Upper Chest and Lower chest. Can they be trained?

[SSAlexSS]

hello all!

Does doing incline db presses work upper chest? And normal db presses work ONLY lower chest?


What if I do ONLY inclines, would it develop nice upper chest and lower chest? Or I need to do both to have complete chest?

Basicly. which exercise is better? inclines or normal db presses?

I am looking for one supperior exercise out of these two.


Also is a split chest a genetic trait or it can be achieved? I mean I know that bicep shape is genetic (split, massive, long. think, high peaked). What about chest? Anyone know?

reply please to this nice question.

Thanks!

 

[Cackerot69]

No you can't.

Decline press is the best, a flat is better than an incline, though.

 

[Tuna Guy]

Science says no, but hey who the fuck is science.

 

[musclefattie]

guys at my gym do a lot of inclines, personally for me they don't work my upper chest but my outter chest where it joins the shoulders. Stick to dips and flat or dips and declines. The only time i have ever targetted the upper chest only was when doing machine flies or try doing this:

smith machine flat press(don't laugh) but bring the weight down to where you collar bone is. You'll have to go light, but this might hit your upper chest more than other areas. Good question about the split chest, hope someone else can answer.

 

[Robboe]

I agree with cackerot.

 

[Cackerot69]

"Science says no, but hey who the fuck is science."

So does real life experiences, show me a before/after pic in which an individuals muscle has changed shape.

 

[SSAlexSS]

guys at my gym do a lot of inclines, personally for me they don't work my upper chest but my outter chest where it joins the shoulders. Stick to dips and flat or dips and declines. The only time i have ever targetted the upper chest only was when doing machine flies or try doing this:

smith machine flat press(don't laugh) but bring the weight down to where you collar bone is. You'll have to go light, but this might hit your upper chest more than other areas. Good question about the split chest, hope someone else can answer.

Some good ideas. Except I don't have a dip station .


Inclines work your outer chest? Flyes do that is what I have heard.

You know I have heard from 'Flex" that inclines put more stress on chest and less on shoulders. Any truth in that?

I wished that I had Franco Columbo like chest. He had a grand canyon between his lower and upper chest....



1

 

[teslet]

I somewhat disagree with both Cackrot69 and Robboe.

EMG studies conducted, showed that "the incline position produces just slightly more electrical energy in the upper pecs that either the flat or decline positions. "

Read: http://nbaf.com/nbaf/apr8pgg.html

Hey SSAlex, see the site and the same muscles are worked in the flat DB presses as in flat BB press, only with DB presses your muscles require greater demand of use of stabilizers.

Normal DB presses will not "only" work the lower pecs, synergists (muslces that assist another) are used also! ex, in this case the obvious synergists in this movement for the lower pecs (Pec.major. Sternal head) are: the upper pecs (Pec.major, Clavicular head), anterior deltiod, triceps brachii.

If you want clearer definitions of synergists and stabilizers, much more, see:

http://www.exrx.net/Exercise.html

and

http://www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html
(My favorite part of the site)

I doubt there is any one single movement in lifting weights that requires only the use of one single muscle without the demand of another synergist or stabilizer.

You can achieve whatever you want to, quit thinking about genes! "Great genes" were forged from hard work and then passed down.

 

[SSAlexSS]

I somewhat disagree with both Cackrot69 and Robboe.

EMG studies conducted, showed that "the incline position produces just slightly more electrical energy in the upper pecs that either the flat or decline positions. "

Read: http://nbaf.com/nbaf/apr8pgg.html

Hey SSAlex, see the site and the same muscles are worked in the flat DB presses as in flat BB press, only with DB presses your muscles require greater demand of use of stabilizers.

Normal DB presses will not "only" work the lower pecs, synergists (muslces that assist another) are used also! ex, in this case the obvious synergists in this movement for the lower pecs (Pec.major. Sternal head) are: the upper pecs (Pec.major, Clavicular head), anterior deltiod, triceps brachii.

If you want clearer definitions of synergists and stabilizers, much more, see:

http://www.exrx.net/Exercise.html

and

http://www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html
(My favorite part of the site)

I doubt there is any one single movement in lifting weights that requires only the use of one single muscle without the demand of another synergist or stabilizer.

You can achieve whatever you want to, quit thinking about genes ! "Great genes" were forged from hard work and then passed down.

Unfortunately genes DO dictate your progress and your max muscle size/shape.


Unfortunately I want to be a pro bodybuilder but I don't have genetics for that. NO!!!!!! Maybe I should aim at lesser ideal.... ARNOLD SCHWARTZNEGGER look....

 

[goahead]

YUP , genes definately pose limits, BUT

you never you your limit until you REALLY tried!

 

[MonStar1023]

CANT isolate upper/lower pecs

In my opinion... I would definitely say that its impossible to isolate strictly your upper or strictly your lower pecs completely. Every chest exercise that I know of activated your upper and lower pecs to a degree. Incline presses will push more of the stress onto your upper pecs and front delts however your not completely romoving your lower pecs from the movement.

 

[Exodus]

here is what works for me

db flat

db incline

and the db decline


...... the reason is that flat is the mother of all and you can generally use more weight there .......(i know people can decline bench more but you didnt even list it so i doubt you even do it).... the hit your upper just for that stretch on the outside like musclefattie said......

the since your chest gets more stimulation from db decline then any other chest movement you do it last.... your tri's and your shoulders are fried so your chest takes the brunt of the stress.......

hey..... that and a ton of rowing for my back has increased my chest size 3 inches in just 3 months....

it worked for me

 

[MrMuscle]

i wont touch this again..i got my ass kicked on the lats one..noooo way

 

[Burning Rage]

Overall Chest Workout

A good overall chest workout that Casey Viator had me try was:

1. Pec Deck Flyes * x 10-12
supersetted with
2. Incline Dumbbell Press * x 10-12

3. Flat Bench Press * x 10-12
4. Dips * x10-12

* I'm not going to list sets, because everyone handles volume differently. I did 5 sets per exercise, but not all of them were to failure. The intensity was pyramided, but the reps aren't. The first 2 sets of each exercie were light to moderate and the last 3 were intense. I believe everyone should cycle their training. I did this routine a while ago and I liked it. You only work chest once a week. If you want an intense workout, try this. What I've noticed is that a lot of the top pros like Coleman and Wheeler use heavy weights for high reps, around 10-15. I believe this is a great way to stimulate muscle growth. Lifting heavy weights at an higher rep range is challenging. If you're a beginner, I recommend doing now more than 4-8 sets total for each body part. I plan on doing this routine again soon. Just need to get back in gear from my long lay off. Always do 1-2 warm up sets and then take the last remaining set to muscle failure. And use different rep ranges if it makes you feel more comfortable.

 

[Belial]

i wont touch this again..i got my ass kicked on the lats one..noooo way

lol.

 

[Cackerot69]

teslet, EMG tests are very flawed. They are not capable of predicting hypertrophy for a number of reasons.

The upper and lower chest cannot be seperately targeted, period. I can prove it a million times, but some of you guys will just keep with that wishful thinking because of what some little guy ghost wrote in Flex magazine.

 

[natasan]

I've honestly been told that incline is far better than decline. A lot of the power lifters and strength trainers at my gym don't even do decline of any form. A lot of them don't even touch dumbbells anyway.

I do decline, but I do put a lot more emphasis on incline. Decline is going to build up more mass, incline is going to be where you can show off more definition.

 

[Robboe]

teslet, EMG tests are very flawed. They are not capable of predicting hypertrophy for a number of reasons.

Come on Justin, i know you wrote that so someone would ask you why they aren't capable. I know why, but some of these lot don't, so get impressing!

 

[HeavyDutyGuy]

This question can be answered if you think for a moment. What is the function the pectoralis major?, of the pectoralis mino?. Well form follows function.......

 

[Cackerot69]

Exactly, the clavicular and sternal pectorals major share the same fuctions, origins, and instertions, and the pec minorm assists in all of these. There is one way to relatively isolate the pec minor, put your arms out in front of you and protract your scapula (push with your shoulders) w/o bending the arms...see that little muscle that contracts near your arm pit? That's the pec minor...note how little the difference is.

 

[Cackerot69]

OK, let my try to squash this EMG bug...

Electromyography (EMG) tests are not considered accurate in measuring muscle fiber stimulation during the eccentric (lowering) portion of exercise, because during eccentric contraction less fibers are stimulated but damaged to a greater degree. Therefore on an EMG test it would read that there is little activity when in fact there is a lot of muscle fiber stimulation, and because of this EMG tests are not accurate in predicting hypertrophy. The EMG test in itself is also flawed because just knowing which motor units are firing doesn’t mean you can tell which fibers are contracting (which is what EMG tests determine). The problem with emphasizing different portions or heads of muscles in in the way they are innervated. Motor neurons are aligned along the center of the muscle, each neuron innervates a number of fibers (the number of fibers varies). When that line of neurons are fired, all of them fire. In other words - when a muscle contracts, it all contracts making sectional hypertrophy impossible. Another often overlooked fact is that even though there may be a different level of activation in fibers, this difference is so small that disproportionate hypertrophy would not result. Additionally the number of test subjects are very small, Bompa usually uses 3-5 subjects which leaves a lot of room for error. I could go on and on, but suffice to say that EMG tests are not accurate measures of muscle fiber stimulation and are not capable of predicting hypertrophy.

 

[teslet]

I never claimed that only one muscle can be singly targeted, they are all working together.

What you should have said is that the pec. minor actually assists the serratus anterior in protacting the scapula. That above website also gives a great exercise for working the serratus anterior.