Aside from big arms, there's no desire among aspiring
underweight muscle building enthusiasts that quite outdoes
the longing for a big, well-developed chest. And why not;
big pectorals command respect. They're somehow primitively
associated with courage and assertiveness. When you have
pectoral muscles that only slightly protrude beyond your
abdominal section, you're considered to be "in shape".
What's more, in a world of male competitiveness where one's
height seems to unfairly monopolize the aura of dominating
physical stature, powerful pectorals can be a great
equalizer. They tell the world that regardless of the level
your genetics had you lengthened, you're packaged physical
prowess by choice. You exude strength and athleticism with
well developed pectorals.
So what's the best method for developing a big chest? Well,
that shouldn't be our only question. For if the pectorals
aren't built in a balanced manner, excessive size can
contribute to a feminizing effect on the male torso. Does
anyone really want to develop "man boobs"? I didn't think
so. Therefore, it's imperative that we make our pecs just a
little bit top-heavy (upper pecs that protrude slightly
more than the middle pecs) in our bid to increase chest
size. An emphasis on making sure we are successful with
incline exercises will ensure good upper pectoral
development.
Notice I didn't recommend doing "a lot of incline
exercises". Instead, I mentioned making sure you're
'successful' with your incline movements (this goes for all
bodybuilding exercises). Although this might sound like a
subtle play on words, it's really a vital issue for your
muscle building progress. Overtraining is probably the
biggest setback most natural bodybuilding enthusiasts
unwittingly engage. Thus, you might need to add more
incline bench movements to build bigger upper pecs, or you
might need to lay off of those movements. It really depends
on what you're currently doing. Just keep in mind that many
times our enthusiasm to make progress on a particular body
part leads us to inadvertently overwork that area -
resulting in the exact opposite of our desired effect.
As a lifetime natural bodybuilder, nothing has done more
for my pectoral development than taking emphasis off
'pressing movements' and putting it on 'flye movements'.
The widespread notion that you "have to bench press" and
"bench press heavy" has only been outdone in holding back
pectoral growth by the practice of overtraining. Combine
the two with the typical plights of the natural bodybuilder
and you have a scenario in which pectoral growth is almost
nonexistent for too many gym-goers. If heavy bench pressing
were the key to a great chest, we'd see power-lifters
epitomizing pectoral development. As it turns out, some of
them have big pecs and some seem to have nearly none -
despite the fact they can bench press heavy.
What if you could do heavy flyes? What if you could get on
an incline bench and strictly move seventy-five pound
dumbells from the top of the movement - slowly down to
having your arms outstretched and the weights parallel with
your head (elbows only slightly bent) - and back up to the
top position without any arm movement? If you can't do that
for six to eight repetitions now, but you can do it a few
months from now, I'd bet on your pectoral muscles being
significantly larger after those few months. Making strict
and heavy flye movements into the cornerstone of your chest
routine can work wonders for the growth of those muscles.
Besides changing bench pressing movements to a secondary
position and flyes to the primary one, I've also
accelerated my pectoral gains by splitting my first flye
movement into two partial rep exercises. So when I get to
the gym to start my chest routine, I head straight to one
of those pec/flye machines in which you hold the handles
with your arms extended (only a slight bend in the elbows).
These are the kind of pec dec machines that are also used
for rear deltoid exercises. I adjust the seat on the
machine so that a flye movement done on the apparatus will
hit squarely in the middle of my pecs.
I then proceed to do two different exercises with this
machine; one for my outer pecs and one for the inner. For
outer pectorals, I move my arms from the fully outward
position to about halfway through the range of a full flye.
I do about five to eight sets like this. For inner pecs, I
go from about the twenty degrees angle (where I ended my
rep for the outer pec movement) to the point where the
handles make contact with each other in front of me. I do
those for another five to eight sets. When I'm done with
these two partial rep exercises, my entire chest is worked
and pumped to the max.
It's important to know that working the middle chest
muscles actually brings the upper and lower pectorals into
play. However, isolating the upper chest with incline
movements does not bring the middle or lower chest muscles
into play. The same goes for isolating the lower chest with
declines; it only works the lower pectorals. Therefore, the
most efficient way to begin a chest routine is with an
exercise that hits the middle chest. My suggestion is that
when you begin your pec workout with the above-mentioned
exercise, be sure to adjust the seat so that you're hitting
the very center of your chest.
Only when I've sufficiently pre-exhausted my pectorals with
the strict performance of these partial-rep flyes do I go
on to isolate the upper and lower pecs respectively with
three more exercises. These include incline dumbell flyes,
Hammer Strength presses, and a decline angled pec deck. I
do two exercises for upper pecs in an attempt to slightly
over-develop them for better balance; the dumbell flyes and
the pressing movement with the Hammer Strength machine.
Presses are incredibly more effective for pectoral growth
when the pecs have been pre-exhausted with flyes.
If you've been having trouble with pectoral growth, I
highly recommend you switch to making flye exercises the
foundation of your routine. In addition, split that first
exercise of pec deck flyes into two half-rep movements.
This will create maximum stress on both the inner and outer
pecs - working wonders on both the size and shape of the
muscles.
----------------------------------------------------
Scott Abbett is the author of HardBody Success: 28
Principles to Create Your Ultimate Body and Shape Your Mind
for Incredible Success. He is a certified fitness trainer
and a Master Practitioner and Trainer of NLP. To see his
personal transformation visit http://www.hardbodysuccess.com
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