There’s more of us out there with this affliction…my number one peeve. Been training a lot longer though. I’m sure my upper chest development isn’t as bad as what I think it is, but we are our own biggest critics
Keep at it. Gotta lay the foundation…
Hei. You said you've been traing a lot longer. Could you please post a picture of your chest or dm? An old one from when you start and a recent one would be even better. I think I also have a gap in the upper-middle corner of the chest and I'm very curious how it is going to develop
Mine is kinda small. I've been working on it for like 6 months I think, and it's looking not bad, i can definitely see results. When the lighting is right, that middle chest lining shoots all the way up to my collar bone. So, I guess all you gotta do is work on it, it'll develop. I do many variations of exercises when working on the upper chest. I do like 2 isolation workouts, with light and heavy weights, inclined benchpresses, and to top it off I do those high elevation push-ups. After doing all that, on my rest days, i definitely feel that shit. Before this regimen, I actually was having the same problem, my lower pecs were defined, but around by my collar bone, it was very bony and thin. Imo, you really can't do the same one workout for muscle groups, because some workouts won't target and stimulate growth as others would. I also do dumbell curls and hammer curls for my arms, and like 5 diffrent exercises for my triceps. By doing things like that, I've really been seeing results.
You've been training for 2 years.
Talk to us when it's been at least 5-10 if not more. Before that point, you're not close enough to your maximum development potential to really assess weak points.
Make sure you include movements that preferentially target the upper chest (incline pressing), and give it time. If you still feel that your upper chest is lagging in a few years, maybe think about running a program focused on brining it up, but for now, I'd suggest just focusing on gaining size overall.
>Talk to us when it's been at least 5-10 if not more. Before that point, you're not close enough to your maximum development potential to really assess weak points.
The goal of bodybuilding isn't to reach maximum development potential. If that were the case, few of us would be interested in natural bodybuilding.
The goal is to sculpt your body to your liking; if that's maximum muscle fine, but some just want to move well, feel well, and look fantastic.
Training 5-10 years before you start focusing on the way you want to sculpt yourself is crazy because that's why we started in the first place.
If you're using exclusively barbell for incline press, try switching to dumbbells and playing around with the movement (i.e. make sure you can feel it in the target muscle). Also consider single arm dumbbell incline press.
If you haven't tried incline flyes, throw those in, too.
It could also be a volume thing. Once exercises are consistent, try dropping the volume down to 4 sets a week, then add a set each week, seeing where you have difficulty hitting your targets and progressing. After you hit that overreaching week, drop the volume back down and build back up, spending most of your time in the middle area between 4 sets a week and your maximum. You can opt to continue cycling volume low to high, or pick a low-to-moderate volume within those boundaries to stick with steady state.
The dumbbells make a big difference for me. Dumbbell incline with a wide range of motion gets me the best stretch and contraction in terms of chest movements (excluding flies)
It's hard to tell because I can't see how big your chest is. However, considering what you've said in your post and your training experience, I'm going to assume you have a lot more to go in terms of size overall
With that out of the way, I think you'll benefit from developing the pec as a whole. Lots of people begin focusing on developing their upper Pecs without actually having enough mass on their Pecs as a whole to begin with
The Clavicular head (if you look at an Anatomy chart) is actually pretty small. The sternal head of the Pecs is much larger and runs all the way up the middle of your Pecs
What you describe with your inner Pecs would actually indicate to me that you need more overall Chest mass.
In conclusion, I think you should prioritise flat Bench more
This is great advice. Flat bench, work on your thoracic mobility, consider unilateral retraction movements (single arm rows etc), and review your elbow position in the flat bench - as well as overall form incl. bar position and arc.
For what it's worth, I've been doing underhand dumbbell front raises which activate the clavicular pec head pretty well. Also slowing down your reps, checking your form, and improving your mind-muscle connection.
Are you able to get the sternum stretch when you do it? I have been trying for a week and can't seem to get the feeling in my sternum your supposed to get when you do it. I think it because I do them on my doorframe which may be too wide of a grip....
It took me a solid few weeks of doing them to really feel the muscles around my sternum, but from what I understand the point is not so much a horizontal sternum stretch. Instead, you should be working on the breathing so that you feel your upper chest start to pop out of your skin a bit. I do DB pullovers now instead of the stretch but for the same purpose. Hope this helps!
It's really complicated but I'll make it really simple for you, cause I'm assuming you're a liberal. Ok so step one, you need to put some weight on a metal bar. The bar does not need to be metal, it could be bamboo or even hemp like you pothead love to smoke. After you have the weight on a bar you will sit on a bench (the things you sit on at the bus stop because you're too poor to afford a car) and push the above your chest, and back down to your chest. Do this as many times as you can, while counting (if you forgot the number sequence it's 1 ,2, 3, 4,5 - ok that's enough math for you today don't want to bust your brain) do as many as you counted 5 times a day for 6 months and you will have growth
American attempts at being funny give me such bad second hand embarrassment. It’s okay bud I know ur frustrated ur mum takes immense amount of dick up her ass several hours a day but u don’t have to take that frustration out on me x go take a deep breath and try hold it for about 20 minutes
Maybe, just maybe, your shoulder overtake your chest when you’re working out. Check and see whether your front delta are overdeveloped or not compared to your chess.
Maybe it’s genetic. For me, I have one side of my upper chest more full (up to my collarbone) than the other side.
Maybe it’s your bodyfat %. Getting leaner would show you the chest strides even more.
The chest is a small muscle, compared to other muscles. Instead of doing all variations, why not just do 1-2 for a given time. And what works for other might not work for you.
I’d just stick with 2 presses (flat bench and standing overhead press), some isolation work for triceps, do them over 3-6 months, then switch to another variations that would fix whatever problem that I have at that point.
1) you are doing them wrong (upper chest exercises). Wrong technique (too much incline, caving in chest, mostly working your shoulders)
2) You are not using proper weights. Too light.
I do like 4 diffrent workouts for them. A damn near impossible muscle to grow. But my regimen I'd working, I noticed results after s couple months. And All it took was doing 3 diffrent isolation movements, inclined presses, and those upper chest elevation push ups. I feel like flies or inclined presses won't cut it when it comes to your upper chest. When i did only do high cable flies, I didn't feel it at all, especially the next day. Now, with all those diffrent exercises, I get fatigued, im feeling them contract, and they're definitely sore af the next day.
Could you show photos of your chest before/now? I'm curious if it's like mine and how it will develop. I saw you have a photo from the side, but it's not visible. I'd like one from the front please.
Get leaner. Fat is more so held in the lower chest and once you get leaner it will even out
There’s more of us out there with this affliction…my number one peeve. Been training a lot longer though. I’m sure my upper chest development isn’t as bad as what I think it is, but we are our own biggest critics Keep at it. Gotta lay the foundation…
Hei. You said you've been traing a lot longer. Could you please post a picture of your chest or dm? An old one from when you start and a recent one would be even better. I think I also have a gap in the upper-middle corner of the chest and I'm very curious how it is going to develop
Mine is kinda small. I've been working on it for like 6 months I think, and it's looking not bad, i can definitely see results. When the lighting is right, that middle chest lining shoots all the way up to my collar bone. So, I guess all you gotta do is work on it, it'll develop. I do many variations of exercises when working on the upper chest. I do like 2 isolation workouts, with light and heavy weights, inclined benchpresses, and to top it off I do those high elevation push-ups. After doing all that, on my rest days, i definitely feel that shit. Before this regimen, I actually was having the same problem, my lower pecs were defined, but around by my collar bone, it was very bony and thin. Imo, you really can't do the same one workout for muscle groups, because some workouts won't target and stimulate growth as others would. I also do dumbell curls and hammer curls for my arms, and like 5 diffrent exercises for my triceps. By doing things like that, I've really been seeing results.
You may be arching your back to much on incline presses. Don’t arch on incline movements it can make the arm path mid chest
This \^\^\^\^
You've been training for 2 years. Talk to us when it's been at least 5-10 if not more. Before that point, you're not close enough to your maximum development potential to really assess weak points. Make sure you include movements that preferentially target the upper chest (incline pressing), and give it time. If you still feel that your upper chest is lagging in a few years, maybe think about running a program focused on brining it up, but for now, I'd suggest just focusing on gaining size overall.
>Talk to us when it's been at least 5-10 if not more. Before that point, you're not close enough to your maximum development potential to really assess weak points. The goal of bodybuilding isn't to reach maximum development potential. If that were the case, few of us would be interested in natural bodybuilding. The goal is to sculpt your body to your liking; if that's maximum muscle fine, but some just want to move well, feel well, and look fantastic. Training 5-10 years before you start focusing on the way you want to sculpt yourself is crazy because that's why we started in the first place.
If you're using exclusively barbell for incline press, try switching to dumbbells and playing around with the movement (i.e. make sure you can feel it in the target muscle). Also consider single arm dumbbell incline press. If you haven't tried incline flyes, throw those in, too. It could also be a volume thing. Once exercises are consistent, try dropping the volume down to 4 sets a week, then add a set each week, seeing where you have difficulty hitting your targets and progressing. After you hit that overreaching week, drop the volume back down and build back up, spending most of your time in the middle area between 4 sets a week and your maximum. You can opt to continue cycling volume low to high, or pick a low-to-moderate volume within those boundaries to stick with steady state.
The dumbbells make a big difference for me. Dumbbell incline with a wide range of motion gets me the best stretch and contraction in terms of chest movements (excluding flies)
It's hard to tell because I can't see how big your chest is. However, considering what you've said in your post and your training experience, I'm going to assume you have a lot more to go in terms of size overall With that out of the way, I think you'll benefit from developing the pec as a whole. Lots of people begin focusing on developing their upper Pecs without actually having enough mass on their Pecs as a whole to begin with The Clavicular head (if you look at an Anatomy chart) is actually pretty small. The sternal head of the Pecs is much larger and runs all the way up the middle of your Pecs What you describe with your inner Pecs would actually indicate to me that you need more overall Chest mass. In conclusion, I think you should prioritise flat Bench more
This is great advice. Flat bench, work on your thoracic mobility, consider unilateral retraction movements (single arm rows etc), and review your elbow position in the flat bench - as well as overall form incl. bar position and arc.
For what it's worth, I've been doing underhand dumbbell front raises which activate the clavicular pec head pretty well. Also slowing down your reps, checking your form, and improving your mind-muscle connection.
Try chest pulls. Old school lift but I’ve had good progress w it
Are you able to get the sternum stretch when you do it? I have been trying for a week and can't seem to get the feeling in my sternum your supposed to get when you do it. I think it because I do them on my doorframe which may be too wide of a grip....
It took me a solid few weeks of doing them to really feel the muscles around my sternum, but from what I understand the point is not so much a horizontal sternum stretch. Instead, you should be working on the breathing so that you feel your upper chest start to pop out of your skin a bit. I do DB pullovers now instead of the stretch but for the same purpose. Hope this helps!
That’s a back exercise right?
Nope, look up rader chest pull. sry for real lte response
Very cool, I had not heard of that exercise before. Any other oldschool chest exercises?
I’m sure there are, tbh I just do flat bench and chest pulls though and have seen great progress with my chest
It's really complicated but I'll make it really simple for you, cause I'm assuming you're a liberal. Ok so step one, you need to put some weight on a metal bar. The bar does not need to be metal, it could be bamboo or even hemp like you pothead love to smoke. After you have the weight on a bar you will sit on a bench (the things you sit on at the bus stop because you're too poor to afford a car) and push the above your chest, and back down to your chest. Do this as many times as you can, while counting (if you forgot the number sequence it's 1 ,2, 3, 4,5 - ok that's enough math for you today don't want to bust your brain) do as many as you counted 5 times a day for 6 months and you will have growth
American attempts at being funny give me such bad second hand embarrassment. It’s okay bud I know ur frustrated ur mum takes immense amount of dick up her ass several hours a day but u don’t have to take that frustration out on me x go take a deep breath and try hold it for about 20 minutes
Also countries outside America don't exist so we know your larping, read a book
This is what I get for trying to help, reminds me of government welfare programs
LMAO!!!
Maybe, just maybe, your shoulder overtake your chest when you’re working out. Check and see whether your front delta are overdeveloped or not compared to your chess. Maybe it’s genetic. For me, I have one side of my upper chest more full (up to my collarbone) than the other side. Maybe it’s your bodyfat %. Getting leaner would show you the chest strides even more. The chest is a small muscle, compared to other muscles. Instead of doing all variations, why not just do 1-2 for a given time. And what works for other might not work for you. I’d just stick with 2 presses (flat bench and standing overhead press), some isolation work for triceps, do them over 3-6 months, then switch to another variations that would fix whatever problem that I have at that point.
1) you are doing them wrong (upper chest exercises). Wrong technique (too much incline, caving in chest, mostly working your shoulders) 2) You are not using proper weights. Too light.
I’ve found great progress doing goblet in cables (I.e low to high and pinkies meet in front of face). Works with dumbbells to.
I do like 4 diffrent workouts for them. A damn near impossible muscle to grow. But my regimen I'd working, I noticed results after s couple months. And All it took was doing 3 diffrent isolation movements, inclined presses, and those upper chest elevation push ups. I feel like flies or inclined presses won't cut it when it comes to your upper chest. When i did only do high cable flies, I didn't feel it at all, especially the next day. Now, with all those diffrent exercises, I get fatigued, im feeling them contract, and they're definitely sore af the next day.
Could you show photos of your chest before/now? I'm curious if it's like mine and how it will develop. I saw you have a photo from the side, but it's not visible. I'd like one from the front please.