Need Upper Chest Workouts!

[ceaston]

I can't build my upper chest for the life of me. I dedicate one workout to just the upper chest a week, than five days later I do the whole chest workout again(every part of the pectorials). For the upper chest workouts I usually do incline dumbells, Incline flies, Incline cable press, Incline bench(4 sets on each). Anymore suggestions..?

[timmmah]

I suggest more rest between chest days, switch up what exercises you do every 6 weeks or so, and it may sound weird, but do more back, like weighted pull-ups. I had plateu'ed on bench weight for what seemed like a year, then someone suggested I lay off going heavy on chest for a while and hit lats harder. It helped me, good luck.

[Joshua86]

Have you ever tried doing bench presses to the neck? I had read about them before and some people swear by them, so I've been trying them during my chest workouts. It's essentially where you lower the bar to about where your clavicle is; normally I lower the bar to about my nipple line. It's a little harder, since it's a different angle and I can feel more (muscular) stress in the top of my chest, but I really don't know exactly what to think of it. So if anyone else has had good results from doing these, let us know!

I think genetics has a lot to do with how your chest shapes up as it grows. Some say you can't really target the upper areas of the chest (namely the clavicular head), but other people swear by incline presses. Heck, Arnold says you can work the upper, lower, middle, inner and outer pectorals while someone who's studied exercise physiology literature would call him crazy! It's a debatable topic indeed.

I would simply suggest to focus on overall chest growth, rather than trying to target and isolate specific regions. As your chest grows, your upper chest will naturally grow too, as long as your genetics allows for a full chest shape. Some people are just naturally more apt to have fuller, wider chest than others. For instance, thanks to genetics, I will never have that square chest look. However, I can still work to develop my chest to it's maximum potential. I'm not the type of person to say incline presses are totally useless; I just make the bulk of my chest routine centered around flat barbell presses because it allows me to use maximum weight. After barbell presses I do some incline DB presses and DB pullovers, finishing with some chest dips where I do slow negatives to really stretch the pectorals! I am a firm believer in the benefits of good stretching techniques, before training (dynamic stretches), during the exercises themselves, and after training (static stretches).

On a side note, I'm really fond of doing supersets with incline DB presses and DB pullovers. On the incline presses I explode upwards with the weight and lower it slowly (2-3 seconds). On the DB pullovers I really concentrate to involve the serratus as much as possible and it's paying off as my serratus are becoming more and more prominent. Just thought I'd share!

Good luck to all in their quest to develop the illusive upper chest!

[bubbachew]

Weighted Dips and inclined DB presses work the best for me

[ceaston]

Thanks guys...I appreciate the feedback! I will give it a shot the next time I do chest.

[Rah22491]

Pullovers will expand your ribcage and give you that double barrel chest look. As mentioned above incline benching to the throat has really built the upper chest in my clavicle region. I dont typically like the smith machine but for isolation of the upper chest i havent found a better exercise

[americanmusul]

when ill do arnold military press "turning my palms toward my face on the lower end of the press" it really hits my upper chest.

[dedlifter1]

high incline db flyes, and jm presses, which is great for tris too.

[ceaston]

I just tried that workout you suggested today. Gotta say, I felt the burn! What a great technique! Thanks again for the suggestion!

[hulk2211]

try a reverse grip bench press..thats worked for me when nothing else would

[GymRat7197]

Incline bench presses and flies.

[allstar504448]

read somewhere that upper chest muscle fiber activation is virtually no greater on incline bench press than it is decline bench press

[russy_russ]

read somewhere that upper chest muscle fiber activation is virtually no greater on incline bench press than it is decline bench press

Completely true. I've explained why on numerous threads.

[fightbackhxc]

DB Incline, flys and cable cross overs.

[jp17815]

I can't build my upper chest for the life of me. I dedicate one workout to just the upper chest a week, than five days later I do the whole chest workout again(every part of the pectorials). For the upper chest workouts I usually do incline dumbells, Incline flies, Incline cable press, Incline bench(4 sets on each). Anymore suggestions..?

Hi.
I'm a huge fan of the BB Bench.
Find your max 10 rep.
try to do it twice. "With a spot for the 2nd set"
Really push yourself!!
Then drop 10 lbs. And do a set of 10.
Drop 10 more and go for 15 reps.
Do this for 3 weeks and you will find your self not needing a spot on the 2nd set.

Keep changeing the weight.
And don't cheat your self.
Works for me bro.

JP.

[close grip]

this may surprise some of you but I actually get more out of benching flat than incline......with an incline, I feel it in my shoulders.....I too have sub par pecs and much better shoulders..... so it could also be a matter of not keeping my chest arched

but I always feel my front delts the day after an incline session.

flat bench.....push ups with feet elevated and also decline press seems to give my pecs a full pump......hard to believe maybe.....but true!!!

[close grip]

oh......almost forgot......I also love flat dumbbell presses but with a hammer grip.....I have had shoulder trouble over the last few years and seem to get less strain in the shoulders with the hammer grip (palms facing each other).

[brk_nemesis]

try increasing # of sets on presses,.... more like 6 sets. Go strict and DEEP on flys...

[timmmah]

read somewhere that upper chest muscle fiber activation is virtually no greater on incline bench press than it is decline bench press

I dissagree, if soreness is any kind of indicator that muscle fibers have been "activated", then heavy incline press day definitely "activates" my upper chest more than the days that I do only flat or decline presses. Just in my experience, but everyone is different.

[russy_russ]

I dissagree, if soreness is any kind of indicator that muscle fibers have been "activated", then heavy incline press day definitely "activates" my upper chest more than the days that I do only flat or decline presses. Just in my experience, but everyone is different.

Everyone feels 'muscle soreness' in varying locations. This does not disprove his claim. The reason being is that there are branches of muscle fibers which are innervated by ONE motor neuron. These muscle fibers are not clustered together--yet randomly separated (reason why some people have great upper pec development and some do not). When the golgi tendon organ (GTO) senses tension on a muscle it sends information to the CNS to recruit the needed amount of motor units. Once a motor neuron creates an action potential and depolarizes it fires ALL the muscle fibers in which it innervates and this contraction is throughout the WHOLE muscle fiber. Therefore it is IMPOSSIBLE to target a specific region.