I just replied to a post on another board entitled, "Best movements for your upper-inner chest". I thought it was a pretty good post so I'll repost here for your viewing entertainment. I added some more at the bottom as I think more about it....
In my opinion, you cannot target sections of a muscle without working the entire thing. If that was the case, you could flex your "inner" chest without flexing the entire thing. Likewise, can you flex your "inner" or "outer" biceps without flexing the whole thing?
[the answer is "no" btw]
Here's a good piece of an article debunking myths like isolationalism.
Source
Quote:
MYTH 1. Specific portions of a muscle can be trained
The gist of this myth goes something like this, "You can hit the lower portion of your pecs with decline presses." Any statement similar to this is pure B.S. The implication is that doing decline presses will make the lower portion of your pecs larger. This is physiologically impossible. The pectoralis major are the two muscles that we commonly refer to as the chest. There are also the pectoralis minor which runs underneath the upper portion of the major. The pectoralis major, when stimulated with exercise and allowed to recover will grow. It will grow as a whole (as with all muscles), not in sections. So doing an incline, decline, or flat bench press will not make your pectoralis major grow in different fashions. The shape of your muscle is genetically determined by its origin and insertion points and no training will change this. If individual muscle cells (within a specific fiber type) grew at different rates you would have very lumpy muscles. Think about it! When selecting an exercise for a specific muscle, you should pick the one that most closely mimics the muscle's primary function (i.e. the pectoralis major's primary function is to pull the arm across the chest and downward--- so a decline press would be best amongst the presses). Another important factor in exercise selection is your own anatomy, the length of your bones and where your muscles insert and originate. Through experimentation, most experienced lifters learn which exercises work best for them.
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That's also like saying some preacher curls work my "lower biceps"...
Source
Quote:
The Top Ten Training Myths
Myth #10: Preacher curls work the lower biceps.
First of all, there's no such thing as a "lower" biceps. It’s impossible to contract the lower portion of your biceps without recruiting any other portions.
Still not convinced? Well, you might be thinking that whenever you complete a tough set of preacher curls, you get a pump in your biceps just above the bend in your elbow. After all, it’s your "lower" biceps which creates your biceps "peak," isn’t it?
Okay, here’s the deal. The prime movers in the preacher curl are your biceps brachii and the brachialis. The biceps brachii consists of a long and short head and it crosses over two joints (your shoulder and elbow). On the other hand, the brachialis only crosses over one joint (the elbow) and it lies underneath the biceps brachii. It originates on the middle of your humerus and inserts on the radius.
When performing a preacher curl, your upper arms are placed in front of your upper body (shoulder flexion). For a muscle to be fully activated, it must be stretched at both ends. Since the biceps brachii attaches to the shoulder, it can’t be fully activated because the angle of the preacher bench places the shoulders in flexion. This places a large portion of the load on the short head of the biceps brachii and the brachialis.
Remember that the brachialis lies underneath the biceps brachii and it originates lower on the upper arm. When the brachialis gets "pumped," it pushes the bottom of the biceps brachii forward, creating what appears to be a "lower biceps."
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* In my opinion, the idea of being able to work your muscles in sections is people's justification for doing a 5 day split. An example would be a "chest day", doing 3 sets of inclines for 'upper pecs', then a few sets of declines for 'lower pecs', then ending the day with some flat bench flyes for the 'inner chest'. Or worse yet, doing some high incline smith presses for the very top of your upper pecs because they're not up to snuff.
Fortunately, exercises like flat bench more than stimulate the ENTIRE chest as a WHOLE. Hence the success rate for programs like the 5 x 5 that rely on ONE compound chest movement to stimulate the entire chest!
If someone IS lagging in a certain "area" of their muscle, chances are that their entire muscle is weak. If people train like madmen to gain that ellusive "barrel chest" or a terrific sweep of their quads and come up short, it ISN'T the training....Its your parents!
That being said, if isolationalism WERE true, it would be mildly entertaining to see someone ONLY do high incline barbell presses three times a week and no other chest exercise...According to the advocates, we'd see some pretty wierd looking chests!
