Off the Wall--Outside the Box Chest Exercises

[BigBilly]

My attachments do suck,

can you explain?

[BBD]

Nothing beats the basics, nothing.

Find a flat bench, find a comfortable grip and go to town.

Im definetly one to agree with this. I feel like most people who tend to have a weaker chest dont stick it out long enough to get a good solid feel on a bench press with free weights. At first you might feel it more in ur delts or triceps etc but eventually wen everything evens out you will start to develop enough strength with good form and a mind muscle where you'll hit the pec hard regardless.

Think of a the strongest bodypart that you have both visually and physically....you prob train it hard and heavy with the basic movements and it responds. Now for example me with weaker legs etc, I havent stuck it out long enoug in the squat rack to get a groove down where I can hammer my legs with them...so I opt for more isolation type work ie machine etc and Im left with below par wheels. This is what I will change.

If I was to use any type of variation away from the basics the only thing Id do is start out by fckn HAMMERING my chest with a pec dec or db fly to pre exhaust the muscle then move into a barbell or db press if you beleive in that theory. You wil DEF be sore the next day but overalll I found that starting right out with a solid 4 sets of incline and 4 sets flat or decline or vica versa and getting as strong as you can with a good contraction will get u where u need to be the fastest.

Think of the skinny guy in the gym who looks the same month after month...and hes over in the corner standing one of those half balls with the rubber base doing one arm cable presses trying to feel every inch of the motion...his chest is shallower than puddle on top of a hill.

[cft05]

Ya I love doin bench press, I go very slow on the way down (around 4-5 seconds) and go all the way to the chest, I bring it down to my upper chest then squeeze it up rather than bouncing and all that crap. I stick to the exercises I can feel all throughout the movement and this, by far, is one of them

[AVBG]

An exercise that gets you into the peak contraction to squeeze out the pecs is dips leaning forward with stopping just short at the lockout is a sound movement. There you get a deep stretch at the bottom with a focused contraction at the top.. If not done already throw the exercise at the end of the workout.

[Scoobysnacks]

can you explain?

attachments bro full bellies or short muscles. If you have full biceps you have less of a gap to the elbow. Therefore you can build more. My chest attachments from nipple to armpit. Look at a guy with a full chest and he will have a ton of meat down by his serratus into the armpit. Therefore has more space to build the chest.

My triceps are full and therefore my arms look bigger for my size they attach close to the bones and therefore there is more muscle to build. Look at a guy with a short long head tricep attachment and I guarantee his arms look smaller.

[UnfinishedBusiness]

Scoob, I had a buddy who had pecs very similar to yours. He also had very strong delts and Triceps like you do.

He made incredible progress after years of trying the basics, by starting off with really heavy incline flyes. But, he would go so heavy that it was not a traditional fly, but more of a hybrid between a fly and a DB bench press.

He did them in the 6-8 range and really focussed on the stretch at the bottom.

This was the only exercise he was able to do that really took his tri's and delts out of the equation.

Saw significant pec improvements from these pretty quickly too.

Certainly not outside the box, but something I have seen work on a build similar to yours.

[UnfinishedBusiness]

My upper chest sucks but I feel like I've brought it up quite a bit in the last year. I think what has helped me a lot is doing a variation of an incline fly. It's really between a fly and a press and allows me to go a hell of a lot heavier than I normally would on a typical incline fly and contract my upper chest a lot more by taking a lot of the weight off of my anterior delts. This guy (Dr. Clay Hyght) sums up the movement pretty well:

"I have one exercise I call a dumbbell fly-press. Grab some dumbbells and start halfway between the fly and press position. Your elbows shouldn't be too close to your body. Now press the weight up and pronate your hands to finish in the "press" position. That takes care of horizontal adduction and internal rotation of the humerus at the same time, which is exactly what your chest was designed to do. So you're going to get one hell of a contraction at the top."

For the longest time I was supinating my hands at the top of the movement instead of pronating them thinking that I could get a better contraction. But from what I've experienced, supinating your hands at the top of the movement doesn't actually contract your chest harder, it basically just makes your arms push your chest up, giving the illusion that it's being contracted harder. Just my two cents though.

I made my post without reading this one, this is exactly what my buddy did and it made a huge difference.

[Provo82]

Hey Scooby my chest is my best body part whether it be from genetics or training or a combination i hope i still have some insight that may work for you. I Dont do anything thats to out of the box but ill post an example of a few workouts that i do. For one thing though i center my training around barbell presses.

Workout 1
Flat Bench Press with Barbell-20(for warming up)-10-8-6
Incline Barbell Press-8-6-4 drop 6
Flat Flys(w ass hanging off edge of seat to isolate more chest)-10-10-10
Cable Crossover-12-12-12
superset with
Dips- 3 set till failure

Chest Workout 2
Incline Barbell Press-15(for warmup)-8-6-4
Incline Dumbell Fly-12-10-8
Flat Bench Press w Barbell-10-8-8
superset with
Dips-3 set till failure
Cable Crossover-15-15-15

Workout 3
Flat Bench Press w dumbell-20-10-8-6
Incline Press on Smith Pausing 2 sec on your chest then explode up-12-10-8
Flat Fly's-10-8-6
Weighted Dips-3x

Again alot of basics but i try to throw in diff techniques and different rep schemes then the week prior. Any questions let me know id be happy to help.

[Scoobysnacks]

Im going to incorporate all these in.

Ive already devoted Sat morning to flat benching, something I shyed a away from for years because I felt it in my triceps. This time Im not ego lifting, going very slow and really feeling the chest work. This will be 10 sets of 10 reps done after meal 1 at home, I have a smith machine set up. I followed these up this past Saturday with lighter dumbell flyes with a 1 minute stretch in the whole, I was pumped like no other after the 10x10 and the stretching. Ill train the other exercises you guys mentioned in the gym probably Tuesday. I got some good ideas, and new ideas, so the shock should be great.

Going to bring this weak bodypart up.

[hulk7280]

try doing dumbell flyes on a swiss ball..

[JRob]

Lay on a bench with degree of choice, take 2 db's and hold them side by side as if in the finishing position of a fly. Keep them held together side by side and press like that. To nail an even closer grip, take only 1 db (obviously can be much heavier) and clasp it with fingers interlocked and press that way.

Do alot of 1arm movements. The body can seem to adapt to always pressing as a pair, so instead try throwing in 1 exercise every now an then of an iso movement of choice.

I like to do 1arm at a time on the PecDec and come all the way across the body opposed to stopping right in front and squeeze out hard. GOod way to engage the core, dont hold yourself down by using your other hand.

Also once I started playing with how I manipulated positioning etc of a barbell, I felt my pecs being hit harder. Try bringing it lower, higher, stopping an inch or 2 before your chest, top half reps 1 week with a squeeze, bottom half reps another week banging each rep out. I've gone nuts looking through the microscope!

[Scoobysnacks]

Lay on a bench with degree of choice, take 2 db's and hold them side by side as if in the finishing position of a fly. Keep them held together side by side and press like that. To nail an even closer grip, take only 1 db (obviously can be much heavier) and clasp it with fingers interlocked and press that way.

Do alot of 1arm movements. The body can seem to adapt to always pressing as a pair, so instead try throwing in 1 exercise every now an then of an iso movement of choice.

I like to do 1arm at a time on the PecDec and come all the way across the body opposed to stopping right in front and squeeze out hard. GOod way to engage the core, dont hold yourself down by using your other hand.

Also once I started playing with how I manipulated positioning etc of a barbell, I felt my pecs being hit harder. Try bringing it lower, higher, stopping an inch or 2 before your chest, top half reps 1 week with a squeeze, bottom half reps another week banging each rep out. I've gone nuts looking through the microscope!

Jimmy great ideas I do the two dumbells touching with elbows in on an incline but I think one dumbell would be cool never tried it that way. thanks!

[Chris Pearce]

Scoob, I too struggle with my chest... particularly upper & middle
Do you have access to one of these machines (or something similar)?
I usually put a plate (45lbs) on each the Overload End, Middle, and Overload Beginning and do 3-4 working sets of those. I keep my elbows up, dig my shoulders onto the pad, and press away.

It doesn't feel like a conventional flat bench... I take my range of motion REALLY deep... also, the bench is adjustable. You can angle it up to 20 degrees or something.

I actually felt soreness in my chest (for as long as I can remember) after using this bench.

[Scoobysnacks]

Scoob, I too struggle with my chest... particularly upper & middle
Do you have access to one of these machines (or something similar)?
I usually put a plate (45lbs) on each the Overload End, Middle, and Overload Beginning and do 3-4 working sets of those. I keep my elbows up, dig my shoulders onto the pad, and press away.

It doesn't feel like a conventional flat bench... I take my range of motion REALLY deep... also, the bench is adjustable. You can angle it up to 20 degrees or something.

I actually felt soreness in my chest (for as long as I can remember) after using this bench.

I wish, Ive used it before, but we dont have it at La Fitness where I currently train moreso out of convenience than anything else.

[Jeremy24]

J not to impose on your thread but whats your offseason training goign to be like.....DC or u got some new method up your selve