Working Out Pec Muscles

[chrisrushton]

Hey everyone,

I've been working on my physical strength and conditioning for a while now It's been going well but I have noticed something worrying. I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts about it.

Whenever I try and work out my chest and general pushing muscles, the only group that ever seem to feel fatigued is my triceps. For example I was working hard yesterday on a bench press and my triceps feel exhausted but my pecs feel like they never had a workout. Is this normal? Might I be cheating on the exercise somewhere and this is meaning my arms are doing all the work? Are there any exercises which isolate the chest?

I'm not interested in the pros and cons of working out etc, or why I feel the need to bulk up my chest. I'm an athlete. I need to be strong. Any thoughts?

[scorpio1980]

You don't need to isolate the chest muscles. You need to do compound exercises. Compound exercises use more muscle fibers, and produce more growth hormone. Most likely your triceps are weak. Get out of the gym, and go down to the playground. Do different variations of pullups, pushups, and dips(wide grip, reverse grip, closed grip, triangle push, military, elevated etc.). Do lunges, squats, shoulder presses,etc. Work the whole body through bodyweight conditioning until you master your own weight, this can get you into excellent shape. Also, if you do alot of cardio, stop it now. Sprint instead of jog. Make sure your diet is adequite to build, and maintain muscle.

[Mogget]

It may be that your form is not great, r that you are not doing the right kinds of exercises, or it MAY be that your pecs are actually already quite strong and that your triceps are the 'weakest link' in pushing movements. Get a trainer to give you the right exercises and correct your form and if you still have the same issue just keep at it till your triceps catch up with your pecs.

[chrisrushton]

thanks for the advice!

[ginkgo]

There are different angles to target the chest more. Say bench press. Hands closer means more triceps but farther apart means more pecs.

Another issue is the strength of your tripeps. The lower the strength of them the more it limits your pec strength. So as the tripeps get stronger then the pecs can do more work. Your triceps may lag behind your pecs.

Say you are super strong but have no grip strength. You cannot lift weights since you cannot hold them. What muscles did the governor of CA specialize in being strong? None. He focused on symmetry.

Here is a warning. Everyone wants big pecs but do not care about back. You must do a little more back exercises than pec. If not then the pecs create a condition called round shoulder. Shoulders are pulled inward and together. It is bad for look and posture. A strong back makes the shoulders wider (farther apart).

I was bodybuilding at like 12 so I did not know the above and had that condition known as round shoulders.

[Orecle]

Chris
You need to preexhaust your chest muscles b4 benching .
there are people whose chest grows from bench and people whose triceps take the load instead.

to fatigue your chest do the pec deck machine (google it) then go bench.

You can also experiment with doing different rep ranges 6 - 8, 10 - 12, 15 - 20s

u can also try incline or decline bench and also inclin and flat dumbell press. there are a number of bodybuilders that feel the bench is useless for chest and do dumbells instead

to gingko
the guvnor definately focussed on strength espiecally when he trained with reg park. it was also why he started training with franco columbo. also remember he use to compete in powerlifting comps.

the stronger you are the bigger you get. arnold use to say you put on mass 1st then you shape it. getting stronger is what gives mass

[ginkgo]

Originally Posted by Orecle

Chris
You need to preexhaust your chest muscles b4 benching .
there are people whose chest grows from bench and people whose triceps take the load instead.

to fatigue your chest do the pec deck machine (google it) then go bench.

You can also experiment with doing different rep ranges 6 - 8, 10 - 12, 15 - 20s

u can also try incline or decline bench and also inclin and flat dumbell press. there are a number of bodybuilders that feel the bench is useless for chest and do dumbells instead

to gingko
the guvnor definately focussed on strength espiecally when he trained with reg park. it was also why he started training with franco columbo. also remember he use to compete in powerlifting comps.

the stronger you are the bigger you get. arnold use to say you put on mass 1st then you shape it. getting stronger is what gives mass

I never said that he did not train for strength. He said that the powerlifting first gave him an advantage over other bodybuilders. What I said about him was that he did not want a set of muscles to be stronger and bigger than another like other bodybuilders.

Many bodybuilders are known for having the best pair of whatever like biceps. The governor did not want that. Maybe you do not know what symmetry is. It does not mean definition. It means being equal on both sides. For example women have tops where they will have a strap over only one shoulder but not the other. It is called an asymmetrical look.

Many times people will argue or get upset since the do not know what a word really means. I remember that one woman that I was talking to was very upset and she wanted me to stop talking but I did not since I thought it was all due to one word. Actually she was upset for many years (did not know her then) over a few sentences. So I kept talking and she kept trying to stop me until I got to tell her what implicitly means. Then all of her upset from all those years went away. She thought that implicit means the same as explicit. But they are almost opposites.

So Arnold did not want any muscles sticking out more than other ones. So unlike others he is not known for having a great pair of pecs or something. Columbo came in 2nd to him a few times. Arnold would use psychological tactics (according to him) to beat Columbo.

Of course in our society there is a strong bias to height. Most women interviewed said that they would rather go out with a tall guy who is poor, a criminal and stupid rather than have someone who is rich or smart or honest. Maybe it has changed by now but Wilt Chamberlin (7'3" tall) tells in his book how he he had sex with over 30,000 women.

But they are best friends now and Columbo puts his hands on everyone in Arnold's family. He gives them chiropractic treatment.

I agree that the guy should do flyes first since they focus on chest only, before other things like the bench press. Bigger muscles take more to exhaust than smaller muscles. He could even do more of the flyes since they only use pecs and no other muscles. If he did that, he could never complain of other muscles being tired but the other muscles will lag behind the pecs.

[Orecle]

Originally Posted by ginkgo

Say you are super strong but have no grip strength. You cannot lift weights since you cannot hold them. What muscles did the governor of CA specialize in being strong? None. He focused on symmetry.

Originally Posted by ginkgo

I never said that he did not train for strength. He said that the powerlifting first gave him an advantage over other bodybuilders. What I said about him was that he did not want a set of muscles to be stronger and bigger than another like other bodybuilders.

Many bodybuilders are known for having the best pair of whatever like biceps. The governor did not want that. Maybe you do not know what symmetry is. It does not mean definition. It means being equal on both sides. For example women have tops where they will have a strap over only one shoulder but not the other. It is called an asymmetrical look.


So Arnold did not want any muscles sticking out more than other ones. So unlike others he is not known for having a great pair of pecs or something.

You said what muscles did the guv focus on being strong then answered none. Then in your 2nd statement you say you didnt mention him training for strength.

Eiether you didnt explain yourself properly or you contradicted yourself.

If you know any thing about bodybuilding then you would know some bodyparts respond better than others. so very few bodybuilders acheive total symmetry.

Arnold was definately known for specific bodyparts HIS ARMS AND HIS CHEST. I dont know where you get your info. Arnold was not the most symmetrical bodybuilder. columbo was more symmetrical than him. Arnolds looked more athletic and classical


the guvnor strengths were his chest and arms which were practically flawless. his shoulders and his legs were not as good. His abs were crap compared to others. lou ferrigno aka the hulk or serge nubret were much more symmetrical (ps knowing the word symmetry is not rocket science)

[ginkgo]

The first time I did not explain it clearly. I explained it wrong the first time. That is an example of how the person knows what he is saying but he needs to express it so others know what he is talking about. The source of my information comes from a book that I own. It is the 736 page book called The Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding by Arnold Schwarzenegger. It has more than 850 photographs. That could be a lie since I did not count them but that is what the cover of the book says.

You have your opinion of him but the above is his opinion. He tried his best to be symmetrical and would train harder on smaller muscles like his calves. Also he won the Mr Olympia contest many times so the judges felt that he looked the best. Although Columbo came in 2nd a few times and Arnold admits that he would do things like telling a joke while Columbo was posing and he gave him bad advice. He is only human, but to end on a positive note, here is a story in the book (page 203 and 204).

Great Story

They were training together and Columbo is Italian-American. Franco (Columbo) squatted under 500 pounds but could not lift it. He could not do even one rep [repetition] and that is bad for his rep [reputation]. Then 4 Italian-American kids from NY came in. They ignored Arnold but they started telling Columbo how great he is and how they are big fans of his.

Arnold pulled him aside and said "look, these guys worship you. Do you want fail in front of them?" So he went outside and took some deep breaths and psyched himself up. He came back in and lifted it and instead of squatting it 6 times like he was supposed to, he squatted it 8 times!

[chrisrushton]

Originally Posted by Orecle

Chris
You need to preexhaust your chest muscles b4 benching .
there are people whose chest grows from bench and people whose triceps take the load instead.

to fatigue your chest do the pec deck machine (google it) then go bench.

This worked really well.

I did flys dips and pullups before benching and my chest is killing me now (in a good way)

[Ronnock]

Originally Posted by scorpio1980

Also, if you do alot of cardio, stop it now. Sprint instead of jog.

While I agree with this, I also disagree with entirely disregarding cardiovascular endurance. Do both!


As for directly hitting the pectoralis major, flies are good (though kind of detrimental to the shoulders, so if you have week shoulders, do cable flies instead of dumbbell flies), widen the grip on the bench-press, do dumbbell bench presses (same goes for the shoulders on these guys), chest-oriented dips are good, and the pec-deck machine is good, but I kind of dislike machines overall because they are very restrictive on the stabilizing and motor-functioning muscles. They are good for isolation however, and I suppose that is the real goal here.

Good luck and train hard.