I have been a athelete for about 8 years, I have changed to being more interested in my apperance for about two. I need help in developing my chest so that i could be more proportional. If any of you bad asses could help I would love it.
Thanks,
jc1157
I’ll post it before anyone else, what is your current training routine?
What chest program have you tried from the T-mag previous issues section? There are at least a dozen there.
I’ve had lots of success rotating through the following exercises as the combination will hit lower, uppper, inner and outer chest muscles. I’ve found that for me personally a 5x5 routine concentrating on the eccentric part (tempo: 4/1/2) provided the best results:
Incline bench, both barbell and dumbbell
Flat bench, both barbell and dumbbell
Declining bench, both barbell and dumbbell
Flat flyes, dumbbell
Incline flyes, dumbbell
Plate raises (one of the best if you go heavy, IMO)
Dips (weighted, if possible)
Lift heavy on these and allow sufficient recovery time between chest days. Do not allow the bar to rest on or bounce off the chest for the barbell exercises. Also, work the Tris with close grip barbell bench. (Dips will also assist here.)
Try doing 3 sets of 10 reps.
I am a big boy (5’10.5" and 250lbs). I have gained over 2 inches on my chest in the past year with this philosophy.
8 week routine:
week 1-3:
Flat barbell bench
2-3 warm up sets: 135 for 15-20 reps
225 for 10
275 for 6
3 sets of 10 @ 315.
Note: You should not be able to complete your third set your first time. It should take several weeks to build up.
incline dumbbells: 3 sets of 10 reps increasing the weight every set.
cables: 2 sets of 10
pushups: feet up on a bench 2 sets,
each till you can no longer go
weeks 4-5:
HEAVY flat barbell bench
2-3 warm-up sets.
then as many as you can do for sets of 6. go until you cant move up and get 6 reps.
Same as above for incline, cables, and pushups.
weeks 6-8: NO FLAT BENCH
incline: 3 sets of 10 (same as above)
decline: 3 sets of 10 or sets of 10 as high as you can go. Stop once you cant get 10!
cables, flat pushups.
If you like this taylor it to your weights.
Good luck,
corey
p.s. i have more variations to this if you so desire.
All I have to say is to make sure you add decline dumbell, or barbell presses and get heavy. My best growth has been from decline and incline presses.
T-Mag had some information relating to decline presses giving more pec and tri focus.
Inner and outer chest muscles?? sorry man those dont exist.
Oops, my bad! I always thought the pectoralis minor’s main action was for protraction of the scapula around the thorax, working in conjunction with serratus anterior to keep the scapula in close proximity to the thorax as the latter draws it anteriorly. The resulting action assisting in transferring the weight of the thorax to the arm when performing press-ups. Thus, its origin at the anterior surfaces of the 3rd through 5th ribs, running vertically (ok diagonally) and inserting at the Scapula (and its location relative to the pectoralis major.)
a while back i read in a don alessi article that if you got your flat bench up to 1.5 to 2 times your bodyweight you could develop all the chest mass you ever wanted. Being myself at 225lbs, i can’t see how having a 350lbs to 450lbs bench could fail me in regards to increasing my chest size. I have been doing westside for 6 weeks now and have seen tremendous differences in my chest size with only a 40lb increase in my 1rm.
bloussant.
Sorry, I have to say it when someone asks for a bigger chest. Please continue with your useful discussion.
Try this!
Do an isolation movement then directly a heavy compound one. For example, flyes followed by benchpress. This makes sure that the pecs give up first so you’re not limited by triceps and shoulder strength.
Also reduce the volume on other musclegroups when specializing on your pecs. You want to have maximum recovery potential.
JC1157,go to “frequently asked questions” and read the papers concerning chest. You will find there 2 valuable programs by Ian King and Dave Tate.
A few years before I discovered T mag, I used an old and simple routine. The result was a 4 inches chest improvement:
Squat 1 set, 20 reps immediately followed by:
db pullover 1 set, 20 reps, then
bench press 3 sets.
You may find a description of Squat+pullover in “previous issues” No 227 (Ian King’s program).
Visual aspects: if your waist is 31 inches even a 44 inches “medium” chest is impressive. Therefore my advice is to reach a ratio chest/waist=1.4 or more and keep your waistline under control.
All what I said is likely to work for you provided you choose a proper diet (see “Frequently asked questions”).
Hope that helps !
Luca