I’ve been training for a while now, about 3 years.
In those 3 years of training my muscles have grown alot but there’s one lacking/slowgrow muscle group…
You guessed it: my chest!
I’m using Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 program at the moment and this is my variation of it:
Day 1:
Squat (5/3/1)
Straight Leg Deadlift (3x10)
Dumbbell Side Bends (3x10)
Leg Curl (3x10)
Day 3:
Deadlift (5/3/1)
Front Squat (3x10)
Glute Ham Raise (3x10)
Oblique Twist Machine (3x10)
Day 4:
Overhead Press (5/3/1)
Close-Grip Bench Press (3x10)
Chinup with arms in (3x10)
Barbell Row (3x10)
Should I continue using this variation or do you know exercises to do for some more chest growth which I could swap with an exercise I perform already?
You simply arent doing enough volume for your chest to grow, or for any bodypart to grow for that matter. I wouldnt expect anyone following this type of routine to have any appreciable amount of muscular development unless they had great genetics and responded well to low volume.
the fact that you are using 5/3/1 for basic movements is fine, its not the reason why arent growing, for chest i would find several other movements where you feel your pecs working and hit them with high intensity and high volume. Get strong on those movements, but always remember to be feeling the muscle contract. For me this has always been a challenge when it comes to chest training. I would also consider adding more volume to routine as well. you arent even doing any direct arm work. this is the body building forum, i would expect the type of routine you are following would be most succesfully employed by some sort of athelete who cares very little about building a great physique
do your assistance stuff on bench day with dumbells.
so instead of incline benching, dumbell press instead. 5 sets instead of 3.
You can do it flat or incline, your choice. Just make sure you are lowering the dumbells far enough to get a good stretch (lots of people cheat on dumbell press and don’t lower far enough - don’t be that guy)
I second using dumbbells instead of barbells for chest assistance and adding more volume on assistance. (E.g. 5x10 dumbbell press instead of 3x10 incline bench press).
Otherwise just stick with it, I think you should progress nicely.
Can you flex your pecs? You know the whole titty dance thing some guys do?
Well if you can’t you probably don’t have the mind muscle connection yet and need to focus on feeling the chest work. Ditch barbell as it’s ten times harder to achieve the MMC with a barbell in my opinion.
Check out training with kai series on youtube and look for the chest session from this year.
OP, if your goal is building a bigger more asthetic physique then why are you doing a strength oriented program designed by powerlifters?
If you’re going to do 5/3/1 and want to hit each bodypart more extensively change up your assistance template. When I ran 5/3/1 I was a big fan of the Peridozation Bible template. Hitting 5x10 on your assistance stuff lets you get more volume in and you can round out your routine better.
You have no lifts for biceps, triceps, traps, calves, rear delts, medial delts… If your goal is physique oriented, which I assume it is based on your OP question, then PLEEEEEEEEASE start training each individual bodypart and don’t rely on its involvement as a secondary muscle in compound movements.