[quote]BlackLabel wrote:
Why in gods name are you doing floor press??? That’s ALL triceps. And that’s specifically why powerlifters use it to train the lockout portion of their bench. Even if your shoulders are giving you pain, it will not help you with chest development.
So it looks to me like you’re doing one completely useless movement for hypertrophy… and ONLY 2 solid chest movements.
Let me ask you this, why not stick with the routine that worked for you?[/quote]
Guess what is keeping your arms from falling to the sides?
Regarding the questions about rep range - I’m ramping up to a top set, here’s an example:
44 x 20
66 x 10
88 x 10
100 x 5 [sometimes, if I feel like my form was off]
110 x as much as possible
[/quote]
IMO, that’s way too much volume at the low end of your ramp. By the time you get to your working weight, your target muscles are exhausted (instead of primed) and I suspect you’re cheating to get your work reps in. Is this progression indicative of your overall approach? Over time I could see such an approach leading to issues like shoulder pain where you are grinding reps at the top of your weight range in a very fatigued state.
How many times a week do you perform this routine?
What kind of mobility work are you doing (stretching/rolling…) This shit is crucial.
I get pain in the shoulders with flat bb bench press if I go to the chest, have to stop when elbows are 90deg’s.
Always wanted to bring up my chest (never felt a great pump in it with flat barbell benching), then I read Yate’s recommendation about decline barbel bench pressing - works like a charm! Great lower chest simulation (lower chest fatigues before everything else, which felt really good) and best of all, I could bring the bar all the way down without shoulder pain…try it out. Just remember to weigh your legs down
[quote]Maiden3.16 wrote:
You can try changing your frequency. Maybe you are not hitting chest enough or too much.
If your hitting chest once a week, try twice. If your doing chest twice, try hitting it once and get more recovery.[/quote]
In the past doing chest twice a week lead to good progression, but that’s no longer the case. Perhaps I need more volume during a single workout?
[quote]I get pain in the shoulders with flat bb bench press if I go to the chest, have to stop when elbows are 90deg’s.
Always wanted to bring up my chest (never felt a great pump in it with flat barbell benching), then I read Yate’s recommendation about decline barbel bench pressing - works like a charm! Great lower chest simulation (lower chest fatigues before everything else, which felt really good) and best of all, I could bring the bar all the way down without shoulder pain…try it out. Just remember to weigh your legs down [/quote]
I wish I could do these, new gym doesn’t have a decline bench. I will have to try these in the smith machine using the decline sit-up bench.
WP you mention shoulder pain quite a bit! It sounds as if THIS is the real problem to your lagging chest development - not so much the exercise selection but how you are executing each exercise
This leads me to believe that your pressing setup maybe off. Of course this is impossible to determine without vids but here is some info that might help…
Are your shoulders rounded in a relaxed standing posture?
Are your shoulders rounded at the bottom of the press, do they jut forward?
Do you have winged scapula? - (weakened inhibited serratus anterior)
Do you have dominant upper traps? - (weakened inhibited lower traps)
These are just a few issues that can effect your pressing ability and therefore influence the results you experience.
Check your shoulder mobility and re-learn a proper bench set up i.e. stabilising the glenohumeral joint by pulling the shoulders down and back, drilling your feet into the ground and keeping everything tight!
Try 2 rounds of this to activate the stabilising musculature thus setting you up with a solid base to begin pressing
Shoulder dislocates X 8
V-Raise X 8
Reverse shrugs X 8
Bat wings X 8 (Dan John move)
Face Pulls X 8
Follow this with the correct bench setup mentioned here and by other posters before me
Lee Boyce just did an article on the homepage that is worth checking out…
it sounds like everything hurts your shoulders id try to fix this.
go to physical therapy.
you could probably look up physical therapy movements for the shoulders.
I bet if you fixed your shoulder you could work the chest way more efficiently with a deeper range of motion.
your shoulder pain may even get better if you start isolating the delts a couple times a week with a lighter weight like 10-15 reps (lateral raises, front raises, rear delt flys.)
look up I-Y-T’s its a shoulder workout that people do during physical therapy.
your diet is okay too, but youd prolly be better off gaining mass if you added more carbs and fruits/veggies
[quote]worzel wrote:
WP you mention shoulder pain quite a bit! It sounds as if THIS is the real problem to your lagging chest development - not so much the exercise selection but how you are executing each exercise
[/quote]
I totally agree with this. My advice would be to correct the shoulder problem before worrying about hypertrophy. You should start with evaluating your training protocol and training history for any obvious imbalances (eg. doing tons of pushing and no pulling). Learning about corrective exercises will probably help a lot. Eric Cressey has written a lot of articles that you’d find helpful (Just search for Cressey under authors).