I am in agreement with Professor X on nearly everything. However, I do not think the minority who do not get optimal chest stimulation are stating they cannot feel it “at all” in their chest. I have the big arm/small torso syndrome (well, used to) that CT has spoken about frequently.
I know quite a few guys who have this problem and vice versa. Even Dorian, who was torso dominant, left a tad to be desired in the arms department compared to the rest of his gargantuan physique.
Building a big chest, or any large muscle group, is NOT all about the “big bangers”, as most people would have others believe. I know or know of quite a few men who got better quads from leg presses, hack squats, and Smith machine squats over squats.
I know men who got large chests from dips, dumbbell press variations, fly variations, and machine presses. However, I have not seen a man who had a barndoor back without deadlifting. But who really knows if that was all about deadlifting anyway.
Thia is where my gripe with some writings on this site as well as others, comes into play. People such as DC (don’t get me wrong, I like this guys writings quite a bit), AC, EC, and CW
(can’t say I like this guy’s writings despite the fact that he knows how to train people and is a very bright fellow) would have SOME people believe, especially those that do not read intently or follow only what they see in writing, that this whole game is about making progress in the big exercises.
I, myself, wish that developing an outstanding physique was as simple as that for guys like myself, who were not born with ideal levers and efficient nervous systems. My back and chest would have been considered big long ago!
It was not until I started to blast my chest with pre-exhaust and drop sets with isolation exercises such as pec deck and dumbbell flies, that my chest took off. I also had to ditch barbell exercises. For back, I could not get a pump in my lats until I used the same practice as well.
I incorporated pre-exhaust and drop sets with straight arm pulldowns and machine pullovers. I ditched the barbell row and replaced it with dumbbell rows, using a very concentrated stretch and contraction, really focusing on stretching the lats and getting a peak contraction at the top.
Finishing pullups with one long negative (30 seconds) or just negative faster reps (4 second lowerings) at the end worked a great deal too. Now I can get a good enough pump and innervation in my lats without pre-exhaust and have gone back to the big bangers for the back with good progress. I will only go back to the barbell with chest when I can innervate my pecs with no problem.
Just as an aside, Dorian did not make the quad progress that he experienced un in his prime until he switched to Smith squats and hack squats and leg presses. Even the greats have to make adjustments. I know this post is somewhat of a random ramble but I also had a similar issue with my hams. I thought the stiff legged deadlift was an absolute must.
However, my erectors would take over and literally be in knots hours later or the next day with minimal hamstring and glute stimulation. I do FAR better with pullt-hroughs, walking lunges, glute ham gastroc raises, and/or high and wide stance leg presses. I have experienced very good growth in the glutes and hams since using these exercises exclusively.
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