Some guys added size to their chest without much trouble. I had a hard time in that area so a great deal of research had been required to fix it. Here are some great tips to make a stubborn chest grow.
The chest has always been a very stubborn body part for me, and, dare I admit this, I've never been that strong in the bench press. However, for those reasons I've had to do a lot of research, try a lot of different things and work a lot harder to make progress.
Some guys are like that - they add an inch to their biceps just lifting their coffee cup in the morning. In this article, I will give you several solid tips to nudge that stubborn chest into new growth.
1 : Chest Exercises
So basically, if you exercise your chest in a way that signals your body the need to adapt and grow, it will. This is accomplished by doing a variety of resistance training exercises that target the entire chest area.
Push Ups – Much like the bench press, you can vary the angle and arm width to both focus more weight onto the chest, and to hit different regions of the chest muscle. For an added challenge, use a weighted backpack or vest for extra resistance.
2 : Bench Press – The standard bench press comes in three basic flavors: Flat, incline, and decline, with each targeting a specific area of the chest. Additionally, each barbell press can be performed with either a normal, wide or close grip, which influences whether the arms or chest bears the brunt of the load.
3 : Consider adding a dynamic effort chest workout into your weekly training cycle. Band training is a fantastic way to increase the end range of the bench press lockout. While it works your triceps in addition to your chest it will allow you handle greater weight then your used to. Band work gets you stronger, consider using it.
4 : Why to do it: Forcing a stubborn bodypart to grow takes serious action, and no practice is more serious than training a muscle two days in a row. It may sound extreme, but it works. We like to refer to this method as “priming the pump,” where the first day of training employs high-rep sets to open up the muscles to take in more nutrients for the next day’s session, which will be a heavier workout. Our only caution is to not use this technique too often (do it for a month, then step away from it for at least a couple months), so as to avoid overtraining.
What to do: Pick two consecutive days on which to train chest. The first day, do only single-joint, isolation exercises from at least four different angles – pullovers, cable crossovers standing upright and bent-over, incline, flat and/or decline flyes, etc. – and keep the reps high, at around 25-30. Do around 16 total sets this day, without going to failure of any of them. The next day, after consuming an abundance of protein and carbs following the first workout, go heavier (6-12 reps) and train to failure on all compound exercises (flat, incline, decline dumbbell and/or barbell presses). Do a total of 16-20 sets on these moves, and then take a full week off from training pecs.
5 : Maximum Intensity
The human body is an exceedingly intelligent and efficient machine. Hence, it doesn’t like to waste resources – in fact, it strives to allocate its repair, maintenance and growth resources to the areas most critical to its key functions. Simply put, if you want your body to make growing your chest a top priority, its muscles must be pushed to their limits. And the only way to reach that limit is through maximum intensity.
What is maximum intensity you ask? When you bring a laser focus and concentration to each repetition until you simply cannot do another. Literally, your muscles fail. You cannot do one more rep.
Also the engorged pump you get from an intense lift floods the chest fibers with nutrient-rich blood, bringing much needed raw materials for repair and growth.
6 : If you want a bigger chest then you must modify your nutrition on your chest training days. Consider eating more carbohydrates and healthy fat.
So, you have a lot of tips to work with. Variety in training, heart, intense training and adding weight to the bar while maintaining good form are the keys to a great chest.