Why isn’t my chest ever getting engaged?

[davenigeria]

@kelland What about bench press?

 

[kelland]

@davenigeria There's a lot of reasons ot could be happening. Try chest flies. Also, try working your triceps out before your pec movements. Pre-exhaust your triceps and see if its just a case of having over developed secondary muscles not allowing your pecs to really engage the way you want.

 

[davenigeria]

@kelland K thanks!

 

[davenigeria]

@kelland I tried doing hex press and pushbacks before pushups but I just wasn’t able to do them because of the exhaustion and it didn’t really anything, chest wise.

 

[kelland]

@davenigeria You really need someone there to observe and advize.

I meant before doing bench press, do a tricep isolation movement like tricep extensions or cable push downs. You'll have to bench a lower weight that you are used to, but you pre-exhaust the tricep so it can't be as effective, giving your pecs a better opportunity to perform.

Also, hex press is mid. Chest flies with good form will isolate the pecs and activate the chest effectively.

 

[davenigeria]

@kelland K thanks! I’ll try it when I can

 

[miles44]

@davenigeria Try this, put one hand on your chest, then try to flex it. Then try and move your arm (the side you’re flexing) back, and play around with that angle of your elbow in the stretched position to see what feels like it’s “stretching” your chest the most, make sure to keep your shoulders back and not rounded. Once you find the angle you like, try to set up a push up or a press that aligns you in the same position.

 

[davenigeria]

@miles44 I tried this and I can feel my chest flexing when I do it but when I do the push up in the same way my biceps and triceps give out before I feel any burn in the pushups

 

[jojo777]

@davenigeria Maybe try squeezing your back as you do the push-up

 

[davenigeria]

@jojo777 Just feel it in my back then, nothing in chest

 

[jojo777]

@davenigeria Are you squeezing back the whole time? There’s no way you would not activate chest if you did that

 

[davenigeria]

@jojo777 You mean like pushing the shoulder blades together?

 

[jojo777]

@davenigeria Basically yes. As much as you can. It’s not really possible to keep it to together the whole time but just try

 

[davenigeria]

@jojo777 I was and all I can feel it in then is my triceps and my shoulder blades, I don’t know.

 

[jojo777]

@davenigeria Experiment with different forms. For example, place your hands more forward or backward and try wider and shallower grip. I find that diamond push-ups activate chest a lot but it activates triceps even more so I don’t usually do those for chest. I usually do wide grip

 

[jojo777]

@davenigeria I just tried doing push-ups while squeezing my back the whole time and my chest started burning within a few reps

 

[davenigeria]

@jojo777 I just tried pushups with my hands 2 times my shoulder width outwards and still only triceps idk something’s not right.

 

[jojo777]

@davenigeria Ok another thing you can try is try squeezing your chest as you go up. Pretend almost as if you’re moving your hands together.

 

[davenigeria]

@jojo777 I don’t know, when I try that it’s still just in shoulder. For some reason when I do a wider grip it’s only shoulder and close grip only tricep and bicep

 

[jojo777]

@davenigeria If it’s possible, you can observe yourself in the mirror when doing push-ups. Your shoulders should be straight.