Weak Points

[malieduard]

Hi everyone,

I have been training following a push/pull/legs program, but since I am a long distance runner I do legs a week. I am not that skinny as you would think when one hears "LD Runner". 184cm, 78kg, 11% bodyfat.

I have been struggling to grow my chest or improve the strength for the past few months. I do incline+decline bench press/dumbbell press, pec flys, and the ocassional push-ups. Yet I feel like it's always hard compared to for example my shoulders (where I made a lot of progress) and triceps (less but noticeable). What are your tips and tricks to get the chest stronger&growing?

Thank you!

 

[buck]

What are you doing to work your chest? And how are you executinting the movements?

 

[IndividualMan]

higher chest frequency. add a few sets of chest to your leg days (if you are doing P/P/L/Rest/Repeat)
Maybe some flys or machine presses.
make sure you got good form, no ego,

 

[BALLISTIC]

Inverted grip, plate press, neutral dumbbells, short range flies, machine flies short range. Make sure the emphasis is the contraction in your chest not shoulders. Worry about weight once you master technique.

 

[malieduard]

What are you doing to work your chest? And how are you executinting the movements?

I am doing the Press (Incline/Decline), Dec Fly, and Push-ups. I don't do heavy weight as I want the technique to be correct. Think 3x12 per exercise and an average of 60 kg. But I am stuck at that weight...sometimes even 60 feels super hard.

 

[butter_s girl]

Are you fueling prior to workouts/ fueled enough over the day? Wourkout goes way smoother for me with enough carbs and feels not as hard.

 

[malieduard]

Are you fueling prior to workouts/ fueled enough over the day? Wourkout goes way smoother for me with enough carbs and feels not as hard.

You have a point. The simple answer is: I don't... know.

I am currently on a 600kcal daily deficit, burn around 3300 kcal and eat roughly 2700. And the minimum protein I get it in is 170g, usually would be anywhere between 180 and 200. My weight is 76kg (roughly 168 pounds), will probably get down to 74 to reach under 9% bf, then I will do a lean bulk.

So you are right...although I do my best to keep a high protein moderate-high carb and low fat diet...it's still a deficit at the end of the day.

 

[Earthworm Jim]

I almost never do more or less than 5 sets per exercise. 12 reps is good for the first set but I was always taught you want to fail closer to 6-8 reps by the fifth set. Add some negatives in. You get more benefit from one negative than each rep that preceded it. Add some drop sets. Right now I'm having good success with supine bench and inverted grip DB bench. I love some regular and upward cable crossover. My chest looks good

 

[RockyP]

How often are you performing the running? All of these tips given above are great but if you want to add muscle mass you really need to stop distance running, at least for a period of time. And you’re in a calorie deficit. Nothing is going to grow in this milieu. Fix the diet, quit running for now, and implement the training recommendations. There is a time and place for overall upper body mass development with heavy compound movements. Have you ever taken the time to meticulously train / progressively overload your barbell bench press? That, done with proper technique, will add lots of mass. You don’t want to be one of these twinks in the gym who look like they don’t train doing tons of super isolation movements like they see their favorite pro bodybuilders doing. That comes AFTER you have a foundation of mass.

So, 500 - 700 kcal surplus
No more running

If your shoulders can tolerate, keep heavy incline BB press in your program. Flat BB is debatable on how effective it is, and it can be very unsafe without perfect technique.
Heavy weighted dips are fantastic for lower / outer chest
On fly movements don’t go too heavy - you need to focus on keeping that tension in your chest. And similarly with pressing, it takes some time to get that mind muscle connection right. Otherwise you’ll just use your front delts and triceps. This often requires a temporary reduction in load to get the technique mastered. Slight arch to back, scapula retracted and kept tight the whole movement, etc.

 

[malieduard]

How often are you performing the running? All of these tips given above are great but if you want to add muscle mass you really need to stop distance running, at least for a period of time.

Right now I am extremely busy, so I just do speedwork, not endurance. Think 3 to 4 sessions a week, roughly 20km in total. I used to run a ton more (1 year+ ago roughly 120-150km per week as I was preparing for marathons), but due to a lot of things going on at the moment, I just do sprint and threshold sessions.

 

[RockyP]

Right now I am extremely busy, so I just do speedwork, not endurance. Think 3 to 4 sessions a week, roughly 20km in total. I used to run a ton more (1 year+ ago roughly 120-150km per week as I was preparing for marathons), but due to a lot of things going on at the moment, I just do sprint and threshold sessions.

Sprinting is fine. But otherwise I’d drop anything over 20 mins per session and get those calories up.

 

[cousinmuscles]

Working with 60kgs tells me you are early in your training career, or at least early in the serious part of it. Fast forward to when you are using 100kg or 140kg for the working sets and you will see tremendous increases in muscle mass.

Barbell bench press is a tricky one, and may not favour chest development depending on your structure. It also requires years of technical mastery, where you get to a point of doing it more like a powerlifter as to not demolish your shoulder joint.

Dumbbell bench press will give you more bang for your buck if your goal is just muscle mass. Your hands are not set at a position, they are moving inwards as you press up, forcing you to do most of the work with chest.

Make sure you are retracting and protracting your shoulder blades and arching when pressing. A good way is to warm up with rubber bands under your armpits, being held and pulled by someone else behind you, such that they pull your shoulders UP as if you are shrugging, forcing you to tightly stack your shoulder blades at the right position. Remove them and you will feel this fantom pull in your shoulder blades, and a higher proprioception. This is called pre activation potentiation.

Progressive overload and real food and good sleep. Real food, not just increased calories. Maximize the intake of quality protein, good carbs and a decent amount of healthy fats.

At your stage I don't think it is worth cutting. The more muscle mass you get, the easier it is to stay lean, because your body will work differently. Especially if you go on TRT+ and HGH, your metabolism will be very efficient. Right now you are cutting yourself short on your efforts in the gym.