Thickening chest

[wuhenry220]

I have been working out for a while now and my chest isnt doing what i expected it to do and start getting thicker. I have only worked my chest once a week is it possible that if i worked it 2 times a week i will see better results or would i be overtraining. I was thinking maybe doing pushups everyday and leaving the second chest day out of the week, which would you do?

[Bronco]

What chest excercises are your doing? What kind of repetations?...

hmmmmmm

I find that it helps when I target the chest from differen't angles.....also if you want to workout your chest a week that is good....I do it twice a week and find it is good for me but how I do it is one day max then 3-4 days off of chest and max other areas then do a 85% of max on the second routine of the week.

You get a pump and the blood helps increase the healing of the muscle without causing the heavy damage the 100% day does.

If your looking for chest growth, I'd do pyramid training where you start with a 10 rep then go down to 8 then 6 repetitions and go back up to 10 on last and make sure to do an incline , flat and a decline excerciseto target the differen't areas of your pecs. Also incorporate flys so that you can work on the inner portion of your pec

Pushups make a good warmup but save some energy for your workout.

Building your triceps also allows you to lift heavier and build for your chest since there is a strong link with both muscles working together..

Hope this helps

[wuhenry220]

this is what my routine right now looks like, i stopped doing incline for some reason a while back, the gym that i go to doesnt have a decline bench(which really torques me off) so i cant do them. so if you can tell me what i need to change it would help me out alot, thanks

chest (Monday)
flat bench 1X8,6,4(go up 5-10 lbs every set)
db flat 3X6-8
fly's 3X8

Tri(Monday)
21's(lie on back and do skull crushers, then lay bar on chest and put behind head as far as you can go and pull back up to chest, then bench it) 7X7X7 for 3 sets ITS A HUGE BURN
tri pushdowns 3x8
overhead rope extensions 3x8

Back(wed)
humps 3x8 ( attach rope to pushdown machine and set it to its lowest position then put rope between legs as you are facing away from machine and pull up then go all the way back down to a bent over position)

cable row 4x8
bent over row 3x8
pull downs 4x8

Bi's (wed)

sitting curls 3x7(each arm)
standing curls 4x7(with barbell)
reverse rope curl 4x6


Leg(thurs)

squat 4x5
lunges 2x6 each leg
leg curls 3x6
leg ext 3x6

shoulders (fri)

power clean 4x4
power shrug 4x5
millitary press 4x6
upright row 4x6
lateral raises 2x8 each arm

[Bronco]

You can be innovative an create your own decline bench…..put something underneath a flat bench to make it more decline and do your DB db flat 3X6-8 on it. You can use a small box step or one or two 45 lbs plates maybe even three (I’m not sure you’ll have to judge)

I can’t think of why you would stop incline it’s actually very good on the chest and I find the gains from incline much more noticeable in terms of gaining mass as opposed to plain flat….Remember that doing the same exercise repeatedly can get boring for the muscle and easy for it to adapt.

I would suggest try doing an incline bench 1X8,6,4(go up 5-10 lbs every set), then on flat do a close grip bench press 1X8,6,4(go up 5-10 lbs every set) to cover some tri and chest since your training both on the same day also put in your fly's 3X8 on an incline another one I find more noticeable when done on an incline….

Good luck,

[GymRat18]

I have the same problem, im a hardgainer and I have been working out for 3 years..... do heavy reps heavy reps... keep increasing your strength on flat as well as incline.... do decline maybe every third chest workout instead of incline, and keep up flyes or cable crossovers.... your workout seems good just make sure on all your exercises your doing heavy weight ... good luck!

[wuhenry220]

what about if i do my reg routine mondays then on thursdays do incline everythnig? or maybe flat reg bench, then incline, back to close grip then tri workout?

[Bronco]

Gymrat makes a good point if you have a strong base then you cna go as low as 4 or even 2 reps with much heavier weight in yoru pyramid... but end it off with a high rep liek 8 or 10 to increase circulation/blood flow

[wuhenry220]

so start doing 4x3 heavy weight near max?

[jgriffith]

The biggest tip I can give in gaining a thick chest is doing Incline first every time and doing it heavy. Start out with a fairly light warm up set, nothing that will fatigue you and jump right into your 10 rep max, I always use dumb bells for this. Ive seen the greatest gains by focusing on challenging myself for 10 reps, 8 and 6.

I, like a lot of people was fairly obsessed with making my flat bench weight go up as high as possible. I found that constantly increasing my 10 rep max (almost every chest day) by 5 lbs I was able to increase my weight tremendously. However, once I stopped thinking about weight and started thinking about shape, my chest began to develope. This summer I started doing Incline first, and heavy and finishing with flat bench. I wouldnt have much left for flat and my weight was much lower which was hard for my ego at first, but ended up being much better for my physique. Give it a shot.

[synthetic1]

jgriffith, i might just try that, as today is chest day. as for wuhenry220 if u cant do decline try doing dips or weighted dips, elbows flaring outward to focus on chest, not close to your body-thats more for tris.

[Gooseneck]

I have to agree with inclines being the number one mass builder for chest. Doing these helps round out your chest with your shoulders and gives a more fuller look. Like said earlier, I would do inclines first, then flats, then declines. Dont worry too much with isolation movements until you begin to get the size you want.
Also, dont forget to hit those upper abs. This will help give that "cup" when combined with declines. Only doing declines is like mowing on just one side of the fence. You got to do both to see a difference. Good luck.

[TommyD]

I see some good advice and some not-so-good advice in this thread concerning how to gain a thicker chest.

1. First off, the three exercises you should be doing (and pretty much only doing in my book) are Flat Bench (either barbell or dumbbell, NOT both in the same workout), Incline Bench, and either Chest Dips or Decline Bench (you can alternate weekly). If you do all three of those, there are no need to do any other exercises (especially chest flyes which are crappy for building mass since they are an isolatory exercise and all three lifts I have listed are compound).

2. Secondly, I'd throw all that pyramid stuff out and stick with easy sets/reps. The best mass building reps are the 4-6 reps range region. Load up some heavy weight on it so you can at least 4 reps, but no more than 6 reps. For your chest you should only be doing 7-9 working sets (not counting warm-ups) so here's a good way to do it:

Warm-Up:
Flat Bench: 50% of 1 RM @ 2x10 (warm-up sets), 70% @ 2x3 (acclimation sets). **Do not go to exhaustion on your warm-up sets, they're there just to get the blood flowing through your chest and help prevent injury**

Working Sets:
Incline Bench: 2x4-6
Flat Bench: 3x4-6
Decline Bench/Chest Dips (add weight as needed to dips): 2x4-6

That makes for 7 working sets for the chest with optimum mass building reps.

3. Next you should make sure that you're not overtraining other body parts that are essential to most chest exercises (shoulders, triceps, and back).
You're probably overtraining your triceps by looking at your triceps routine. To make your life a little bit easier (and possibly your chest a little bit thicker) you should move your triceps day onto your chest day since your chest exercises work your triceps extensively. That way you can maybe do 1 or 2 direct triceps exercises to finish them off for the day. I'd personally do Skull Crushers and Close Grip Bench @ 2x4-6 each for your triceps routine right after you're finished with your chest workout.

4. Diet is key in building mass. I'd head on over to the diet forum of DiscussFitness and do a few searches on mass building diets. You'll find things like how much protein, carbs, fats, etc you should be taking in a day, how many times you should eat a day, what you should eat, etc, etc all concerning mass building.

This is my routine that I've designed (with the input and help from various sources... including many members of DiscussFitness )

Tommy D's Workout

It's tailored to suit my specific needs as a bodybuilder so feel free to use it or take parts of it, but just make sure you change it around so it suits you as the individual. :

And just for the record, Power Cleans aren't a shoulder exercise, they're a full body exercise.

[Gooseneck]

Tom, I agree with everything you just said, except for combining triceps in with chest day. To quickly look at this you would think, yea thats a good idea. And it is, but its not the most benefical. You should do opposites like chest/bis, and back/tris. If you do chest to start off with, then by the time you hit triceps, they're half fatigued and they wont get the focus they need. By doing bis instead, then each muscle group is relatively fresh and they're are no conflicts. Just be sure to spread these to training style days equally apart, so you have enough recovery.\
IE, Monday- Chest/Bi's : Wednesday- Back/tris
Then work in your shoulders and legs accordingly.

[TommyD]

Originally Posted by Gooseneck

Tom, I agree with everything you just said, except for combining triceps in with chest day. To quickly look at this you would think, yea thats a good idea. And it is, but its not the most benefical. You should do opposites like chest/bis, and back/tris. If you do chest to start off with, then by the time you hit triceps, they're half fatigued and they wont get the focus they need. By doing bis instead, then each muscle group is relatively fresh and they're are no conflicts. Just be sure to spread these to training style days equally apart, so you have enough recovery.\
IE, Monday- Chest/Bi's : Wednesday- Back/tris
Then work in your shoulders and legs accordingly.

I disagree with those groupings (chest/bi, back/tri). Most people think that overtraining deals with muscles. They see that it takes muscles 2-3 days to recover so they figure they can do chest on monday and triceps on friday and be fine... sounds good doesn't it?

Unfortunately overtraining doesn't deal with the muscles, it deals with the CNS (Central Nervous System). The CNS needs a good 6-7 days to recover after heavy lifting. Therefore when you do your chest day, you should do your triceps on the same day. After that day you should then do no more exercises with your chest/tri's for the 6-7 days it takes your CNS to recover.

When you say that your triceps are fatigued by chest exercises, of course they are, but that doesn't mean anything. The number one mass building exercise for triceps are flat bench, and any exercise that comes after it that focuses on the triceps is only secondary. This because the majority of people can do a lot more on bench than on say, cable pushdowns. Compound lifts are better mass builders than isolatory lifts.

This is why the majority of elite body builders group chest with triceps and back with biceps and so on. That's the science behind the Chest/Triceps and Back/Biceps routine grouping.

[Gooseneck]

Point well taken. I respect your knowledge and advise Tom. I tend to switch those groups around a lot, but I find I get great growth and recovery the way I am doing it. But everyone's composition and training levels are different. I agree with taxing the CNS, however it gets taxed the same amount at the end of the week regardless of which group you go with. The CNS is just that, the "Central" nervous system. It is affected the most by compound movements like you said, but the way I do it is also involving the same compound movements, thus taxing the same. The only real difference is recovery time, which I find I dont need 6-7 days to recover from tris or bis. I think the bigger concern here is overtraining rather than type of training.
To each his own though. Like I said earlier, I swap around quite often anyway to keep things interesting, so I'll be doing chest/tri, back/bis here sooner or later.