Upper mid chest

u_e_s_i

u_e_s_i

Well-known member
Awards
3
  • Established
  • First Up Vote
  • Best Answer
C7417BD4-54CB-480E-A7C3-DBC952032F6D.jpeg
E806827F-B661-43A7-B8CE-734796FED183.jpeg


Neither of the above are me.

So I only started doing upper chest focused exercises a fair bit after I started training chest and so my mid and lower chest are currently stronger than my upper chest and I’m working on bringing my upper chest up to par with my mid and lower sections.

One thing I’ve noticed though is that my upper chest is thicker on the sides near my shoulders (areas circled in green) whilst my mid upper chest (areas circled in blue) is a fair bit thinner. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can target my mid upper chest?
 
jalfrey

jalfrey

Well-known member
Awards
2
  • Established
  • First Up Vote
Supinated (underhand) bench
Incline db flyes
cable crossovers
close grip bench
diamond push-ups

How's your mind-muscle connection with that part of your chest? I've found that the supinated bench press and incline flyes really helped me feel what it's like to work that part of my chest
 
rodefeeh

rodefeeh

Well-known member
Awards
3
  • Established
  • First Up Vote
  • RockStar
Landmine incline press
DB crush grip incline press
 
u_e_s_i

u_e_s_i

Well-known member
Awards
3
  • Established
  • First Up Vote
  • Best Answer
Supinated (underhand) bench
Incline db flyes
cable crossovers
close grip bench
diamond push-ups

How's your mind-muscle connection with that part of your chest? I've found that the supinated bench press and incline flyes really helped me feel what it's like to work that part of my chest
Thank you.
My mind-muscle connection for that part of my chest isn’t good. I’m not sure why that is but I’ll give those two a try next week
 
AlexPowell

AlexPowell

Well-known member
Awards
1
  • Established
Maybe if your chest gets bigger it will look how you want it to

I've never seen a picture of someone with developed pecs that was lacking the upper part of inner part or any other part
Makes me think it's mostly BS. Mark Bell recently did a bodybuilding competition and was just doing powerlifting training until the last 8 weeks and his chest looked fine
 
Godstrength

Godstrength

Board Sponsor
Awards
3
  • RockStar
  • Established
  • First Up Vote
Same thread is posted 2 posts below yours.
If you can't get a good MMC then that's the issue. Your form is lacking and you are not stimulating the muscle properly

http://anabolicminds.com/forum/training-forum/305862-chest-isolations.html#post6087360
^^^^^
I agree w The Solution but also on incline bench hand position does matter... Wider grip is going to hit outside. Closer grip is better for middle. At the end of the day you should be able to feel the muscle moving the weight with your mind. If you can't properly do that how will you know what's being stimulated? Work on your mm connection. And I don't mean the candy

Also incline dumbbells as someone suggested suphinated at the top.
 
u_e_s_i

u_e_s_i

Well-known member
Awards
3
  • Established
  • First Up Vote
  • Best Answer
Maybe if your chest gets bigger it will look how you want it to

I've never seen a picture of someone with developed pecs that was lacking the upper part of inner part or any other part
Makes me think it's mostly BS. Mark Bell recently did a bodybuilding competition and was just doing powerlifting training until the last 8 weeks and his chest looked fine
Well other people have said that I have a strong looking upper chest and have asked me for advise on how they can bring theirs up. It’s only on closer observation that I’ve noticed that the sides of my upper pecs are thicker than the middle and I’ve seen guys with thinner pecs than me but whose upper pecs are more defined
 
u_e_s_i

u_e_s_i

Well-known member
Awards
3
  • Established
  • First Up Vote
  • Best Answer
I agree w The Solution but also on incline bench hand position does matter... Wider grip is going to hit outside. Closer grip is better for middle. At the end of the day you should be able to feel the muscle moving the weight with your mind. If you can't properly do that how will you know what's being stimulated? Work on your mm connection. And I don't mean the candy

Also incline dumbbells as someone suggested suphinated at the top.
I’ll give those a shot.
I haven’t been doing close grip bench press because it aggravates my elbows
 
u_e_s_i

u_e_s_i

Well-known member
Awards
3
  • Established
  • First Up Vote
  • Best Answer
AlexPowell

AlexPowell

Well-known member
Awards
1
  • Established
There is also pec minor dips
Pec minor is sort of like brachialis for the biceps. If you build it up enough it will "lift" the pec up and make it appear bigger
 
The Solution

The Solution

Legend
Awards
5
  • First Up Vote
  • RockStar
  • Legend!
  • Established
  • Best Answer
I saw that thread but the question isn’t quite the same as mine and I’d like to read the two as separate threads so I can read up on answers for each question
No your question is the same. Your problem is your MMC (mind muscle connection)
You either do a fly or a press for chest, there really is not too much rocket science to it.
If you can't press the weight and feel the muscle activating you need to re-read the article or else no matter how many isolations or compounds you do, you are most likely going to be using overlapping muscles and minor muscles that are taking the bulk of the tension and not your chest.

A big reason why you see so many people have larger front/side delts and a shallow chest. If you want to build the chest you first have to activate/stimulate it, if you don't then your going back to square one.
 
u_e_s_i

u_e_s_i

Well-known member
Awards
3
  • Established
  • First Up Vote
  • Best Answer
No your question is the same. Your problem is your MMC (mind muscle connection)
You either do a fly or a press for chest, there really is not too much rocket science to it.
If you can't press the weight and feel the muscle activating you need to re-read the article or else no matter how many isolations or compounds you do, you are most likely going to be using overlapping muscles and minor muscles that are taking the bulk of the tension and not your chest.

A big reason why you see so many people have larger front/side delts and a shallow chest. If you want to build the chest you first have to activate/stimulate it, if you don't then your going back to square one.
Interesting. I'll give the article another read.

One issue I have is that for the first year of my chest training, isolation movements progressed quite a bit faster than my bench and so my chest is proportionally much stronger than my delts and I know that my delts are currently a limiting factor for my bench which is why I've been doing extra delt work to try to bring them up to par.
I think it's possible that my MMC will improve as my delts catch up
 
muscleupcrohn

muscleupcrohn

Legend
Awards
3
  • RockStar
  • Established
  • First Up Vote
Interesting. I'll give the article another read.

One issue I have is that for the first year of my chest training, isolation movements progressed quite a bit faster than my bench and so my chest is proportionally much stronger than my delts and I know that my delts are currently a limiting factor for my bench which is why I've been doing extra delt work to try to bring them up to par.
I think it's possible that my MMC will improve as my delts catch up
If your Delts are severely limiting your chest lifts and progression, you could always try pre-exhausting your chest, that way when you actually get to the movements where your Delts would normally be the limiting factor, now your chest is pre-fatigued, so will perhaps tire at the same time or even after your Delts.
 
AlexPowell

AlexPowell

Well-known member
Awards
1
  • Established
If your Delts are severely limiting your chest lifts and progression, you could always try pre-exhausting your chest, that way when you actually get to the movements where your Delts would normally be the limiting factor, now your chest is pre-fatigued, so will perhaps tire at the same time or even after your Delts.
Pre-exhausting the chest is pretty much the only way I feel it on barbell exercises. The machines are great though
 
muscleupcrohn

muscleupcrohn

Legend
Awards
3
  • RockStar
  • Established
  • First Up Vote
Pre-exhausting the chest is pretty much the only way I feel it on barbell exercises. The machines are great though
Have you tried trying to “squeeze” the bar when you bench, as in trying to bring your hands together by flexing your chest? Like doing a fly while pressing sort of. And 3-4 second negatives so you’re flexing your chest hard for the whole time, including the slow negative.
 
The Solution

The Solution

Legend
Awards
5
  • First Up Vote
  • RockStar
  • Legend!
  • Established
  • Best Answer
If your Delts are severely limiting your chest lifts and progression, you could always try pre-exhausting your chest, that way when you actually get to the movements where your Delts would normally be the limiting factor, now your chest is pre-fatigued, so will perhaps tire at the same time or even after your Delts.
Most likely this is set up too, lack of arch, getting up on traps and pushing the shoulders down and back to prevent momentum and cause the secondary muscle to overtake the primary. Very common on flies when you see people swinging forward on the hammer strength machine. Therefore the chest is never under tension because people are ego lifting and swinging the weight with the delts and not their chest

When people flat bench or B.B. bench you see them lie flat and lock out their elbows which puts more tension on your triceps and shoulders and less on the chest. Let alone a lot of pressure on your elbows
 
AlexPowell

AlexPowell

Well-known member
Awards
1
  • Established
Have you tried trying to “squeeze” the bar when you bench, as in trying to bring your hands together by flexing your chest? Like doing a fly while pressing sort of. And 3-4 second negatives so you’re flexing your chest hard for the whole time, including the slow negative.
Nope, although I have thought about it many times
 
81dcs

81dcs

Member
Awards
1
  • Established
View attachment 170788View attachment 170789

Neither of the above are me.

So I only started doing upper chest focused exercises a fair bit after I started training chest and so my mid and lower chest are currently stronger than my upper chest and I’m working on bringing my upper chest up to par with my mid and lower sections.

One thing I’ve noticed though is that my upper chest is thicker on the sides near my shoulders (areas circled in green) whilst my mid upper chest (areas circled in blue) is a fair bit thinner. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can target my mid upper chest?
Grab a dumbell like a db pullover of sort and focus on squeeze up top, incline, flat bench. I had an accident and my collar throat like clavical bone is moved up a little (no it does not hurt) and it makes the mid top center kinda recede back so it's helped some. Im sure someone already said this but I was too lazy to read the whole thing, lol, best of luck.
 
muscleupcrohn

muscleupcrohn

Legend
Awards
3
  • RockStar
  • Established
  • First Up Vote
Nope, although I have thought about it many times
Give it a try, even just for a set or two. You’ll use a lot less weight, but you should feel it in your chest much more then your standard bench press. It’s an ego check I guess, using a lot less weight than normal, but I like it.
 

BlockBuilder

Well-known member
Awards
3
  • Established
  • First Up Vote
  • Best Answer
One exercise that gives me an upper chest pump that I have not felt before is the incline reverse grip DB bench press. Reverse grip bench already helps you hit the upper chest but when you do it with dumbbells on an incline you really feel it
 
AntM1564

AntM1564

Legend
Awards
4
  • RockStar
  • Legend!
  • Established
  • First Up Vote
Neither of the above are me.

So I only started doing upper chest focused exercises a fair bit after I started training chest and so my mid and lower chest are currently stronger than my upper chest and I’m working on bringing my upper chest up to par with my mid and lower sections.

One thing I’ve noticed though is that my upper chest is thicker on the sides near my shoulders (areas circled in green) whilst my mid upper chest (areas circled in blue) is a fair bit thinner. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can target my mid upper chest?
I think it is more genetic than anything and is difficult, if not almost impossible to target the area. It could be where the insertion points are. Here is a good read.

https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-kill-the-inner-chest-myth
 

Similar threads


Top