Mind Muscle Connection in Pecs

[Kc2554]

Chest has always been a weak point for me. I have the worst mind muscle connection. I have done almost every exercise that I can think of or read about, but never FEEL the muscle working.

People have told me to "squeeze" the pecs at the top of the concentric portion of the exercises, but thats my problem....the pecs barely contract! I have gotten a pump maybe once or twice in my life.

Any advice on how to gain control of the chest muscles?

 

[Lacradocious]

If you have done it once or twice, you can do it again. Try doing HEAVY incline dumbel presses. 1 set of 10, 2 sets of 8, and 1 or 2 sets of 6. Keep your chest flexed throughout the motion. I go down slow and controlled, pause at the bottom, and push the weight back up explosively without locking out the elbows. I do these after flat bench and do 3-4 sets of cable crossovers right after. I get a really good pump from this, but I think I have decent genetics in this area. I have a hard time getting the mind / muscle connection in my delts for some reason.

Try what I suggested with the Incline dumbell presses and let me know if that works for you.

 

[Sinon]

Dude. I have that same problem with my back. I don't know what the hell to do

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[Kc2554]

If you have done it once or twice, you can do it again. Try doing HEAVY incline dumbel presses. 1 set of 10, 2 sets of 8, and 1 or 2 sets of 6. Keep your chest flexed throughout the motion. I go down slow and controlled, pause at the bottom, and push the weight back up explosively without locking out the elbows. I do these after flat bench and do 3-4 sets of cable crossovers right after. I get a really good pump from this, but I think I have decent genetics in this area. I have a hard time getting the mind / muscle connection in my delts for some reason.

Try what I suggested with the Incline dumbell presses and let me know if that works for you.

Have you tried lateral side raises with your arms NOT straight, with the dumbells out in front of you? At the top put your pinky higher than your thumb, liek your pouring water.

Watch Ronnie:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsshzXy1swo"]YouTube - Ronnie Coleman: The Unbelievable (Shoulder Workout)[/ame]

Of course he swings, but he has an excellent connection like no other.

 

[Rodja]

For chest, imagine that you are contracting the pecs to force your elbows to move. Speaking from just proximity, the elbows are far more important to focus on than the wrists. The same goes for the lats, focus on pulling with your elbows and to keep your wrists completely parallel with your elbows.

 

[lonewolf0420]

Drop the amount of weight your lifting. Going with lighter weight, focus on contracting the pecs with slow, controlled movements. Let the pecs do all the work. You may not like dropping the poundage, but you will learn that mind muscle connection. Not to mention, over a few weeks you will probably notice a little growth, and fullness in the muscle.

 

[Kc2554]

Dude. I have that same problem with my back. I don't know what the hell to do

Mozilla/5.0 (Danger hiptop 4.7; U; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20050920

Sinon, my best mind muscle connection is probably in my lats. I suggest you should use straps on the lat pulldown. My hands/forearms were taking the the brunt of the exercise for the longest time.

The real key for me is letting the lats really stretch at the top. Let your shoulders raise up, so your scapula spreads. This will give you the feeling you are looking for.

Again, Ronnie is a real good example. I think it was actually this video that turned the light on in my head about how the exercise is supposed to be performed. Watch how Ronnie really spreads his scapula and stretches his lats at the top.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcP-f7XbzFc"]YouTube - Ronnie Coleman: Back Workout The Real Mr O.[/ame]

 

[Kc2554]

Thank you all for your suggestions. I have tried light weight, heavy weight, dips, close grip, wide gripe, medium grip, slow pace, fast pace, singles, 100 reps, push-ups, PERFECT PUSH-UP for crying out loud, incline push-ups, decline push-ups, elbows in, elbows 90 degrees, dumbells with all the wrist roatations, deep flys, shallow flys, flys going towards my feet, pec dec, machine presses, crossovers, etc, etc, etc.

I really have tried everything I can think of or read about.

Building my chest was one of the reasons I bought a weight set for the garage. I wanted to practice my form more. I just cant make the chest contract the way it needs to in order to produce growth.

Lol, I even sent Charles Glass an email asking him for advice. He actually called me. Real nice guy...told me to do push-ups with my feet raised and squeeze at the top.

 

[futurepilot]

Chest has always been a weak point for me. I have the worst mind muscle connection. I have done almost every exercise that I can think of or read about, but never FEEL the muscle working.

People have told me to "squeeze" the pecs at the top of the concentric portion of the exercises, but thats my problem....the pecs barely contract! I have gotten a pump maybe once or twice in my life.

Any advice on how to gain control of the chest muscles?

My best advice is to actually use the muscle your working. Dont lock out on bench or DB press, the top 1/3 of any bench exercise uses alot of delts.
try benching like this, see how it changes your contraction/soreness.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrYprk3vReo&feature=related"]YouTube - ronnie coleman chest[/ame]