My Chest Won't Grow

My Chest grows slower than every other body part. When I have a shirt on it you can’t see it at all. Right now I’m doing 5x5 and work chest two different days. The first day I do incline and decline bench and the second day I do Flat Bench and dips. Any on suggestions on what I’m doing wrong or what I can do to get some results.

Make sure your diet is in order. If you’re not taking in enough calories and not getting 1gm of protein per lb of bodyweight it can be hard to make size gains despite a sound training program.

Sure, try this… For your next chest workout, pre-fatigue with a 3 sets of flyes with as much of an accentuated stretch in the bottom as possible. Once you do begin your pressing movements, simply “focus” your attention on squeezing your pecs. Close your eyes if you have to, but really concentrate on firing your chest muscles rather than your triceps. It’s remarkable how great a role the mind plays… I can do a bench press in this manner and literally feel the fibers in my chest contract, and I can also use this same technique on my triceps, and the same thing happens. I’ll really feel the tightness after the set is over in my triceps, and not feel a damn thing in my chest. In fact, this is a good idea any time you train a smaller, assistor muscle in isolation (like when doing biceps curls), or to bring up weak points as in your situation. Closing your eyes while focusing helps quite a bit too when you first start this technique.

You probably have strong shoulders, and/or triceps which overpower your pecs. To give your pecs the most mechanical advantage retract your shoulderblades before your chest sets. Squeeze your shoulderblades together and hold them like that for the duration of the set. Practice this first with a light weight, and soon you will be back to your old tonnage, and with bigger pecs. also, limit the range of motion and lower the weight until your elbows are inline with your shoulders. if you go deeper than this your pecs loose their mechanical advantage, and “hand-off” the work to your delts.

Doug, that sounds like a kickass way to jumpstart the pecs, I plan on trying it out in the very near future as I’ve been focusing on them lately. I’d like to develope more thickness and definition. As for you Allen, that post was f’ing brilliant. I have mutant triceps and some pretty hilly traps, so they must take most of the brunt when I’m benching, even with my using dumbells. Thanks guys, just another trasure chest (no pun intended) found in the valley of T.

"MB Eric: Now staking his claim in the valley of T, there's Testosterone in them thar hills...Since 1949."

-Eric

Contact Brock. His semen causes chests to grow.

Doug, I did a stint of 3x10 flyes followed by 3x10 db bench presses. Damn, I haven’t had a pump like that in a while, if ever as far as my pecs. How do you usually combine it in terms of reps/sets? Allen, can you give me some tips on retracting the shoulders when pressing? Thanks.

"MB Eric: Rockin' yo world, one stone at a time since year 4."

-Eric