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Need some help with chest routine..

Wildhunter99

New member
Everypart of my body is great. except my chest. After I work it out it looks awsome and keeps up with my whole body, but after it rests it shrinks :(
I'm sitting at 5'7, 210, 11%.. I'm currently dieting.. i just finished a cycle.. and waiting to start another shortly.

I just started this recommended by some other board guys.. I would like some input if you have any :) My most concern is making the gap between my chest smaller and increasing the size outwards :)

My current plan looks like this.. just started this week
Flat dumbell press.. 4sets x8-10reps
Incline dumbell press.. 4 sets x8-10 reps
Flat cable Flies- 4sets x8-10reps
Decline bench- 4 setsx 8-10reps

I heard decline was useless.. I wouldnt mind throwing that exercise out and adding something else. .. Any ideas?
Should I drop the reps for each exercises to about 5-6reps?

Thanks guys!
 
Declines have been shown to activate more chest muscle fibers than any other chest exercise. Also, they help take delts out of the equation so your chest has to do more of the work. I am a big advocate of them because I have very long arms and declines shorten the ROM. I would not recommend dropping them.

NateDogg
 
If you want to change the declines to something else, I would start doing some weighted dips. The amount of reps is more of a personal thing. My goal is to acheive more mass and strength so my rep range is usually 6-8.
 
article on decline press

The most underused chest exercise -
The Decline Dumbbell Press

It's a Monday afternoon and you arrive at the gym at most of the guys at the gym are training chest. I see most of these guys week after week doing exactly the same workouts for chest and they are wondering why their chests are not growing.
You see even if you train your ass of in the gym with no variety after a period of time you will get no results. I suggest you guys give the decline dumbbell bench press a try and you will see results within weeks.

To perform the decline press start with the dumbbells just out side your upper chest and press them up towards the midline until they almost touch in the center. Then lower the dumbbells back down in a slow and controlled manner. The speed in which you move the dumbbells on the positive and negative movements is very important with this exercise, as your body isn't in a stable position. Keep the speed the same on the way up and then on the way down. Always keep control. Be sure to have the bench at about a 30-degree angle, this isn't too extreme but it will hit the lower region of your pecs. Make sure you drive your arms directly up in the positive portion of the rep as letting your arms to the side will allow gravity take a hold of the weight and take to the ground with your arms attached.

I cannot believe how this movement is so neglected. The decline Press gives your chest that sharp cut look towards the bottom and is what comple6es the chest separating it from the abs, it rounds out the chest and helps to make it look fuller and gives the chest more thickness than the flat or incline movements can do. As this exercise is primarily used for the lower pectorals it does place a great deal of stress on the middle and upper chest also.

For beginners start out light as it will take 2-3 workouts to get used to the movement required but once you have the movement to a T you will experience enormous gains.

This exercise can also be done with a barbell but is not recommend before you use the dumbbells for about 4 weeks to get your shoulders accustomed to the exercise to prevent injury.

Remember by keeping proper form you not only minimize injury but you will increase your size as well. Its not how much you lift, it's the way you lift it.

Give this exercise a try and you will notice a change in the developments of your chest.
 
This is from an article that helped one of my friends break a plateau

Week 1:

Monday
*Bench Press with three sets of eight, all taken to failure, 3-5 minute breaks

*Dumbbell Press first set for eight, and stay with that weight for 2 more sets to failure 2-4 minute breaks

*"Heady" presses (named after my partner, Jason Heady) these are basically a superset, you take a weight about half what you dumbbell pressed, and do alternating flyes and presses with it, but with the presses keep your elbows in and your palms facing each other. Alternate the two for 12 reps each, take a minute break, then see how many more you can pump out.

*Superset flyes and French presses for two sets of 8-12 reps rest a minute before the next

*Superset parallel bar dips and rope pressdowns for 8-12 reps -if by this time you cannot do bodyweight dips, put your feet on the floor and assist as little as necessary to bring yourself up. Looks retarded but its what I did for my first month and at the end of 4 months I was strappin' on a plate-

*Finally, do two sets of dumbbell kickbacks. You shouldn't use much for this, I only use a 15 or 20 depending. The important thing is to keep your elbow high, your back straight, and get a good squeeze at the top. Do continuous sets since one muscle gets to rest as the other is working.

Thursday:
This is the "feeder" workout. You'll do all incline movements because they do not activate as many chest fibers, preventing you from overtraining, but they also activate enough to flush the muscle with blood, get a pump, and consequentially improve your recovery.

Alternate free weight incline and smith machine incline each week for 12, 10, and 8

Dumbbell Inclines with the same reps

Cable flyes with the arms high to focus on the upper chest for the same reps

I usually train shoulders on this day, I think its a good time to. I usually did lateral raises, behind the neck presses, bent lateral raises, an Arnold presses. The reps aren't vitally important, as long as your fatiguing the shoulders and going to your max.

On the incline movements you should go till you feel a good burn, but not to failure.

Week 2

All the same except bench press reps change to 10, 8, 6, 4

Week 3

Bench reps change to 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

Week 4

Bench starts over but on dumbbell presses you will not do a fourth drop set where you lay down the dumbbells you have and grab some about half that weight.

On successive weeks change out some of the auxiliary exercises. Like instead of heady presses do EZ curl bar presses, with a close grip. These are fantastic for improving the striations in the inner pec and bringing out that "diamond". Also, in place of rope pressdowns you can do straight bar, reverse V bar, or diamond push ups. Instead of flyes their are cable flyes. A key factor in this program is flexibility, always keep the same number of exercises, but switch them out for similar ones. Also one thing I liked to do at the end was a set of incline push ups to failure, that'll be harder than anything but if you really want what your after you'll do it. Sometimes, on incline day you may start with incline dumbbell presses, then do incline barbell/smith machine presses. Variety is important and with this program AND varying your auxiliaries from week to week, you can continue to make gains on this program for quite a while. I've been off this program for about 2 months, I've been concentrating on improving my lats, which I have because I put another inch on my chest circumference. I'm planning on going back to this program and include my killer lat workout I'm doing, which I'll write about also.
 
Thanks for the help guys.

Playdo- Is that just for monday and thursday? What about the rest of the week.. go on and do my normal routine?
 
tzan said:
If you want to change the declines to something else, I would start doing some weighted dips. The amount of reps is more of a personal thing. My goal is to acheive more mass and strength so my rep range is usually 6-8.

I agree, lower your reps to the 6-8 range.
 
Unless your still on gear, I would cut out some of those sets. Your just doing to damn much.

And, um, do you ever periodize your training? That is probably one of your problems.
 
Wildhunter99 - like everything except that you don't include flies (at any angle) in your workout. cable flies are great and all, but if you are considering removing the decline bench, i would advise replacing it with flies. as for the number of reps, i think its great, and should be good for building mass. if you want to experiement with lower reps, then go ahead, do it for a few sessions and see what happens. generally speaking tho, your numbers look good. overall, good workout, cept no flies. peace.

matt
 
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