I wonder if myo reps which burns like hell in other lifts I can feel like my arms would work for muscles. I don’t feel… Like bench pressing
Bench pressing involves more than one muscle. If you don’t feel your pecs for example it is likely because your deltoids or triceps are taking over. So if you do myo-reps on the bench press you will be more likely to feel it in your dominant muscle than in the muscle you can’t feel.
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Ok how do i feel my pecs! Cuz even if I do flyies or cross overs I still feel nothing there! I make sure I retract and depress and lock. My abs! But I feel 0 tension and my pecs r lagging bad!
Big thing that impacted my ability to stimulate pecs from benchpress was doing two things:
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Bench from pins (set them a few inches from chest height). Really setup properly (shoudlers back arch back and puff out chest). Now picture pushing the bar away from your stationary platform (your chest). It’ll feel like your pecs are doing all the work.
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Get a foam pad (the “pussy pad” for squats), thicker the better. And practice letting the foam sink into your chest a bit (don’t lose all tension) but you can get extreme ROM and the pecs really fire. CT might not like this one (losing a bit of tension)
Generally dead stop reps are very good for feeling muscles. Try dead stopping & also machine myoreps if you really want that isolation.
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Thx! But u but I got no bins or bands to use. U. Mean partial reps for bench with dead stop??
CT used to have a video on here where he’d do a squeeze press prior to benching - smash two plates together between your flat hands and press in and out contracting your chest. Should help you feel it before you bench.
Something that helped me specifically to the bench was a John Meadows exercise: set up to bench, take the bar down and pause for a solid 2 seconds a couple inches ABOVE your chest, then finish down to your chest and complete the rep. It’s really fatiguing so I don’t know that you’d go have a great bench strength workout after, but using that as your bench press for a time may get you to feeling the bench as a chest builder.
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Will try that tomorrow in my chest day
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The function of the pecs is to bring the upper arm arcross (and down) your body. Try to find that motion in every pec exercise. For instance: sit on a pec-deck, shoulders back, grab the handles and don’t let the elbows drop, let them point backwards (“elbows high”, this helped me a lot), initiate the movement by bringing trying to squeeze the elbows into each other (or try to jam your biceps into your pec, whichever you like). At the top, hold for a good 2-3 sec, try to squeeze as much as possible, than lower under control, feel the fibers lenghtening. Treat every rep one by one. For instance, you don’t have 8 reps, you have one rep 8 times, thinking and feeling it work at each rep. Did one perfect, than restart again. (not saying to stop and get out the machine, or even loose tension but “reset the rep”) Also, try sticking to lowerish reps (5-8 perfect reps), but more sets. You are trying to learn a new skill. 2x5 perfect reps will help you more than 5 perfect and 5 sloppy because concentration lacks. You should try to enforce the good motor pattern, and correct the form if it drops, or stop the set if you feel you cant.
Also, for me that helped with pecs: try closing your eyes throughtout the warmup and feeling-“imagining” the muscles work, stretch and contract.
As CT pointed out many times, mind muscle connection is a skill. So frequency is key. Try doing something for the pecs every time you are in the gym, or even daily at home. Just learning to feel them work and contract.
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Also you could try this: lie on the flat bench, legs up, chest out, elbows out (dbels form an upside-down V). Do flat flyes and each time think: big stretch, hard flex. While you flex, Ask your training partner to touch/tap your pecs and remind you if you are losing tension. (Also the tapping helps your feedback).
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I. Noticed that muscle I feel stretching grows and muscle. I feel the burn doing also grows, other is lacking aka latz and pecz