Help Growing My Pecs! Pic Attached

Bigger Stronger Leaner
21

I had the same problem, i worked chest twice as hard and twice as much but they were still the smallest and weakest muscle. For about a month or two i started focusing on my chest, what worked for ME was going heavy one day and the next day going light and stretching them out with lightweight flys, pullovers and dips, i did chest about 3-4 times and the stretching workout was done the day after the heavy day. seem to help me expand my chest

Also doing the stretching workouts would be good for you if you tend to use your shoulders too much

22

if your weights for chest exercises have not gone up in a few years, that is something you need to fix.

eat more, follow one mode of progression for some months. if you are constantly bouncing around between rep ranges how do you know when you’re getting stronger? heavier weights x more/better reps = size.

23

[quote]fr0IVIan wrote:
if your weights for chest exercises have not gone up in a few years, that is something you need to fix.

eat more, follow one mode of progression for some months. if you are constantly bouncing around between rep ranges how do you know when you’re getting stronger? heavier weights x more/better reps = size.[/quote]

Well I have tried all the different rep ranges but I give each style of training at least a couple months. But perhaps I do need to give each style of training more time. That’s a very good point you have.

24

[quote]plateau wrote:

[quote]Gargoyle82 wrote:
Shoulders is pretty basic. After a quick warm up it is pretty much as follows:
Standing barbell press x 4
Arnold press x 4
Behind the neck pull downs (very strict) x 4
Side lateral raises (usually performed in 5 x 5 fashion)

How does that look to you?
[/quote]

  1. Behind the neck pulldown are not a shoulder exercise, obviously the shoulders get involved. Swap these for rear delt raises, wolfe face pulls, rear delts on peck deck
  2. Lat raises - up the reps, less weight - for me at least

You’ve got a good attitude, consistency is what you need with eating and training - this journey takes years for most of us[/quote]

Thanks Plateau! On back day I finish my routine off with upright rows and then rear pec deck flies. Working my posterior delts just seems to make more sense on back day where they are involved more. Do you think I should stay with this course of action or move them to delt day? My anterior delts are slightly more developed than my posterior so if anything I was thinking on doing an additional few sets of pec deck flies on shoulder day as well so I can them twice a week and nicely spaced out.

I’ll try upping the weight on the lateral raises as well. Do you think cable is more effective than free weight. I use all free weights in my routine but I have read about the negative resistance of the cable on a lateral raise being more effective?

25

I want to thank everyone that has replied so far and shared your insight. It’s greatly appreciated!

What would everyone’s thoughts be on maybe trying some sort of power lifting type push routine to try and encourage more growth?

26

[quote]Gargoyle82 wrote:
I want to thank everyone that has replied so far and shared your insight. It’s greatly appreciated!

What would everyone’s thoughts be on maybe trying some sort of power lifting type push routine to try and encourage more growth?[/quote]

Benching PL-style would only aggravate your existing muscle imbalance.

I think you don’t utilize your chest well enough, a common problem when you rely on pressing movements as main chest work. Try flyes in the pec deck (lying down on a bench) as both a stand-alone exercise and to stimulate your chest before you press (this has been mentioned somewhere in this thread already I think under “pre-exhaustion”.

27

Simplify your routine.

28

[quote]Dre the Hatchet wrote:

[quote]Gargoyle82 wrote:
I want to thank everyone that has replied so far and shared your insight. It’s greatly appreciated!

What would everyone’s thoughts be on maybe trying some sort of power lifting type push routine to try and encourage more growth?[/quote]

Benching PL-style would only aggravate your existing muscle imbalance.

I think you don’t utilize your chest well enough, a common problem when you rely on pressing movements as main chest work. Try flyes in the pec deck (lying down on a bench) as both a stand-alone exercise and to stimulate your chest before you press (this has been mentioned somewhere in this thread already I think under “pre-exhaustion”.[/quote]

Yeah. I will start trying this as well. Do you think I should stick to flat or incline when I perform the flies? Also, when doing a pre-exhaustion do you think higher reps would be more effective or do them as a heavy working set?

29

[quote]jp_dubya wrote:
Simplify your routine.
[/quote]

What would you recommend JP?

30

[quote]Gargoyle82 wrote:

[quote]actionboy wrote:
things arent lookin too bad. i wouldnt worry too much about it.

try pre-exhausting if you cant feel your chest working. try hammerstrength machines, they’re a good change of pace and the chest variations are pretty awesome. finally, try hitting chest twice a week. maybe try a straight chest day and then do incline stuff on shoulder day. [/quote]

Thanks Action. I have been trying that as of late. I start off with a few sets of high reps on the pec deck and get a really good pump going and then move in from there. Incline on shoulder isn’t a bad idea. It never fails that at the end of my chest routine my shoulders are pumped and sometimes feeling as if they were taking the beating the whole time even though I try and focus on keeping them out of the movement as much as possible. Perhaps move my incline to shoulder day at the end so that my shoulders are already exhausted and therefore maybe placing more emphasis on the upper pectorals?[/quote]

id probably prioritize pecs in this case. so on shoulder day start with incline bench and then smith high incline presses. it’ll hit your front delts hard enough that you can cut out your overhead work and then just do medial and rear delt work.

31

[quote]actionboy wrote:

[quote]Gargoyle82 wrote:

[quote]actionboy wrote:
things arent lookin too bad. i wouldnt worry too much about it.

try pre-exhausting if you cant feel your chest working. try hammerstrength machines, they’re a good change of pace and the chest variations are pretty awesome. finally, try hitting chest twice a week. maybe try a straight chest day and then do incline stuff on shoulder day. [/quote]

Thanks Action. I have been trying that as of late. I start off with a few sets of high reps on the pec deck and get a really good pump going and then move in from there. Incline on shoulder isn’t a bad idea. It never fails that at the end of my chest routine my shoulders are pumped and sometimes feeling as if they were taking the beating the whole time even though I try and focus on keeping them out of the movement as much as possible. Perhaps move my incline to shoulder day at the end so that my shoulders are already exhausted and therefore maybe placing more emphasis on the upper pectorals?[/quote]

id probably prioritize pecs in this case. so on shoulder day start with incline bench and then smith high incline presses. it’ll hit your front delts hard enough that you can cut out your overhead work and then just do medial and rear delt work.[/quote]

Today is delt day so I will give that a try and report back. Thanks for that idea!

32

[quote]ebomb5522 wrote:

[quote]Gargoyle82 wrote:

[quote]ebomb5522 wrote:
You’re not going to like to hear this, but you simply need to grow more overall.

Your chest looks fine to me at your current level of development. You seem to have a good head on your shoulders and are training pretty hard, so I would just keep adding weight to the bar/scale and watch your chest improve as your entire body gets bigger.
[/quote]

Not at all. I enjoy hearing it. I’m not the typical “newb poster that already knows what they want to hear and gets upset when they don’t hear it.” Feel free to say whatever you feel is needed. That’s why I’m on here bro. I’m flat out saying what I have been doing is obviously wrong so any feedback is much needed and respected.

I actually think my chest looks decent in that shot (go figure lol). But I can tell is is definitely under par. What would you suggest then? Just keep sticking to the big basic compounds with no real emphasis on it?[/quote]

Well, it’s not that you aren’t putting special emphasis on it, you just don’t need to do anything special just yet. Just keep crushing compound lifts (incline presses, flat presses etc) and adding in the appropriate hypertrophy work to go along with that and you’ll be happy with your progress.
[/quote]

Alot of guys, for whatever reason, don’t get good results doing regular benches. Their shoulders and tri’s seem to get most of the work. Always try to use a bit of an incline. and honestly, you said you tried to do the less is more. Doing 3 sets per exercise isn’t less is more. less is more, is doing 3 total sets per muscle.

last night i did chest, I switch between free weights in a power rack and doing them on a hammar strength machine. this was the machine night. I warmed up, did 2 good heavy sets. then i did 1 set of heavy dips on this machine that i like. then i did one set of flies. 4 sets total. I do work each muscle 2x per week though. but thats low volume.

33

[quote]roguevampire wrote:

[quote]ebomb5522 wrote:

[quote]Gargoyle82 wrote:

[quote]ebomb5522 wrote:
You’re not going to like to hear this, but you simply need to grow more overall.

Your chest looks fine to me at your current level of development. You seem to have a good head on your shoulders and are training pretty hard, so I would just keep adding weight to the bar/scale and watch your chest improve as your entire body gets bigger.
[/quote]

Not at all. I enjoy hearing it. I’m not the typical “newb poster that already knows what they want to hear and gets upset when they don’t hear it.” Feel free to say whatever you feel is needed. That’s why I’m on here bro. I’m flat out saying what I have been doing is obviously wrong so any feedback is much needed and respected.

I actually think my chest looks decent in that shot (go figure lol). But I can tell is is definitely under par. What would you suggest then? Just keep sticking to the big basic compounds with no real emphasis on it?[/quote]

Well, it’s not that you aren’t putting special emphasis on it, you just don’t need to do anything special just yet. Just keep crushing compound lifts (incline presses, flat presses etc) and adding in the appropriate hypertrophy work to go along with that and you’ll be happy with your progress.
[/quote]

Alot of guys, for whatever reason, don’t get good results doing regular benches. Their shoulders and tri’s seem to get most of the work. Always try to use a bit of an incline. and honestly, you said you tried to do the less is more. Doing 3 sets per exercise isn’t less is more. less is more, is doing 3 total sets per muscle.

last night i did chest, I switch between free weights in a power rack and doing them on a hammar strength machine. this was the machine night. I warmed up, did 2 good heavy sets. then i did 1 set of heavy dips on this machine that i like. then i did one set of flies. 4 sets total. I do work each muscle 2x per week though. but thats low volume. [/quote]

That’s me to a T! Doing bench movement (especially with a barbell) I always walk away with fried tris and delts and my chest still feels like I could lift for hours.

I have tried doing volume that low and I get a pump and do take the sets to failure but I always feel like I have a lot more work left in my pecs and I feel like I didn’t get a good work out. I think when first getting into this idolizing guys like Frank Zane, Arnie, Franco, etc. just really put high volume into the back of my mind and for whatever reason no matter how much work I do I always feel like I should do more. Maybe that is something I need to work on. I will say though, and again, perhaps it is just my mind over muscle, but I do feel like my body likes high volume. But then again, I’m not exactly making great progress either.

34

I find for building Chest Width the best excercises are cable flies, try a rep range so you are averaging around 9 reps per set for 4 sets but make sure your form is perfect and you really squeeze the muscle to move the weight, there are a couple of ways you can integrate this into your workout, I’ll give you two examples that I’ve tried and have worked really well for me personally:

Do one set of each excercise and then do the next and so on, when you’ve finished go back to (a)

a) Guillotine aka Supine Neck Press, use a flat bench, take a wider than usual grip and keep your elbows flared out (perform this by lowering the bar to the base of your neck and make sure you get a real stretch at the bottom and then press back up but not to lock out)- use a weight progression that allows you to do 8-10 reps per set but no more or less.

b) Plyometic push ups, the emphasis here is on speed not the height you get off the ground, only go to failure on the last set, then rep out with normal press ups without stopping

c) Cable Chest Flies as above- the emphasis should be on contracting the fuck out of your muscle not moving the most weight that you can, technique is what matters

After you complete C, I recommend stretching for around 40 seconds- here are some good stretches for chest:

Check this out for research by Brett Contreras on the best excercise for chest: you will see the guillotine press and flies / cross overs feature as some of the best you can do.

35

I actually have a different approach than most. I was lifting heavy and not getting as good results as what I do now, especially in my upper-chest.

I use lighter weights with a greater concentration on tension on the muscle. I dont look at the weight so much unless i dont feel tension. I would go as far as to say that I put more focus on tension than on rep-range.

I would also vary the tempo. I got good growth with slow negatives (5-6 seconds), and when i switched after 2 weeks to accelerated reps. I do follow time under tension as well. I also increased the volume.

36

[quote]ebomb5522 wrote:
You’re not going to like to hear this, but you simply need to grow more overall.

Your chest looks fine to me at your current level of development. You seem to have a good head on your shoulders and are training pretty hard, so I would just keep adding weight to the bar/scale and watch your chest improve as your entire body gets bigger.
[/quote]

This is all you need to hear really…

From the lift #s you posted everything seems to be at around the same to me…

i.e db shoulder press @ 50lbs vs flat db press @ 80lbs…

My guess is you feel your chest is weaker/smaller not because it really is but just because you would want it to be bigger in proportion to the rest of your body aka you would want your chest to overpower the rest of your body, maybe without you even aknowledging it(not sure if that makes any sense to you?)

If i were you I would stick to 2-3 exercises (something like inclined bench/db, a flat machine press where you can really grind out the reps, and some cable flies)

And I would eat more… cause thats really just all there is to it… you need more size overall

37

[quote]zraw wrote:

[quote]ebomb5522 wrote:
You’re not going to like to hear this, but you simply need to grow more overall.

Your chest looks fine to me at your current level of development. You seem to have a good head on your shoulders and are training pretty hard, so I would just keep adding weight to the bar/scale and watch your chest improve as your entire body gets bigger.
[/quote]

This is all you need to hear really…

From the lift #s you posted everything seems to be at around the same to me…

i.e db shoulder press @ 50lbs vs flat db press @ 80lbs…

My guess is you feel your chest is weaker/smaller not because it really is but just because you would want it to be bigger in proportion to the rest of your body aka you would want your chest to overpower the rest of your body, maybe without you even aknowledging it(not sure if that makes any sense to you?)

If i were you I would stick to 2-3 exercises (something like inclined bench/db, a flat machine press where you can really grind out the reps, and some cable flies)

And I would eat more… cause thats really just all there is to it… you need more size overall[/quote]

Yeah I agree. That does make sense actually. I do want growth overall and I do certainly want my chest to be a strong point. I think even more so because as I originally stated, every male on both sides of my family has a flat, bird like chest and I want to over come that. I want to take that family stereo type and destroy it. So that when I look into the mirror I can know that I accomplished something my body said was not going to happen.

I do plan on upping my calories as well. It’s a little tougher for me to put size on as fast as some though just because of my type of lifestyle diet. I was hypoglycemic as a kid and all my life I have been horrible with carbs. It doesn’t matter how they are timed and if they are starchy complex, fibrous, simple etc. Having carbs in my diet to any degree leads me to sever lethargy, hunger pangs, cloudy thought process and bloating. It wasn’t until years ago that I found the Anabolic Diet that everything changed. I feel amazing on a high fat and high protein diet and it works very well for me. The draw back of course is that I do not retain as much glycogen and water so my strength is hindered. I also find that it is harder to gain weight without carbohydrates as well. But if I reintroduce them, I go right back into my former symptoms. But, that’s something I need to start a thread on in the “Nutrition” forum though I suppose.

38

I want to say again how great you guys have been. I really appreciate all this feedback I have been getting!

39

[quote]Gargoyle82 wrote:

[quote]Dre the Hatchet wrote:

[quote]Gargoyle82 wrote:
I want to thank everyone that has replied so far and shared your insight. It’s greatly appreciated!

What would everyone’s thoughts be on maybe trying some sort of power lifting type push routine to try and encourage more growth?[/quote]

Benching PL-style would only aggravate your existing muscle imbalance.

I think you don’t utilize your chest well enough, a common problem when you rely on pressing movements as main chest work. Try flyes in the pec deck (lying down on a bench) as both a stand-alone exercise and to stimulate your chest before you press (this has been mentioned somewhere in this thread already I think under “pre-exhaustion”.[/quote]

Yeah. I will start trying this as well. Do you think I should stick to flat or incline when I perform the flies? Also, when doing a pre-exhaustion do you think higher reps would be more effective or do them as a heavy working set?[/quote]

For pre-exhaustion sets I’d say the 10-12 rep range is appropriate. Work sets you can either go heavier in the 6-8 range or simply work harder on getting more reps at a higher weight. Progression has many forms.
Both flat and incline are fine; I’d personally go with flat.

40

[quote]RePz wrote:
I actually have a different approach than most. I was lifting heavy and not getting as good results as what I do now, especially in my upper-chest.

I use lighter weights with a greater concentration on tension on the muscle. I dont look at the weight so much unless i dont feel tension. I would go as far as to say that I put more focus on tension than on rep-range.

I would also vary the tempo. I got good growth with slow negatives (5-6 seconds), and when i switched after 2 weeks to accelerated reps. I do follow time under tension as well. I also increased the volume.[/quote]

This is great advice, but I would like to point out that your idea of lifting heavy (assuming thats u in the avi) and his idea of lifting heavy are two different things.

Judging by what you said about the other stats, especially the fact that you shoulder press 50’s seems to me that you just have a lack of pressing strength, not necessarily a lagging muscle.

What helped me was focusing on making my warmup sets count. when you press 25’s, press them so fast they nearly fall out of your hands. Remember that feeling of speed and do that every set ramping up.