lagging chest

I’m a powerlifter (some bodybuilding), 220lbs at 6’. I’ve been following Ian King programs for about a year now, and just finished the chest/back program. My bench is really weak at 300lbs - I’ve always had small and short pecs no matter what I’ve tried, so the main contributors are obviously tris/delts. It certainly isn’t an imbalance anteriorly/posteriorly, as I do chins for 6 reps with 120lbs around my waist. This is starting to look silly-people at my gym just call me Mr.Arms! Could the problem be neural? I’ve tried everything from reps of 1-20, stretching, negatives, Simmons and on and on - to no avail, my chest is just flat and shallow…
Help! Ian King?

Have you tried Poliquin’s One-Day workout?

It sounds to me that you have stalled on your bench press because your neural system has gotten lazy at doing it. I would recommend you adopt some of Louie Simmons speed training methods…(50-60% 1rm, 8 sets of 3 explosive reps, 45 second rest periods, done for bench press once per week)

I remember years ago someone asked Charles poliquin about their lagging chest, back when Charles wrote for MM2K. His advice was to pre-exhausted the chest by doing an isolation movement(eliminate the prime movers of the arms) and then superset w/ a variation of the bench press. his recommendation was Flyes followed by Bench press done in superset fashion.

Try doing some high rep dumbell presses, illegal wide grip benches for 6-12 reps, and if you can, cambered bar benches. If you are serious about powerlifting, don’t worry about what your chest looks like. If you compete raw, try the 8x3 @ 55-60% ala Louie Simmons. The bar speed is what counts, and can help you overcome your weaker chest muscles. If you compete with a shirt, especially a demim, I wouldn’t worry about chest strength. Just my two cents.

One of the best chest movements, for both size and strength, is dips. Dips is especially helpful when you are looking to increase your bench press. I know of a bunch of people (myself included) who used dips to increase their bench press. Dips is a natural, basic, big movement that can be done heavy and offers a nice change for those who have never tried it. If your body weight is too easy, buy a dips belt and hang some weight from it. Most people find dips to be really helpful and often add it to their regular rotuine.

Thanks, guys - but I’ve done all that…
Dips: 6 reps with 100lbs around my waist (full range- I must add). Simmons style 8 sets of 3, yepp…
Pre-exhaustion: Refer to the Phase 3 of King’s Chest/Back program I said I just completed…
I must simply accept that this is simply genetic, but the steroid cycle I’m now on is certainly increasing my pec size more than I ever hoped for…

If you want to be a great bencher, Bench. If you want to have a great chest, do flyes. I dunno what to tell someone who is in-between. Maybe do both. In the end your genetics will determine your size but you can modify your routine to deemphasize certain muscles that are getting overdeveloped. Well, you could if you were not doing that pesky powerlifting stuff. Powerlifters have to keep doing bench even if their arms get all out of proportion to their body.

You must accept the fact that you only have so many muscle fibers in each bodypart. Most people have at least one bodypart that just doesn’t seem to grow and develop as quickly as other bodyparts. You may be able to increase the size of your chest, but chances are it will always lag behind everything else. I have the same problem. My chest gets strong as hell, but just doesn’t want to grow in proportion with the rest of my body.