Need some chest workout suggestions
 

Hey guys! I'm looking to build up my chest more so it's more symmetrical with the rest of my body. My arms, shoulders, and neck are all way bigger than my chest. I've dropped weight on chest day in order to ensure i'm doing every exercise correctly.

For chest i've been doing:

Incline dumbbells - 95 lbs 3 sets of 5-7
Flat bench dumbbells - 100 lbs 3 sets of 3-5
Flat bench one arm dumbbells - 80 lbs 3 sets of 10-12
Front Dips - 3 sets of as many as I can do
150 push ups at least 3 times a week

I've noticed excellent gains in my chest but no where near the gains i've got with the rest of my body. I've always had huge shoulders even when i didn't work out so i'm thinking i'm just not blessed in the chest area....any suggestions?

Oh yeh my diet is pretty clean. I work in office all day so it's hard to stay strict.

Breakfast = cup of oatmeal or sausage and egg whites
mid morning = kashi bar
lunch = pasta or hamburger
mid afternoon = kashi bar
workout = NO xplode drink pre + protein and creatine shake post (just started on this)
dinner = always grilled chicken breast + bowl of broccoli and green beans (steamed)
Hour or two before bed = can of tuna or carrots

Like I said my diet isn't perfect by any means. It's just hard to perfect with my allowance and being stuck in an office all day...any suggestions will help...thanks in advance

Two things. One, try switching from all dumbbells to using the bar for your pressing movements. Two, plug your diet into fitday and see where you stand cause I am willing to bet you are not getting enough protein. Good luck.

Your overdoing it IMO. How many times a week do you do that "chest" workout?

I would pick one main movement like flat barbell bench, and work it progressively, low reps, heavy weight. I know you want to make sure your form is good, and thats fine, but work your way up adding 5-10lbs a week to the bar. I also wouldnt have a "chest" workout day, I've never really grown well on one bodypart a day workout schemes. That would be my suggestion.

I'll try fitday and get back with the results. I work out at the gym at my office which is really nice but it's all dumbbells and machines. No bars for bench press which is no good but it's still a free gym. I only do that chest workout once a week. I do chest one day, arms another, back and legs, and shoulders all on separate days. I could try switching and doing chest and tri's one day? It's just frustrating that everything else is working and getting significantly bigger except my chest. Thanks again guys!

If I were you, I would get rid of "arm day". I hate those (that's just me...other people like it). Add biceps to back day and triceps to chest day. On the day that you do chest, do one of the db pressing movements, the dips, and tricep exercises. Then on your shoulder day, do one of the other db pressing movements as your first lift...and then your normal shoulder routine (unless it has wayyy too many movements like your "chest day"). I'm sure other people will have different (and better) opinions, but that's mine. :)

That's good that you're seeing gains, but it might be that you're not getting enough protein. As a rule of thumb, you want to consume .7-1 grams of protein per lb. of bodyweight, and the leaner you are, you should have closer to 1 gram of protein per lb of mass. For example, I weigh 250 lbs, but I am not quite as lean as I should be, so I eat about 175 grams of protein a day. Have you tried changing things up, like trying new exercises? This 'shocks' the muscles, as they are not used to doing the new movements, or you can up the reps, and lower the weight. Or, maybe you can do partial reps, where your arms only go up until your upper arms are inline with the bench you're on? This places most of the stress on the chest. Regardless, good luck, and eat big to get big!!
-John

Thanks for all the help guys...I'll try adding bi's to back day and tri's to chest day and see if that helps. I'd be willing to change almost anything with chest but don't want to mess with the others too much since i'm loving the results. I have switched up the excercises often changing to fly's with dumbbells and cables. I've also used the equivalent to a bench press machine too. I am pretty lean. I weigh 185 and i'm 6'2''. I'm pretty well cut up everywhere but still need some work on lower abs. I like the cut look I have going if I could only get my chest bigger. With that being said would I still want to consume the 185 grams of protein per day? Thanks again everyone!

more protein if possible...generally if you want growth...you need more protein than just 1g/lb.

I plugged my daily diet into fitday and here's the results....this is without any of the supplements i'm taking...strictly real food.

Totals

cals -1806
fat - 75
carbs -142
protein - 149

height = 6'2''
weight = 185 lbs

i'm also drinking a NO xplode shake pre workout
Creatine and protein shake post workout (52g protein)
I take a multivitamin daily after breakfast as well

I would say 1g/lb of body mass would be a minimum intake level for protein.

I'm also going to say you're overdoing the chest movements. I would pick one main exercise that you're going to hit really hard (perhaps flat DB bench press) and then hit maybe one accessory to that (maybe dips or something) that you do higher volume/less intensity.

I might also reccomend a full body routine 3x a week or a upper/lower split rather that the body part split.

IronWorker

i'm just gonna go ahead and "x 2" all of that :)

1) Ditch the NO xplode, it's junk.

2) I doubt that your diet is even at the maintenance level. Up your intake, I'd guess your BMR is around 2100 give or take. Get 200 grams of protein and at least match that for carbs, at the very very least.

What would be something else good to add into my diet for good carbs? With the protein shake i'm over 200 grams of protein already. I want to be careful when putting on the mass because i'm happy with the way I am cut now. I'll try switching my workout routine and bumping up my calories a little bit. I usually eat a can of tuna before bed...is there something i could replace that with that has more carbs, cals, and protein?

i would stay away from carbs right before bed time...lots of people do cottage cheese...add some of that along with the tuna...

Gotta hit the grocery store today. I'll pick some up and give it a shot. I'll keep everyone posted with the results. Thanks for all the advice!

I wouldn't get into the habit of counting your protein shake as part of your intake when it's only around 200g. 200g of protein can easily be done with food alone, and I'd take 35g from food over powder anyday. Eat some vegetables, they've got carbs and the likelyhood of fat deposition is alot lower than 'grainy' carbs. I'm a big fan of tuna in extra virgin olive oil, it's easy to eat and gives you some healthy fats.

try doing some flys to start you workout and then move on to incline and flat presses with the barbell...thats worked really well for me

^^ are you saying warm up with light flys before a major pressing movement? That would make sense to me, but I wouldnt try to use flys for much more then that.

Why warm up with flyes when you could just as easily warm up the pressing movement with light weight? This way you won't look like a tool doing flyes.

HAH! I usually do warm up with a real light set before I begin. I just did chest and tri's yesterday and my chest is extremely sore. Feels great at least I know something is working!!

Pain/soreness means you stressed the muscle, but that doesn't necessarily mean you've created an environment for growth.

True

no do the flys like normal not light to warm up but actually to work it out...its what jay cutler does and im tellin you it works...so dont knock it til you try it

i'm guessing cutler and this guy have slightly different builds ;)

Jay Cutler can probably fly quite a bit more weight...

Regardless of what any of the pro's do, I'd stick with a compound over an isolation.

I do not think we should be emulating the pros' workouts. Until we are pros.

If I wanted to get into biking, I would not train the way the Tour de France guys do. I would train the way the Tour de France guys did when they were at my stage of fitness and experience.

And just because Jay Cutler says he does something in a magazine article or in a video, doesn't mean he incorporates it into his current (or even past) routines. If you were a pro bodybuilder, why would you broadcast to your (potentially) thousands of competitors your training secrets.

I can fly 100 lbs each arm haha...i wish....I'm gonna stick with the compounds for now...That workout I had this week felt great and I think it made a difference. Tried beefing my diet a little bit more. I brought some light peanut butter to my cube and i'm going to have a couple spoons of it along with my mid morning and mid afternoon kashi bars. Thanks for all the help lads!

Wow! I agree with this guy here... my understanding is that your muscles grow during your resting time... but you have to have intense workouts to force the muscles to grow... but you are probably way overdoing it if you want to get a bodybuilder's chest. I think your workout is great for athletes strength but not for bodybuildling... but that is me...

You got me there BG, rather then ripping dude apart for doing fly movements to build mass, i tried to come up with a reason to do them. Flys have thier place, perhaps to warm up and strech the muslces (you can get a better pec strech with flys then presses) but I personally wouldnt use them to build mass.

When I'm 290lbs and cant walk up a flight of steps without having to stop and catch my breath like Jay, then I'll do flys for mass.

You also have to be on ridiculous amounts of performance enhancing drugs to get the same effects as jay cutler. You probably also need amazing genetics like I'm sure all of those pro guys do. Don't compare apples to oranges.

IronWorker

Do any of you guys have any videos of correct form for incline dumbbell bench press?

i love how the MAJORITY of people put down ideas becuase they dont think that they work...i work out with bodybuilders i know plenty of stuff that works for them as well as me and instead of dissing something that sounds strange to you why do you give it a try...because it works...been doing a variation of flys to start my workouts and ive added 3 inches to my chest as well as finally filling it in....so dont try to tell me that what im saying isnt proper or isnt the right thing to do...IT FUCKING WORKS!!

Most people get where they are despite their training. You don't know for sure whether it was specifically the flyes that added the 3" to your chest or not and I think you'll agree that it wasn't, so that doesn't mean anything. Like Hrdgain said, they can have their place. Especially at the beginning of the workout for stretching/warming up. Most people choose not to do them because as previously stated, it is not a great exercise for building mass. There are many different lifts that work much better. Also, I think that the "MAJORITY" of people on this forum have done flyes before, so they have tried it.

PS - drop the attitude

another reason why i think you're a bumbling idiot.