Building squarer pecks?

[karlos31]

have been body building for the last year but my pecks just arnt forming into chiselled bricks, more like bread rolls, ie round at the bottom.

is there something my routine is missing? chest/tris day consists of:
bench 5x8
incline bench 5x8
close grip incline 5x8
chest flys 5x8
dips 4x10
tri extensions 5x8

Cheers
Karlos

[etothepii]

The overall shape of the muscle is genetically pre-determined. Fat loss will expose the true definition of the muscle (so it may be squarer than it now looks), and you may find that certain exercises "tweak" the overall hypertrophy of the muscle, but there's really no chance that you will change the shape of what's there.

[LiftGirl]

I think you're doing too much volume. If you must do that many exercises, then cut down to 2-3 sets.

[karlos31]

ok guess i'll just live with it. fat loss is definately out of the question, i've got a pretty fast metabolism and have zip body fat, even when i'm eating massive amounts of pasta, steak and fish.

as for volume, broken down its more like 1x10 light 1x8 heavy 1x6 super 1x8 heavy 1x10 light.

[F_Mac]

Originally Posted by karlos31

have been body building for the last year but my pecks just arnt forming into chiselled bricks, more like bread rolls, ie round at the bottom.

is there something my routine is missing? chest/tris day consists of:
bench 5x8
incline bench 5x8
close grip incline 5x8
chest flys 5x8
dips 4x10
tri extensions 5x8

Cheers
Karlos

Not meaning to be a dick, but that routine is horrible.

19 sets for chest! No wonder you're not growing. Let me ask you this. What are your big 3 lifts? Squat, bench, and deadlift?

[LiftGirl]

Originally Posted by karlos31

as for volume, broken down its more like 1x10 light 1x8 heavy 1x6 super 1x8 heavy 1x10 light.

It's still too much. I can pretty much guarantee it.

[karlos31]

ok mabye i'll try cutting it down abit. i just dont feel like i've had a workout if i only do 3 sets per exercise, thats why i started doing 5.

three main lifts are squat, bench, military press. i do light deadlifts but
hyperextensions/goodmornings mainly for my lower back as i've consistantly re-injured a slipped disc doing deadies.

[F_Mac]

Originally Posted by karlos31

ok mabye i'll try cutting it down abit. i just dont feel like i've had a workout if i only do 3 sets per exercise, thats why i started doing 5.

three main lifts are squat, bench, military press. i do light deadlifts but
hyperextensions/goodmornings mainly for my lower back as i've consistantly re-injured a slipped disc doing deadies.

At your stage of the game you're not advanced enough to go by how you "feel"......no offence. I've been training for 6 years now and I still haven't got the hang of it completely.

How much are you lifting on those lifts you mentioned?

[karlos31]

i'm 76kgs 6'2" (190cm)
military's are 22.5kg dumbells max
bench 75kg
and squating 80kgs

so basically its a 60% warm up, 80% follow 100% max (x2) 80% etc.

dont get me wrong, i am definately growing, gaining 2.5kgs on my bench a fortnight, its just slow gaining weight due to my geneticly sqrawny build.

so whats the theory behind this? what makes doing too many sets bad for muscle growth?

[MAURER]

you're just exhausting your muscle but thats not what you need for growth. What you need for growth is to stimulate muscle fibers by forcing the muscle to handle more weight or the same weight for more reps. When you do so many sets, you have already (hopefully) stimulated the muscles and exhausting them further only leads to overtraining, which hinders long-term progress. you should cut back to maybe 9 working sets at most. as far as the shape goes, yes this is genetic. however they will definitely fill out as you gain more mass so just be patient.

[Mr VW]

Karlos how long have you been working out? And for how long have you been using that particular routine?

[karlos31]

have been working out for about 18 months, but for 7 of those i was only working out 1-2 times a week. only in the last 2 months have i got back into a 5 day routine.

that routine i've been using most of the time. but as everyone thinks its ****, i've just been reading up on the Max-OT routine and might give that a try for a couple months..

[.V.]

Originally Posted by karlos31

i've just been reading up on the Max-OT routine and might give that a try for a couple months..

I think you will like it. You know, any routine that you don't change things around occasionally in will get stale and stop giving results after a while.

My suggestion, do something for as long as it works...then do something else.

Change, it does a body good.

[karlos31]

well it sounds alright. although i've read through it and looks to me like including the 8 warm up sets he mentioned i'm getting back to my old routine, just pushing alittle harder on the major sets and chopping off the warm ups after the initial ones (had to cut my down to one muscle group due to the 30-40min rule).

bit of a **** around as it means i have to go to the gym nearly daily to get the whole spread, but we'll see how it goes.


on a side note, what should i be doing to build my upper pecks more? been concentrating on incline bench, but what else can i throw in there when i get bored?

[maverick]

How much do you weight and whats your bodyfat? Most people that lack a good upper chest lack it because they don't have enough overall size. What's the old saying, you can't chisel a pebble?