what do you think of this chest routine?

[Elite_Fry]

incline barbell, decline barbell, flat barbell, incline db, decline db, pec deck, cable cross's
that order - 2 sets of each. one warm up set (10-15), one set max weight for 8 reps
this for mass

 

[Boss101]

Take out incline db, decline db, pec deck, cable cross over.

A chest routine for mass:

Flat bench press
Incline bench press
Weighted Dips

Sets are good keep reps in the 6-10 range.

 

[Greek Freak]

Your routine is too much, especially if your training for mass. 16 sets is pretty overboard. I would stick to 10-14 sets at the most if your drug free. If your trying for a mix of some mass and strength then you should try diff rep ranges based on your # of years training: 0-2 years => 6-12 reps
3-6 years => 5-10 reps
6-10 years=>4-8 reps
10 + years=> 3-6 reps (from t-mag)
I found the article talking about rep ranges to be pretty interesting, the way I would use it would be to do 3 sets for the exercises with the most chest recruitment and do some varying numbers of reps. Like for example on incline I would do my warm up sets starting with the bar then up to a weight you can do for 15-20 for a set of 6 or so, and then get to my work sets...the first set i would do 10(close to failure), second set up the weight a pretty good ammount and do 5-6 with a spotter, then go back to the weight you did for 10 and try and bang out 8 or 9 this time(and take 3 mins of rest between sets so you can recover enough). I could write 1000 different routines but since I dont know what exercises you like, what your strong in, and what is available to you I will just write you mine.
Normally I do something like this:
Flat DB press- warm up, 6-7, 4-5, 9-11
Incline barbell press- partial warm up(when i switch movements I put on an easy(like something you could do for 20) weight and just bang out a couple to get a feel for the movement..i think this makes me more comfortable and powerful for my work sets). Then for my work sets i will do 10, 6, 12
Smith Machine flat presses(dont knock it till you try it, you can focus on a slow negative, a long pause and then explosive positive without worrying about much stabilization) for this I will do one set of 6 with 3 sec. pauses(not to failure..a weight you could do 7 maybe 8 with), and then a set of 8 with 2 sec pauses(slightly heavier than the weight I used for 6, complete failure on the 8)
Decline dumbell flys-dont go too heavy because form and focusing on contractions is more important. I do 10-12 then up the db's 5 lbs a piece and try and get 8-10
After all this I head over to the flat bench(a big compound movement) and put on a weight that if I was fresh I could do for 18-20 and try and bang out a real strict 10 with a fairly slow tempo then drop the weight and try and do 5 more(like 225 drop to 135)
after this you have done 11 sets so far, so now your chest prob isnt producing too much power but your not finished...it is time to head to the machines. You can do any machine, hammer strength press or crossovers/pec deck for just 2 more sets..then stretch and make sure you get a some liquid protein to help you recover.

 

[Elite_Fry]

well i actually havnt started using it yet... someone i know recomended it to me cos he uses it and it works great for him

 

[gymtime]

Take out incline db, decline db, pec deck, cable cross over.

A chest routine for mass:

Flat bench press
Incline bench press
Weighted Dips

Sets are good keep reps in the 6-10 range.

Yup. Only thing I'd add is to make one of those presses a db exercise.

 

[Greek Freak]

Yea, make do either incline or flat DB presses, the other BB. But I would also add in a decline movement of some sort too, especially if your a beginner normally you can handle the most weight in those and they are the exercise with the least ammount of shoulder involvement. Weighted dips? I hope your not planning on training tri's anywhere near chest otherwise your gonna be in trouble. Mass doesnt depend on exercises all that much anyway, you can try and do some chest specialization by working it first thing in the week, or maybe even twice a week but as long as your training hard and eating right your chest should grow. Another thing that may be holding you back is your pec minor(if your gonna do chest twice a week you could do pec minor one day..check out www.testosterone.net for an article on training underlying muscles...i think it is called "pop em out muscles" or something). For a lot of guys chest doesnt come easy, you may even want to try to lighten up your weight, make sure you have a relativly wide grip and full range of motion with things and really make your chest contract on each rep. Then you just gotta be patient.

 

[Steve281]

well i actually havnt started using it yet... someone i know recomended it to me cos he uses it and it works great for him

Keep in mind that just b/c it worked for him doesn't mean that it will work for you. No 2 people are exactly the same. Also, it looks like you may overtrain with that program, so take it slow at first.

 

[Greek Freak]

Steve is right, no two people are the same...I was just posting my routine to give him an idea of what some people do. I have a strong chest and pretty good recovery so I can do around 12 sets for my workouts and not overtrain but that doesnt go the same for everyone, I know some guys who do 6 sets for smaller muscle groups and get good results. To start out maybe cut out one exercise from the routine I listed and try it out....and possibly substitute some of the things I do for exercises you like more/are stronger in, but I feel my program has a decent ammount of variation in it.