’s also possible that you could just have weak mind muscle connection in your chest in which case some pre-activation (not necessarily exhausting) for a few weeks with some isolation movements could do the trick (cable flyes, lo to hi cable flyes).
Note: I too can hold loose change on my upper chest without it falling off.
[quote]buzza wrote:
[quote]actionboy wrote:
[quote]somespace wrote:
Old thread, but it reminded me of this exercise Dante talks about, a very wide grip incline smith press:
[/quote]
before everyone goes out and does smith incline like that, make sure you read his (dante) post on not complaining when you tear a pec or wreck your shoulders by doing it incorrectly.[/quote]
a study of University of Queensland (AU)on EMG&bench press variations shows that a narrow grip stressed up much the clavicular head of pec (alias upper chest) than a wide grip…
incidentally in this work, there are some very interesting points about the % of pressing muscles (ant delt,pec and triceps)used at different angles of the bench.
i dont see how this relates to my post about reading dante’s post about doing this move improperly.
Ramping sets of BB incline bench, followed by hig rep sets of HS Incline Chest Press made my upper chest grow more than any other exercise I tried.
Flyes are not a good mass builder in my opnion, although I do pec-dec for a nice stretch and pump.
BTW, anyone know what’s the usual angle on the fixed incline bench ?
[quote]actionboy wrote:
a slip is nothing. i made it up. high incline refers to the degree of incline the bench has not where the bar would hit the body. a smith high incline press is an incline press done with the bench set to a high incline. what you described is a low incline press. i think markus rhul (sp?) has a youtube video of himself doing smith high inclines, generally, i use them as a shoulder builder. go look up the vid. i think Frank Mcgrath also does them in the Animal shoulders video.[/quote]
ok, than to the OP, if you decide to do the exercise i wrote about, just think of a different name…
[quote]actionboy wrote:
[quote]buzza wrote:
[quote]actionboy wrote:
[quote]somespace wrote:
Old thread, but it reminded me of this exercise Dante talks about, a very wide grip incline smith press:
[/quote]
before everyone goes out and does smith incline like that, make sure you read his (dante) post on not complaining when you tear a pec or wreck your shoulders by doing it incorrectly.[/quote]
a study of University of Queensland (AU)on EMG&bench press variations shows that a narrow grip stressed up much the clavicular head of pec (alias upper chest) than a wide grip…
incidentally in this work, there are some very interesting points about the % of pressing muscles (ant delt,pec and triceps)used at different angles of the bench.
i dont see how this relates to my post about reading dante’s post about doing this move improperly.[/quote]
University EMG studies show that upper pec is more activated with inclined bench and narrow grip*,youtube video shows a very wide grip during inclined press.
so I see a contradiction between EMG,Dante and the video 
PS; nothing against DC training,long life to every failure training protocol LOL
[quote]buzza wrote:
[quote]actionboy wrote:
[quote]buzza wrote:
[quote]actionboy wrote:
[quote]somespace wrote:
Old thread, but it reminded me of this exercise Dante talks about, a very wide grip incline smith press:
[/quote]
before everyone goes out and does smith incline like that, make sure you read his (dante) post on not complaining when you tear a pec or wreck your shoulders by doing it incorrectly.[/quote]
a study of University of Queensland (AU)on EMG&bench press variations shows that a narrow grip stressed up much the clavicular head of pec (alias upper chest) than a wide grip…
incidentally in this work, there are some very interesting points about the % of pressing muscles (ant delt,pec and triceps)used at different angles of the bench.
i dont see how this relates to my post about reading dante’s post about doing this move improperly.[/quote]
University EMG studies show that upper pec is more activated with inclined bench and narrow grip*,youtube video shows a very wide grip during inclined press.
so I see a contradiction between EMG,Dante and the video
PS; nothing against DC training,long life to every failure training protocol LOL[/quote]
the exercise in question is done differently than i think you think it is. it is setup so that the bar comes to your lower pec instead of near the collar bone. that coupled with flared elbows is what makes it a dangerous move if done incorrectly.