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CHEST MASS HELP PLEASE

brooksy3434

New member
are there any specific exercises or workout routines in general that are better for overall chest mass? any help would be much appreciated. thx
 
I am going to tell you my take on it, Fritzer is probably going to come on here an disagree with me, lol. I think inclines should be the bulk of your pressing, especially if you have longer arms. I find they work my pecs much more than flats. I also have always liked heavy bent arm flys. I do alot of flat work now as i compete and my chest is definately not as big as it was when incline was the bulk of my work. The things that are not as big now from powerlifting is my chest and bis, that is about it.
 
jcp2 said:
I am going to tell you my take on it, Fritzer is probably going to come on here an disagree with me, lol. I think inclines should be the bulk of your pressing, especially if you have longer arms. I find they work my pecs much more than flats. I also have always liked heavy bent arm flys. I do alot of flat work now as i compete and my chest is definately not as big as it was when incline was the bulk of my work. The things that are not as big now from powerlifting is my chest and bis, that is about it.
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I agree. I think heavy inclines are best, though you really should alternate between flat, incline, and flies to keep things progressing.
 
I alway do my pressing first. i also rotate incline decline flat, and narrow grips in. for mass, keep those reps low and push some heavy weight with a full range of motion. Personally, i love dbs over bars as the bars tear my shoulders up. just push as heavy weight as you can bt 4-8 reps for 2 sets and you should grow. good luck
 
You gotta hit it from all angles. Flat, incline, decline with dumbells, barbell, flys, dips, etc. Personally I would keep the reps between 8-10 for hypertrophy.
 
AlbinoRhino44 said:
I alway do my pressing first. i also rotate incline decline flat, and narrow grips in. for mass, keep those reps low and push some heavy weight with a full range of motion. Personally, i love dbs over bars as the bars tear my shoulders up. just push as heavy weight as you can bt 4-8 reps for 2 sets and you should grow. good luck
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only two sets? is that for every exercise I do or just the main pressing one for the workout?
 
brooksy3434 said:
only two sets? is that for every exercise I do or just the main pressing one for the workout?
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I don't know about only doing two sets, but certainly less is more when looking for mass. Doing 30 sets of chest exercises isn't going to get you anywhere.
 
brooksy3434 said:
thanks, its gonna suck switching over to inclines, I put up less than half the weight but I guess I will suck it up
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What have you been doing for your chest? If you do incline presses before flat, eventually your weights will get closer together. Might not equal out, but your incline won't look like a flat bench warmup anymore.
 
db have helped me alot, doing 6 reps heavy for 3 sets. in my work out i also do a press then a fly. i used to do all my presses first then all my flys last. i alternate between a press then a stretch lift. incline db flys, cable flys, and decline pull over close grip with a bb.
 
I use DC training personally. I do alot of incline movements with the bench at different angles. I normally use a wider grip.

Incline flyes for high reps are great. Illegal grip flat benching is another good one. Grip the bar as wide as you can and start pumping the reps. Keep it light and burn it. And yes I love dips.

Keep quality reps in the 8-12 range for most exercises. Higher rep stuff go crazy for 20-50 reps if you can.
 
Chubbinmuffin said:
1-6 reps for strength, 7-10 for hypertrophy, 11+ for endurance. 3-5 sets of each exercise.
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For strenth training you should take about 2-5 min in between sets. I have seen up to 20 mins. Now for mass gaining, muscle building workouts you should do heavy weight low reps like 5. I personally do 5 sets of 5 reps for almost all my excersises in my workout. And only wait about 60 seconds ato take advantage of hypertrophy. Im trying to bulk lean muscle with as little fat as I possibly could. IMO, when working out for strenth or bulk its not really the number of sets that count. Its the actual moment of you changing in between sets that you could take advantage of the hypertrophy stage your muscle will be in after doing some sick heavy lifts. Thats for bulking of course.
 
so u suggest heavy weights with little rest between sets? how many sets do u do total? my chest has always been my lagging muscle so any help appreciated
 
i know most of these have already been suggested. for best chest mass, try:
weighted dips (body swing, legs crossed behind you)
bench
incline
pullovers (wide grip)

3 sets of 8-12, where 8 is minimum rep range to hit, and 12 is maximum. if you do less than 8, lower the weight, if you can do more than 12 per set, increase the weight.

after this, do one set of cable crossovers (10-15 reps) to complete the pump.

personally, i'd pick two of the 4 exercises i listed on a chest workout, and just rotate them around till you find what works best for you. you may find pullovers to be the answer for you, and the dips don't target them effectively for all i know.
 
thanks for all the help guys...I am actually not in a bulking phasse right now, however I do want to put some mass on my chest...for some reason it doesnt grow with the rest of me...
 
sorry i didnt respond quicker. no i like to pyramid my sets, and do maybe 2 or 3 exercises for 4 or 5 sets each. i say 5 sets or so, the first 2 bt 10 - 12 reps, a decent weight. and then those last 2 sets. grab something heavy and crank out those 4-8. that way you get your reps in, and you get your weight in as well. good luck.
 
You definitely have to hit your chest from all angles -> Incline, flat, decline, presses, and flyes


Incline BB Press 10, 8, 6, 6
Flat Alternating DB Press 5, 5, 5
Cable Flyes from Low Setting 10, 8, 8
Push Ups feet elevated on bench 15, 15, 15
Dips/ Weighted Dips 15, 10, 8, 8

Been using the chest workout at Invalid Link Removed and have gotten great results. They have similar workouts there.
 
does anyone know if touching ur chest or going 90 deg makes a difference as far as muscle fibers torn goes? ive been told going lower than 90 implements ur shoulders instead of pecs
 
mrlargecalves said:
does anyone know if touching ur chest or going 90 deg makes a difference as far as muscle fibers torn goes? ive been told going lower than 90 implements ur shoulders instead of pecs
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On a flat bench, it would incorporate alot more shoulders- yes. I only go 90, personally. It's different for everyone: people with longer arms my not want to touch the chest because they break the 90 degree plane. Shorter armed people can touch their chest all day because their range of motion is limited a bit.

But my input on the OP's question is to do some flat db presses and rotate the db's at the top of the lift. (palm would rotate to face eachother). This will really help fill out the chest area. And I like 8-10 reps for mass. 2-3 sets. 2 minutes rest in between all heavy sets.
 
mrlargecalves said:
does anyone know if touching ur chest or going 90 deg makes a difference as far as muscle fibers torn goes? ive been told going lower than 90 implements ur shoulders instead of pecs
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Oh, sorry. I only addressed half of your question. I guess breaking 90 would break down more muscle fibers- in your shoulders. lol
 
I get a really nice burn when I do cable cross-overs (cable fly's)... Pulley's adjusted to the floor... Keep the motion short but let out real slow then come in quicker and really focusing the squeeze on your chest... Then out real slow using your chest to control your outward arm speed. If you feel it more in your shoulder area, you are using too much weight. Oh and keep your arms close to your chest... Sort of like you are hugging a really skinny girl real hard lol.

If you go on YouTube, you can check out the chest video's by Scooby. That guy has a really wicked chest and has some killer chest work out video's on there that actually work.
 
that does answer my question. im short so i can understand touching chest would be better for me. I like the idea of rotating ur wrists on DB presses. I had a friend who did that for incline presses and it felt much more effective.
 
Punisher63e said:
I get a really nice burn when I do cable cross-overs (cable fly's)... Pulley's adjusted to the floor... Keep the motion short but let out real slow then come in quicker and really focusing the squeeze on your chest... Then out real slow using your chest to control your outward arm speed. If you feel it more in your shoulder area, you are using too much weight. Oh and keep your arms close to your chest... Sort of like you are hugging a really skinny girl real hard lol.

If you go on YouTube, you can check out the chest video's by Scooby. That guy has a really wicked chest and has some killer chest work out video's on there that actually work.
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willl look into that.
 
mrlargecalves said:
does anyone know if touching ur chest or going 90 deg makes a difference as far as muscle fibers torn goes? ive been told going lower than 90 implements ur shoulders instead of pecs
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The only thing i can say about this is i work out at a gym that is famous for its bodybuilders and its bodybuilding history, i see pros and tons of competitors regularly, i have never ever seen anyone stop at 90 degrees. Now to build up the bottom portion of my bench some say to build shoulders and some say to build your chest, so i guess who knows. But i am a firm beleiver in doing things full range. Your not going to lose that way. Now i have stated forever that i feel the incline is a better chest builder and i can literally feel the stretch in my pecs at the bottom, i am not sure why it would be much different on a bech, the only difference seems to be the range of motion is less on a bench, so i would think touching the chest is even more important.
 
jcp2 said:
The only thing i can say about this is i work out at a gym that is famous for its bodybuilders and its bodybuilding history, i see pros and tons of competitors regularly, i have never ever seen anyone stop at 90 degrees. Now to build up the bottom portion of my bench some say to build shoulders and some say to build your chest, so i guess who knows. But i am a firm beleiver in doing things full range. Your not going to lose that way. Now i have stated forever that i feel the incline is a better chest builder and i can literally feel the stretch in my pecs at the bottom, i am not sure why it would be much different on a bech, the only difference seems to be the range of motion is less on a bench, so i would think touching the chest is even more important.
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have u seen any of those bodybuilders touch there chest but stop short of locking out. i saw a video of lou ferigno doing this but havent seen it much from others. wouldnt the lock out be squeezing pecs together
 
Going down more than 90 degree's is going to stretch your pecs out more. But if you don't want to work your delts that much or have rotator cuff issues, etc... then don't do it. If I stopped at 90 degree's the bar would be like 10" from my chest... Locking out is useless as well. You just end up putting all that weight on your elbow joints then. You are better off coming up to just before lock out and holding that for a second then return down. That will work your tri's more.

Next time I am benching, I'm going to try and do like half benches.. basically coming all the way down to my chest but then only lifting up until my chest isn't involved any more.. I mean, your chest only resists the weight coming down.. It doesn't really help much in the lift other than to stabilize... At least I don't feel my chest doing much in the lift. I feel the burn when I am bringing the weight back down.
 
Punisher63e said:
Going down more than 90 degree's is going to stretch your pecs out more. But if you don't want to work your delts that much or have rotator cuff issues, etc... then don't do it. If I stopped at 90 degree's the bar would be like 10" from my chest... Locking out is useless as well. You just end up putting all that weight on your elbow joints then. You are better off coming up to just before lock out and holding that for a second then return down. That will work your tri's more.

Next time I am benching, I'm going to try and do like half benches.. basically coming all the way down to my chest but then only lifting up until my chest isn't involved any more.. I mean, your chest only resists the weight coming down.. It doesn't really help much in the lift other than to stabilize... At least I don't feel my chest doing much in the lift. I feel the burn when I am bringing the weight back down.
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I really agree with most of this. Mostly the first paragraph. Your chest does act as a stabalizer muscle during the flat bench, and yes the negative (eccentric) movement is what results in DOMS, which is torn muscle fibers- which is what bodybuilders desire to achieve. However, I think you should try to use a heavier than usual weight on flat bench next time and only lower the bar halfway to your chest then back to almost lockout. Do this however many reps you would normally do for your main set. This method works a different portion/head of the pec muscle. You can switch and do it the way you described also- to work different heads of the muscle (mostly the outer area)
 
bezoe said:
I really agree with most of this. Mostly the first paragraph. Your chest does act as a stabalizer muscle during the flat bench, and yes the negative (eccentric) movement is what results in DOMS, which is torn muscle fibers- which is what bodybuilders desire to achieve. However, I think you should try to use a heavier than usual weight on flat bench next time and only lower the bar halfway to your chest then back to almost lockout. Do this however many reps you would normally do for your main set. This method works a different portion/head of the pec muscle. You can switch and do it the way you described also- to work different heads of the muscle (mostly the outer area)
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Thanks for the advice, I'll give it a try.
 
I personally feel that flat barbell bench sucks as a chest exercise. To much potential for shoulder/pec/rotator cuff injury if your form isn't right. Just stopping at 90 degrees doesn't solve the problem, that just makes it primarily a triceps exercise.

I prefer incline/flat db pressing, weighted dips, incline bench press, and pushups.
 
at your height incline press is your best bet. And as
you can get better range of motion w/ dumbbells
than with the bar i would recommend DB bench
as your primary chest workout
 
MarkusRoids said:
Why do you have to hit it from all angles? Why can't you just 'hit it'. If you stimulate the muscle, then bingo. Done deal.

That kinda logic is what I see from dudes at my gym that think it's necessary to do lat pulldowns with about 4 different grips. "Dude, this grip works my lats in tight... this grip works my lats wide... this grip works my lats right in the middle..." Just find which motion, grip, exercise, whatever, that stimulates the body part that you are going for and do it up.

Good point about the hypertrophy rep range, no doubt.
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Can't get a nicely shaped chest with just one angle. Sure, you can build it up with flat bench, but if you want nice definition you should hit it from every angle. Just my personal .02
 
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