Maximize Pecs on Gear

[bigrobbie]

I'm wondering if you don't devote one workout to only doing chest isolation s**t???

Incline fly
Decline fly
Flat fly

Cable fly

Pec dec

What is your flat bench 1RM, and how does it compare to your inclined bench press 1RM?

 

[Equinob]

As always you are very astute ... i made thursdays a pec day after shoulders and tris so I can't leverage them into the presses. Doing Iso movements like flys, all but declines.

I think my one rep max is somewhere between 267 and 305. Seems like I was able to press 3 plates, 1x under my own power in the past. But the 1x rep calculator says my 8x215 working weight is 267. I'll check with a spotter this week to verify and find out about my incline bench which I have not gauged before.

 

[bigrobbie]

As always you are very astute ... i made thursdays a pec day after shoulders and tris so I can't leverage them into the presses. Doing Iso movements like flys, all but declines.

I think my one rep max is somewhere between 267 and 305. Seems like I was able to press 3 plates, 1x under my own power in the past. But the 1x rep calculator says my 8x215 working weight is 267. I'll check with a spotter this week to verify and find out about my incline bench which I have not gauged before.

Please update with 1RM on incline...I suspect that upper chest is the culprit here....

 

[billydidit]

Oh yeah, I should mention I'm consuming about 3300-4000 calories/day, protein heavy.

I got better results when i bumped up my grams of carbs to about 50g more that grams protein ED. Everything looked better, had more energy...

peace,

-billy

 

[billydidit]

Okay bro I feel for ya....let me tell you my story and what worked for me.

Same deal but I always ran about 195lbs 9% BF for years! Prob spent 3 hours ED 6 days a week at the gym. My two biggest problems were that I could not gain weight (get to be over 200 lbs) and that bench was my WORST exercise. Friggin huge arms, back from hell, strong legs, I played college rugby and bucked three string hay bales all week long between classes.

Now I am sitting around 233 and my chest is almost too big. I am freakin out about calves and torso (waistline) now NOT chest at all. Seems like all of the press exercises I can do 3 plates or more --- bench, incline, decline, and even millitary press. So what happened?

1. WIDE BENCH - Changes my life bro. Found this machine that said 'wide bench' and after using it for 6 mo or so I noticed that my pecks were lookin GOOD. Then I moved my hands out 3 inches or so on ALL press type exercises. I have a whole other day devoted to trys bro where I just ter the shit out of em, so bench day is like my chest day.
   
2. Stopped for a sec about one half inch above chest Another thing that helped was coming to a complete stop about half an inch above my chest for every type of press EVERY TIME FOR EVERY SET.
   
3. Alternated the sequence of my workouts (bench, incline, decline) then 4 or 5 days later (incline, decline, bench) and so on...
   
4. Diet got super clean and I bumped up carbs.

When I finish bench day I do over to the cable row machines and spend at least half an hour doing every type of cable fly you can think of. I pretend to be flexing for a contest and fill those pecks up till I think they could burst...then i do some more, till the weight is like what a chick would use.

Immediately after i carb up, then big meal.

If I were you I would not worry about overtraining. I found out that I had one of those body types that seems to be able to take anything and I have to go ape shit to get any real change.

peace,

-billy

 

[Equinob]

Thanks Billy, some good advice/insight there for me.

I've actually come to the conclusion that I have more slow-twitch muscle fibres in my chest than the typical male. Just a theory, but I've never really done a high high-rep, high-set, short-rest, heavy-weight workout for my chest. It's always been traditional 6-8 rep/3-4 sets/long rest/heavy weights. So it might well be worth testing that theory for a few weeks, or mix it up as part of my routine to keep my chest guessing. This theory would certainly explain a few things though. In fact, your 1/2 hour cable exhaustion routine at the end of your workout seems to suggest exactly that for your own chest, combining traditional with high-rep.

I have been incorporating some wide grip lifts into my workout since that was suggested here early on, and seem to be seeing some results. So I will focus a little more on that now for a bit and see if I see even more dramatic results.