Building
A Bigger And Better Chest
By Josh Stone
Walk into any gym on a Monday, and the majority of them
are working on their chest. Milos Sarcev, an IFFB Professional
Bodybuilder, spoke of an incident during his early years
of bodybuilding where he walked into a gym in Yugoslavia
to see 2 guys training in the gym - one was doing 80kg bench
presses and had an enormous and well developed chest. The
other was benching over 200kg and had literally no chest.
He was an average guy with decent development but his chest
was really underdeveloped. So, if this guy can lift so much
weight, how come he doesn't have an impressive chest?
You
see, in bodybuilding - we are building our body. The important
thing is to stimulate the muscle we are training…
so if you're doing chest, then stimulate your chest, and
nothing else. Plus it might also help you focus on your
workout if you stop looking at the chests of other women.
Leave
your ego outside, don't just go for power and try to lift
heavy weights which only causes you to use all your supporting
muscle groups (delts, triceps, even lats) to do the lift.
This is where it become counterproductive and you deserve
to feel like a moron at the end of your workout.
The
chest (pectorals/pecs) is a very important muscle group
for bodybuilders and I’ve always believed that when
well developed, the chest differenciates between a serious
lifter and an ordinary gym rat. Women too, stand to benefit
from a well developed chest.
Sadly,
i see too many people in the gym clueless, not knowing how
to stimulate their chest correctly. Guys, don’t let
your mind wander. Im talking about muscle stimulation, so
stay with me.
1.
Do the bench press wiith perfect form
- You need to keep your elbows out in order to isolate and
stimulate the chest ONLY. If they’re not angled out
enough, then your triceps will take over. - Your goal should
not be just to push the weight up from your chest, but to
’squeeze’ and feel the muscle on the way up
2.
Vary grip distance to target specific areas
- Go for a closer grip if you want to develop your inner
chest - Go for a wider grip if your outer chest is lacking
and you want to develop it
3.
The angle of the bench can determine which part of your
chest is involved
- a declined bench will target the lower chest
- a flat bench will target the middle part of your chest
- an inclined bench will target the upper chest
- If you are limited to a flat bench, you can still more
or less target these different areas of your chest by lowering
the bar closer to your stomach if you wish to develop the
lower chest, and closer to your neck for the upper chest.
I’ve
also always believed and made sure that the lowering of
the weight must be in a controlled movement, and not just
a matter of dropping it down in sloppy form. Some even bounce
the weight off their chest! Hopeless!
Always
control the weight down, touch, and squeeze it up for a
full range of motion. Full movements give you full development.
Partial, half-hearted movements will only give you partial,
half-hearted development. An ideal bench press movement:
The
Bench Press - A full range of motion:
1. Lift weight off the bench
2. Concentrate/Focus - establish a ‘mind-muscle’
connection
3. Lower the weight slowly, feeling your pectorals work
4. Touch (not rest) your chest just briefly with the bar
5. Squeeze the weight up
6. End of movement
May
you feel the pump in your chest like never before.
Josh
Stone, also known as DM, is the author behind the site http://www.dailymuscle.com
which offers the author's personal views on real-life fitness,
bodybuilding, sports nutrition, cardio, fat loss, training
information, and on all things that surrounds fitness.
Article
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