my chest doesn't want to grow

[trinitymuscle]

for some reason my chest does not want to grow. with all the different styles i've done for chest it never grows. today after doing incline smythes it felt like i just got doing a shoulder workout and not a chest workout. my chest is never sore the day i work it. now sometimes days after it is. i have the bench set at below 45 degrees so i don't think that is the problem. i have to say that since i started to do hammer strength incline and decline it does actually feel like i'm working the chest. any thoughts on what i can do?

[JnJ23]

My guess is to eat more

[trinitymuscle]

yeah, no thats not it. i went from around 172 to 204 in just over 2 years. i put just about 3 inches on my arms in that time and seriously probably not more than 4 on my chest. when i flex my chest and back(is that how you measure it?) my chest is around 45.5 inches. my arms are around 17.25. not until i started doing dc training did my weights really increase on chest exercises in about. 1.5 years. i do know my arms and chest are a genetic thing. my dad had big arms and trouble with his chest also.

[jimpaul]

Trinity are you using a wide grip on your chest exercises? And are the weights progressing? Are you pinning your shoulders back while doing chest?


jim

[BigBen]

i had the same problem.. i think alot of it has to do with positioning and learning to feel the bench press. it took 20 weeks of contest prep with just dumbells for me to finally learn how to take my shoulders and arms out of it and just use the chest. thats what id recommend you do. take some time with some light dumbells and really learn how to feel the motion, if your not up for switchin it to dumbells, atleast lighten up the barbell, and maybe widen up the grip a bit. you just gotta keep playin with it, figure out what works for u

[trinitymuscle]

since starting dc yes my weights have been progressing every workout. which i am very happy about. on the hammer strength i'm going as wide as i can on the machine. on the smythe i'm going to the within about 1 inch from the end of the bar. i try to pin them back but maybe i could do a better job. i'm still in my first blast. so who knows doing this could help solve my chest problems.

[Doggcrapp]

I can fix this so easily in person but its so hard to describe how I want you to do it online--it takes me 30 secs in person

[trinitymuscle]

and as much as i like cali i would take you up on that but i'm too far away. thanks though.

[JnJ23]

gotta webcam, so you can show us lol

[trinitymuscle]

i'd have to say the best advice i got off of here is pinning my shoulders back. so i'll give that a shot and see how it works.

[The Munster]

Be sure and emphasize the negative on your reps.

[N8IA]

I had this same problem for a long time. My shoulders over power everything. I was a concrete laboror for seven years so my shoulders just naturally take on all the loads from liffting blocks, wheelbarows full of crete and working the shovel. The way I corrected it was dropping my weights a little and and emphazing the negative. On the way down I think about my chest opening up when I get to the bottom it is completly open now on the way back up I think about it snapping closed. Think kind of like an up and in thing. It is kind of hard to describe.

[mecca]

Concentrating on the bottom 1/4 of the press and also using the cambered bar made my chest alot thicker-be careful with this bar because it really stretches your delts. I was also thin chested.

[Egill]

i'd have to say the best advice i got off of here is pinning my shoulders back.

Yes that definitely works and is also safer. A good tip is to take a deep breath when approaching the bottom position.

Be sure and emphasize the negative on your reps.

I agree, that will probably help some.

[Khan]

I can sympathize here...

I had the same problem, the solution is easy.

Focus on contracting your chest through the concentric, and squeezing hard at the top, and control the negative. You'll lose some weight on the exercise, but your chest will grow.