Shaping Chest
- Thread starter bigred869
- Start date
CROWLER
Anabolic Innovations Owner
Chest is one muscle and the ENTIRE muscle is flexed no matter what position the bench is in.
So what you want to do is find the best position for your chest to do the maximum amount of the work and lift the most amount of weight.
For some this may be say 15 degree incline or 15 degree decline. The entire chest can be worked to its optimum by doing one exercise per week. Max muscle building is in the 5-7 rep range.
There is no such thing as 'shaping' a muscle. Whatever your genetics say you are going to have that is what you are going to have. Arnold NEVER could have and a nice round bicep with no peak no matter what he did, just as some pros can never have a peak in their bi nomatter what sort of exercise they do.
CROWLER
So what you want to do is find the best position for your chest to do the maximum amount of the work and lift the most amount of weight.
For some this may be say 15 degree incline or 15 degree decline. The entire chest can be worked to its optimum by doing one exercise per week. Max muscle building is in the 5-7 rep range.
There is no such thing as 'shaping' a muscle. Whatever your genetics say you are going to have that is what you are going to have. Arnold NEVER could have and a nice round bicep with no peak no matter what he did, just as some pros can never have a peak in their bi nomatter what sort of exercise they do.
CROWLER
Jstrong20
Well-known member
spatch said:
The reason incline is harder has to do with leverage and the fact that you use more shoulder the higher the incline. Obviously the shoulder is a smaller and weaker muscle than the chest. LIke crowler said do the exercises you feel the most. I suggest illegal wide bench presses and lots of dumbell work. Also when you do barbell work don't lock out. Just do the bottom 2/3 of the motion.
Jstrong20
Well-known member
Well I definatley agree it is a good idea to use as many angles and veriations as you can. Weather it will shape the chest or not wil probably always be argued. But it will for sure keep you rotator cups much healthier. By the way I know some people do beleive that the very upper part of the chest is the only part that can contract diffrently than the rest. I seen a study long ago where they hooked up electrodes to see wich exercise worked wich muscle best. According to the results it showed incline did activite the very upper part of the chest slightly more. Decline actualy hit the chest the least of the three exercises wich I believe because I don't feel decline in the chest but in the triceps. I feel you can shape muscle groups but not a muscle. Such as I don't think you can shape the long or short head of the biceps. But if you use an angle that its one head harder and makes it grow faster then they shape of your arm will change makeing it appear that you shaped the muscle.
AgentOrange
New member
[quote=CROWLER]Chest is one muscle and the ENTIRE muscle is flexed no matter what position the bench is in.
This is not entirely accurate. Some exercises cause more stimulation (as measured via emg or mri) of pec minor, others cause more stimulation of pec major.
For some this may be say 15 degree incline or 15 degree decline. The entire chest can be worked to its optimum by doing one exercise per week. Max muscle building is in the 5-7 rep range.
References please? One exercise per week is optimum? You cannot back up this claim.
There is no such thing as 'shaping' a muscle.
Agree
This is not entirely accurate. Some exercises cause more stimulation (as measured via emg or mri) of pec minor, others cause more stimulation of pec major.
For some this may be say 15 degree incline or 15 degree decline. The entire chest can be worked to its optimum by doing one exercise per week. Max muscle building is in the 5-7 rep range.
References please? One exercise per week is optimum? You cannot back up this claim.
There is no such thing as 'shaping' a muscle.
Agree
Achilles13
:::6'4 240lbs EndoMorph:::
jonny21 said:
Bump to that... Weighted dips as well as just using dbs for flat,decline, and incline work well for chest. I don't know about you guys, but barbell doesn't work as well for me as it does others.
Iron Warrior
Registered User
Thank you, many seem to have forgotten this exercisejonny21 said:
Achilles13
:::6'4 240lbs EndoMorph:::
Iron Warrior said:
I don't think they forget them, just a pain in the arse to do them... well for me at least.
Sturgplaya
Banned
If you do all the benches, that is incline, decline, and flat, those will all help shape your chest overall. Decline DB is a good one to help cut the lower half of the chest. Flies also help out with it too.
Sturgplaya
Banned
This is not entirely true, anatomically the chest is composed of the pectoralis major, and the pectoralis minor. While the pectoralis major consists of the main mass of the chest that is what people want to shape, the pectoralis minor plays a part in the movement of the chest also. The pectoralis minor connects from the shoulder to the ribs it is important to work this part of the chest as to not weaken it. Best exercises are flies and chest dips. The pectoralis major can be strengthened by benching and other chest exercises. It is important to strengthen both in order to avoid pulls or tears of the muscles. In overall shaping you only need the pectoralis major but in order to see strength gains you need to work both equally. So you are correct in saying that the chest you want to shape is one muscle, but then that muscle is also composed of many muscle fibers that must be strengthened by a variety of exercises. Don't want to be a prick, just tryin to share some info.
glenihan
Registered User
i hit my chest with one exercise per workout and 3 times in 11 days
i usually stick with either flat db press or incline hammer strength machine
i'll do 2 or 3 warm up sets to get the blood flowing
then 3 sets of roughly 8-12, 4-6, 2-4 with the same weight for each set
the most important aspect of this, IMHO, are the 5-7 second negatives i use with each rep
i usually stick with either flat db press or incline hammer strength machine
i'll do 2 or 3 warm up sets to get the blood flowing
then 3 sets of roughly 8-12, 4-6, 2-4 with the same weight for each set
the most important aspect of this, IMHO, are the 5-7 second negatives i use with each rep
CROWLER
Anabolic Innovations Owner
glenihan said:
I do almost the exact same thing kinda strange.
Only diff is I have gone back to BB bench but the same warmup and same 3 sets and same 3 times in 11 days weird Glen. I also do almost the same reps scheme but I do 8-10, 1-5 and then 10-12.
And yes Glen I stole this from Ironman at PM
I haven't done the slow neg in a while I think I will put it back into the workout.
CROWLER
glenihan
Registered User
haha i actually modified my workout a bit after reading that thread (or should i say novel haha) by iron man .. great thread by the way .. but i had been doing this work out for a little while
go back to the slow negs for 6 weeks or so crowler .. you'll be amazed
i'd love to know how that rep scheme works out for you in a few weeks
do you change the weight with each set for the rep scheme? i imagine you must
go back to the slow negs for 6 weeks or so crowler .. you'll be amazed
i'd love to know how that rep scheme works out for you in a few weeks
do you change the weight with each set for the rep scheme? i imagine you must
Max32
Registered User
glenihan said:
All I can say is different strokes for different folks :nutkick:
No, in all seriousness bro, I honestly feel like a hit the muscle far better that way. In fact, I usually will do 4-5 exercises with fewer working sets per. A big determining factor in my training is always wanting to at least hit a compound and stretch movement. Another thing to consider is that I typically will directly hit each bodypart 3 x in 14 days opposed to 11.