Weak Chest, HELP!!!

[aaronreed1962]

So I am a 29 y/o m, and I’ve been in and out of the gym for about 8 or so years. I always end up getting really strong in just about every muscle group except for my chest.

I’ve done a lot of different things attempting to increase my chest strength but no matter what I do, I can’t seem to be able to push more than 185 lbs when I hit the bench. My only real goal with chest is to be able to push 225 lbs for 6 reps.

Anybody have a similar problem? Anybody have potential solutions?

 

[kazurk]

@aaronreed1962 Touch your shoulder blades together, I realized after 6 months I wasn’t activating my chest properly to promote full use/ workout. Re evaluate your form. Good luck

 

[williammikesy]

@aaronreed1962 Are you competing in weight lifting? Barbell bench press isn’t actually all that great of a hypertrophic exercise. Change up to dumbbell incline for a while. Allows you actually squeeze the chest more since you can bring the weight together

 

[marir]

@aaronreed1962 Hi, congrats on your journey so far! I would suggest doing a mix of different rep ranges in your training. While focusing on lower rep ranges (4-6 reps) can help build strength, occasionally including higher rep ranges (8-12 reps) can promote muscle growth and indirectly contribute to increased strength.

Also try compound exercises that engage the chest muscles like weighted dips, incline bench press, and dumbbell chest press. These can help develop strength in different angles and ranges of motion. Targeted accessory exercises can also help strengthen the supporting muscles of the chest, such as triceps and shoulders. Strong triceps, for example, can assist in pushing heavier weights during bench press.

And don’t forget to take time to rest and recover between the workouts so your muscles could repair.

I hope these tips can be useful and best of luck to you!

 

[jojo777]

@aaronreed1962 I just watched a YouTube short about that and the guy said what he does is push-ups. He elevates his hands with dumbbells so that he is able to make a more complete push-up to get the chest more involved. He had a massive chest. I want to try this out myself