Lets c if this ends the Chest debate...

[WannaBPowerful]

OK, people are saying you cant work UPPER chest. You can only work the whole chest. On this pretty extensive site, it lists a starnal head (http://www.exrx.net/Muscles/PectoralisSternal.html) and a clavical head (http://www.exrx.net/Muscles/PectoralisClavicular.html) with the clavical head being the upper chest. Both have diagrams along with extensive information. Check it out and tell me what you think. I think this pretty much proves you can work upper chest.

 

[MarshallPenniford]

You can work it, but the question is, does it get worked any more than doing flat, or if it does, does this hold up under heavy load.

 

[gettinlarger]

maybe this will end the debate ...

the pec is one muscle ...

any incline or decline whatsoever ... will still work the pec!!

 

[CytoMel]

It is a lot genetic where the pec seems to grow the most. I have been doing a ton of flat benching and variations of flat benching for over a year maxing out every week in floor presses, board presses, flat etc and my upper pecs grow fast from flat benching. I had upper pecs even before I started training.

I know others who do a to of flat benching and get a lot of middle to lower pec development from the same presses I do.

So basicly people get different development because they are different genetically.

I dont think think that inclines will give you anymore upper chest growth than flat.

 

[Vortexx]

Somebody ought to design study where they put 100 subjects for one year on incline benches exclusively and a control group of 100 subjects on flat benches exclusively for :

MO heavy: 5 * 5
TH
WE
TH
FR medium 12 * 8
SA
SU
MO
TH heavy 5 * 5
WE
TH
FR
SA light 12 * 12
SU
MO
TH
WE heavy 5 * 5 etc....


No assistence work for chest, you have a low, medium and high reps day to allow at least some results for most subjects as you cover different fibre make-ups. 3 days rest should be enough if no other training or minimal training is done...


I would really like to see the outcome of such a field experiment....

 

[Vortexx]

Oh yes and a "placebo" control group using the abdominizer , beer and pretzels....

 

[magdelana]

Vortexx, leuk om je weer te zien hoor.

I have never seen a man develop nice fully rounded pecs from just flat benches. The angle of the motion appears to be quite important. I also agree however that there seems to be a genetic factor as well. Some fellows get that droopy tit look even though they do inclines as part of their regualar workout and there are others that are much careful about doing different movements and have far better pecs.

I am a woman that has C-level breasts so i cannot see my lower pecs anyway. After several years of flat benching only i still saw rather little beef above my boobs even while i could bench then about 190 or so. Five more years of concentrating on inclines and i now see MUCH more thickness at my sternum. My flat bench is up to around 260 now. Inclines helped my thickness obviously but they also i belive helped me to add quite a lot to my flat bench by making stronger the upper area of the pecs.

 

[Frackal]

From my experience there is DEFINITELY a difference between working upper and lower chest.

 

[Vortexx]

I think it's very insightfull to listen to the experiences of female bodybuilders here as they are usually far more into filling the upper chest than us guys (because the boobs will kinda hide lower pecs anyway)

Maybe we should continue this debate in the woman board?

 

[strong island]

IF EVERY BODYBUILDER THAT EVER WALKED THE PLANET USES INCLINES THAN WHY WOULDN'T YOU?

and there have been many EMG studies done which state that inclines do stimulate the "upper" chest slightly more than flat.

But how you work out is a personal choice...so if you don't want to do them because you don't think they are necessary to build your upper chest...THEN YOU DON'T HAVE TO.