Darn, I JUST can't hit my upper chest........ - JP Fitness Forums

goldwave84 · 04-01-2005, 01:18 AM

Hi guys
I have been doing incline dumbells to help my upper chest. Now the thing is, even though I pull back my shoulder blades, only my Anterior delts get hit. What am I doing wrong?

Ash

Rev · 04-01-2005, 01:27 AM

Some people have genetically more powerful anterior delts. A good buddy of mine used to bench really good numbers for his size but had like no chest, awesome shoulders and triceps but no chest. He always had problems hitting his chest. He played around with cable flyes for a while and worked on firing his chest and it helped him. You might try incline cable flyes and bench pressing on a decline for a while as well and try to get the fullest range of motion you can out of it (so not a really steep decline but shallow). I hope this helps.

RipStone · 04-01-2005, 08:24 AM

Check your form. A few tips that have helped me.. Make sure that when your bring the DBs down that it feels that they are almost hitting your armpits. Also, try doing some slow negatives so that you really feel your upper chest working.

BiggerThanYou · 04-01-2005, 10:14 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by goldwave84:
Hi guys
I have been doing incline dumbells to help my upper chest. Now the thing is, even though I pull back my shoulder blades, only my Anterior delts get hit. What am I doing wrong?

Ash

Good luck with that...

goldwave84 · 04-01-2005, 10:22 AM

Hey Bigger than you,
would you like to share the info that you have?

OldGuy · 04-01-2005, 10:50 AM

Take a look at this:
Pectoralis Major - Clavicular Head
Anterior Deltoid

They seem pretty close together. Are you sure your not hitting your pecs?

goldwave84 · 04-01-2005, 11:04 AM

Well, so far, I am not feeling anything. When I train my shoulders and biceps, I actually feel the muscle being hit. Granted, the bicep is a small and easy to hit, but the feeling should be the same. Next time, I am going to use cables to hit them during inclines.

ash

OldGuy · 04-01-2005, 11:49 AM

If you're following Max-OT then you know the cable flyes are not on the exercise list.

What do you mean by you are not feeling anything?

Bulking Up · 04-01-2005, 12:27 PM

I have always had a hard time hitting my upper chest muscles. I have been doing incline BP's with dumbells and that has helped. Rip's advice about getting the dumbells "in your armpits" is really good. It adds more range of motion and focuses the weight off your shoulders.
BU

goldwave84 · 04-02-2005, 04:15 AM

Oldguy,
Yr right, Max-OT does not have cable flyes. I just wanted to try inclines to feel the burn, but with DB's its quiet hard. The cables is just to see it I can hit it better. I will try it the next time I am in the gym. Now, I was wondering, should I be pulling my blades in, and sticking out my chest in the first place? Is that good form?

RipStone · 04-02-2005, 09:07 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by goldwave84:
Oldguy,
Yr right, Max-OT does not have cable flyes. I just wanted to try inclines to feel the burn, but with DB's its quiet hard. The cables is just to see it I can hit it better. I will try it the next time I am in the gym. Now, I was wondering, should I be pulling my blades in, and sticking out my chest in the first place? Is that good form?

Pulling your shoulder blades in and sticking your chest out seems unnatural to me. At the top of the movement I do try to kinda feel the weight in my chest though...hard to desribe, sorry. Here is a link with some tips...

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/...enchPress.html

OldGuy · 04-02-2005, 11:51 AM

Most of the time in Max-OT you will not feel the burn. The rep range is not large enough to get lactic acid going. You may feel it in the smaller muscles (biceps, triceps and calves) but rarely in the larger muscle groups.

Same with DOMS. I rarely feel DOMS in my back or shoulders, occasionaly in the chest and always in the legs. But I don't look at having or not having DOMS as an indication if my workout was intense enough.

If you can do more volume from one chest workout to the next then you're doing it right. There's no need to do flys.

BiggerThanYou · 04-04-2005, 10:39 AM

The reason for the sarcasm earlier is this:
1) You cannot alter the shape of your chest. Different exersizes will not change the shape of your chest.
2) Different bench press angles do work different areas, and different fiber recruitment does take place. However, unless you are 200lbs and 2% bodyfat you will not see a difference. The "all of nothing" principle is not correct. However, training to bring up different portions of your chest at your stage just is not practical, in my mind that is.

If you want growth on your chest, work your chest. Do not concentrate on making one portion grow to match or exceed another portion. My experience has shown that heavy, compound movements like the bench press and its variations will spark the most chest growth.

My 2 cents.

Bubba Booey · 04-05-2005, 03:30 PM

Make sure the incline of the bench you are using is not too high. Try no more than 20-30%, which should allow you to hit more pecs and less delts.

Now, I don't do this b/c I don't want to sacrific weight used on inclines. However, in your case, you could pre-exhaust the front delts w/ front raises (even though I HATE isolation moves, it could work for you, and may at least be worth the experiment). After front raises, do inclines. Your delts will be much less help, and therefore your pecs will have to work harder.