Seriously stubborn and weak chest

[kukla]

@polarbearwear If you've done the norm (progressive overload on basic exercises) and you have a weak body part, especially torso, it usually means one or more things:

High percentage of ST muscle fibers

Weak "Nerve force" or what is essentially coordination-the muscle doesn't fire well.

Small muscle "belly"-not a lot of muscle fibers to begin with

Strong, Fast twitch muscles that assist.

This is seen a lot with Pecs.

Understand, your body strives for efficiency. It uses the muscles even segments of muscles that are most able to perform an action.

What this means is-weak and strong body parts won't "even out" if trained heavy with basics. In fact, they will get relatively worse.

If you have strong triceps and/or delts, and weak pecs, Exercises like flat benches will just make your triceps/delts better with not much pec work.

What you want to do:

Specialize on your chest for a bit.

ONLY use exercises that you feel in your chest.

Go ahead and use partial reps-the ROM that you feel in your chest. You will find if you do different exercises this "feel" can vary wildly depending on where you are in your ROM.

Figure out the "strong" muscles around it, then minimize their use.

USE DECLINES esp. with Dumbbells. Declines favor pec leverage so well that almost everyone feels declines in their pecs. Dips are not the same.

USE CABLES. Cables are great for "feel"-manipulate the angle and range of motion so you feel your pecs where they are.

If you came to me with this problem, I would suggest: (Edited for specifics after seeing your current routine for plug-in)

Decline DB presses-full ROM, higher reps Warm up 2 sets, then 2 x 12, 20.

High to low crossovers-partial only in ROM feeling your pecs. High reps 2 x 15-20

Low to high crossovers-partial only in ROM feeling your upper pecs High reps 2 x 15-20

Single arm crossovers, going completely across the body-holding contraction for 2 seconds. High reps. 1 x 20 done slowly.

On your other days, I would not train Pressing at all. Focus on side delts for Delts

For triceps-Focus on the long head, not the outer head.

This would be for a short time. After a month or so evaluate.

 

[chesney]

@polarbearwear Frequency isn’t always the answer. It’s always lying in execution. Make sure you’re setting up your press properly also pre-exhaustion of the chest will work wonders. I’m a believer in higher volume not that low volume nonsense and in my opinion, high volume always stimulated my chest also nutrition and or gear is a factor everything‘s gotta be on point.

 

[wesf]

@polarbearwear Are you in caloric surplus? Bench and chest training, perhaps more than any other movement/muscle group, tends to grow better with more calories

Also for me 12 sets every 8 days wouldn’t cut it. I’ll dial back to a 7-8 RPE and hit more volume personally

 

[polarbearwear]

@wesf Yeah I’ve been wanting to do higher volume but I’ve seen a lot of ‘optimal’ and ‘scientific’ lifters pretty much all suggest low-moderate volume high intensity.

 

[wesf]

@polarbearwear Anything that says “science” in the title should probably be taken with a grain of salt

Tens of thousands of lifters (maybe more) gained strength and muscle doing the same thing for years

I take experience and time under the bar over shaky studies every time

 

[jac48]

@polarbearwear If you take a look at Dr. Eric Helms current volume, I would definitely say he falls under the high volume umbrella, and I really don’t know you can get much more scientific than him. Not saying you should Jack up your volume to 20+ sets per week all of the sudden, but generally if you are recovering adequately some more volume might not hurt, especially for those stubborn body parts.

 

[dontreallyknow]

@polarbearwear I wouldn’t call 25kg db presses ‘weak’ really - that was my usual working weight for a long time until I forced my way up to 35s (after years of training)

 

[polarbearwear]

@dontreallyknow Yeah it’s more so weak proportionately to my other lifts for example I can bicep curl 45kg ez bar for reps with strict form where as I’m currently only pressing 50kg on barbell incline.

 

[dontreallyknow]

@polarbearwear Don’t beat yourself up - and don’t compare yourself to others either. My incline dumbbell press is only 35kg after nearly 8/9 years of training. If I was to load up a barbell for incline, I bet I’d max out at about 80kg. Don’t believe what you see on the internet where everyone can bench 2 plates minimum.

 

[joep]

@polarbearwear 6 sets ain’t enough dawg.

 

[mjnor1]

@joep I do 5-6 sets per chest workout and I often get sore from it. If you give every set your absolute max effort and go to failure then 6 sets is plenty for one workout. If I do any more then that with my current intensity then I’ll still be sore by the next time I’m supposed to hit chest.

 

[bulldogbrian]

@polarbearwear My chest started growing noticeably when I moved from free weights to machines.

 

[mjnor1]

@bulldogbrian Same, and it’s not even close for me. Literally doubled my rate of progress

 

[theodor98]

@mjnor1 What machines in chest particular and for other body parts do you use machines too?

 

[mjnor1]

@theodor98 For chest, I usually do a plate loaded converging chest press, flat or incline, and then pec deck. I use a mix of machines and free weights for other muscles, and do a lot of cable exercises. For back I like using chest supported row machines when possible and I’m also a big fan of the hack squat, leg ext, and seated leg curl. However, using machines hasn’t made as big of a difference for other body parts compared to my chest.

 

[theodor98]

@mjnor1 Gotcha! What free weight movements do you still perform as another good question

 

[mjnor1]

@theodor98 Heavy Barbell RDLs are probably my favorite freeweight exercise atm. I also like db shoulder pressing, db lateral raises, multiple db bicep curl variants such as hammer curls, and also db chest supported rows.

 

[theodor98]

@bulldogbrian What machines in chest particular and for other body parts do you use machines too?

 

[bulldogbrian]

@theodor98 I use leverage flat- and incline bench machines, a lot like this, with the handles adjusted all the way to the bottom.

For chest and upper back I use exclusively machines or cables. I'm pretty much 50/50 between free weights and machines/cables for other body parts.

 

[theodor98]

@bulldogbrian Sweet I guess a good question is - what free weight stuff do you still perform ?