What Part of Chest Needs Work??

[bugsysiegals]

Even though I can bench 350lbs and should be happy with where I'm at, whenever I look at pictures of bodybuilders, models, or anybody else who has a nicely developed chest, I'm sadly disappointed with my chest. What bothers me is that most people, with what I would consider nicely developed chests, have their nipples at the bottom of the chest and a nice underside curve whereas my nipples are an inch or two above the bottom and don't have a great bottom arc.

I think I might be lacking lower chest and need to do declines and weighted dips but I do have some muscle below the nipple so if I work out the lower chest will that area just build up and keep the nipple where it is or push it further up? Do I need to do more incline presses so the top of the chest builds more mass, stop doing declines and perhaps this will push the nipple down? Also, I'm missing the nice lower outter chest arc connecting it to the shoulder. Do I need more wide grip or cable flies going downwards? Not sure what I need to do here.

Please advise so I can correct the areas that need work. Thanks.

[Damienm05]

Upper/Inner is lacking. I find lower chest will come with overall mass.

I'd focus on Incline DB bench as your main exercise for a bit. Make sure the incline is moderate as to target upper chest, not front delts. Focus on the negative and the chest contraction when pushing up. Don't arch your back or get it up by any means necessary - really squeeze it out with your chest. Benching 350 is nice. I'm sure I could (no dick measuring intended) but I'm proud to say I haven't tried to do a max rep in over a year - BB is about form - really isolate that chest. Going 3 seconds down, 1 Mississippi up with 75 lb. DBs x 12 for your first set may be a good start.

Incorporate some nice wide BB press every other workout too. Pinky on the line is a good medium I think.

[bugsysiegals]

Yes, I know my inner chest is certainly lacking. I just started doing some close grip presses and I've also been starting with incline DB's the last few workouts. I used to rep really fast but the last few months have changed all my workouts to lowering slowly, pressing 1-2 seconds, and holding a squeeze for 3 seconds at the end of each rep. Have really felt my back getting more sore after workouts and it never used to hurt at all. Hopefully this style helps.

Ive never done wide grip until last week because of wrist pain but did try ring finger on the line and racking the weight on the lowest part which made it bearable.

I also keep my elbows all the way out to the side which seems natural to me although I've read to do 45 degrees from body to take shoulders out of the lift and prevent injury. That seems weird to me and akward. I tried it on the incline DB today and it didn't feel right. How do I make sure I'm not using shoulders? Just focus on squeezing the chest as much as possible?

[Gaspari1255]

It looks like your genetics are screwing you when it comes to the chest. What does a typcial chest day look like for you?

[Dan111]

I have a little bit of different feedback for you. I think that picture doesn't really do your chest justice, because it looks like your posture in the particular pose isn't the greatest. It looks like you have your arms forward, almost as if you're ready to do a lat spread. If you just have that posture in the particular pic, then OK. But I think a big part of having your chest look big is in your everyday posture. I used to have a problem with this and thought my chest was lacking until I started making a conscience effort to correct my posture by rolling my shoulders back and having my arms fall directly at my side.

I realize my input on this is a little weird, lol, but if your posture has you leaning forward, try to correct it and your chest might look better.

[FireGuy]

I think you need to lighten the weight and focus on squeezing and contracting as many muscle fibers as you can as opposed to seeing how much weight you can move.

[Reed]

^^ Agreed.

Bodybuilding is about those things.

Powerlifting is about torquing the weight.

[cherrydrpepper]

You can try doing what I call superwide bench press. You will need to lower the weight a lot until you figure out what your body can do. Also use a spotter of course. I put my hands so that my first finger lines up with the outermost hash mark. This takes the triceps out of the equation more so you can make the pectorals do the work.

Another thing you can try is doing the bench press for 4 sets with a spotter and telling them you want to go to complete failure. Make sure they understand you literally want to go until you cannot get the weight up without their help. Everybody says they go balls out on bench but the truth is unless you are doing this you aren't.

Also as already mentioned, take all the ego out of the lift. Pause at the bottom and height of the lift, do the negative part slowly, etc. A lot of pros in their interviews their goal is not to hit any particular number but to hit absolute failure.

[bugsysiegals]

Well, I do have my shoulders rolled forward in that picture. It's the same pose I'd probably use to make my lats puff out. The only reason I did that was because with my shoulders forward I can flex my chest muscles more and make them look thicker than with shoulders back. I suppose my chest looks wider and taller with shoulders back but is much thinner. I'll take another picture tonight if possible and post. Thanks for catching that.

I agree. I've been lifting steady for the last 5 years and on and off before that for a few years and it's always been about how much weight I can use. Now it's more about using less of a weight, squeezing the life out of my muscles, and doing them slow ensuring the more interaction time. Again, I'm hoping this new technique will help to build more muscle mass.

I always have a spotter and take the 3rd set to failure and then have them help for an additional one or two reps. My current chest day would look something like the following.

Monday -

Incline DB Press - 3 sets - x12, 8, 6
Incline Cable Flies - 3 sets - x12, 8 , 6
Decline BB Bench - 3 sets - x12, 8, 6
Decline Cable Flies - 3 sets - x12, 8, 6
Pec Dec Flies - 3 sets - x12, 8, 6

Then I do triceps on Thursday, my shoulder day.

[BigBuck6]

I recommend having a random experienced bodybuilder in your gym work out with you or critique your form on chest day, it may be off and you don't even realize it. I cannot tell you how many guys i see with horrible form pushing a lot of weight but don't have the mass to back it up. Posture is also huge in this department and so is trap development. Guys who work their traps constantly have notoriously bad posture and their chest looks sunken in naturally with their arms more forward than they should be just as the above poster mentioned. If you seem to fit into any of these categories then take a better look at your routine.

[bbminded]

How about cutting back on the amount sets your doing!
Choose just two chest exercises.
Example-Flat dumbell- 2-warmups. then just 1 balls to the wall set of 6-8 reps with a spotter for an extra two or a couple partials.
Then use a bench at about 25-30 incline. 1 warmup. Then again, one set balls to the wall 6-8reps with some partials or extra help to squeeze out 1 or 2 more.
Guess what..thats is. Your chest will be totally taxed. Just have to eat to make it grow!!

Well, I do have my shoulders rolled forward in that picture. It's the same pose I'd probably use to make my lats puff out. The only reason I did that was because with my shoulders forward I can flex my chest muscles more and make them look thicker than with shoulders back. I suppose my chest looks wider and taller with shoulders back but is much thinner. I'll take another picture tonight if possible and post. Thanks for catching that.

I agree. I've been lifting steady for the last 5 years and on and off before that for a few years and it's always been about how much weight I can use. Now it's more about using less of a weight, squeezing the life out of my muscles, and doing them slow ensuring the more interaction time. Again, I'm hoping this new technique will help to build more muscle mass.

I always have a spotter and take the 3rd set to failure and then have them help for an additional one or two reps. My current chest day would look something like the following.

Monday -

Incline DB Press - 3 sets - x12, 8, 6
Incline Cable Flies - 3 sets - x12, 8 , 6
Decline BB Bench - 3 sets - x12, 8, 6
Decline Cable Flies - 3 sets - x12, 8, 6
Pec Dec Flies - 3 sets - x12, 8, 6

Then I do triceps on Thursday, my shoulder day.