how to develop lower peck

qwerty33

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How does one target the lower pec specifically from the nipple to the arm pit?
 
TripDog

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Cable crossovers coming from highest setting on dual pulley, pushing down, and in front of you while crossing your arms at the around the waist. Focus on the pec muscle, and not pulling with your arms. Squeeze the chest muscles at the end of the concentric phase of the exercise. Maintain slow controlled movements, with strict form, and not going too heavy.
 
TripDog

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decline press help also?
Somewhat yes, but a rotary exercise in this case will allow for a greater total range of motion. Allowing the muscle to stretch, and contract with full range. This also involves stabilizer muscles that surround, and connect to the pectoral muscle. Decline fly's are another option, better imo than decline presses.
 
qwerty33

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Somewhat yes, but a rotary exercise in this case will allow for a greater total range of motion. Allowing the muscle to stretch, and contract with full range. This also involves stabilizer muscles that surround, and connect to the pectoral muscle. Decline fly's are another option, better imo than decline presses.
better for lower chest development in general or only in this case of side of lower pec?
 
TripDog

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better for lower chest development in general or only in this case of side of lower pec?
It's pretty much subjective, some like one, some like the other. The combo of both is obviously superior than just choosing one.
 
wolverines

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Somewhat yes, but a rotary exercise in this case will allow for a greater total range of motion. Allowing the muscle to stretch, and contract with full range. This also involves stabilizer muscles that surround, and connect to the pectoral muscle. Decline fly's are another option, better imo than decline presses.
Thats some pretty good info thanks for sharing man.
 
Type O Hero

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Your goal is going to want to be to increase overall chest development. Chest development comes hard for me but at one point I figured out that rather than trying to target areas, which is very difficult when it comes to chest, I should just focus on overall chest development.

Something that I've found does actually work is neck presses for upper chest.

As far as decline goes, either you'll feel like you're getting something out of chest dips and decline, or you'll just have to focus on overall development. I know a guy who says he can really feel decline in his lower chest, but the way I'm built, decline does almost nothing for me.

Trail and error, I suppose.
 
Type O Hero

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Are dumbell flies helpful as well?
Dumbbell flyes are an isolation exercise for the pectorals.
http://exrx.net/WeightExercises/PectoralSternal/DBFly.html

If your goal is to build the overall mass of the pectorals, I wouldn't make flyes a primary exercise. If you want to add a few sets of flyes to your workout, add them to the end of your chest workout. This way you can use the stretch you get during flyes to your advantage.

For increasing overall chest mass, stick with compound lifts that allow you to go heavier. Pressing movements with a bar or dumbbells are the preferred compound movements for chest. If you've been doing barbell bench presses for a while, switch it up to DB presses, and vise versa. Personally, I get more out of DB presses than I do with a barbell because of the increase range of motion and since my wrists aren't locked in a rigid position as they are while holding a bar.

Also, for upper chest work, look into an exercise called the neck press. I'd been doing incline DB presses for the longest time but once I started doing neck presses I felt it in my upper chest much more. Basically it's like doing a regular bench press but you bring the bar down to where your neck meets your chest (your upper chest area). I think Reg Park (an old pro bodybuilder) said to bring the bar down over the area you want to hit the hardest, so in this case, your upper chest. Keep your wrists and elbows directly under the bar when you're lowering it to your chest. At the bottom of the movement, your elbows should be under the bar and in line with your clavicles or slightly under them depending on how you're built. Just use a light weight to start off with so you can establish the feel for the exercise. You can't use as much weight as a regular bench press and it takes more concentration, but you really feel it in your upper chest more than inclines.

Anyway, stick to the compound lifts for the most part, adding in some isolation exercises like flyes periodically for their ability to really stretch the pectorals.

Also, keep your total workout volume low. A lot of people do way too many sets for chest when it doesn't take that many. I train chest twice per week, one day I do about 6-7 total sets and three days later I'll do another 4. So that's 10-11 total sets per week. I wouldn't do 10-11 total sets for chest in any one workout, but splitting it up over two days works well for me.
 
doingwork30

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do dips and lean forward while your doing them. theyre good to hit the lower pec hard, leaning forward adds more emphasis on the lower pec instead of the triceps.
 

jcr1

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Cable crossovers coming from highest setting on dual pulley, pushing down, and in front of you while crossing your arms at the around the waist. Focus on the pec muscle, and not pulling with your arms. Squeeze the chest muscles at the end of the concentric phase of the exercise. Maintain slow controlled movements, with strict form, and not going too heavy.
Can you do this with resistance bands? The pec fly crossovers.
 

russy_russ

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ugh
 

gymrat827

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I would do a good mix of excerises to develop the pecs. Going heavy and light are important as well with other techniques like rest pause rest & drop sets, forced reps etc. Type o hero hit the nail on the head several times with his replies
 
Type O Hero

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Something that's helped me to make my chest look more filled out (especially in the lower and outer areas) is to stretch a lot after my workout. Usually after a chest workout I'll hang from a bar for 30 seconds and stretch that way, then I'll go over to something like a treadmill, grab hold of the two support arms and lean into it. This stretches the whole pecs. Feels great. And if I end my chest workout on something like flyes I'll hold the DBs at the bottom of the movement on my last rep to let them stretch a lot (make sure you don't hurt yourself). Doing stuff like this has helped me more than any one particular exercise. In fact, my chest looks better now than when it did a few years ago when I was benching a lot more.
 
SouthernCharm

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Dips and decline. For strength and outward development, hit the barbell, to widen your chest do decline flys JMO
 

wsaucer

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I'd go with the weighted dip. Yes, decline bencpress hits the lower pec, but there a greater muscle stimulation in the weighted dip.
 

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maybe decline bench, but mostly it's just genetics.
the lower part of the pectoralis major, called the sternocostal part, attaches to your sternum (breast plate).
From Wikipedia:
"It has two different parts which are responsible for different actions.
The clavicular part is close to the deltoid muscle and contributes to flexation, horizontal adduction, and inward rotation of the humerus. When at an approximately 110 degree angle, it contributes to abduction of the humerus.
The sternocostal part is antagonistic to the clavicular part contributing to downward and forward movement of the arm and inward rotation when accompanied by adduction."
So if you're looking for lower chest, decline presses, pec flies, and Idontknowwhattheyrecalled's (standing at a lat pull-down machine, arms straight out grabbing bar, pulling bar towards waist, no bend in elbows)

If you are a body builder and need to work on lower pecs, cool and good luck. but if not then focus on the main lifts and eating, but genetics has a lot to do with it. Some people can never build calves.
 
bezoe

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maybe decline bench, but mostly it's just genetics.
the lower part of the pectoralis major, called the sternocostal part, attaches to your sternum (breast plate).
From Wikipedia:
"It has two different parts which are responsible for different actions.
The clavicular part is close to the deltoid muscle and contributes to flexation, horizontal adduction, and inward rotation of the humerus. When at an approximately 110 degree angle, it contributes to abduction of the humerus.
The sternocostal part is antagonistic to the clavicular part contributing to downward and forward movement of the arm and inward rotation when accompanied by adduction."
So if you're looking for lower chest, decline presses, pec flies, and Idontknowwhattheyrecalled's (standing at a lat pull-down machine, arms straight out grabbing bar, pulling bar towards waist, no bend in elbows)

If you are a body builder and need to work on lower pecs, cool and good luck. but if not then focus on the main lifts and eating, but genetics has a lot to do with it. Some people can never build calves.
good post with scientific info. Reps. I also agree with type0hero in that you should try to build the entire muscle rather than target areas.

As this post said, there are sternal fibers and clavicular fibers. This is the only "targeting" you can do. For lower pec you wanna hit those sternal fibers which would entail adduction movements of the arms; i.e. dips, decline press/flys, cable crossovers, db pullovers etc.
 

liftallday123

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doing cable push downs you can somewhat feel a contaction in your chest if you lean forward a little bit. Great for triceps also.
 
rankbull

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TeamT10

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do dips and lean forward while your doing them. theyre good to hit the lower pec hard, leaning forward adds more emphasis on the lower pec instead of the triceps.
seconded, i started these and noticed a better improvement in that area in the first month and my chest is the hardest for me to build
 

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