skelooth

Being that I'm back to cutting I suppose it's bad timing to be hopeful of growing one, but anywayz....

I can't grow a chest! Everything else grows! My traps have gotten a little bigger, my back has gotten a little bigger, my arms and legs have gotten unproportionately bigger, and my chest just stays exactly the same. I even have a tough time building strength in my chest.

Could it be from a stagnant / over used chest routine???

For months my chest workout was:

5x5 of incline dumbell press

then sets of flies, and 3 sets of pull overs, sometimes some decline db press.


... I got nothing from that... I always lift heavy as possible.

My NEW Chest workout routine is:

5x5 of flat dumbell press
4x10 cable flies (if free, db flies if not)
3x10 benching machine
3x10 flie machine

does that look okay??

Also, I want to try to up my frequency of chest training to 2x a week when possible, but in order to do that I have to sacrifice arm day or sacrifice something else.

Please give advice.

My strength is like 'capped off' at doing a 3x5 db press with 90lb dbs then i have to drop down to 80s or 85s for the last two sets.

A lot of the chest exercises hurt/irritate my shoulders... is it possible that my rear delts are under developed?? I always seem to neglect them because rear delt exercises aren't fun.

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MurphMan

Do you have a training partner? First thing I would do is have somebody spot you with some 95's. Try to challenge yourself more, if you are stagnating.

Your routine says you are starting with 5x5 db press....I'm sure I don't have to ask, but are you getting warmed up properly?

From what I can see right off the bat......you need more pressing movements and less flies. And like anything else, if what you are doing isn't working then change it up!

BobThePotato

I have no chest either, and it is not becuase i neglect it ect, and its strength is fine. gay ass genetics.

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Wedgylx

I think you're doing way too much in terms of flies. Flies never give me mass gains, just make my striations more noticeable. I run:

1 set flat BB warmup 10-12 reps
3 sets flat BB bench 4-6 reps
3 sets of incline DB bench 4-6 reps
2 sets of incline DB punches 8-10 reps
2 sets of hammer strength bench machine 6-8 reps
2 sets of cable flies 10-12 reps

I go to failure for every set

I definitely wouldnt hit chest 2X a week, just my opinion. Remember, you don't grow in the gym, you grow when you're resting!

neglecting other muscles (especially delts, tris, and back) can definitely hurt your bench

Grunt76

I think the problem with chest is that it's so difficult to really strain it hard even on the big lifts. You want to fry your arms, legs, delts, back? Easy. Fry your chest? For a lot of us, the triceps will be burnt to ashes before the pecs are hit hard.

My solution for this is to concentrate on a LONG negative on ALL chest exercises. I mean 5 seconds down. During these 5 seconds you can just SQUEEZE the hell out of your pecs. Less weight, more pecs.

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skelooth

I'm definitely going to try that long negative! And I will start doing more benches. I only started doing flies because someone told me they got mass gains that way a long time ago.

What do you guys think of working chest more often? 1.5-2x a week?

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skelooth

also, yes, I always warm up first. Usually I warm up by doing 5 minutes on the treadmill, 3 sets of rotator cuff exercises, and a set with 40lb dbs.

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Grunt76

Seems all good man. I like the flies actually. I do them on the incline bench, with a slow, slow negative and when I can't do them no more, I switch over to presses on the same bench with the same DBs. By the time I can't do the press anymore, it's my pecs that give up.

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davtown

Nothing hits my chest better than this (plate loaded machine)

http://www.keysfitness.com/st-ub-kps-lcs.php

I love the ROM and I get a nice deep stretch in my pecs with it. I'm in crazy pain (the good kind) after I do 3 sets of 12 on a slight incline (with a slow negative.. ~4 secs)

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SoMdHunter

And here is what I did to correct it. As already stated, you can fry your tri's before you hit your pecs with enough to force them to grow, so I did chest all by themselves.

First off, it really looks to me you are going a bit too heavy and not enough reps. I would to a 3x12 or 4x10 routine. Keep in mind, when you work your chest, you are also working your front delts and tri's. Here is my personal routine.

DB flat bench 3x12
DB Inclines 3x12
Cable Cross overs 4x10 (really squeeze the pecs together on this movement)
Dips 3 x 15 (lean forward to hit the pecs more than the tri's)
Chest Press Machine 4x10
Pec Dec 4x10 (again, squeeze your pecs has hard a possible as your hands come together)

Notice I didn't include barbell bench presses. I'm not saying don't do them, but you mentioned shoulder pain. I've seen lots of guys hurt themselves showing off with the bench press. Don't get me wrong, it is a great lift, but using DB's makes it easier on the shoulders.

Anyway, IMO you should see results from this. It contains 6 routines and a total of 17 sets. It should work nicely for ya. Hope this at least gives you some ideas on how you may want to change your routine.

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sulcop

I have had great success in chest work, but not at first. Mine was slow to grow because of my tri's. In 1981 I was in CA and signed up at Vince's gym. Vince Gironda was the only real Guru I ever knew. Anyway he had me do 3 sets of as many Iron Cross flys as I could do then 3 sets of dips, Vinny style leaning foreward hands reversed on a wide grip dipping station. My pecks blew up. Now Iron cross flys can be preformed if you have some cables with the cross over handles on them. You hang the handles about hip high from the chin bar and plance a bench behind to put your feet on. Now you go into a push-up postion and rotate your hands out (like a fly movement) and back up. This is beyond any fly or peck deck movement you will ever do. On the dip make sure you lean and have access to a wide dip stand and go heavy. I have gone up to 5 plates on these. Next trick I picked up from Charles Poloquin and it concerns hand placement on flys and D/B work. On flys when you lower the weight make sure your hands rotate so the palms face to the toes. This will elliminate the front delts in the movement. On D/B bench, incline etc. the hands should be at 45% angles at the contraction and extension. Ever use a Hammer incline machine? Ever notice how effective it is even though its a machine? That is because the hand position isolates the peck over the delt area and allows a great ammount of fiber activation in the chest area before the delt area fatigues. You can find examples of the Girands flys and dips on his Iron Guru site, you will have to do a search for Poliquins chest movements but I think they are on his site as well. Good luck.

Sully

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DJSTARER

You're gonna get a lot of differernt responses because everyoneresponds differernt.

Personally, I do 3X10 with flat db presses with a slow eccentric move.

Then i do 50 degree (straight arm) flies at 3X10. I superset these with push ups til faillure, then negative pushups to failure.

__________________
My philosophies on training:

"Extreme training yields extreme results"

"Just because you can, does not mean you should"

"The best program is the one you are not doing"





Penn State Powerlifting-181 lb weightclass

PGA Professional of America


Current Stats:
474 Squat
601 Deadlift
320 Bench


Goals for next training cycle:

500lbs squat and a total over 1400 in competition

ersatz

I used to have a problematic chest too. It wasn't due to over or undertraining nor the routines I was using. It was simply my form. Even slowing down the neg uch because as soon as the bar hit my chest I would instantly push it up again. Someone pointed this out to me and so I focused on keeping the bar on the chest for a two count before pushing it back up again. I had to drop the weight about 20% since I was performing the movement correctly but the increases in size followed shortly.

LaggingBiceps

Decline DB Press 10-8-8-6-6
Incline DB Press 12-10-8-6-6
Incline BB Press 10-8-6-6
Cable Crossovers 10-8-8
Incline Flyes 10-8-8

DJSTARER

how long are your workouts?

__________________
My philosophies on training:

"Extreme training yields extreme results"

"Just because you can, does not mean you should"

"The best program is the one you are not doing"





Penn State Powerlifting-181 lb weightclass

PGA Professional of America


Current Stats:
474 Squat
601 Deadlift
320 Bench


Goals for next training cycle:

500lbs squat and a total over 1400 in competition

LaggingBiceps

about an hour, failure is only on the last last though

A_N_91

I would try to do higher frequency with them. Try doing your chest workouts using HST or maybe 5x5 methods by Bill Starr (I think that's him). And use more dumbells than barbells for the workout and see how that goes.

A_N_91