My final body part to discuss is the chest. The chest is one of the most popular areas to train, second only to the biceps. I remember the first time I saw Pumping Iron (movie on Arnie, Franco and co during the 1975 Mr Universe and Mr Olympia) and thinking “Wow! I want to have a chest like that”. The favourite exercise for most people is the Bench press and for some it works amazingly well at producing great gains in size and strength, for others it can be more of a shoulder and triceps builder. There are also others who have suffered shoulder injuries from the Bench press due to: poor technique, overuse of the exercise, muscular imbalance, postural issues, excessive range of motion or maybe even a leverage disadvantage.
I used to love trying to lift as much as possible when benching; however, even with correct technique: rib cage high, scapulae retracted and depressed (shoulders pushed down and back throughout the lift), elbows under the bar, bar lowered all the way to the chest……. and different grips experimented with, I found it was not the best way for me to build a bigger and more balanced looking chest. Below are some ideas for you to consider when you are trying to find what works best for you.
If you perform any exercise and you feel it in the joint instead of the muscle it is generally not worth doing (unless you can make adjustments to it to suit your unique set of muscles, tendons and bone lengths). Let us imagine two guys, one has a big rib cage, thick muscle bellies, wide shoulders and short arms;(ideal build for benching) he will have a shorter range of motion to move the weight to his chest, have shorter resistance levers requiring less force to move the same amount of weight as someone with longer arms and narrower shoulders. There is a good chance that he will be able to lift more weight, feel it better in the pectorals throughout most of the range of motion with less stress on his joints. He will derive more benefit from traditional bench pressing than the guy who has narrow shoulders, minimal muscle bulk, a smaller rib cage and long arms. The second guy would have to move the weight over a greater distance to reach his chest meaning there will probably be a greater range of motion at the shoulder joints, possibly stretching the shoulder joints beyond their capability and making them more susceptible to injury. Also a good part of that movement will probably involve other supporting muscle groups like the triceps and shoulders. If you are the second guy you may benefit more from shortening the range of motion. You can do this by not taking the weight to the chest, using dumbbells or performing decline benches instead.
So how do you find out what is the best range of motion for you? I was always told as a teenager to take the bar to the chest or go as low as possible with dumbbells (however, I would always feel it too much in the shoulder joint). I decided to try different depths and found if I stopped about ½-1 inch above the chest I felt it way better, got bigger pumps and got awesome soreness in the chest the next day. With my students at school I get them to perform a light set of flat benches with dumbbells to see where they naturally lower them to and this allows me to determine what would be a good range of motion for them with a bar. If they have narrow shoulders and long arms it is almost always above the chest.
So what about the upper chest? This area could always do with some extra muscle (I have never seen an upper chest too big to be honest) Inclines make up most of my chest workout- but how do you find the angle that hits your upper chest the best? Your chest is a fan shaped muscle, so different angles will hit different fibres harder. I experimented with one angle each week and performed 10 sets of 10-20 reps. I found the best angle by the amount of soreness I felt in the upper chest the next day. For me this happened to be around 20-30 degrees. This doesn’t mean I use other incline angles, I do, but this is the angle I do most of my incline bench work with.
I have found using Steve Holman’s P.O.F (positions of flexion) has been instrumental in improving the shape and balance of my chest. It involves using exercises that emphasises different aspects of the muscle (See x-rep.com for more information). The mid-range exercises I choose from are Incline BB or DB benches, weighted press ups with my feet up on a bench or weighted dips. The contracted exercises I choose from are machine bench presses or cable cross overs from a low pulley position. The stretch position exercises I choose from are Incline flyes and hybrid bench flyes (palms facing at the bottom to palms facing forward at the top of the movement). That reminds me of an article I was reading recently by Doug Brignole, a successful masters bodybuilder who contributes to Ironman Magazine in the States, he has had great success developing his upper chest performing reverse grip (palms facing toward you) incline DB Bench presses. Interesting as some recent research has suggested that a reverse grip can in fact activate the upper chest fibres more effectively than a normal pronated grip (just be careful as it can be quite an awkward movement initially).
Your posture can affect your ability to benefit from chest exercises. If you have a tendency to slouch your head and shoulders forward a little (a combination of a slightly kyphotic spine or a natural tendency to slouch because of: height (tall people look down more), working on a computer a lot, not stretching chest or shoulders after workouts, or not giving your upper back muscles the priority they need). Put less emphasis on chest training and focus on the upper back muscles. A good rule to follow is for every chest exercise; complete at least two exercises for the back. Training like this will improve your posture and ensure you are able to keep the ribcage high, shoulders back and scapulae retracted properly during chest exercises so you can feel and work your chest better for size and strength gains.
Let’s face it you will always want a bigger and better balanced chest. If you have had trouble building your chest in the past try some of these ideas, keep learning and don’t be afraid to experiment so that you find what works best for you!