chest isn't responding

[tkav1980]

im going into my 15th week of a training program and im getting a great response in the rest of my body in the form of noticeable size and increased strength. however, my chest isnt responding like everything else. heres what im doing. flat bench 1 x 8 @365(warm up then one work set to failure), incline bench 1 x 7 @ 315, hammer strength incline chest press Plated out with (each side) 100lb plate + 3 x 45's for 8 reps to failure. now every week if i hit 8 reps i up the weight by 5 lbs the next week and if i fall short i work the reps up to 8 before i add weight. thats wed. then on sat i do it over again using db press, decline press, and fly's. im just not getting the growth in my chest like im getting everywhere else. is my chest just slower to respond? in the past ive always worked my chest harder than everything else just because i love doing it and it always seemed to be able to handle more in terms of weight and volume. but since ive switched yes the strength went up but no noticeable size. do you think maybe doing these sets rest pause might help or just keep plugging away and try to break that 400lb mark for reps?

 

[PHIL HERNON]

Well

im going into my 15th week of a training program and im getting a great response in the rest of my body in the form of noticeable size and increased strength. however, my chest isnt responding like everything else. heres what im doing. flat bench 1 x 8 @365(warm up then one work set to failure), incline bench 1 x 7 @ 315, hammer strength incline chest press Plated out with (each side) 100lb plate + 3 x 45's for 8 reps to failure. now every week if i hit 8 reps i up the weight by 5 lbs the next week and if i fall short i work the reps up to 8 before i add weight. thats wed. then on sat i do it over again using db press, decline press, and fly's. im just not getting the growth in my chest like im getting everywhere else. is my chest just slower to respond? in the past ive always worked my chest harder than everything else just because i love doing it and it always seemed to be able to handle more in terms of weight and volume. but since ive switched yes the strength went up but no noticeable size. do you think maybe doing these sets rest pause might help or just keep plugging away and try to break that 400lb mark for reps?

Inclines are a horrible chest exercise........drop them

 

[cpesloco]

Inclines are a horrible chest exercise........drop them

I remember Arnold saying flat bench flat chest. I also remember reading something about incline using a higher % of muscles when doing the excercise.

Can you shed some light please.

 

[Ness]

My chest was always my weakest point. I lost all hope. Ive been on Phil's program for 6 months and my chest has been my fastest growing muscle group. No inclines for me ever again....they do not recruit the highest % of the chest.

 

[PHIL HERNON]

Well

I remember Arnold saying flat bench flat chest. I also remember reading something about incline using a higher % of muscles when doing the excercise.

Can you shed some light please.

Show me that study

 

[maldorf]

I'd have to say that inclines put too much stress on the shoulders and not enough on the chest. Declines work best in my opinion, or very shallow inclines. I like to set an adjustable bench up with it set on the lowest notch so that its a very low angle. Doing flat bench is terrible too in my opinion.

 

[bigguns078]

I've responded great these past 6 weeks doing DC training.. Especially for chest size.. Heavy smith flat presses (stopping several inches from my chest) and dante's modified pec deck press have really filled out my chest..

 

[tkav1980]

sounds good phil ill dropthe inclines. any suggestions as to what i should replace them with?

 

[Ali]

sounds good phil ill dropthe inclines. any suggestions as to what i should replace them with?

Dips and Declines

 

[tkav1980]

already do the declines but ill add the dips. ive always felt dips more in my tri's though no matter how i do them.

 

[thebrick]

Everybody has lagging parts. Some are just slower to respond on everybody. Genetics. I do agree that incline movements are terrible and way overrated. I don't believe you can hit only parts of the pec muscle. If stimulated, the pec will grow… the entire pec muscle.

 

[tkav1980]

Everybody has lagging parts. Some are just slower to respond on everybody. Genetics. I do agree that incline movements are terrible and way overrated. I don't believe you can hit only parts of the pec muscle. If stimulated, the pec will grow… the entire pec muscle.

thats what im not understanding. im hitting them heavy, with low volume, and 2 times a week. every other body part is responding well. prior my chest was the part of my body that always developed first.

 

[BoaMan]

I'm really liking floor presses. I've been doing them for a few weeks and am already getting great response.

 

[Dubs]

im going into my 15th week of a training program and im getting a great response in the rest of my body in the form of noticeable size and increased strength. however, my chest isnt responding like everything else. heres what im doing. flat bench 1 x 8 @365(warm up then one work set to failure), incline bench 1 x 7 @ 315, hammer strength incline chest press Plated out with (each side) 100lb plate + 3 x 45's for 8 reps to failure. now every week if i hit 8 reps i up the weight by 5 lbs the next week and if i fall short i work the reps up to 8 before i add weight. thats wed. then on sat i do it over again using db press, decline press, and fly's. im just not getting the growth in my chest like im getting everywhere else. is my chest just slower to respond? in the past ive always worked my chest harder than everything else just because i love doing it and it always seemed to be able to handle more in terms of weight and volume. but since ive switched yes the strength went up but no noticeable size. do you think maybe doing these sets rest pause might help or just keep plugging away and try to break that 400lb mark for reps?

I would definitely recommend floor presses, either on a smith, or free.. That would be my favorite chest exercise because it gives me the best strength/size gains for chest..

I've responded great these past 6 weeks doing DC training.. Especially for chest size.. Heavy smith flat presses (stopping several inches from my chest) and dante's modified pec deck press have really filled out my chest..

If its not too much of a problem, could you please explain the pec dec press?

 

[bigguns078]

If its not too much of a problem, could you please explain the pec dec press?

**broken link removed**

I did not start light with high reps as recommended.. I went heavy to failure.. I had to have my training partner stand on the weight stack for added resistance.. I also used the pec dec/chest butterfly machine they had in my gym, which was very similiar to the one dante recommends..

 

[thebrick]

thats what im not understanding. im hitting them heavy, with low volume, and 2 times a week. every other body part is responding well. prior my chest was the part of my body that always developed first.

But it sounds like you are doing a lot of incline work which is an inefficient way to target chest. Try substituting those with flat barbell/dumbells, weighted dips, declines etc.

 

[pesty4077]

I had one of the worse chests, there were two exercices that made my chest grow: Weighted Dips and dumbell pullovers.

 

[Blenderate]

-

 

[Jarconis]

dang, im trying to find this study that had guys do an exercise, then they went straight to an mri to see what kind of hypertrophy had taken place, and for chest, they said that decline dumb bell showed the most amount of hypertrophy

 

[pesty4077]

I would love a further explanation. It feels like my pecs get hit more directly from inclines than any other compound exercise. I feel declines more in my lats and shoulders, and dips more in my triceps.

You will feel your triceps when doing dips, try leaning forward with heavy weight, make sure it is a dip bar. I get tremendous pumps with dips.