Inner and lower chest?

[lil-SLIM]

I need help in these areas, i think lacking in these spots makes my pecs look smaller than they really are

I do close grip and decline (really focusing on this now)...and flys but dont know if that helps these spots really

what other lifts can i do for these spots?

whats the best place to place hands during close grip?

[FREAK]

well your already doing close grip bb presses and flyes those target your inner chest try to switch it up with some db's and do your flys last.Decline presses are generaly used for the lower part of your chest. do them after say flat or incline

[Dizz28]

Inner chest = dumbell presses, cable crossovers

[lil-SLIM]

thnx guys anyone else got advice?

[Ajc330]

dips will hit your lower chest

[SMCengineer]

You guys do realize that the chest is genetically predisposed to only grow one way and that's the only way it will grow. The type of movement you do doesn't effect a certain area of your chest, but it does stimulate overall growth. So, in essence the only way to improve your inner or lower chest is to add overall mass onto the pectoral muscle. Notice, their is a difference between the clavicular head and sternal head of the chest muscle, so I do believe that it's possible to target the upper chest.
Here's a diagram for anyone interested: http://www.exrx.net/Muscles/PectoralisClavicular.html

To the original poster, remember to not overtrain your chest, which can be detrimental to growth. It only needs one major compound movement followed up with an isolation movement.

[lil-SLIM]

can u elaberate on overtraining for me Blome...which lifts are considered major/iso???

I think I know but would like to be sure

[Ajc330]

major compound movement is bench press for example, and an isolation could be dumbbell flys

[SMCengineer]

can u elaberate on overtraining for me Blome...which lifts are considered major/iso???

I think I know but would like to be sure

Sure. I'd say the biggest mistake most people make when working out the pectoralis major is that they try to hit it from every angle which as I already covered is pointless for a number of reasons. Remember it's a large muscle group and it needs time to heal so don't try and hit all heads of the same muscle at once. I would suggest going heavy on one compound lift for four working sets and then going light on an isolation exercise to exhaust the chest. You could also incorporate fascia stretching into your routine.

Compunds lifts include most pressing and pulling movements ie deadlift, squat bench. Compound lifts recruit the maximum amount of muscle fibers throughout the entire movement. Due to the nature of these exercises heavy weight is normally used and progress is usually rapid. So for chest, compound movements would include incline bench (DB or BB), decline bench (DB or BB), flat bench (DB or BB), and dips.
Isolation movements target a specific muscle, but because of the nature of these movements heavy weight is usually not used to prevent injury, therefore, progress is negligible. Isolation movements include pec dec, cable crossovers, and dumbell flyes.

[lil-SLIM]

hmm thats interesting u only do 4 heavy compound sets and 1 burnout iso set? how many times a week?

right now im doing sooo much more than that and it could def be why im having trouble there

[SMCengineer]

hmm thats interesting u only do 4 heavy compound sets and 1 burnout iso set? how many times a week?

It really depends on what my goals are and how I have the rest of my spilt set up. For example, if I'm going to be doing tri's after I do chest than yes I'll do 4 heavy compund lifts with one burnout iso. In reality, if your going to full intensity you should only be able to one full heavy bench at your maximum weight for 6-8 reps and if you hit 8 reps than you would increase it slightly next week. The other 3 sets are at a lighter weight (but still heavy) because your muscles should already be tired. With this setup I would only hit chest once a week. You may think it's undertraining, but I've gotten some of my best results from high intensity, low volume.

What's your current chest workout look like?

[lil-SLIM]

mon- decline 4 sets of 5/ closegrip 4 sets of 8/ mchn flys 4 sets 8

thr/fri- dmbl bench 4 sets 5/ incline 4 seets 5/ flys or dips 4 sets of 8

[lil-SLIM]

bump

[lil-SLIM]

Blome-if you were on a cycle tho shouldnt that help you recover from a heavyer workout? thus allowing for you to do more

[SMCengineer]

Blome-if you were on a cycle tho shouldnt that help you recover from a heavyer workout? thus allowing for you to do more

Common misconseption. People always think that you should be working out harder on cycle or that you should workout more, but in reality your CNS does not recover any faster while on cycle. Thus, you can still overtrain very easily.

[yungfaceb3]

The chest is quite possibly the muscle group of the upper body MOST discussed and MOST talked about as lagging behind or needing help. There are NUMEROUS different methods that people have developed over the years, and some of them work wodners while others do not. Some help some people and not others, and still others are hailed as "excessive overtraining" but work miracuously for that person despite the criticisms. My genetics gave me a lagging chest and from my experiances with bringing it up I have faced much frustration, defeat, and little progress while sometimes making good gains. Recently i have found some truths to be important to building up the chest, and they are working for me so they "could" work for anybody. stay away from the fancy shyt...the machines...and the ego training. Stick to the classics..the original findamentals of bodybuilding that built the chests of great bbers from arnold to ronnie.....bench presses, incline presses, flyes, declines/ dips, cable cross overs. Don't try and hit each and every angle to utter and complete destruction each time, but build up your adaptation to higher demands of training and remeber the chest is a large muscle group. Today I did 5 sets of flat barbell bench, 4 sets of heavier weight that increased each set and a final set of lighter weight higher reps. Then 4 sets of 8-10 reps on the incline followed by 15 degree incline dumbell presses for 4 sets. I finsihed with light weight decline presses supersetted with cable crossovers and in the end it was about 20 sets in about an an hour. I had short rest periods and had intense sets to failure but did not forced reps except occasionally on the final set of hevaier pressing movments w/ 1-2 forced reps. This was a demanding workout but was by no means whatsoever overtraining....regardless of what anyone on this forum may say to the contrary. I don't always hit my chest with up to 20 sets and rarely ever go beyond 20, but in the end its what works for you and you have to build up instinctual knowledge from trial and error to know when you've had enough or not.

[SMCengineer]

but in the end its what works for you and you have to build up instinctual knowledge from trial and error to know when you've had enough or not.

Very good point.