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My chest has always been one of my least responsive muscles to training. Though it's still not where I want it to be, I've maken a lot of progress in the past year or so just because of changes in my technique. My bench hasn't gone up (I actually used to bench more, but my chest looks better now) but my chest looks a lot fuller and shapely. I figured I'd go ahead and post a few things that have worked for me just in case someone else might be able to benefit.
First off, let me describe my physique and chest shape. I think people with similar proprotions and shapes should pay more attention to advice given by others with similar phsyqiues. That's just my opinion of course, but it's always made more sense to me that way. For example, a contrast to this would be me taking ver batum advice from a bulky mesomorph. May work for him, but I'd have to adjust it to work for me. Anyway, I tend to be naturally leaner with a generally hard time gaining mass (if I were to bulk up to say, 190lbs, if I don't work my ass off to keep that weight, I'll revert back to about 180lbs relatively quickly). So eventually my goal went from gaining as much mass as possible to shaping the mass I have to the best proportions I can (though I don't complain if I notice I've gained a pound or two of lean mass every once in a while). My chest is nautrally flat and only consistent training over the years has pushed it out. The bottom part of my chest has that upside down V look that comes up to about a little less than my middle chest, which makes it quite hard to develop a full muscle structure. And up until about a year ago, the lines surrounding my chest weren't very distinguished, especially the outside bottom. So if this sounds anything like your physique, check out some of the tips that have helped me. Even if you're built different I'm sure you could still benefit from what's helped me...
1.) Make incline presses the majority of your pressing movements. You'll still keep the mass building benefits of heavy presses but the more you can fill out the upper chest, the more full your chest will look. Do regular flat bench presses but don't let sheer poundage become your primary goal as I've found. I'd say keep incline presses about 75% of your pressing movements (not necessarily in one workout, but overall).
2.) Neck presses... You have to be careful to get the technique down, but once you do, you'll notice your upper chest will respond a lot more than with regular incline presses. In all honesty, neck presses are about the only thing that feels like it's working the upper chest. Incline presses have that feel more than flat presses but not to the extent of neck presses. Research this movement and learn to incorperate it. You don't want to go super heavy here as you risk damaging your shoulders. Learn what weight works (I usually do 10-12 reps) and keep it slow and in controll. This isn't a power movement but one to stress the upper chest as much as possible. I don't do these a lot (maybe 10% of my overall pressing) but they do work.
3.) Dips! Dips are one of the best exercises for chest regardless of your muscle structures. Just make sure you're getting a good stretch at the bottom. Sometimes if I want my triceps to get stressed more, I'll push myself up all the way. If I'm more targeting my chest specifically, I'll come up about 2/3 of the way, or maybe slighly less.
4.) Dumbbell pullovers. The ones where you're lying with your upper back on the bench, perpendicular, with your ass low. Feel it stretch, especially when it comes to the serattus. Very good after incline presses or flyes because of the stretch you get.
5.) When doing flyes, concentrate more on "feel" than on simply completeing the movement. Establishing "feel" is extremely important with flyes if you have a hard time developing chest.
6.) Flex between sets. After a set of chest, flex the muscles for a good 10 seconds or so to keep that blood pumped into the muscle. You don't want to lose that intensity! Keep the blood in the muscle, keep the muscle fuller and tigher, makes the lift feel better. You do a lift, wait 4-5 minutes and go do another set and you're going to find it's harder because you've lost some of that pump. Flex between sets to keep the pump going as long as you can!!! At the end of your workout, flex for a few minutes. If upper chest is a real problem, learn to flex the upper chest as hard as possible. Doing this consistently helps develop the upper chest more, and the more your upper chest responds, the fuller your chest looks (no upper chest = haning pec look).
7.) Stretching is something that's probably helped me fill my chest out the most. After every couple sets or so I may stretch the chest out and at the end of my chest workout I'll spend at least 3-4 minutes stretching just the chest.
8.) Back development. The more your back develops the more your chest will develop. It may even be a good idea to traing chest with back sometimes. Full range of motion on evertying (most of the time anyway) but especially on back exercises. I've found no real benefit of doing partial reps with exercises like pullups or bent over rows. Full range of motion will help create a wide, detailed back. And the more your back fills out and widens out, the more your chest will. Wide back, wide chest.
Hope this helped a little. I know some of the info here is a bit redundant but these techinques, done consistently, have helped me. And like I said, my bench hasn't gone up much in the meantime (because I don't care about sheer poundage) yet my chest has developed into a fuller shape. So I'm living proof that technique is vital to building shape, especially if you're a hardgainer like me. I'd love to be able to build myself up to a 220lbs frame, but it's just not in the cards for me. So I take my 180lbs frame and shape it out the best I can. If you're in proportion, you'll look good, wether you're 150lbs or 220lbs. Asthetic is asthetic.
P.S - These are soley my opinions, so take them for what they're worth. Like all of us you'll probably have to adjust them somewhat to suit your personal needs.
First off, let me describe my physique and chest shape. I think people with similar proprotions and shapes should pay more attention to advice given by others with similar phsyqiues. That's just my opinion of course, but it's always made more sense to me that way. For example, a contrast to this would be me taking ver batum advice from a bulky mesomorph. May work for him, but I'd have to adjust it to work for me. Anyway, I tend to be naturally leaner with a generally hard time gaining mass (if I were to bulk up to say, 190lbs, if I don't work my ass off to keep that weight, I'll revert back to about 180lbs relatively quickly). So eventually my goal went from gaining as much mass as possible to shaping the mass I have to the best proportions I can (though I don't complain if I notice I've gained a pound or two of lean mass every once in a while). My chest is nautrally flat and only consistent training over the years has pushed it out. The bottom part of my chest has that upside down V look that comes up to about a little less than my middle chest, which makes it quite hard to develop a full muscle structure. And up until about a year ago, the lines surrounding my chest weren't very distinguished, especially the outside bottom. So if this sounds anything like your physique, check out some of the tips that have helped me. Even if you're built different I'm sure you could still benefit from what's helped me...
1.) Make incline presses the majority of your pressing movements. You'll still keep the mass building benefits of heavy presses but the more you can fill out the upper chest, the more full your chest will look. Do regular flat bench presses but don't let sheer poundage become your primary goal as I've found. I'd say keep incline presses about 75% of your pressing movements (not necessarily in one workout, but overall).
2.) Neck presses... You have to be careful to get the technique down, but once you do, you'll notice your upper chest will respond a lot more than with regular incline presses. In all honesty, neck presses are about the only thing that feels like it's working the upper chest. Incline presses have that feel more than flat presses but not to the extent of neck presses. Research this movement and learn to incorperate it. You don't want to go super heavy here as you risk damaging your shoulders. Learn what weight works (I usually do 10-12 reps) and keep it slow and in controll. This isn't a power movement but one to stress the upper chest as much as possible. I don't do these a lot (maybe 10% of my overall pressing) but they do work.
3.) Dips! Dips are one of the best exercises for chest regardless of your muscle structures. Just make sure you're getting a good stretch at the bottom. Sometimes if I want my triceps to get stressed more, I'll push myself up all the way. If I'm more targeting my chest specifically, I'll come up about 2/3 of the way, or maybe slighly less.
4.) Dumbbell pullovers. The ones where you're lying with your upper back on the bench, perpendicular, with your ass low. Feel it stretch, especially when it comes to the serattus. Very good after incline presses or flyes because of the stretch you get.
5.) When doing flyes, concentrate more on "feel" than on simply completeing the movement. Establishing "feel" is extremely important with flyes if you have a hard time developing chest.
6.) Flex between sets. After a set of chest, flex the muscles for a good 10 seconds or so to keep that blood pumped into the muscle. You don't want to lose that intensity! Keep the blood in the muscle, keep the muscle fuller and tigher, makes the lift feel better. You do a lift, wait 4-5 minutes and go do another set and you're going to find it's harder because you've lost some of that pump. Flex between sets to keep the pump going as long as you can!!! At the end of your workout, flex for a few minutes. If upper chest is a real problem, learn to flex the upper chest as hard as possible. Doing this consistently helps develop the upper chest more, and the more your upper chest responds, the fuller your chest looks (no upper chest = haning pec look).
7.) Stretching is something that's probably helped me fill my chest out the most. After every couple sets or so I may stretch the chest out and at the end of my chest workout I'll spend at least 3-4 minutes stretching just the chest.
8.) Back development. The more your back develops the more your chest will develop. It may even be a good idea to traing chest with back sometimes. Full range of motion on evertying (most of the time anyway) but especially on back exercises. I've found no real benefit of doing partial reps with exercises like pullups or bent over rows. Full range of motion will help create a wide, detailed back. And the more your back fills out and widens out, the more your chest will. Wide back, wide chest.
Hope this helped a little. I know some of the info here is a bit redundant but these techinques, done consistently, have helped me. And like I said, my bench hasn't gone up much in the meantime (because I don't care about sheer poundage) yet my chest has developed into a fuller shape. So I'm living proof that technique is vital to building shape, especially if you're a hardgainer like me. I'd love to be able to build myself up to a 220lbs frame, but it's just not in the cards for me. So I take my 180lbs frame and shape it out the best I can. If you're in proportion, you'll look good, wether you're 150lbs or 220lbs. Asthetic is asthetic.
P.S - These are soley my opinions, so take them for what they're worth. Like all of us you'll probably have to adjust them somewhat to suit your personal needs.
I agree with all that you've said, and having the same physique as you, I'll share a couple more tips that I've found:
