Is there something wrong with my chest development?

[jjm]

Is my chest supposed to look like this? The lower absolutely sucks. I'm at 14.2% bf.

[spitboy2000]

damn u look lean for 14.2...

[Rage (SoCal)]

Nothing looks wrong with it per se. Maybe you need to focus on more of an arrangement of various chest exercises. What's your current chest routine look like?

And yeah...you're the leanest 14.2 I've ever seen.

[jjm]

Right now I do 3x8 flat and incline bench, then I do pec deck fly's. Next I do an exercise on the cable crossover machine. I'm not too sure what it's called, but I use the low pulley, then bring the arms up to about my head level and squeeze my chest together. I hope that makes sense. After that sometimes I'll throw in dips.

I got my bf taken 2 seperate times and it came up 14.2% both times. The guy used an electronic caliper that took measurements from my bi, tri, lat, and stomach.

[Rage (SoCal)]

Right now I do 3x8 flat and incline bench, then I do pec deck fly's. Next I do an exercise on the cable crossover machine. I'm not too sure what it's called, but I use the low pulley, then bring the arms up to about my head level and squeeze my chest together. I hope that makes sense. After that sometimes I'll throw in dips.

I got my bf taken 2 seperate times and it came up 14.2% both times. The guy used an electronic caliper that took measurements from my bi, tri, lat, and stomach.

Electronic calculations are worth crap IMO. You can get a decent idea through formulations and standard calipers but to get an accurate reading you need to get tested in a water tank.


Also, as far as your chest exercises. I see no exercises for lower chest development. I would recommend rotating 6 exercises for your chest, them all being compoud exercises. Two for your mid chest/flys, two for your upper chest, and two for your lower. This should even out things for you.

[Rocky82]

First of all you're not 14.2, more like 12% if that. Second your chest is fine compared to the development of the rest of your upper body. I'd recommend bagging ALL machine movements for a while. Focus on heavy, strict form presses (especially incline and decline, I've never been a fan of flat, I guess I like my shoulders too much) and incline dumbell flyes. Keep it simple, train heavy, and eat until you bust (cleanly of course). The rest is just patience.

[CHAPS]

Nothing wrong with your chest you just need over development, and like Rocky82 said ditch the machines, use the heavy compound exercises.

[exnihilo]

You store fat in your chest. What you need to be worrying about (besides leaning out) is building your back.

[jjm]

What other compound exercises can I do for chest?

I'm having problems getting my back to grow. Right now my back routine consists of:
widegrip pullups
deadlifts (sometimes I'll do hyperextensions with a 25lb plate)
wide bent over rows
t bar rows
cable rows.

[Jayhawkk]

I'm 50/50 with exnihlo. You need to work more with your back but I wouldn't worry about leaning out just yet.

[Fearhk213]

Nothing is wrong with your chest at all man. No offense, you just need more size in general. I don't know how much you weigh so this is just a general statement, but guys @ 170 lb & 14% bf guys aren't going to have Arnold's chest or arms. If you're really eating to grow I bet you'll come to realize your chest and back are just fine. I used to think my chest and back were stubborn, well after I stopped overtraining, ate more, and made sure my form was good (ie. pressing with my chest instead of shoulders, and rowing/pulling with my back and not biceps) it turned out they weren't so bad at all. Focus on your overall all development and eat to grow.

[axekick]

I was built very similar to you for most of my life. I made more progress after switching to a max-ot style training. It seems to work well for hardgainers. It basically constists of what the other guys have said, ditch the machines. Do heavy sets of 4-6 only. That is after proper warm up. Don't burn out during warm ups at all. When you get to your working sets, if you can do 7 reps it's not quite heavy enough and if you can't do 4 then it's too heavy.

I gained about 40-50 pounds naturally in 3-4 years working out like that.

[pistonpump]

when i first saw your pic and the 14% BF i was like "damn i must be at around 17%" I really dont think at 14% your torso would be that lean. Your chest looks normal if that is what you are asking. if you would like an opinion on your physique then i would say your chest back need to catch up. I think declines help lower chest and dips are good in general so if that is what you are looking to increase(lower chest) then i would go with more decline presses. You will fill out after time and hard work

[jjm]

Thanks for the responses so far guys!

The thing is when I bench I can feel my triceps doing most of the work. If I were to go heavy then I would rely even more on my triceps. That's why I decided to switch it up to 8 reps, so I could use lighter weight and try and incorporate my chest more.

Today for my chest routine I'm going to start off with decline bench then go to incline bench, and totally skip flat. Then I'm going to follow it up with some decline fly's and then incline fly's, and then probably some dips. Does this sound ok or should I add/drop something?

I was thinking should I superset pushup's when I bench?

I'm just so sick of not having a nice full chest.

[axekick]

Sometime you should try some benches using a smith machine with a very wide grip. I don't think the flys are going to add a lot of size. Some people may disagree, but I don't grow from doing such isolation excercises, just heavy compound movements.

[pistonpump]

Sometime you should try some benches using a smith machine with a very wide grip. I don't think the flys are going to add a lot of size. Some people may disagree, but I don't grow from doing such isolation excercises, just heavy compound movements.

definately go with a wider grip if you want to use the chest muscles mainly.

[BigVrunga]

Has anyone mentioned weighted dips for overall upper body mass?

[jjm]

definately go with a wider grip if you want to use the chest muscles mainly.

How wide are we talkin here? I grip so that my thumbs line up with the little divets. Should I go wider?

And I thought the wider you go the more your shoulders take over?

Today I did incline bench on the smith, followed by some decline bench, then incline fly's and dips. I cut flat bench out completely. I liked how my chest felt after so I think I'm going to eliminate flat bench from my routine for a little while, and just do incline then decline.

Also does anyone know of anymore good compound exercises for chest? The lower, outside corners of my chest need the most work so maybe someone knows something that would help that?

[Striate]

Just a suggestion. To take your shoulders and tris out of the press exercises, you can try two things:
One is to pre-exhaust your chest prior to pressing. If you do flys (incline/decline, or flat) before pressing, your chest will already be sressed and will give way before your tris or shoulders during the set of presses. Also, try rolling your shoulders back before your press. I think it is called scapula retraction. Both of these techniques work well.

[jjm]

I've tried doing the pre exhaustion method with doin a set of light fly's before I bench, and it just made me rely on my tri's even more. It was one of the worst chest workouts i've ever had.

I've actually thought about doing my tricep routine before my chest routine, so that way my tri's would be fatigued and I'd have to rely on my chest.

Anyone ever try that?