Lagging chest

chainsaw

Well-known member
I am kind of at a loss from where to go with my chest training. I tore my peck 4 years ago and ever since that I feel more shoulder triceps than chest. It has now become a lagging bodypart. I want to focus on it more and bring it up. I have been doing a push pull legs routine. Incline generally dumbell or smith machine for pressing, dips, and flys either dumbell or pec machine. Any tips
 
If you ask 10 people you're probably going to get 10 different responses, but here's my 22 cents

It sounds like your in a commercial gym with lots of equipment so I'm banking on you having access to most cables and machines?

When I'm putting a routine together for someone, I usually start them with a incline press and a fly with constant tension. I think a cable fly is best for that. You can adjust the height and the angle till you feel it more in the chest. I personally do it with dumbbells and I stay in the lower 2/3 of what most would consider full range of motion. Focus on the stretch position, Get a good stretch at the bottom on every rep.

For a 3rd exercise I like to use a seated chest press machine and if there having a chest only day I would throw in dips at the end. My shoulders don't let me do dips so I use the seated machine dip if available.

Incline smith machine press
Cable fly
Machine chest press
Dips

I also sometimes will have myself knock out 100-150 slightly wide pushups. Your doing as many sets as necessary to get there, but the goal is as few sets as possible, I try to go for broke on the first set, take a 10-15 second breather and keep grinding until Im shot or hit 150.
76, 22, 14, 10,10,10,8 was a recent one.
 
Smont said:
If you ask 10 people you're probably going to get 10 different responses, but here's my 22 cents

It sounds like your in a commercial gym with lots of equipment so I'm banking on you having access to most cables and machines?

When I'm putting a routine together for someone, I usually start them with a incline press and a fly with constant tension. I think a cable fly is best for that. You can adjust the height and the angle till you feel it more in the chest. I personally do it with dumbbells and I stay in the lower 2/3 of what most would consider full range of motion. Focus on the stretch position, Get a good stretch at the bottom on every rep.

For a 3rd exercise I like to use a seated chest press machine and if there having a chest only day I would throw in dips at the end. My shoulders don't let me do dips so I use the seated machine dip if available.

Incline smith machine press
Cable fly
Machine chest press
Dips

I also sometimes will have myself knock out 100-150 slightly wide pushups. Your doing as many sets as necessary to get there, but the goal is as few sets as possible, I try to go for broke on the first set, take a 10-15 second breather and keep grinding until Im shot or hit 150.
76, 22, 14, 10,10,10,8 was a recent one.
Click to expand...
i am 6'3" with narrow clavical, so naturally I won't have a wide chest. I am a privately own gym, but it has all arsenal brand equipment which is plate loaded, I go between there and planet fitness. I also stick with incline as flat is where I tore my pec and I feel incline more so than flat. Thanks Smont
 
Honestly finding exercises and variations to stimulate the chest the most are going to be pretty individual. If it is solely to "feel" it more look into movements where you can try to slow the eccentric a tad to try and feel it "loading" the chest more, pauses at the bottom of movements that give a good chest stretch or even pause at the top of movements that you can alter to potentially get more resistance at the top.

That said a lot of times people over estimate how important particular movements and/or rep schemes, generally if you can at least get some stimulus you just need more volume. Volume will help drive growth, as long as it is stimulating the muscle (so proper movement and appropriate intensity).

When you are lagging or have an underlying deficit (recovering from a tear) there might be more emphasis on the top (finding the right movements for you, especially to potentially recover neural connections post injury), but once you do it is about increasing the volume (potentially even lowering it on the other muscles you feel more like shoulders and triceps, especially considering they'll get a lot of secondary work on many things you'll do to target chest).
 
Tons of great recommendations already.

First for connection I like to slow movements down as mentioned. Slow flys and really stretch at the bottom. Isometrics are good too. Hold a fly at the bottom. Bench press a bar into the bottom of a safety bar as hard as you can. That all helps recruit more muscle fibers.
Second for lagging there's 2 things to remember: 1) if you want to grow do it in a surplus of calories. It's tough to bring up a lagging body part in a cut. 2) you can't add infinite volume to your body so try cutting some volume from other body parts to add more to chest.
 
My .02 Pre-exhaust with an isolation movement like pec deck, cable crossovers, or less preferably db flyes. Then go into a pressing movement, machine or db, but focus on the feel of squeezing the pecs together instead of pushing the weight. Use a neutral grip (palms facing each other) instead of a pronated grip if possible, keep the lats engaged to keep the shoulders back, this will take stress off the shoulders and help to get that squeeze feel. I like to finish with some very close grip, elbows flared, presses on the smith machine.
Pec Deck
Machine Press neutral grip
Very close grip, low incline Smith Machine presses
(the last two could be done with DBs just keep the close grip in front of the chest)
2 sets each - 1st set 2 RIR, 2nd set concentric failure
 
chainsaw said:
i am 6'3" with narrow clavical, so naturally I won't have a wide chest. I am a privately own gym, but it has all arsenal brand equipment which is plate loaded, I go between there and planet fitness. I also stick with incline as flat is where I tore my pec and I feel incline more so than flat. Thanks Smont
Click to expand...
I tore my pec about 6 years ago now. The only chest exercise I do is the seated cable fly, plate loaded machine. I kinda rotate and use it as a pressing motion, some of the best stimulation I’ve ever had! I also tore mine on a flat bench. Try decline, everyone’s different but I feel the most stimulation/contraction when I’m pressing slightly declined, kind of in between flat and decline.
 
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