Struggle to add size onto my chest.

[roidkid]

I have been training for close to 2 years but only lifting properly for about 12-14 months.

Wehn I first stepped into the gym I was benching 40-50kgs on flat and the 22.5kgs dumbells on incline, I am now benching 8-10 clean reps touching my chest of 80-82.5kgs on flat and incline 32.5kgs 6-8 reps.

The only problem is I have not added much size to my chest compared to other areas e.g arms,back,shoulders.

I trained for about 6 months with a pyramid program:

Incline:
20kgx12
25x10
30x8
32.5x6

Flat bench press:
40kgx12
55kgx10
65x8
80x6

I would interchange decline and flat every fortnight and always kept Incline.

Would finish with 4 sets on flat flys and a few more reps with cables.

Recently I have been training with HIT 2 warm ups and 1 working set to fail, this is a lot less working sets and less total reps I have found my strength has gotten better training HIT but still size is a struggle. I train every muscle group once a week and always pull up sore from chest.

Should I double up on my chest routine or would that turn into over training?"

Any help would be appreciated guys.

[DanB]

there is a big difference between your flat and iincline and i dare say that could be where the problem lies, try dips while leaning forward, great at building upper part of chest, incline flys are also effective and cable flys but form needs to be good,slow and controlled you need to feel every rep. . .try switching to dumbells for a few weeks and incoporate a dropset into each exercise, or forced reps if you have a spotter, or both. . .personally i wouldnt bother with a hit warm up, id see it as expending too much valuable energy which i will need for working sets, instead i like to just warm up on the weights by starting with lower weight and working my way up, what angle are you doing your incline at? i like to do it at 30degree or 45 every now and again to change it up but i find any more than that is too much and any less is too little

[DanB]

for what its worth,chest routine i done on tuesday was

incline dumbells - 3 sets, 1 drop set
flat dumbells - 2 sets
decline dumbells - 3 sets 1 dropset
weighted dips - 3 sets 1 dropset
cable flys - 3 sets
all are done in 8-10 rep range

[IrishMuscle]

Incline flyes are the best width builder by far in my experience. Go heavy and feel every rep. Would also have a spotter to help you get the last few up..

[Juicing Post Whore]

Any decline work?

[gearbox]

i was told by many on here to add decline dumbells or straight bar...just decline in general..I have now for a few wks i will let you know in a few months if i see anything..

[slfmade]

I've actually notice a significant improvement doing dips while leaning forward and I have a hard time building my chest area as well.

Not trying to hijack as this could perhaps help the OP as well, but what is the best chest exercise to work the lower-outside portion of the chest? For you anatomy nuts it would be the most posterior lateral quadrant of the pec.

[roidkid]

DanB:

I use to train to something similar to this and might go back to it soon, I did really enjoy doing drop sets.

Juicing Post Whore:

I have been lifting decline instead of flat lately and will keep that going to see how it works.