Problems growing my chest!

R

rydenburns

Member
Trusted Member
Hey Folks,

I've been training off and on for the past 20 years and in that time I've always had a problem growing my chest.. It would be much appreciated if I could get some tips, tricks, and exercises to help me out and see if I can't get this old girl to grow.

Cheers!
 
If your chest isn't growing more likely than not you are using a weight that is too heavy and in turn using more of your shoulders/triceps to move the weight rather than your chest. I would drop the weight and focus on form.

Shoulder blades pinched back and depressed. DO NOT push the weight up with your hands. Drive through your elbows. Picture driving yourself into the bench away from the weight rather than pushing the weight away from you on presses. If doing a fly, again, bring your elbows together not you hands and dont ever let you hands go inside shoulder width at the top.

Start from scratch with push-ups until you find correct positioning and then add weight. Log your workouts and no matter what get either more reps or more weight than the workout before. If you dont overload progressively then you will only ever get so big and then plateau.

Rememebr if you can't activate a muscle group without weight then you shouldn't be using weight.

I speak from experience and I too at one point in time had a lagging chest and this is what I did to get it big.
 
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Thank you for your advice Novitec, I think you're spot on with to much weight. I'm going to lower the weight work on for and use those tips you have mentioned. Again thanks so much for the advice its is greatly appreciated.
 
rydenburns said:
Thank you for your advice Novitec, I think you're spot on with to much weight. I'm going to lower the weight work on for and use those tips you have mentioned. Again thanks so much for the advice its is greatly appreciated.
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No problem, anytime!

Something else you may find helpful too is to do more fly movements and less pressing movements, at least for now. The function of the pectoral is to bring you humerus bone across your chest and what better exercise for that then a fly. Start with a few fly movements and then finish with a press. This way you won't even be able to push much weight anyways and you can focus on form.

Something else that will work too is anytime you get to the bottom of the movement on a press stop and pause, then engage the pecs, then press. And control the weight down, dont let it drop. The negative portion of the rep is what counts.
 
Back when I used to train with high volume a chest workout would look something like this...

Cable flys
DB flys
DB pullovers
Some kind of press, usually incline

This did wonders for my chest development as odd as it may seem.
 
Nice ok I'll try that. Also I always have a problem on deciding on sets and reps and rest time. I know everyone has different genetics and grows differently, i was previously was 5 sets with 3 to 6 reps with about a minute and a half to two minutes of rest. Yea I'll definitely give those a try, also do you like DB or BB for the press?
 
rydenburns said:
Nice ok I'll try that. Also I always have a problem on deciding on sets and reps and rest time. I know everyone has different genetics and grows differently, i was previously was 5 sets with 3 to 6 reps with about a minute and a half to two minutes of rest. Yea I'll definitely give those a try, also do you like DB or BB for the press?
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For your situation I would up the reps to 12-15 for now until you get a better feel for the muscle and the movements. Shove as much blood into the pecs as possible. Drop that rest period down too to no more than 1 minute. Focus on the movement not the weight. The weight will come with time as your chest grows.
 
My approach is a bit different. Im more a heavier weight guy. I built my chest with sets of 6-8 down to 1 rep then reduce weight and go back up. More incline than flat.
i also avoid flies for the most part. Too hard on my shoulders. if i do them its cables with more of a squeeze. Flex hard and hold every rep till it hurts like hell.
I like keeping my elbows tucked in and reverse grip and press straight out with cables.
 
superbeast said:
My approach is a bit different. Im more a heavier weight guy. I built my chest with sets of 6-8 down to 1 rep then reduce weight and go back up. More incline than flat.
i also avoid flies for the most part. Too hard on my shoulders. if i do them its cables with more of a squeeze. Flex hard and hold every rep till it hurts like hell.
I like keeping my elbows tucked in and reverse grip and press straight out with cables.
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My chest is opposite, presses kill my shoulders but I can fly heavy weight with no issues.
 
rydenburns said:
Ok cool cool but stay with the 5 sets?
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5 sets is a lot for one exercise! Too much as far as Im concerned. If you can do 5 sets per exercise and do multiple exercises then you arent training intense enough. If you were thered be no way you'd be able to do that much and IF for some reason you could do that much then you'd be overtraining.
 
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