Chest isolation ?

wolve

New Member
Thanks to spending half my lifetime in the gym I have developed huge shoulders...tris...etc
But my problem is now when ever I train chest I feel like my shoulders and arms are doing most of the work

Heres an idea of my usual chest workout .....I also alternate dumbbells and barbells every workout....sometimes using Hammer Strength also

Flat Bench x4
Incline Bench x4
Incline FLy x4
Cross overs/pec deck x3

Im thinking of super setting flys/cross overs with the bench.....with the idea being that doing flys first will hit the chest so when I do bench my chest will fail before my tris or shldrs.......

If anyone has a good ways to isolate the chest let me know !

-Wolve
 
wolve said:
Thanks to spending half my lifetime in the gym I have developed huge shoulders...tris...etc
But my problem is now when ever I train chest I feel like my shoulders and arms are doing most of the work

Heres an idea of my usual chest workout .....I also alternate dumbbells and barbells every workout....sometimes using Hammer Strength also

Flat Bench x4
Incline Bench x4
Incline FLy x4
Cross overs/pec deck x3

Im thinking of super setting flys/cross overs with the bench.....with the idea being that doing flys first will hit the chest so when I do bench my chest will fail before my tris or shldrs.......

If anyone has a good ways to isolate the chest let me know !

-Wolve

Hey bro, i have the same problem, after lifting for about 6 years i have huge shoulders, tris, and bi's. My chest is lacking, and i also seem to get more of a shoulder and tri workout before i get a chest workout. I just started to hit chest two times a week and using more isolation exercises like cable crossovers and flys. It has helped i think some, but i have only been doing this for about 3 weeks so it hasn't been enough time yet to tell if it is working. I use the same method that you do, i alternate barbells and dumbbells.

killiob
 
I just recently started just doing incline dumbells decline dumbells and incline flys and I leave the gym every time with my chest totally cashed. When I do the incline press, I go slow and really squeeze at the top. I have been doing this for about three months now and am seeing improvements. I on the other hand am just the opposite of you guys. I have the bis shoulders and chest but really lack on the tris. Any suggestions?
 
Flat bench by nature is more of a delt and tri excercize, so it really isnt the best thing for isolation of the pecs. Inclined and declined presses are where its at, and dumbells will allow a better isolation than a barbell, although some gyms, like mine only have dumbells that go up to 100lbs. Not really enough, especually because you can generally press more declined after getting over the initial curve. Also ditch the cable crossovers they are worthless, add in declined flys or pec dips.
 
One of the most important things I've learned over the years is, when you become advanced(in training) sometimes you've simply got to do maintenence on your best body parts (to just keep them from atrophying) and really concentrate on a weak body part. If you keep hitting everything equally your lagging bodyparts won't and can't catch up.
I'd say stop training your shoulders (not altogether, but do not do shoulder days) and concentrate on chest. Do chest first workout of the week and do chest exercises first in your workouts. Try hitting them twice per week, if in a month no improvement back off to once per week.
Some great things to try are decline dumbell presses, wide-grip bench presses, dips, incline bench presses (and always try and FEEL your chest contracting), also straight arm pull-overs...limited range. Also try 11/2's (that's one and a halves). Emphisizing the lower range of motion! Example: dips - go all the way down, come up half way, go back down, and now go all the way up = 1 rep.
Don't waste your time with too much cable crossovers, etc. Go for low reps, med # of reps and high # of reps. It WILL work.
Oh, and one more thing, the more you flare your elbows out, the more chest recrutment you will get. Keeping your elbows close to the body (as in bench pressing), the more you will hit the shoulders and tri's.
GOOD LUCK!!!
 
Thanx for the input guys......but has anyone actually made any gains using the pre exhaustion or super setting I mentioned?......The theory is by doing an isolating movement ex. flys ....followed by a compound movement ex. flat bench ..........the chest will become exhausted before the smaller tris or delts

Thanx again

-Wolve
 
Sure I've seen some progress made with those methods. And they will probably work for you too, but just how much is the question.
If you've never done the exercises the way I mentioned, do them! You'll grow 3x more than what you have in mind. But if you just want to keep doing what everyone else is doing...be prepared to be like everyone else. Your physique won't stand out...but you will be just one of the flock..average. Don't settle for average.

Please don't say isolation anymore either...there's NO SUCH THING!

Now go grow!!!
 

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