over-training chest?

[lennoxchi]

In my quest for the perfect chest (my weakest muscle) i have spent alot of time trying to sclupt my upper body, with little progress. i need some help and advise on what the hell i'm doing wrong here. 3 sets of the following is my routine

• flat bench b.b., incline flys,incline d.b.,decline b.b., cable flys set @ max height shoulder height and lowest height.

HELP....ADVISE PLEASE

[jaydee]

What are your sets and how often do you train them?

[beebab]

try changing up your workout every couple of weeks. the problem with sticking to one constant routine is that your body quickly adapts and doesn't respond as successfully. from my experience, after repeating a workout for a few weeks it just becomes redundant and unproductive. try varying how many sets you do, adjust rep ranges, alternate btw different exercises.

try pyramiding up one week w your flat bench. then try starting the highest weight you do for reps and work down. then one week maybe start off with incline presses for more upper chest. just do what feels right for you.

you might also respond to doing full body lifts, which would only have you do 3-4 sets of each major muscle group per lift. bench one weight for a certain rep range mon wed fri for only 1/2 sets per lift, then the next week increase the load very slightly and try to get the same number of reps. then after a few weeks on that, revert back to your flat benching workout and see what you can handle. it's all trial and error.

[lennoxchi]

What are your sets and how often do you train them?

sets are usually 3 or if i have extra energy 4 sets then, reps between 8-12 range and i train them 1 sometimes 2 times a week....it depends because i will hit the muscle groups like so....Chest one day, legs, bis-back,tris-shoulders with abs spread out on alternating days and cardio on the other days......sometimes i can hit the gym 4 times a week sometimes 6 so it fluctuates.

[Rodja]

If you think that you are overtraining a muscle, then you probably are. Cut your volume in half for a few weeks, but add intensity. Lower your rep range to 4-8, but only do about 7-9 working sets.

[jaydee]

How is your diet? What do you weigh? Body fat %? How much protein do you consume a day and how do you consume it?

[lennoxchi]

thanks guys.........i'm going to try to incorporate all the suggestions here and see what works the best for me......thanks again for responding.

[meowmeow]

Possibilities:

1. EXERCISE: Try moving your Barbell Bench grip in...so that your pinkie is on the ring. You may need to lower the weight. Keep the shoulder blades pinched slightly. Tempo at 2 seconds down and 1 second up. Try 4 sets of: 12 reps, 12 reps, 10 reps, 10 reps.
   
2. EXERCISE: Instead of cable x-over move the flat bench between the cables, lower the pulleys to the bottom and do flyes...constant tension on the muscle...hug all the way through and squeeze the contraction.
   
3. DIET: Make sure to get 1.5 - 2 grams of protein per pound of bodywieght. A shake before your workout and one after. Costco has cheap protein, EAS 6 pounds for about $24 & 16 packs of Tuna for cheap. Eat that protein every couple of hours.
   
4. INJECTABLES: IGF-1 pinned the way Grunt has outlined (i.e post workout) directly into the chest will add new muscle.
   
5. INJECTABLES: Testosterone used concurrent with IGF-1 will grow out the new muscle.

[Bull6125]

Umm... I would stay away from the injectables...I think that was a joke... I would say you are overworking your chest in one session. I would try working your chest twice per week and limit the number of exercises. Try this:
Mon: BB Incline 5s x 4r, DB Decline 4s x 10r
Fri: BB Decline 4s x 5r, Db Incline 4s x 10r, Smith Close-Grip 4s x 10r.
Don't forget you HAVE TO work your supporting muscle groups! Shoulders, triceps, abdominals, and lats play a HUGE part in benching. Don't neglect your legs either, the increase of stress and growth totalling your full body w/o's will increase your natural-T and GH output while you sleep.

[lennoxchi]

thx...guys

[texxlnghorn]

Your doing 15 sets? Correct?
Yea, your probably over training.

[meowmeow]

Umm... I would stay away from the injectables...I think that was a joke....

Yeah stay away from those big bad injectables for sure.

I remember when this board was so much more than it is today. Oh well...times change.

[dmillz224]

try sticking to one form of bench press for each upper body day you can rotate every other week and still make progress in all because they are similar movements also weighted dips are IMO the best way to sculpt the chest gives you that nice crease down the middle

[Movin_weight]

try upping the weight,and drop the reps 4-6 for a few weeks... and add a little rest time in between sets... this should help increase your strength and stimulate some new growth

and EAT EAT EAT

[Flaw]

Its not the exercises your doing wrong its probably these 2 factors. One you are limited by genetics and two you probably over train chest as have horrible muscle imbalances and posture. You should train your back harder then your chest. Most likely your shoulders come forward and its making your chest look smaller. Also your chest is probably incredibly tight because of overtraining it. You probably have developed knots and adhesions all over your chest and it cannot grow properly. Your body ends up compensating. Most likely you get a shoulder workout more then anything. I had this happen to me in the past. Get those knots out of your chest, strech your chest and build your upper back, rotator cuffs, post. delt, rhomboids and traps. Your chest will start to appear bigger right away with stretching and eventually it will start to build again but the issue has to be corrected.

[MattRoeske]

i used to have a horrible chest literrally i was like wtf is wrong w/ me but what i started doing is, alternating my routine through out the week

thus hitting different spots during the 2 times a week i work chest.

Hitting upper and mid or outer and inner or lower and mid etc.

I like to throw in flys first to get that pump in your chest then moving onto a db press or barbell press so you're like grrr this is burning and lastly i like to throw in the dumb pull overs or barbell depending on my day to really blast over your chest.

Also make sure you are getting plenty of rest... b/c i used to work out 3on1off or 2on1off etc... thats all garbage in my opinion i switched to 5 on 2 off and still by that 5th your feeling that burn and fully recovering on that 2nd day off.

You have to take lifting day by day and check up on bodybuilding.com of course they have alot of things they can teach you and plenty of articles.

Hope it helps

[Movin_weight]

Its not the exercises your doing wrong its probably these 2 factors. One you are limited by genetics and two you probably over train chest as have horrible muscle imbalances and posture. You should train your back harder then your chest. Most likely your shoulders come forward and its making your chest look smaller. Also your chest is probably incredibly tight because of overtraining it. You probably have developed knots and adhesions all over your chest and it cannot grow properly. Your body ends up compensating. Most likely you get a shoulder workout more then anything. I had this happen to me in the past. Get those knots out of your chest, strech your chest and build your upper back, rotator cuffs, post. delt, rhomboids and traps. Your chest will start to appear bigger right away with stretching and eventually it will start to build again but the issue has to be corrected.

used to have this problem as well, shoulders rotated forward and chest was so tight it actually effected my back workouts severely b/c i couldn't get proper extention

started blasting deadlifts, BB rows, tugs, rear delts ect... and once my back caught up, my chest excercises began to increase as well

[warbird01]

wtf, since when did 15 sets become overtraining??
overtraining is used waay to much.
I do atleast 20 sets of chest, but dont go to failure
all depends on how many sets/how intense/do you go to failure?

maybe try doing 12-15 reps or if your doing high reps try 4-6?

[Flaw]

used to have this problem as well, shoulders rotated forward and chest was so tight it actually effected my back workouts severely b/c i couldn't get proper extention

started blasting deadlifts, BB rows, tugs, rear delts ect... and once my back caught up, my chest excercises began to increase as well

Yeah man. When your chest is way tight shoulder extension is horrible. When I would do tricep reverse pulldowns I would get the worst pain in my post delt.

Atleast you have learned from it. Most of the meat heads in the gym never learn and never realize why they can't get results. Flexibility is huge if your looking for symmetry and overall growth of muscle tissue. A muscle cannot grow with all those adhesions in there. They restrict blood flow and oxygen to the muscle as well and your whole body. It's like a knot in a hose. Most bodybuilders I know that have been doing it old school for years cannot sleep because of soo many pains, and cannot even scratch their back cause of lack of flexibility. You push on there chest with your finger and they describe it as someone stabbing them with a knife in the chest the pain is sooo bad.

[ReaperX]

For my chest training I do:

Incline Bench Press 4 sets (10 reps each)
Flat Bench Press 4 sets (10 reps each)
Decline Bench Press 4 sets (10 reps each)
Pec Dec 4 sets (12 reps each)

its basic I know.

This is on the verge of overtraining, but I only train chest once a week, 4 times a month so I wreck havoc on it, then don't touch it for 1 week. I used to work my chest multiple times a week, and that DID result in over training.