Trouble activating chest

[RightToBearArms]

Took about 1 year off from the gym while I worked a frick ton. Had zero problem activating chest. It was actually one of my favorite parts to train. Presses, bench, etc all went extremely well and felt great. During my year off I would do push ups, pull ups, and occasionally do cardio. Since I starting training full time again 3 months ago I have notice when I train any chest my front delts feel like they carry all the weight. In the past, training chest would get a full pump, red and plump, and I could feel the burn all the way across my chest where it would be sore to the touch even. No days, my chest gets some what sore but I def believe my delts are activating way more than my pecs. It's extremely frustrating. BTW I'm 27yo, 195lbs, 15%. 4 years total training.

Any advice from you vets?

If you don't know what your talking about or haven't been training for a long, please don't comment. You know who you are!

 

[Docd187123]

1) this is an internet FORUM. If you don't want any particular ppl to comment don't post on a forum and ask a friend or use the PM function.

2) your problem isn't activating chest muscles. Do you think you can do a bench press without using your pecs? You can't. Your issue is you associating soreness and pumps with a good workout which is fallacious thinking. Advice is to quit worrying about things that matter little and worry about things that matter more, such as progressive overload, good lift selection, good volume and intensity selection, etc.

 

[canadian mutant]

Had this problem BIG YIME in the past cuz i had naturally huge triceps and they would push all the weight and not activate my pecks at all. You gotta focus on them harder for a bit to bring them up...thing that worked BEST for me was doing 1 peck at a time to start. I'd Hit a chest press machine first and do 1 side at a time. It allows u to REALLY focus on the muscle and u can actually feel it activating. Idc if it looks retarted, but if you put your other hand on your pec while your working the 1 side, u can feel it activating and adjust your form accordingly to get the hardest best activation u can. Then after ur done that head over and proceed with normal chest workout

Sounds crazy but it worked for me first hand.

 

[Docd187123]

Ummmmm, so you're saying if you did the chest press with both sides at the same time you wouldn't be "activating your chest"?

 

[canadian mutant]

Ummmmm, so you're saying if you did the chest press with both sides at the same time you wouldn't be "activating your chest"?

Umm no.
Im saying doing 1 side at a time actually helped me activate it how i wanted to and helped me focus on the pecs more as oppose to just getting a MASSIVE arms pump and chest still looking flat

 

[canadian mutant]

Ummmmm, so you're saying if you did the chest press with both sides at the same time you wouldn't be "activating your chest"?

When its impossible for u to feel a burn in your pecs cuz ur tris/delts do all the work u gotta find something that works for Your body.
Im sure with ur body u could hit a set of bench right now and itll work ur tris/delts/pecs equally but with OPs body he cant. So im telling him what worked for me to get my chest going

 

[Docd187123]

When its impossible for u to feel a burn in your pecs cuz ur tris/delts do all the work u gotta find something that works for Your body.
Im sure with ur body u could hit a set of bench right now and itll work ur tris/delts/pecs equally but with OPs body he cant.

This is wrong.

Edit* not to mention the fact that working only 1 side on a chest press machine to "activate the chest" more is stupid. Not trying to insult you with that comment it just makes absolutely no sense. Why would working one side activate a muscle more than working both? You're using the same exact muscles but only one one side of the body not both.

 

[canadian mutant]

This is wrong.

Edit* not to mention the fact that working only 1 side on a chest press machine to "activate the chest" more is stupid. Not trying to insult you with that comment it just makes absolutely no sense. Why would working one side activate a muscle more than working both? You're using the same exact muscles but only one one side of the body not both.

Ur completely fucking wrong ive been training for 10 years pretty sure i know when a muscle is getting worked or not for fuck sakes
My tris would get bigger and bigger and bigger and chest would just stay flat.
You have no idea cuz u never had to deal with it

 

[SDbronco]

This is wrong.

Edit* not to mention the fact that working only 1 side on a chest press machine to "activate the chest" more is stupid. Not trying to insult you with that comment it just makes absolutely no sense. Why would working one side activate a muscle more than working both? You're using the same exact muscles but only one one side of the body not both.

I honestly have so say I agreed with him. Only using one arm to do chest presses at a time helps me create a much better mind muscle connection in my chest which usually translates into better workouts. I can't say this for other lifts but I can say it for chest press machine.

 

[Docd187123]

Ur completely fucking wrong ive been training for 10 years pretty sure i know when a muscle is getting worked or not for fuck sakes
My tris would get bigger and bigger and bigger and chest would just stay flat.
You have no idea cuz u never had to deal with it

Wow, 10yrs?!?! Really? OMG it's like nobody else has trained more than you.....

Obviously you don't know when a muscle is being worked as evidenced by your posts but you're welcome to keep believing so. I hear Santa Claus and the tooth fairy are other cool things to believe in too

 

[gr8whitetrukker]

Took about 1 year off from the gym while I worked a frick ton. Had zero problem activating chest. It was actually one of my favorite parts to train. Presses, bench, etc all went extremely well and felt great. During my year off I would do push ups, pull ups, and occasionally do cardio. Since I starting training full time again 3 months ago I have notice when I train any chest my front delts feel like they carry all the weight. In the past, training chest would get a full pump, red and plump, and I could feel the burn all the way across my chest where it would be sore to the touch even. No days, my chest gets some what sore but I def believe my delts are activating way more than my pecs. It's extremely frustrating. BTW I'm 27yo, 195lbs, 15%. 4 years total training.

Any advice from you vets?

If you don't know what your talking about or haven't been training for a long, please don't comment. You know who you are!

Try the guillotine press.

 

[D-Ballin]

How's your bench form? Scapula pinched back good, everything nice and tight?

Chances are you're getting a good workout just fine.

Try pre exhaustion work for a month or two. Hit flyes or crossovers first, then move on to your primary movements. I wouldn't suggest doing this long term, as it's going to fuck with your primary lifts, and get in the way of what's important (progressive overload). But it's good for developing the "mind muscle" dealio.

Alternatively, run chest day as usual, and proceed to an fst7 finish with cable xovers or decline flyes. Or bw dips if up to it. Tell us you aren't sore then!

 

[jJjburton]

you gotta line up the weight closer to the bottom of your chest. If you bench make sure the bar or dumbells are lower down your chest when coming down with the weight and when you push go straight up. Don't let the weight drift up towards your head. I feel it more when doing this. I think it's your form.

 

[MrRippedZilla]

Its almost impossible to avoid front delt activation on most push movements unless you select a few specific ones - guillotine press, flyes preferably with a prone grip, etc.

This is going to be difficult to explain but, when your pushing the bar away what are you focused on? You want to imagine trying to pushing the bar IN towards your centre, not just straight out.

Get your hands of some light dbells and lift one side at a time while putting your other hand on the pec muscle of the same side.
Get some scapular depression, little bit of shoulder internal rotation, and then lift while focusing on pushing them IN not straight out. Keep experimenting with this until you feel your pecs firing properly and then move back to your usual movements or whatever.

 

[strmtropr]

While I'm no vet while doing any press I think of closing my elbows into each other rather than just pushing the weight up and when using a barbell pull your hands towards each other to cut the shoulders out a bit. You won't be able to do as much weight if you really squeeze your grip towards each other but you will really activate your chest. Hope this helps.

Took about 1 year off from the gym while I worked a frick ton. Had zero problem activating chest. It was actually one of my favorite parts to train. Presses, bench, etc all went extremely well and felt great. During my year off I would do push ups, pull ups, and occasionally do cardio. Since I starting training full time again 3 months ago I have notice when I train any chest my front delts feel like they carry all the weight. In the past, training chest would get a full pump, red and plump, and I could feel the burn all the way across my chest where it would be sore to the touch even. No days, my chest gets some what sore but I def believe my delts are activating way more than my pecs. It's extremely frustrating. BTW I'm 27yo, 195lbs, 15%. 4 years total training.

Any advice from you vets?

If you don't know what your talking about or haven't been training for a long, please don't comment. You know who you are![/QUOTE

 

[Fakenatty4lyfe]

Shoulders back, use as wide of a grip as you can manage while keeping your elbows in. Try to keep your shoulders pushed all the way back the whole time

 

[jJjburton]

Shoulders back, use as wide of a grip as you can manage while keeping your elbows in. Try to keep your shoulders pushed all the way back the whole time

Shoulders back is key! Good advice I literally just found this out myself 3 months ago and put up 20 more pouns on each dumbell

 

[Ahmad90]

It took me a long time to properly active my chest. What helped was going a lot slower on the reps. Especially for bench press. Go slow on the negatives for all chest exercises and make sure to squeeze very hard on flys and cable crossovers.

 

[RightToBearArms]

Thanks for all the feedback! Tonight is chest. I'll focus on shoulders back and elbows in.

 

[tattedlegend]

Visualize and think about "breaking the bar" as well, this will help you use your lats to lower the bar and pull your shoulders back as well. What i mean by this is if you took a pencil in your hands and snapped it outwards by pulling the eraser end and the tip towards each other while creating outward center pressure. Like your trying to bend and break the bar!