Inner Chest

[immebz]

heres something to consider. Do so many sets of decline bench press like 10 sets going all out 12 reps, 10, 8, 6, 12, 10, 8, 20, 15 or something like that and tell me how sore your upper chest is.

Then when your chest is fresh do all incline the same way you did decline, and tell me if your upper chest is just as sore as when you did all decline

 

[Seattleite]

heres something to consider. Do so many sets of decline bench press like 10 sets going all out 12 reps, 10, 8, 6, 12, 10, 8, 20, 15 or something like that and tell me how sore your upper chest is.

Then when your chest is fresh do all incline the same way you did decline, and tell me if your upper chest is just as sore as when you did all decline

Totally irrelevant. The chest will still grow overall as one unit, regardless of where you place the emphasis of the load. You're not going to only grow in the "upper chest" no matter how sore you try to make it. All the incline will do is involve more of the shoulders, force you to use less weight, and will therefore lead to less stimulation/growth directly to the chest. The decline is a much shorter range of motion, which makes it the "half squat" (to use someone else's example) of the bench press variety.

 

[dabuffguy]

Totally irrelevant. The chest will still grow overall as one unit, regardless of where you place the emphasis of the load. You're not going to only grow in the "upper chest" no matter how sore you try to make it. All the incline will do is involve more of the shoulders, force you to use less weight, and will therefore lead to less stimulation/growth directly to the chest. The decline is a much shorter range of motion, which makes it the "half squat" (to use someone else's example) of the bench press variety.

Actually, you CAN grow the upper chest apart from the mid/lower chest(one unit). Look at an anatomy chart of the muscular system. Your pec is divided about 2/3 the way up your chest. Upper pectoral and lower pectoral.


There are many people who do not have an appealing chest, even with good size, because their upper pec is undeveloped. It gives the chest an almost sagging (muscle boobs) appeareance. Incline is the only way to get a full and tight good looking chest.

Search for khemix's profile pic and you will see his chest is full, sits high and tight. He has a great chest.

 

[SaiBoT]

Actually, you CAN grow the upper chest apart from the mid/lower chest(one unit). Look at an anatomy chart of the muscular system. Your pec is divided about 2/3 the way up your chest. Upper pectoral and lower pectoral.


There are many people who do not have an appealing chest, even with good size, because their upper pec is undeveloped. It gives the chest an almost sagging (muscle boobs) appeareance. Incline is the only way to get a full and tight good looking chest.

Search for khemix's profile pic and you will see his chest is full, sits high and tight. He has a great chest.[/QUOTE

Bro forget it no matter how hard you try, you are not going to convince seatleite because he is, how can I say it... dogmatic...

 

[SaiBoT]

I will just say that the inclined are great and I love them. Actually some people who can't adjust to bench press very well, find in low incline bench presses a better option for not busting they shoulders... and building muscle.

 

[dabuffguy]

Actually, you CAN grow the upper chest apart from the mid/lower chest(one unit). Look at an anatomy chart of the muscular system. Your pec is divided about 2/3 the way up your chest. Upper pectoral and lower pectoral.


There are many people who do not have an appealing chest, even with good size, because their upper pec is undeveloped. It gives the chest an almost sagging (muscle boobs) appeareance. Incline is the only way to get a full and tight good looking chest.

Search for khemix's profile pic and you will see his chest is full, sits high and tight. He has a great chest.[/QUOTE

Bro forget it no matter how hard you try, you are not going to convince seatleite because he is, how can I say it... dogmatic...

He is extremly opinionated, and that is called, what we say in the athletic world, uncoachable.

Just look at a picture of a pectoral muscle chart. Even look at BBers in contest condition. You can see that the chest attaches at many different angles across the ribcage and sternum.

Incline pressing WILL target the upper portion of the chest more directly and give you better upper chest development. you can even feel it with your hands if you do the motion of flat and incline press, that the incline involves the upper chest WAY MORE than the flat bench does. It's true, a fact, and anyone's opinion can't change that. He can think what he wants, and call foul at flys and incline pressing all he wants, but in the end, he is the one who will not benefit from doing them.

Now, as for inner chest devleopment, there is no way to get your inner chest to fill in by itself. That comes with development of the chest as a whole.

 

[highlander555]

Actually, you CAN grow the upper chest apart from the mid/lower chest(one unit). Look at an anatomy chart of the muscular system. Your pec is divided about 2/3 the way up your chest. Upper pectoral and lower pectoral.

God, I don't even know why I'm still posting on this, but I can't help myself.

First of all, there is no upper or lower chest. There is the Pectoralis Major and the Pectoralis Minor. The Pectoralis Minor you can't even really see, or work with any sort of bench movement.

As a thrower, I like to do inclines as it more closely mimics the motion of throwing a shot put. It does place more stress on the shoulders, which is cool with me because that's benificial to my sport.

That being said, the muscle is the muscle, an it can only contract wholy, or not at all. I don't believe in the whole upper and lower emphesis mumbo jumbo.

Man, this is just like the "how can I improve my bicep peak/lower bicep/outter quad" debates, and I don't even know why I bother to pipe in any more. It seems like some people are so set in their opinions that no amount of scientific fact is going to change their minds.

Oh well, peace out bros, and good luck with your training. :}

 

[Seattleite]

He is extremly opinionated, and that is called, what we say in the athletic world, uncoachable

How exactly am I more opinionated than you? We have 2 opposing opinions on how to train the chest, yet because mine is different than yours then I'm somehow the stubborn one? I think in the real world that is what we call narcissistic.

Incline pressing WILL target the upper portion of the chest more directly and give you better upper chest development. you can even feel it with your hands if you do the motion of flat and incline press, that the incline involves the upper chest WAY MORE than the flat bench does. It's true, a fact, and anyone's opinion can't change that. He can think what he wants, and call foul at flys and incline pressing all he wants, but in the end, he is the one who will not benefit from doing them.

So, the most concetrated part of your quad is at the top, how does this translate into what exercise you should do? Incline leg extensions? Basically, the shape of a muscle is genetic, and the pec is no exception. For all functional purposes it is one muscle, and should be trained as such.

As for the anatomy of the chest, the pectorals major is split into the clavicular and sternal portions, the anatomically upper chest is the clavicular and it's much smaller than the sternal which is anatomically the lower chest. Unfortunately the sternal and clavicular portions cannot be separately targeted short of breaking your neck, thereby severing one of the innervations.

 

[dabuffguy]

How exactly am I more opinionated than you? We have 2 opposing opinions on how to train the chest, yet because mine is different than yours then I'm somehow the stubborn one? I think in the real world that is what we call narcissistic.



So, the most concetrated part of your quad is at the top, how does this translate into what exercise you should do? Incline leg extensions? Basically, the shape of a muscle is genetic, and the pec is no exception. For all functional purposes it is one muscle, and should be trained as such.

As for the anatomy of the chest, the pectorals major is split into the clavicular and sternal portions, the anatomically upper chest is the clavicular and it's much smaller than the sternal which is anatomically the lower chest. Unfortunately the sternal and clavicular portions cannot be separately targeted short of breaking your neck, thereby severing one of the innervations.

Hey, if what you do works for you, that's fine.



Your example of the quad doesn't fit here. You can only move your leg one way. Straight out. And the quad is 4 separate muscles, hence "Quad". Your quad functions more like the tricep. Not a pectoral. Two completely different animals.

You can hold your arms and press at several angles. Pressing straight out does not fully involve the upper portion of the muscle, which in turn means less upper pectoral stimulation, and less growth. Incline pressing will stimulate the upper portion of the muscle better than a flat press, therefore giving it better growth.

I'm not saying you can train only the upper chest by itself either. All I'm saying is the incline press involves the upper portions of th emuscle more than the flat press does.

But you're right, the pec should be trained as one muscle. And doing flat & incline presses and flys is how you train that one muscle properly for best development.

 

[SaiBoT]

Ok so... by the idea of "muscle contract as a whole and no emphasis can be placed on the desire part of the muscle" I should just do deadlifts and over head presses and voila all set... because deadlifts work lower body and upper body and it's actually a push pull movement all in one exercise. And the overhead press will work the shoulder gridle as well as pecs and triceps... So I won't be needing the bodybuilding bullshit right? Iluminate me please, i'm so confused right now... My whole world just collapsed right there after those posts.