Can't get my chest to grow

**cal565** · 10-19-2004, 11:35 AM

Ok I'm 23, 6'0 around 200 pounds, and I have working out for about 8 years now. I am currently on week 5 of a 10 week cycle of Deca 300mg/week and Test-e 500mg/week in which I have gained about 15 pounds in the first 4 weeks. Ok, my problem is I can not get my chest to grow. I have made decent gains in all other areas but my chest has not got much bigger. I am currently working my chest one day a week and I do not work any other bodypart on chest days. My current chest routine looks something like this:

Exercise 1: Flat dumb-bell presses 4X8-12 reps
Exercise 2: Incline dumb-bell presses 4X8-12 reps
Exercise 3: Incline dumb-bell flys 4X8-12 reps
Exercise 4: Machine flys 4X8-12 reps

Does anyone have some good advice on what I can do to get my chest to grow? My strength in my chest has gone up probally by 20 pounds on everything since I started my cylce my chest doesn't seemt to have goten any bigger. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

**anaBROLIC** · 10-19-2004, 12:29 PM

id say you should be switching from dbs to regular benches and not doing only dbs. but also try for a few weeks shooting for about 8 reps with more weight..

**cal565** · 10-19-2004, 01:42 PM

Should I try working my chest twice a week to see if that can stimulate it to grow? Here is my current training split
Day 1: Chest
Day 2: Shoulders and Biceps
Day 3:Legs
Day 4: Back and Tricep.
I have it split like this right now so that I can hit my bis, tris, and shoulders group twice a week, once directly and once in-directly
Should I change up my training split?

**Pork Chop** · 10-19-2004, 02:05 PM

Originally Posted by cal565

Ok I'm 23, 6'0 around 200 pounds, and I have working out for about 8 years now. I am currently on week 5 of a 10 week cycle of Deca 300mg/week and Test-e 500mg/week in which I have gained about 15 pounds in the first 4 weeks. Ok, my problem is I can not get my chest to grow. I have made decent gains in all other areas but my chest has not got much bigger. I am currently working my chest one day a week and I do not work any other bodypart on chest days. My current chest routine looks something like this:

Exercise 1: Flat dumb-bell presses 4X8-12 reps
Exercise 2: Incline dumb-bell presses 4X8-12 reps
Exercise 3: Incline dumb-bell flys 4X8-12 reps
Exercise 4: Machine flys 4X8-12 reps

Does anyone have some good advice on what I can do to get my chest to grow? My strength in my chest has gone up probally by 20 pounds on everything since I started my cylce my chest doesn't seemt to have goten any bigger. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Are you stopping at 12 even though you can squeeze out another rep?

**cal565** · 10-19-2004, 02:23 PM

Well Im shooting for the 8 reps but on my first set I usually end up around 12. I really try to get at least 8 reps but go to failure.

**Pork Chop** · 10-19-2004, 02:28 PM

Good. Every exercise must be to total failure.
I would suggest this :

2 sets of incline dumbell press
2 sets of flat cable fly's (no warm up, form must be exact, don't simulate a pressing movement, keep arms straight like a butterfly motion).

If you're maxing out on every one, workout chest once every 7 days.

**needle** · 10-20-2004, 12:16 AM

I have the same problem. I just try extremely hard even if I cant do the last rep my spotter does it for me !!! Im just now starting to see results!!!

**Joe Momma** · 10-22-2004, 08:42 PM

Originally Posted by cal565

Ok I'm 23, 6'0 around 200 pounds, and I have working out for about 8 years now. I am currently on week 5 of a 10 week cycle of Deca 300mg/week and Test-e 500mg/week in which I have gained about 15 pounds in the first 4 weeks. Ok, my problem is I can not get my chest to grow. I have made decent gains in all other areas but my chest has not got much bigger. I am currently working my chest one day a week and I do not work any other bodypart on chest days. My current chest routine looks something like this:

Exercise 1: Flat dumb-bell presses 4X8-12 reps
Exercise 2: Incline dumb-bell presses 4X8-12 reps
Exercise 3: Incline dumb-bell flys 4X8-12 reps
Exercise 4: Machine flys 4X8-12 reps

Does anyone have some good advice on what I can do to get my chest to grow? My strength in my chest has gone up probally by 20 pounds on everything since I started my cylce my chest doesn't seemt to have goten any bigger. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Swap movement 1 and 2. Hit the incline first, that way you should lift heavier to develop the upper chest. Next on exercise 1 and 2 if you must use a dumbbell 1st rep should be a weight you can get 10 times in strict form. 2nd set move up 5# each arm, you should be able to do 8 reps. 3rd set you need 5# more, you should get 6 reps. Try that a couple of workouts, it seems to help me, plus it should move your weights up.

**BigMike J** · 10-22-2004, 08:57 PM

I would start off with the barbell presses and then finish off with the dumb presses and fly's.

**nathanw21** · 10-22-2004, 09:15 PM

i changed up my chest workout a few weeks ago. i am hitting it harder than ever. and it is growing fast.
flat barbell 6 sets
incline barbell 5 sets
flat dumbell 3 sets
incline dumbell 3 sets
incline flys 3 sets
flat flys 3 sets
sometimes i throw in decline or cable crossovers. i seem to be getting a lot of growth hitting it this hard. after a while i will back it up but for now it has been good to me.

**justin2305** · 10-22-2004, 10:45 PM

are u changing up exersises?u need to change ur workouts up at least once a month... in order for u muscles to grow u have to shock them meaning changing workouts so ur muscles go from being used to something to a completly diff. exersise... go for one month with the dumbells then switch it up with barbells and pec-decs one month with say barbell or dumbell either or and then one month go to cable cross overs....another thing at the end of ur workouts try and burn out with some weighted dips,dips are great for ur chest and will tear it all up at the end of ur workout and u have to be sure and let and let ur body have enough recovery time so they will rebuild fully and be good to go for another workout....good luck bro

**angelxterminator** · 10-22-2004, 11:10 PM

try some shocking methods.
I utilize reverse pyr sets, supersets, and static holds in all of my workouts.

Try this one. Incline bench(barbell). go for 8-10 rep failure... on the failure rep, hold it at the top of motion, and pump it in like 5 in motions.. do that until you cant any more, and then hold the bar there for an additional 30 seconds. If that doesn't cause searing pain and chest growth, i dont know what will!
Id do that for 4 sets, then flat dbell presses supersetted with non-peak flies for 4 sets, then maybe 1 more exercise.

maybe pre-fatigue your muscles with isolation exercises before your compound movements as well, i found that to be of great benefit to me!

**UberSoldat** · 10-23-2004, 12:35 AM

Originally Posted by nathanw21

i changed up my chest workout a few weeks ago. i am hitting it harder than ever. and it is growing fast.
flat barbell 6 sets
incline barbell 5 sets
flat dumbell 3 sets
incline dumbell 3 sets
incline flys 3 sets
flat flys 3 sets
sometimes i throw in decline or cable crossovers. i seem to be getting a lot of growth hitting it this hard. after a while i will back it up but for now it has been good to me.

Are u going heavy weights or what ? Thanks

**63190** · 10-23-2004, 01:33 AM

Originally Posted by Arnold

To develop maximum power, mass, and strength in the chest, I recomend a program in shich you:
1. Begin with Bench Presses. Do 20 reps the first set, then 10 reps
2. Continue doing as many sets as you can (at least 5) with a weight that allows you only 1 or 2 repetitions.
3. Perform the last set with a lighter weight that allows you to go back up to high repetitions.
4. Go on to Incline Presses and do them the same way. Afterward, follow the same program with Dumbbell Flys.

Straight from The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding. I'm trying this next week, 'cause it looks like it takes a while. I'll be moving chest days to my first day off and moving legs to Wednesdays.

**nathanw21** · 10-23-2004, 12:30 PM

UberSoldat, yeah i am going up to weight that i can only do for 3 reps. some would say this is over training but everyone is different and right now this is working for me. i will change things up when my gains start to slow down. most of the time i try and stay 20+ sets for every major muscle group.

**DNoMac** · 10-24-2004, 12:47 PM

I've noticed good gains doing heavy weight low reps with dumbells, particularly incline. I like cable flies and weighted dips.

**cal565** · 10-24-2004, 02:34 PM

Thanks guys, there are a lot of great Ideas here that Im going to try. I hope that one will work for me. I will try to post some pics and see what you guys think about my chest.

**decadbal** · 10-24-2004, 03:48 PM

Originally Posted by nathanw21

i changed up my chest workout a few weeks ago. i am hitting it harder than ever. and it is growing fast.
flat barbell 6 sets
incline barbell 5 sets
flat dumbell 3 sets
incline dumbell 3 sets
incline flys 3 sets
flat flys 3 sets
sometimes i throw in decline or cable crossovers. i seem to be getting a lot of growth hitting it this hard. after a while i will back it up but for now it has been good to me.

bad advice... you need to focus on the squeeze at the end, go heavier.. and get psycho, u are at a plat.. and you need to bust ass to get thru it, and 300mg of deca a week is a waste

**GREENMACHINE** · 10-26-2004, 05:20 PM

My chest is my achilles heal.
Its my greatest weakness.

**cal565** · 10-26-2004, 08:38 PM

Mine too, I cant get it to grow. Im making really good gains everywher, but Im still flat chested.

**NeedPaintoGain** · 10-28-2004, 08:29 PM

A guy on this board with some good advice (Bask8case) told me one thing....Intensity!!!!! I used to do incline dumbbells to start off and I would only be able to do 6 max with 75 pounds, cause i did it by myself and no spotter....I finally said screw it and got a spotter and tried goin higher...by the end of that set, I was doing 110 dumbbells for 6 reps!!!! Big jump when you're not worrying about everything and got someone to help out.....The big change though was my intensity in the training....instead of worrying about putting up the weight all by myself and going just enough, I could turn things up and put up some heavy pounds.....

Bottom line, make sure you are working out with enough intensity....I main some great gains when I finally started putting my all into my chest workout

Also, do more inclines for a bigger chest, something like 2 incline workouts (heavy) and regular press...BUT be careful that you are doing the inclines right....you could possibly be working your shoulders too much and not putting the stress on your upper chest, which is why you are not growing there....make sure you are at a 35 degree angle, anything higher and you're bound to be using your shoulders too much.

**Jock191** · 10-29-2004, 12:24 AM

This is one thing I love to do. Work out chest.. You can always try this and its differnt but hey you dont have to I do my chest work out as follows

1)Warm up DumbBell Flys 2 sets 10-12 reps. There's no need to go heavy on this movement. Dumbell flyes are not mass builders. This is only preparing the muscles for whats to come.

2)Weighted dips 3 sets 10 reps 30 sec rest between sets.In order to put the most emphasis on the chest muscles when performing dips, keep your chin on your chest, round your back, lean forward slightly, and hold the feet forward under your face.

3)Bench Press 3 sets 10 reps

4)Incline Dumbell Presses 2 sets 8-10 reps

5)Cable Crossovers 15-25 reps with 2 sec pause when fully contracted.. 1 set and your done.. Try that for a month and tell me your chest didnt grow..

**Pork Chop** · 10-29-2004, 07:59 AM

Originally Posted by justin2305

are u changing up exersises?u need to change ur workouts up at least once a month... in order for u muscles to grow u have to shock them meaning changing workouts so ur muscles go from being used to something to a completly diff. exersise... go for one month with the dumbells then switch it up with barbells and pec-decs one month with say barbell or dumbell either or and then one month go to cable cross overs....another thing at the end of ur workouts try and burn out with some weighted dips,dips are great for ur chest and will tear it all up at the end of ur workout and u have to be sure and let and let ur body have enough recovery time so they will rebuild fully and be good to go for another workout....good luck bro

What is the benefit of continuously changing the routine?

**Pork Chop** · 10-29-2004, 08:04 AM

Originally Posted by nathanw21

i changed up my chest workout a few weeks ago. i am hitting it harder than ever. and it is growing fast.
flat barbell 6 sets
incline barbell 5 sets
flat dumbell 3 sets
incline dumbell 3 sets
incline flys 3 sets
flat flys 3 sets
sometimes i throw in decline or cable crossovers. i seem to be getting a lot of growth hitting it this hard. after a while i will back it up but for now it has been good to me.

you must be in the beginner stages of working out or on copious amounts of HGH, Slin and Test if you're seeing gains with that workout.