Tall+Chest exercises = need help

Reverin

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I'm 6'7 225. Basically my arms touch my mid thigh, long stuff. Been lifting for a long time now, having trouble REALLY hitting my mid chest. Incline presses and I dont mix well I think because of my long arms. My lower chest is an area I wont to grow, same with my middle chest, just have a hard time. Ultimately want to gain chest mass greatly, any tips for a guy with long arms? Maxed my flat bench at 305 last week so im not far off, chest just doesnt look like it'd be a 305 chest. Im strong in the chest exercises areas but just feels like my results arent there... help is appreciated, thanks fellas!


p.s. any real good rear delt exercises? big issue for me, cant seem to target them.
 

tattoopierced1

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use db's instead of bb.. I'm the same stats as you are and prefer db's for chest development. for guys with long limbs like us, on BB alot of it stress wise is put on your shoulders and can be hard to work your chest effeciantly.
 
Reverin

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Totally agree....I should have put I use DB over BB. I just used the 1rm for a strength citation. Do you have an issues with db incline? Which exercises do you use for most chest mass?
 

tattoopierced1

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I do not have issues with DB incline. I'll usually do db flat, db incline, and some cable/pec deck for chest.
 
TheAnimalG

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I had the same problem and saw a great improvement when I stopped lowering the bar until it touched my chest. It caused my upper arms to go way below my body because of the length of my arms, put stress on my shoulder and limited how much I could lift.

In the months after I made that change, I could see the improvement in my chest, and my lifts went up greatly. I think the reason it made such a difference is because I am able to lift far more weight when I don't bring the bar to my chest.
 
ITHURTZ

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6' 7" dang, thats alot of body to fill out. Im only 6' 2" and have a hard time getting my chest to look like it does over 250, let alone what I actually do.
 
somewhatgifted

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Make sure during your lifts that you dont lower the bar too low like an olympic lifter bc with your long arms you will use your shoulders at the bottom and initiate the lift with yout shoulders, mostly keeping your chest out of the movement. when doing cables or flyes keep an elbow bend at the bottom part and contract your upper back to strech your chest and start the life with your chest. i have long arms my reach is 6'7" and im 6'2" so if i go all the way down i notice my chest is fully extended and then my shoulders turn and take the load. so i stop at about 2" or so above my chest where it is stretched and stays holding the weight. Lifting all the way down with a realtively small chest cavity and long arms doesnt make sense to lift like a naturally suited man with a barrel chest and short arms, like most olmypic lifters. Great benchers have a much smaller range of motion and keep the weight load on the chest muscle in their lifts.
 
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I'm 6'7' and an Endo-Meso.

Dumbbells all the way, I do Pullovers
And Incline BP (for upper pec) and Standing Flys.
 
John Smeton

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Im 6ft3 and have a challange filling out my chest.

I do
Incline bb
Incline Db
Flat DB
hammer strength machine
decline barbell
Gironda dips

I dont do flat bench-I used too . not anymores. It doesnt really work for me

Nice suggestion on not bringing the bar all the way down to chest. i did this today on incline bb ,full motion, as I always do,and next time I'll think I'll give it a try.
 
ITHURTZ

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I dont see why people say partial reps. I need the full ROM of I feel like I am cheating myself
 
firefighter2032

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I don't have the long arms problem, but one thing I figured out was that when I was doing bench presses I was pressing from my hands and not pressing the bar up from my shoulders/chest. I used to have the same problem also when doing back exercises. I was pulling the weight with my hands, once I changed my method I noticed a lot of changes.
 
TheAnimalG

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I dont see why people say partial reps. I need the full ROM of I feel like I am cheating myself
Think about it this way:

You can do 155 lbs with full ROM, where the only part that you really have trouble lifting is at the very bottom of the rep.

OR

You can do 205 with 85% ROM, where the muscle is stressed much more greatly through the rest of range.

For me, partial reps = more weight = greater hypertrophy. My chest is by far the muscle that has grown the most in the past few months, and the main thing I changed was going from full ROM to 85% ROM.

When you use full ROM, you are cheating your muscle at the top half of your ROM because it is not stressed with as much weight as it can handle in that range.

Don't think of it as cheating by using less range, but think of it as a way to use more weight/reps.

Another idea would be to use full ROM for your set until you can't do any more reps with full ROM, and then do a few more with partial ROM. I haven't tried that yet.
 
ITHURTZ

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Iv tried the full ROM and when I cant do that I try to pump out whatever is left. Does nothing for me so I just use forced reps when a spotter is available.
 
John Smeton

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Im gonna have to give the 85 % a try. Maybe itll stimulate massive growth , who knowsss
 
somewhatgifted

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The body is an amazing machine and will do watever it takes to get the job done or the load lifted. Who ever decided that a full ROM bench press was manly or the best way to grow a chest? by using a smaller range of motion you restrict which muscle groups are used and to what degree. If i lower the weight all the way down i can see my shoulder turn bc the chest has streched as far as it can go, so i lift before this happens. Each body has unique characteristics and noone has anyone elses right answers, so try them all. I do not recommend using a small range of motion in ALL excercises, rahter in a situation where there is a problem and creative measures are in need. Simply put the chest pulls the arms and shoulders around,try to flex your upper back to limit the shoulders coming forward and pusing the load. The higher over your chest you lift the more shoulders are used, ideally over the nipple is a good spot.
 
TheAnimalG

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Iv tried the full ROM and when I cant do that I try to pump out whatever is left. Does nothing for me so I just use forced reps when a spotter is available.
Forced reps rock too!
 
datBtrue

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You're tall and you probably have long fore-arms which means that when you press you naturally form that 90 degree angle between upper & lower arm before the bar touches the chest...but you probably continue down to your chest anyway. This is counter productive.

The awesome trainer Charles Glass said it best in response to someone in a similar position:

"As for what you consider "half reps" on the pressing movements for the chest, I am convinced that doing the top two-thirds of the range of motion is actually much more productive than touching the chest as you've been doing. The reason lies in muscle tension. When you lower the bar or dumbbells all the way down as far as you are able to, you inevitably relax the pecs. You can't help it, this is just how the human anatomy is designed. Relaxing any muscle while you're training it is never a good thing. For one thing, you will fail to deliver the maximum intensity to the muscle; for another thing, you'll expose yourself to a greater risk of injury by forcing the connective tissues to assume the full burden of the weight as you reverse the motion at the bottom of each rep.

That's why a majority of pec tears have happened when guys were bouncing the bar off their chest with a heavy weight. The muscle was totally relaxed at that split second and the tendons had to deal with all that weight and force. Instead, if you keep your chest tight and maintain that good tension on it by avoiding the bottom one-third of the rep, you will be amazed at how much more you feel your pecs working and how much better results you get. I am willing to bet that if you switch to doing your presses my way, you should be seeing some new growth in your chest in under a month. I'm sure it's been a lot longer than that since you saw any improvement there, right? This technique is also very useful for overhead shoulder presses. Give it a try. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain."​
 
John Smeton

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You're tall and you probably have long fore-arms which means that when you press you naturally form that 90 degree angle between upper & lower arm before the bar touches the chest...but you probably continue down to your chest anyway. This is counter productive.

The awesome trainer Charles Glass said it best in response to someone in a similar position:

"As for what you consider "half reps" on the pressing movements for the chest, I am convinced that doing the top two-thirds of the range of motion is actually much more productive than touching the chest as you've been doing. The reason lies in muscle tension. When you lower the bar or dumbbells all the way down as far as you are able to, you inevitably relax the pecs. You can't help it, this is just how the human anatomy is designed. Relaxing any muscle while you're training it is never a good thing. For one thing, you will fail to deliver the maximum intensity to the muscle; for another thing, you'll expose yourself to a greater risk of injury by forcing the connective tissues to assume the full burden of the weight as you reverse the motion at the bottom of each rep.

That's why a majority of pec tears have happened when guys were bouncing the bar off their chest with a heavy weight. The muscle was totally relaxed at that split second and the tendons had to deal with all that weight and force. Instead, if you keep your chest tight and maintain that good tension on it by avoiding the bottom one-third of the rep, you will be amazed at how much more you feel your pecs working and how much better results you get. I am willing to bet that if you switch to doing your presses my way, you should be seeing some new growth in your chest in under a month. I'm sure it's been a lot longer than that since you saw any improvement there, right? This technique is also very useful for overhead shoulder presses. Give it a try. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain."​
Wow. Thank you for this.
 
somewhatgifted

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You're tall and you probably have long fore-arms which means that when you press you naturally form that 90 degree angle between upper & lower arm before the bar touches the chest...but you probably continue down to your chest anyway. This is counter productive.

The awesome trainer Charles Glass said it best in response to someone in a similar position:

"As for what you consider "half reps" on the pressing movements for the chest, I am convinced that doing the top two-thirds of the range of motion is actually much more productive than touching the chest as you've been doing. The reason lies in muscle tension. When you lower the bar or dumbbells all the way down as far as you are able to, you inevitably relax the pecs. You can't help it, this is just how the human anatomy is designed. Relaxing any muscle while you're training it is never a good thing. For one thing, you will fail to deliver the maximum intensity to the muscle; for another thing, you'll expose yourself to a greater risk of injury by forcing the connective tissues to assume the full burden of the weight as you reverse the motion at the bottom of each rep.

That's why a majority of pec tears have happened when guys were bouncing the bar off their chest with a heavy weight. The muscle was totally relaxed at that split second and the tendons had to deal with all that weight and force. Instead, if you keep your chest tight and maintain that good tension on it by avoiding the bottom one-third of the rep, you will be amazed at how much more you feel your pecs working and how much better results you get. I am willing to bet that if you switch to doing your presses my way, you should be seeing some new growth in your chest in under a month. I'm sure it's been a lot longer than that since you saw any improvement there, right? This technique is also very useful for overhead shoulder presses. Give it a try. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain."​
Im not charles glass but i belive thats more or less what i was saying.
 

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This I can relate to being tall, this explains why I have very large front delts and chest that is not nearly developed.
Has anyone ever tried going down on 2/3 of the way. Wonder how this principle applies to other bodyparts for tall guys, like legs, shoulder, arms, back?
Good Read.
 
Adrenolin

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wow thats awesome, i've only done partials to strengthen a muscle to break a plateau, im gonna start adding these...buid me a "perfect" chest!
 

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About a year ago, I tried stopping the bar about 2 inches (at most) from my chest, and my lift went up BIG TIME. I only stuck with it for about a month though, and went back to touching the chest, and have since LOST that strength, and am stuck again. I lift DB's w/ similar weights to guys that BB bench MUCH more than me, and I even take them down until the ends of the DB are about to hit my chest.

I'm 6'1'', maybe a little taller, long arms, only 170-175 pounds, so yea, I have a small chest cavity, and am not thick AT ALL (looking at me from the side), and my shoulders are probably the most round muscles on my body.

Needless to say, I'm going to switch back to about 2 inches off the chest, which I will say is closer to 90% rep; much more than 2/3 anyway...
 
datBtrue

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... I lift DB's w/ similar weights to guys that BB bench MUCH more than me, and I even take them down until the ends of the DB are about to hit my chest.

I'm 6'1'', maybe a little taller, long arms, only 170-175 pounds, so yea, I have a small chest cavity, and am not thick AT ALL (looking at me from the side), and my shoulders are probably the most round muscles on my body.
...
On DB Press move your elbows foreward. If you keep them so they are back in line with the ears then you are working too much shoulder. The other extreme would be if you kept your elbows at your sides...then your triceps would be worked heavily. Instead try to stay mid-way between these two extremes.

It will mean that you need to REDUCE the amount of weight you are currently doing...and that is a good thing! Slow your rep speed down (try a 3 sec negative) and control that weight. You don't need to lift big weight to grow the chest...you just need to make the chest do most of the work and lift until the chest (not the shoulders or tris) are fatigued.
 
WeakPoint

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I like to bring the bar about 4-finger width from the bar to my chest, but it seems like everytime I do this somebody says "TOUCH THE BAR TO YOUR CHEST" do they not understand how much it hurts...seriously it kills my shoulders.
 
datBtrue

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I like to bring the bar about 4-finger width from the bar to my chest, but it seems like everytime I do this somebody says "TOUCH THE BAR TO YOUR CHEST" do they not understand how much it hurts...seriously it kills my shoulders.
F@ck everybody! Seriously...you have to develop that attitude and do what is best for you. First off you are attempting to add muscle size to your frame and the weights are just a tool to be used in accomplishing your objective.

A guy with an average arm structure will have his elbows close to a 90 degree angle when he touches his chest w/ the bar. A guy w/ longer arms will have hit that angle before touching the bar to his chest and that angle will get really small by the time the bar touches his chest.

Who came up w/ the conventioanl wisdom (or rule) that you "have to touch the bar to your chest"? The average sized guy...and there are a lot of those guys.

Same with squats. Many many people have a torso structure and leg length structure that allows them to squat ass-to-grass. Some guys don't...in fact some guys can truly only accomplish a parallel squat before their lower back takes over too much BECAUSE they can not get down that low without leaning forward for balance.

No amount of stating the conventional wisdom (rule) that you "have to squat below parallel" will help these guys. In fact for some..they are better off using alternative methods for building their legs inclusing Deadlifts. BUT time and time again we read "you gotta squat BIG or your legs won't grow".

So bro figure out what works for you and be wary of those that state absolutes. There are very few absolutes in bodybuilding.

By-the-way if you lift with guys who keep yelling at you to touch the bar to your chest you could ball up a sweatshirt and put it on your chest and just lower to the sweatshirt. This might make them shut up because in their mind "at least he's touching something consistently w/ the bar".
 
SteelEntity

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I think I may start using Charles Glass' technique for all body parts because I have been using his techniques for back, specifically lat pulls downs and man, i have seen some great results. I warn you now though, do not attempt his techniques if your an ego lifter as your lifts will go way down, but they are much more effective.

My outer chest is good but filling in the upper inner part has been pretty unsuccessful for me. I have been doing a new routine that focuses on narrow grip BP which seems to isolate the inner chest more and peck deck, just really squeezing each rep for a few seconds, i feel more of a burn in my inner chest with it but have been doing for a like 2 weeks so I dont see anything yet. I am fairly wide, I take a 48 suit so it is harder to fill out my chest.
 
WeakPoint

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Is there anyway you can post up some links of some of his techniques I'd really like to read about them.
 
ITHURTZ

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Same with squats. Many many people have a torso structure and leg length structure that allows them to squat ass-to-grass. Some guys don't...in fact some guys can truly only accomplish a parallel squat before their lower back takes over too much BECAUSE they can not get down that low without leaning forward for balance.
I hear ya there, I can only go so low before it starts to do a good morning on me.
 

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On DB Press move your elbows foreward. If you keep them so they are back in line with the ears then you are working too much shoulder. The other extreme would be if you kept your elbows at your sides...then your triceps would be worked heavily. Instead try to stay mid-way between these two extremes.

It will mean that you need to REDUCE the amount of weight you are currently doing...and that is a good thing! Slow your rep speed down (try a 3 sec negative) and control that weight. You don't need to lift big weight to grow the chest...you just need to make the chest do most of the work and lift until the chest (not the shoulders or tris) are fatigued.
Yea I usually have them about in the middle. Every now and then I catch myself letting my elbows come up too far, but usually that is what I concentrate on the most. It doesn't matter what technique I use, my tris almost always give out first on chest movements, except for flies of course.
 
Reverin

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Charles Glass techniques? Can you post some links on em sounds really interesting!
 
Reverin

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watched the videos...amazing stuff... I love how Glasses spotting techniques are wrong though =-P
 
WeakPoint

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Thanks for the link. Its weird how he does rear delts on back day to me, does anyone else do this?
That decline french curl looks pretty good solid.
 
datBtrue

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Thanks for the link. Its weird how he does rear delts on back day to me, does anyone else do this?
Yes I do it all the time. It works well to finish off back day w/ Rear Delt exercises like face-pulls.
 
SteelEntity

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My rear delts are one of my weaker parts so I work them first thing on shoulder days. I do see people do them with back though, kind of makes sense because they get worked with rows and DLs
 
datBtrue

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My rear delts are one of my weaker parts so I work them first thing on shoulder days...
If they are a weak point giving them priority like you do is good. A lot of guys neglect rear delts and over time that imbalance plays a part in creating shoulder injuries.
 
WeakPoint

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I'm starting to think my shoudler is ugly because there is no rear-delt development what-so-ever, but I'm gona hit it hardddd.
 
datBtrue

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I'm starting to think my shoudler is ugly because there is no rear-delt development what-so-ever, but I'm gona hit it hardddd.
A lot of guys don't get much from bent over raises.

You might want to try a few different angles of face pulls. I like to set the cable at medium-high and do a few sets pulling down & back and then set it medium-low and do a few sets pulling up & back.

http://www.abcbodybuilding.com/exercise3/facepulls.htm
 
WeakPoint

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I've never heard of face-pulls till now. Definitely gonna try them out the next shoulder day...Monday. Thanks for the advice,
How do you rep someone I gotta figure that out.
 
SteelEntity

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I've never heard of face-pulls till now. Definitely gonna try them out the next shoulder day...Monday. Thanks for the advice,
How do you rep someone I gotta figure that out.
See those 3 icons at the bottom of you avatar box, click on the middle one
 

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