Hi I was just wondering if some one could advice me a good split, to help me develop my chest as it is severely lacking and looks very small due to pectus carintum, bassically my chest bone sticks out. So i’m having to work extra hard to get a good chest.
My current split is:
mon - chest
tues- back
wed - shoulders
thur - arms
fri - legs.
I weigh just over 92kgs and been training for a while with around 16-18% bf.
eat alot and lift heavy and hard. you probably dont need to start training your chest twice a week unless its way behind the rest of your body?
The chest bone sticks out quite bad right in the middle its covered up now, but my chest just looks flat so very unproportioned. Im trying to take the above advice though.
There’s ample chest advice on this forum and in articles to get you to where you want to be.
Just for a start…
I like to squeeze the pecs at the top of the movement, or else I find my chest drops out of most exercises fairly quickly and I lose the mind-muscle connection. just make sure you are concentrating on the contraction while moving up training volume from workout to workout.
ive been doing wide grip bench and dips (on the rings) on seperate days of my routine and its working very well for my own chest development. and if it works for me id might as well recommend it.
I want a more serious chest split really like upper and lower chest split into two different days. May be due to mind muscle connection, as my shoulders tend to overpower my chest quite a bit during pressing exercises for my chest. Saying that my forms id say about 80% right, and tend to go heavy while doing them. I’ve hit a bit of a plateau as well during most of my lifts, or there not going up as quick. So next week I was thinking of going light and to higher reps and try and not cause hypertrophy to give my body a rest and concentrate more on mind-muscle connection and form.
[quote]The1andOnly wrote:
May be due to mind muscle connection, as my shoulders tend to overpower my chest quite a bit during pressing exercises for my chest. [/quote]
Is this meant to mean that your shoulders do more of the work during a chest workout? If so, have you tried targeting your shoulders the day before (or even earlier in your routine) to take them out of the lift? I know that on days when my shoulders and tri’s are sore from earlier days, I feel that my chest routine is more effective. Naturally, doing that causes you to have to use less weight since you don’t have as much help from the shoulders and tri’s I’ve used it in cycles to make gains specifically in the pecs. Of course what worked for me may not work for you, but that’s just my 2 cents.
I don’t know for sure if my shoulders are doing a lot of the work but they tend to be quiet sore after benching perticularly decline for some reason so it could be that my shoulders are doing a lot of the work. Yer could try it, i’ve also heard of bodybuilders who do shoulder exercises before they do chest exercises to concentrate further on the chest, but i’ve just got to find a routine which will work well for me. As currently my routine can’t incorporate it.
OP, what exercises do you perform on chest day?
Usually goes something like this:
Flat dumbell press maybe 15% incline (go as heavy as i can) 3x6
Decline barbell bench 3 x 8
Flat flyes (as heavy as i can) 3x6
Cable flyes (or pec deck) 3x8
Finish off with press ups or machine chest press.
I can usually feel it the next couple of days and take a while to recover.
[quote]The1andOnly wrote:
Usually goes something like this:
Flat dumbell press maybe 15% incline (go as heavy as i can) 3x6
Decline barbell bench 3 x 8
Flat flyes (as heavy as i can) 3x6
Cable flyes (or pec deck) 3x8
Finish off with press ups or machine chest press.
I can usually feel it the next couple of days and take a while to recover.
[/quote]
Your routine isn’t that bad. Personally i don’t see the use of decline BP and i would go with either flat fly or cable fly, not both. I would do:
Flat DB press
Incline BP
Fly variation
Weighted Dips
Finish off with push ups
My chest is ahead of my other body parts so all i do is flat BP and inclines on the smith machine. Just stick with it man, due to your condition it will just take more time, no matter what routine you try.
Oh right cheers i’ll just keep going I guess when I put on some serious muscle I can concentrate on it more. That your arm in your avatar?
[quote]The1andOnly wrote:
Oh right cheers i’ll just keep going I guess when I put on some serious muscle I can concentrate on it more. That your arm in your avatar?[/quote]
if that’s his arm he should make a 23+" arm thread or The road to 24".
[quote]Kerley wrote:
eat alot and lift heavy and hard. you probably dont need to start training your chest twice a week unless its way behind the rest of your body? [/quote]
i train everything twice a week, its lovely.
anyway, bench press is a good place to start.
Ever since I started pinching my shoulder blades togather on Benching (with barbell or dumbbells) I instantly had better chest workouts and my pecs got bigger as well. Try it next time you bench. It also takes the shoulders out of the movement to a degree.
Also, I don’t think anyone else has asked: what sort of weights are you using on pressing movements?
Here’s a routine I posted in another discussion where the OP was asking about a lagging chest:
I find that with me, my pecs lag behind other body parts. A few routines that I’ve changed up over the years helped me. I switch between these routines every 1 and a half to 2 months. As with most tips and advice, this may only work on me, but then again…it did work.
Workout #1:
This is basically a dropset with each exercise done back to back with weight that only allows 5 reps each. Each set is done back to back with no rest.
Bench press
Pec deck
Weighted dips (done properly to target the pecs, not the triceps)
Flyes
Dumbell bench press
Doorway stretch
Repeat x5 with no rest but take 10lb off all equipment (5 lbs. on DBs) each time.
Workout #2
This is a one sided pyramid (not sure what the “real” name for it is)
I start with what I can only do 10 with and as the weight goes up, the reps dwindle with my ability to lift it.
Bench press 4 sets Reps 10, 8, 6, 4
Pec deck same
Weighted dips same
Flyes same
Dumbell bench press same
This helped me go from a 135 bench to 225 at 5’4 150lb. in about 2 years. Maybe it (or at least the concept) could help you? If nothing else, just give it a try and if it works, great. If not, toss it out.
[quote]postholedigger wrote:
Here’s a routine I posted in another discussion where the OP was asking about a lagging chest:
I find that with me, my pecs lag behind other body parts. A few routines that I’ve changed up over the years helped me. I switch between these routines every 1 and a half to 2 months. As with most tips and advice, this may only work on me, but then again…it did work.
Workout #1:
This is basically a dropset with each exercise done back to back with weight that only allows 5 reps each. Each set is done back to back with no rest.
Bench press
Pec deck
Weighted dips (done properly to target the pecs, not the triceps)
Flyes
Dumbell bench press
Doorway stretch
Repeat x5 with no rest but take 10lb off all equipment (5 lbs. on DBs) each time.
Workout #2
This is a one sided pyramid (not sure what the “real” name for it is)
I start with what I can only do 10 with and as the weight goes up, the reps dwindle with my ability to lift it.
Bench press 4 sets Reps 10, 8, 6, 4
Pec deck same
Weighted dips same
Flyes same
Dumbell bench press same
This helped me go from a 135 bench to 225 at 5’4 150lb. in about 2 years. Maybe it (or at least the concept) could help you? If nothing else, just give it a try and if it works, great. If not, toss it out.
[/quote]
Noooowwww i see why everyone hates the 09ers.
Why’s that then?