Help me blow my chest up

[Necessary Evil]

Research clearly shows that dumbbells are superior to barbells since you have greater ROM and there are a lot more stabilization muscles involved in the movement hence better hypertrophic response. Thing is that unless you have a gym with a shitload of dumbbells which have increased weights by small increments then barbell will always be superior since you can micro load it with ease and you will be able to have a more controlled linear progression. Now if someone doesn't want to get rid of barbell movements for chest, the best would be to include both of them, like one day do Flat Barbell Press and Incline Barbell Press and the other Flat Dumbbell Press and Incline Dumbbell Press or just keep the main movement with a barbell and the secondary with dumbbells.

In most cases the things that might hold back most of the dudes with lagging chest might be frequency, technique and/or total volume.

 

[gr8whitetrukker]

Lagging body parts are only an issue of proper ROM and initiating the working muscle. Were all different. Different muscle insertion points and different origins. Different bone lengths and different cross sections. The body in general wants to help aid the weaker muscle group and include more dominant muscles or create leverage with bigger bodyparts. Its a survival mechanism. To make work easier. Its evolution at work. If you can build muscle anywhere you can build "lagging" bodyparts. Its an issue of initiating the intended muscle group and contracting it thru a proper range of motion. Thats it. And finding exercises that are most beneficial for YOU individually. Putting the dominant muscle groups at a disadvantage to work what your intending to work. Thats what makes dumbbells so advantageous. Your not stuck in a plane with a barbell. You can configure and initiate different areas of the chest just by manipulating grip, pressing angle, pressing pattern etc etc. Building muscle for the majority of us is about being as INEFFICIENT as possible when doing intentional exercise. Thats how you break down muscle fibers the most efficiently.

 

[FourOneDeuxFitt]

Research clearly shows that dumbbells are superior to barbells since you have greater ROM and there are a lot more stabilization muscles involved in the movement hence better hypertrophic response. Thing is that unless you have a gym with a shitload of dumbbells which have increased weights by small increments then barbell will always be superior since you can micro load it with ease and you will be able to have a more controlled linear progression. Now if someone doesn't want to get rid of barbell movements for chest, the best would be to include both of them, like one day do Flat Barbell Press and Incline Barbell Press and the other Flat Dumbbell Press and Incline Dumbbell Press or just keep the main movement with a barbell and the secondary with dumbbells.

In most cases the things that might hold back most of the dudes with lagging chest might be frequency, technique and/or total volume.

I don’t disagree with anything you said. The program im running right now uses incline Barbell Press mostly as the prime compound movement with explosive reps. The activations and secondary movements change week to week and are mostly dB variations or a machine or banded machine Press. Then always lastly works the muscle froma. Stretched position. If it wasn’t in the program it would more than likely be all dB and some machine work when it comes to pressing. I do prefer dB 99% of the time just for the sake of comfortability and as @gr8whitetrukker mentioned you have the ability to target your chest in so many ways just by simple tweaks of your grip.

 

[gr8whitetrukker]

Another thing about form pertaining to chest work is if your shoulders are moving your chest is NOT getting targeted optimally. Ever get sore shoulders from benching? Tada thats the reason. Lock your scapulae in place and push your chest forward. This by design beings your shoulders back ward and ONLY move in the ROM to where you can still target your chest and keep your shoulders locked in place. That means lockout is likely out of that designed ROM.

Just look at the structure of the chest. The ORIGIN is the webbed like fibers near the inner rib cage they spread across the torso to the INSERTION which is near the armpit where they tie in to the shoulder joint and upper bicep. So how do you optimally work that muscle group? Like i said first you need to stabilize the shoulders to make the chest exert as much force as possible and take the biggest brunt of the working load and standardize each rep so their identical. Staying inside that effective ROM. Contract, contract, contract. And the most forceful contraction is one that is done when everything is stabilized and locked in to place. That is and will be the hardest thing to learn AND maintain over your time in the gym.

So knowing that you must understand that when the chest is in a fully stretched position it is at its greatest potential to break down the most muscle fibers. The more perpendicular your arms are to your ribcage the greater the stress(be careful) and the greater portion of the chest will be working. Practice 1,3, and 5 sec pause reps for maximum effect. This is bodybuilding 101. Also you will develop a hell of alot of strength pressing in a paused fashion. Not rested on your chest. Paused in the stretched position just above it. Then develop tremendous torque restarting the load from a dead stop. CONTRACT!

Practice getting your pecs warmed up properly. No, i dont mean running on the treadmill before your workout. Does running on treadmill prepare your chest to bench 400 pounds? No, it doesnt. Practice making a neurological connection with your pectorals. No weight. Just stand one arm in front of you and put the other hand on the working pec. Now drag that arm in front of you simulating a weightless pec fly. Hold each contraction for a cpl seconds. Do a cpl sets like this before starting your actual workout. Squeeze hard. After all contractions are contractions. Adding weight just amplifies the effect. But first get efficient at making BW contractions before learning to do the exact same thing under load

 

[FourOneDeuxFitt]

Another thing about form pertaining to chest work is if your shoulders are moving your chest is NOT getting targeted optimally. Ever get sore shoulders from benching? Tada thats the reason. Lock your scapulae in place and push your chest forward. This by design beings your shoulders back ward and ONLY move in the ROM to where you can still target your chest and keep your shoulders locked in place. That means lockout is likely out of that designed ROM.

Just look at the structure of the chest. The ORIGIN is the webbed like fibers near the inner rib cage they spread across the torso to the INSERTION which is near the armpit where they tie in to the shoulder joint and upper bicep. So how do you optimally work that muscle group? Like i said first you need to stabilize the shoulders to make the chest exert as much force as possible and take the biggest brunt of the working load and standardize each rep so their identical. Staying inside that effective ROM. Contract, contract, contract. And the most forceful contraction is one that is done when everything is stabilized and locked in to place. That is and will be the hardest thing to learn AND maintain over your time in the gym.

So knowing that you must understand that when the chest is in a fully stretched position it is at its greatest potential to break down the most muscle fibers. The more perpendicular your arms are to your ribcage the greater the stress(be careful) and the greater portion of the chest will be working. Practice 1,3, and 5 sec pause reps for maximum effect. This is bodybuilding 101. Also you will develop a hell of alot of strength pressing in a paused fashion. Not rested on your chest. Paused in the stretched position just above it. Then develop tremendous torque restarting the load from a dead stop. CONTRACT!

Practice getting your pecs warmed up properly. No, i dont mean running on the treadmill before your workout. Does running on treadmill prepare your chest to bench 400 pounds? No, it doesnt. Practice making a neurological connection with your pectorals. No weight. Just stand one arm in front of you and put the other hand on the working pec. Now drag that arm in front of you simulating a weightless pec fly. Hold each contraction for a cpl seconds. Do a cpl sets like this before starting your actual workout. Squeeze hard. After all contractions are contractions. Adding weight just amplifies the effect. But first get efficient at making BW contractions before learning to do the exact same thing under load

You and @Necessary Evil have really hit the nail on the head with this topic.

It took me awhile to grasp the concept you just explained but dropping my ego and locking my scapula and actually contracting and working my chest was tough at first. Secondly also you stated proper warm up. God it seems like a waste of time but does it sure make one hell of a difference. Even just recently I had to go back to basics. Drop the weight, the ego, and work on the movement and contraction again. And priming yourself like that makes for a hell of a growth period ahead when you can master the mind to muscle connection and actually work the muscle your in the gym to work and not just push and pull weight around in a sweaty mess.

 

[Logan44551]

Another thing about form pertaining to chest work is if your shoulders are moving your chest is NOT getting targeted optimally. Ever get sore shoulders from benching? Tada thats the reason. Lock your scapulae in place and push your chest forward. This by design beings your shoulders back ward and ONLY move in the ROM to where you can still target your chest and keep your shoulders locked in place. That means lockout is likely out of that designed ROM.

Just look at the structure of the chest. The ORIGIN is the webbed like fibers near the inner rib cage they spread across the torso to the INSERTION which is near the armpit where they tie in to the shoulder joint and upper bicep. So how do you optimally work that muscle group? Like i said first you need to stabilize the shoulders to make the chest exert as much force as possible and take the biggest brunt of the working load and standardize each rep so their identical. Staying inside that effective ROM. Contract, contract, contract. And the most forceful contraction is one that is done when everything is stabilized and locked in to place. That is and will be the hardest thing to learn AND maintain over your time in the gym.

So knowing that you must understand that when the chest is in a fully stretched position it is at its greatest potential to break down the most muscle fibers. The more perpendicular your arms are to your ribcage the greater the stress(be careful) and the greater portion of the chest will be working. Practice 1,3, and 5 sec pause reps for maximum effect. This is bodybuilding 101. Also you will develop a hell of alot of strength pressing in a paused fashion. Not rested on your chest. Paused in the stretched position just above it. Then develop tremendous torque restarting the load from a dead stop. CONTRACT!

Practice getting your pecs warmed up properly. No, i dont mean running on the treadmill before your workout. Does running on treadmill prepare your chest to bench 400 pounds? No, it doesnt. Practice making a neurological connection with your pectorals. No weight. Just stand one arm in front of you and put the other hand on the working pec. Now drag that arm in front of you simulating a weightless pec fly. Hold each contraction for a cpl seconds. Do a cpl sets like this before starting your actual workout. Squeeze hard. After all contractions are contractions. Adding weight just amplifies the effect. But first get efficient at making BW contractions before learning to do the exact same thing under load

@gr8whitetrukker is dropping some knowledge.

 

[gr8whitetrukker]

You and @Necessary Evil have really hit the nail on the head with this topic.

It took me awhile to grasp the concept you just explained but dropping my ego and locking my scapula and actually contracting and working my chest was tough at first. Secondly also you stated proper warm up. God it seems like a waste of time but does it sure make one hell of a difference. Even just recently I had to go back to basics. Drop the weight, the ego, and work on the movement and contraction again. And priming yourself like that makes for a hell of a growth period ahead when you can master the mind to muscle connection and actually work the muscle your in the gym to work and not just push and pull weight around in a sweaty mess.

Sure does. Ego kills gains. Wanna know some thing bro? I was doing 405 on the incline for 3 reps with 3 sec pauses each rep. Stopping just above my chest and pasuing under load for 3 seconds each rep. Just repping? More than 3 reps. Means nothing. And ill tell you why.

I started locking my scapulae in place snd benching using my chest because hey whoa is me I WANT A BIG CHEST. Moving weight is of a much lesser significance in my goals. Im down to 315 for 7 in this form of pressing. Night and day difference. Totally blew my ego. But mother fucker im making chest gainz again. So you tell me which is better? Muscular hypertrophy or proving myself to other motherfuckers i dont even know by way of reps and weight

KNOW YOUR GOALS. Proceed accordingly

 

[Necessary Evil]

Sound advice coming from @gr8whitetrukker. Now that we are on the topic of warm up, I would like to add my two cents regarding it.

There is a bunch of scientific literature that shows how important warming up is for injury prevention and improved performance. Any sound training program should have a warm-up routine to go along with it, since longevity in the iron room is what going to determine your gains in the long run, to put it simply if you get injured you are pretty much fucked. As a general recommendation increasing your body temperature by 1-2°C is recommended. A simple 5-minute cardio could do the trick initially which later can be followed by static and dynamic stretching exercises to ensure you are warmed up and ready to go. Here is what I personally do and so far it has helped me tremendously, not to mention that the whole process just takes 10 minutes at most.

For Upper Body Days: [1]
For Lower Body Days: [2]

If you go on foot to the gym you can skip the initial 5 minutes of cardio.

Also, it would be good prior to doing the first to second exercise of your program [this depends on the kind of routine you are running] to warm up on it under the bar. Simple barbell movements with 0 load for 10 reps followed by ~30%, 50%, 70% of your total load could be a good idea. This shouldn't take you more than 5-10 minutes. You could also do just that if you want to do stretching, although it's highly recommended.

Here are some of the research for reference: [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7].

 

[FourOneDeuxFitt]

Sound advice coming from @gr8whitetrukker. Now that we are on the topic of warm up, I would like to add my two cents regarding it.

There is a bunch of scientific literature that shows how important warming up is for injury prevention and improved performance. Any sound training program should have a warm-up routine to go along with it, since longevity in the iron room is what going to determine your gains in the long run, to put it simply if you get injured you are pretty much fucked. As a general recommendation increasing your body temperature by 1-2°C is recommended. A simple 5-minute cardio could do the trick initially which later can be followed by static and dynamic stretching exercises to ensure you are warmed up and ready to go. Here is what I personally do and so far it has helped me tremendously, not to mention that the whole process just takes 10 minutes at most.

For Upper Body Days: [1]
For Lower Body Days: [2]

If you go on foot to the gym you can skip the initial 5 minutes of cardio.

Also, it would be good prior to doing the first to second exercise of your program [this depends on the kind of routine you are running] to warm up on it under the bar. Simple barbell movements with 0 load for 10 reps followed by ~30%, 50%, 70% of your total load could be a good idea. This shouldn't take you more than 5-10 minutes. You could also do just that if you want to do stretching, although it's highly recommended.

Here are some of the research for reference: [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7].

I was always under the impression static stretching of the muscle being performed should be saved for the end of the workout since it suppresses the central nervous system, relaxes the muscle spindles by lengthening them, and has been shown to actually reduce power and force production in several studies... and dynamic to be used along side of your warm up?

 

[tenpoundsleft]

Sound advice coming from @gr8whitetrukker. Now that we are on the topic of warm up, I would like to add my two cents regarding it.

There is a bunch of scientific literature that shows how important warming up is for injury prevention and improved performance. Any sound training program should have a warm-up routine to go along with it, since longevity in the iron room is what going to determine your gains in the long run, to put it simply if you get injured you are pretty much fucked. As a general recommendation increasing your body temperature by 1-2°C is recommended. A simple 5-minute cardio could do the trick initially which later can be followed by static and dynamic stretching exercises to ensure you are warmed up and ready to go. Here is what I personally do and so far it has helped me tremendously, not to mention that the whole process just takes 10 minutes at most.

For Upper Body Days: [1]
For Lower Body Days: [2]

If you go on foot to the gym you can skip the initial 5 minutes of cardio.

Also, it would be good prior to doing the first to second exercise of your program [this depends on the kind of routine you are running] to warm up on it under the bar. Simple barbell movements with 0 load for 10 reps followed by ~30%, 50%, 70% of your total load could be a good idea. This shouldn't take you more than 5-10 minutes. You could also do just that if you want to do stretching, although it's highly recommended.

Here are some of the research for reference: [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7].

Screw warmup - I'm on Tren, plenty warm already. ;-)

JK - good points, and I need to be more diligent about it.

One thing that I try to do before nearly all workouts is "face down snow angels" - done in sort of the "superman" position on the floor, with light DBs in my hands.
Unlike the static superman style, while keeping my head and legs lifted up, I do a combo of snow angels and the breast stroke with an exaggerated lift of the weights when the DBs are straight behind me.

Warms things up, works on shoulder ROM, increases/maintains flexibility and even gives you a little shoulder workout at the same time. Has helped me get better at BTN presses.

 

[Necessary Evil]

@FourOneDeuxFitt. That's not entirely true. If you do Static stretching prior to any dynamic stretching and if that lasts for ~30 seconds then there will be no drawbacks for it. That's why if I use any SS I put it first and then follow with DS. Just think of it this way, how much will ~30 seconds impair your strength? [1]

@tenpoundsleft interesting might give those exercises a shot!

 

[FourOneDeuxFitt]

@FourOneDeuxFitt. That's not entirely true. If you do Static stretching prior to any dynamic stretching and if that lasts for ~30 seconds then there will be no drawbacks for it. That's why if I use any SS I put it first and then follow with DS. Just think of it this way, how much will ~30 seconds impair your strength? [1]

@tenpoundsleft interesting might give those exercises a shot!

I wasn’t disagreeing with what you said. I honestly can’t see 30seconds being detrimental to your workout either. I was just under the impression of dynamic in the beginning and static in the end with foam rolling.