Upper chest help

[Grant]

My upper chest is not responding like I would like it to. Can anyone offer some advice? My chest, in general, get sore after a workout. Usually does not matter if it is low or high reps as long as it is heavy.

a typical workout is as follows:

1) BB or DB flat press or incline press 5 sets of 5-7 reps

2) BB or DB incline press 3-4 sets of 12-10 reps. ( usually incline if first exercise is flat. Sometimes I do two incline presses in same workout. one will be BB while other is DB)

3) flat DB flys 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps - I feel these add mass to my overall chest, specially outer area.

4) Incline cable or DB flys - 2-3 sets of 10-12 reps.

I sometimes super set # 3 and 4 or I will do drop sets, just depending on what I feel like that day.

Flat BB pressing is done with a medium grip as a "wide" grip bothers my shoulder. Besides the pain, BB flat press seems to make my lower and middle pec areas grow. I'm trying to avoid a "droop" look. Most flat pressing is done with DB's.

All incline exercises are done at 45 degree or lower. I cary the height from set to set or workout to workout.

Smith machine is avoided since I feel I don;t get anything from it.

I either do chest once per week or twice. If twice, I would cut the volume in the above workout by about 1/3.

My shoulder have also been getting sore, as in muscle fatigue, not injury. I know chest workout use a front delts but sometimes I feel my delts are just as sore as my chest.

I have been thinking of doing front raises on a regular basis as they are supposed to help the front delt/pec tie in???

Thanks and much appreciated.

[beckie]

Hi Grant,if you read the thread entitled 'bi-laws' you will find a summary of how Eric(bodyfx) suggests you lift for chest.

[Grant]

Thanks Beckie,

I read the article and had great info.

Is there any substitue for the benches to the neck? I actually tried those a few months ago at the end of my chest routine and it bothered my shoulder.

[RUBICON19]

3 sets of Incl smith press Rest Pause style!

[cuts280]

Try starting your workout with Decline Press. Lot of people mistake it to be a lower chest builder. Not really, Decline's work your entire chest. Plus another advantage is that it minimizes the shoulder involvement to a great degree hence isolating the chest further. Just my two cents.

[beckie]

you could do the incline presses like Randy suggested or maybe if your gym has one a Hammer Chest press,which you can adjust the seat with and use different hand grips.
Keeping the chest high on the incline presses takes practice but it definitely takes out alot of the tricep/shoulder and improves the appearance of the upper chest.
You probably should avoid the clavicle/Gironda presses if you experience shoulder pain as they do stress the shoulder quite significantly.

[Grant]

Thanks for the replies.

I will give the rest pause style a try. I would have to use DB's as I train aone.

My gym does have a Hammer chest press. I have occasionally used it and felt it in my chest. I will use it more often and make notes on how I repsond. Thanks for reminding me , Beckie.

Another thing I will start using is feet elevated pushups- probably at the end of the routine so my chest is already fatigued.

I'll keep plugging away till I find something that works.

[RUBICON19]

OK. DB's will be hard to do in this manner. Its difficult to get them back into position for RP sets. You need something that you can go to failure on without all th balancing. This is why i suggeted INCL Smith press. No spotter needed to go to failure

Try this:

Incl smith 3 x RP
Flat DB press 5 x 5
Very LOW incl DB flye 3 x drop sets
Cable cross 3 x double drops

[mrky03]

I increased my upper chest from just doing heavy incline's with barbells and dumbbells. HEAVY WEIGHT 4-6 reps. I'm doing a lot of different things now but I still believe that you cannot beat the heavy basics.

[Intensity]

Great replies everyone!

I recommend to experiment failure on incline exercises! As Randy said, a rest-pause approach is an excellent way to do it.

As for the choice of exercises, I also agree that if you really want to go failure and effectively use rest-pause, you need to find exercises which you'll be able to do it safely, For chest, it often mean machines or Smith.

Greater upper chest will also come with an overall chest development... so make sure to hit your entire chest hard, on many angles and with enough volume, frequency and regularity!

Good luck!

[RUBICON19]

intensity said:

Great replies everyone!

I recommend to experiment failure on incline exercises! As Randy said, a rest-pause approach is an excellent way to do it.

As for the choice of exercises, I also agree that if you really want to go failure and effectively use rest-pause, you need to find exercises which you'll be able to do it safely, For chest, it often mean machines or Smith.

Greater upper chest will also come with an overall chest development... so make sure to hit your entire chest hard, on many angles and with enough volume, frequency and regularity!

Good luck!

Agreed!

My chest is my worst BP. I am still working on bringing it up. I have stuck with training it 1x per week, but may move it up to train it more frequently..

[Sal Paradise]

I can only say I if I do incline presses at an angle anywhere above 30deg it takes the stress off my chest and transfers it to my shoulders.
I usually take a flat bench and put a plate under it or use an adjustable bench at the lowest setting.
This is what I have found works for me.

I'll have to read the post by Eric(bodyfx) for pointers myself.


Sal