The point is, that everyone here but Scott seems to be missing, is that large increases in poundages on key lifts will equal LARGE INCREASES IN MUSCLE MASS. And this is a bodybuilding forum and we are talking about bodybuilding so expunge all the low 1-5 rep stuff out of your head.
The point is this: no one gives a shit how fancy your routine is if you aren’t adding a lot of iron to the bar over time. Some cat (guy A) who does JUST incline presses and some flat dumbbel presses will have a much huger chest than some other dude (guy B) who does all sorts of exercises, pre-exhaust, burn reps yo, and other shit if guy A is adding a ton more weight to his exercises and guy B isn’t (whether thats from all the volume in his workout not allowing him to progress as quickly as guy B or because he is more obsessed with the pump than actually lifting heavier weight).
Pre-exhaust and flyes and whatever are all great if you have trouble actually feeling your chest work during your presses. Other than that, for a beginner they are pretty much useless in comparison to just doing benching.
This whole obsession with dissecting routines so intricately and “should I give extra squeezes at the top for 2 seconds and what about flaring my elbows or keeping them in or whats the best way to superset chest exercises and I can only bench 180lb but I need a fancy routine with more exercises blah blah blah” is the reason why there is even this thread in existence. It’s the reason why we have people who are 180lb benchin and wondering “what is it that I’m missing?” and thinking that they are so advanced that they even need to be doing anything but lifting hard and consistently and doing the absolute BASICS.
It annoys the shit out of me (which is why this post has turned into a rant). I fucking hate weider and Flex for doing this shit to bodybuilding with “incredible new routine designed to add inches to your guns in 8 weeks; ‘keep the muscles guessing, and you’ll keep them growing’” and a whole slew of other bullshit advice not to mention bogus supplements just becuase they need to fill up their pages with something every month.
Stu - I understand completely your point and it’s a good one, but every newbie is going to read that thinking he needs all those cable and fly movements and he will add all that until he has 5 exercises and never progresses in weight on any of them because “Stu said it’s not about the weight, it’s about feeling the muscle” which is not what you were saying but unfortunately every newbie wants to think he is advanced and needs an incredible intricate program.
Back to my rant - I am so fucking sick of everyone preaching how “strength and size are so different, they are not related and for a bodybuilder strength doesn’t matter yar yarrr”.
WE ARE NOT TALKING ABOUT 1 REP MAX, OR 3 REP MAX.
I especially fucking hate those writers who say, “here’s a set/rep scheme for pure size (5x10 or some other shit), and here’s a DIFFERENT one for size, and strength (because we all know they are different roll eyes) and this’ll be 8x3 because I have these stacks of papers from the new science lab, but don’t worry about me not even looking like a bodybuilder, or that no bodybuilders actually use my methods, I know my shit”.
News report: a 135lb ‘5x10’ workout ain’t gonna build shit.
OP do you want a good chest workout?
Incline Press - 4 sets, i don’t care how you slice it, your last set should be the heaviest weight possible in the 6-10 rep range.
Flat Press dumbbels bars whateveer - ditto, 4 sets last set maximum weight for maximum reps.
Repeat this workout every 4-6 days with the primary and biggest goal of adding weight whenever you can. Adding 100lb on both lifts is the day you will have a bigger chest.
OR, do this:
incline bench - 4 sets
flat bench - 4 sets
db decline - 3 sets
peck dec - 3 sets
cable crossovers - 3 sets
… and you will progress that much slower and have a smaller chest. But hey, at least the pump is the shit, eh?
But of course, not one beginner who reads this is going to like what he hears because they don’t like having to actually simplify things and WORK HARD to lift very heavy weight. That’s fine, that’s ok. Don’t worry about it. Because you can just turn your computer off and flip through Flex between your burnout set of concentration curls.