How To Build A Great Chest – 3 Myths Debunked how to build a great chest How To Build A Great Chest – 3 Myths Debunked “How much can you bench” is a common question men will ask each other as a way of gauging each other’s strength. A big powerful and muscular chest is a very clear signal to those around…it says, “I am strong and I am alpha.” As men we instinctively know this, which is why the chest is the favorite muscle group to train for men. Go into any gym on any day of the week and the bench press; incline press and other chest machines are among the most popular. The chest is also FUN to train. Who doesn’t love getting the chest all pumped up? With all of this chest training going on you would expect to see big muscular chests all over the place…however we don’t. Think about it…its quiet rare when you see a muscular well-developed chest. If we consider all of the chest training out there and if we factor in that men LOVE working the chest and do work it consistently then why is it so rare to see impressive chest development? Is it because the chest is inherently difficult to build? NOT EVEN CLOSE. Although individual variances and genetics can play a large role, for the most part the chest is not a stubborn muscle group WHEN it’s trained properly along with good exercise programming. how to build a great chest The problem is that men don’t train their chest right. They don’t activate it to its best capacity, they don’t train it in its fullest range of motion and they drive their bodies to plateau over and over again. If you would like to build an impressive chest or you are frustrated keep reading…I am about to blow your mind. Below I list the TOP 3 myths that are likely keeping you from developing chiseled and muscular pecs. FOR A FULL EXPLANATION OF MAPS - CLICK HERE how to build a great chest myth ONE poor muscle recruitment (get a strong back) The best and most effective exercises that build the pecs are pressing movements. Bench presses (barbell or dumbbell), incline presses (barbell or dumbbell) and heavy dips for example. Bodybuilders and experienced trainees know this which is why one or more of those exercises starts off every one of their chest workouts. If those are such great exercises and everyone does them then why aren’t people building their pecs easily?? The short answer… they aren’t ACTIVATING their pecs to their fullest capacity. Look around you. Look at the posture of people walking down the street or sitting at their desks or even people at the gym. What is the most common issue with their posture?? They “slump” and their shoulders round forward. The technical term is “upper cross syndrome” and it is EXTREMELY common. In fact when I do an assessment of a new client I almost expect to see this postural deviation. I am not going to get into the potential pain and injury risks with this type of posture…that’s a different article. What is of most interest to you is that having this postural deviation WILL prevent you from fully and effectively activating your pecs when you press. When you look at the pectoralis muscles (the major muscles of the chest) you can clearly see where the attachments are…on one end you have it attaching all along the sternum (the area in the middle of your ribcage) and its other end attaches at the upper humerus (the upper arm how to build a great chest bone). When the pecs contract they BRING THE TWO ENDS TOGETHER…this is the action of the muscle. They bring your upper arm towards the midline of your body. Now picture every chest exercise you know…they all have this movement pattern. In order for you to fully activate the pecs you need your shoulder blades to be very stable…in fact when you press you should pin your shoulder blades back (but not shrugged) to allow the chest to do the movement fully. Pressing without this crucial factor involves and asks for much more muscle recruitment from muscles OTHER than your pecs. If you want big triceps and shoulders from bench press and don’t want a big chest then don’t worry about this…but if you want a big chest, you are missing out on a LOT of progress if you don’t activate your mid-back while pressing. “if you want a big chest, you are missing out on a LOT of progress if you don’t activate your mid-back while pressing” In fact powerlifters have known this for years which is why you see them arching and pinning their shoulders back to extreme levels when pressing…they know that doing so maximizes leverage for big bench numbers. In order to get good at this you will have to work muscles other than your chest so that when you do your heavy presses your shoulders get the stable support you need to fully activate the chest. Practice rows where you focus on pinning the shoulders back and down so that you get the right posture to maximize your presses. A strong back is essential for a strong and well-developed chest. Bottom line Work on correcting your posture with back exercises and pin your shoulders back when pressing for maximum results. how to build a great chest Myth TWO not using a full range of motion Men have high levels of testosterone. Men are also the physically stronger sex. These are two true statements but they are also an area of weakness for men. We identify with strength and our testosterone drives us to be competitive so its easy to predict than men tend to want to lift more weight than they probably should. When I train women I usually have to convince them to lift heavier but when I train men its VERY common that I have to convince them to go LIGHTER. One of the biggest ways this problem affects men is in how they train within ranges of motion. If you shorten your range of motion in an exercise you can definitely lift more weight…this is a fact. Take your max bench press and add 50lbs, but when you bench it only go down 6 inches. It will undoubtedly be manageable. The longer the range of motion the weaker a muscle can contract…HOWEVER, long range of motion also affects the greatest percentage of muscle fibers. When you lift weights you are trying to send a stress signal to the body through the muscles. This signal tells the body to become stronger. Keep in mind muscles are made up of thousands of individual muscle fibers and one of the keys to building maximal muscle is in STIMULATING as many of them as possible. Although short ranges of motion allow you to lift more they are far less effective as stimulating the entire muscle…they are LESS effective at building muscle and they are less effective at developing real world strength. If I get a new client who is having trouble building their chest I almost always also notice they go too heavy on their chest movements (especially the pressing ones) and they use shortened ranges of motion. They come to me frustrated with bloated egos. When I have them really focus on FULL ranges of motion with a stretch at the bottom of the lift and a hard squeeze at the top their claimed strength takes a huge hit but in almost no time they feel better as they notice their chests developing faster than ever before. It makes a HUGE difference. Bottom line Focus on the fullest ranges of motion (within your individual safe range) for maximum chest development how to build a great chest myth three adaptation fatigue Here is a paradigm shift…your chest doesn’t build when you’re in the gym. All the exercises and reps you do aren’t building your muscles…they only send the signal that tells the body to build muscle. That signal tells the body to ADAPT. Its all about adaptation and once you understand this it will become much easier to avoid plateaus. When you bench press with sufficient intensity you cause micro tears within muscle. This is part of the reason why you get sore (although soreness DOES NOT signify a good workout). The body senses this damage and aims to prevent it from ever happening again in the near future through ADAPTING. It begins the process of building stronger and bigger muscles so that the same stress doesn’t cause the same damage. Understanding this is key if you want to build impressive muscles. Different rep ranges tend to send different types of stress signals to the body and each one asks for a specific type of adaptation. Studies have shown that the rep range that sends the loudest muscle-building signal (also known as hypertrophy) is within the 8-12 rep range. This knowledge has become common which is good (accurate information is always good) but people have also failed to realize that the body seeks to adapt CONSTANTLY and if the signal remains the same for too long it doesn’t adapt with the same speed or intensity. This is why new lifters gain muscle so much faster than experienced lifters…the signal is new. Keep the signal the same for too long and you enter into the realm of adaptation fatigue. Your body stops responding regardless of how hard you train. This is one thing I see frequently...people get stuck in that “best muscle building rep range” of 8-12 reps except at this point it has become the WORST rep range for them. Its also important to note that although the 8-12 rep ranges send the best hypertrophy signal this how to build a great chest doesn’t mean the lower reps and the higher reps don’t. Up to a certain point (above 25 reps) ALL rep ranges build muscle. Of course, none of that matters if you stay in any rep range for too long and you hit adaptation fatigue in which case your body stops responding regardless. One of the EASIEST things you can do to get your chest to respond NOW is to simply train in a new and different rep range. High reps 15-25 and low reps 1-3 will pack muscle on you quickly if they are new stimulus for your body. Focus on training in these new rep ranges specifically for a few weeks and allow some muscle adaptation to take place but make sure to switch out before adaptation fatigue sets in. Then switch to another range. This simple tip alone will prevent a LOT of the pitfalls and plateaus that can bring your progress to a grinding halt. You will notice different things in these rep ranges as well. The low rep ranges will give you a hard feel to your muscles while the higher reps will give you the best pumps of your life. Learn to enjoy them all because all of them contribute to muscle growth. Follow the above advice NOW and pay attention to how fast your body responds. Its pretty amazing what can happen when the right signals are sent for maximum and accelerated adaptation to occur. FOR A FULL EXPLANATION OF MAPS - CLICK HERE about the author sal di stefano Sal was 14 years old when he touched his first weight and from that moment he was hooked. Growing up asthmatic, frequently sick and painfully skinny, Sal saw weightlifting as a way to change his body and his self-image. In the beginning, Sal’s body responded quickly to his training but then his gains slowed and then stopped altogether. Not one to give up easily, he began reading every muscle building publication he could get his hands on to find ways to bust through his plateau. He read Arnold’s Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding, Mentzer’s Heavy Duty, Kubrick’s Dinosaur Training, and every muscle magazine he could find; Weider’s Muscle and Fitness, Flex, Iron Man and even Muscle Media 2000. Each time he read about a new technique or methodology he would test it out in the gym. At age 18 his passion for the art and science of resistance training was so consuming that he decided to make it his profession and become a personal trainer. By 19 he was managing health clubs and by 22 he owned his own gym. After 17 years as a personal trainer he has dedicated himself to bringing science and TRUTH to the fitness industry.
