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daggerx
May 7, 2002, 3:56 AM
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I eat right and lift 4-7 nights a week and try to climb 2 nights a week and bike or kayak 2 nights a week and still cant get good pec's. What are the best pec excerise's?
Thanks DaggerX
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cruzinsouthoc
May 7, 2002, 4:33 AM
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The best overall pec exercise, always has been, and always will be the bench press. Start with that and add incline presses and bar dips or decline presses in the future. Eventually work in dumbbells and cable crossovers.
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arete2
May 7, 2002, 4:33 AM
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Bench press, bench press, bench press, I have started doing lots of benching and my pecs have developed nicely, make sure your arms are wide enough. I also do lots and lots of push ups.
Arete
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cruzinsouthoc
May 7, 2002, 4:42 AM
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good point....ya gotta work on the 'support' muscles to really get your bench press going. Work the delts and triceps. My fave for the tri's is Skull Crushers (aka, lying tricep extension). then do some cable work as well. For the detls, you can do shoulder presses with dumbbells...but give dumbbell side raises a shot, I love those. Military presses are a good workout..but I don't always recommend those except on a Smith Machine.
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johnhenry
May 7, 2002, 7:08 AM
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In my humble opinion flys are the quickest ticket to big pecks. Flys allow you to isolate the pecks by minimizing the work done by the tri-cepts and delts.
By combinging sets of flys from decline-flat-incline you can work the low, middle, and high sections alternately.
Bench press rules of course but who is to say your not exhausting the secondary muscle groups before the pecs. Flys make sure your hammer the point home.
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overlord
May 7, 2002, 9:07 AM
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Try first to isolate pecs on the fly and then move onto bench press. That way you can really shock the muscle. And try to do some negative reps (you have someone help you lift so much weight you cant hold and then try to lower it as slow as possible). But be careful with negatives, you can damege something and ALWAYS have a partner during the excersize on bench press. It can be dangerous if you cant control the weight any longer ant it come crushing down on your torax.
Hope i have been helpful.
CLIMB ON
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iclimbtoo
May 7, 2002, 1:12 PM
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Best thing for pecs? Genes. No, seriously, start working on flys. These condition you the best for pectoral workouts. After I would say two-three weeks of working flys, then move to bench. However, don't start with a wide grip. Find your max weight for 4 reps, then take the weight down 20 lbs. Bench this weight at 12 reps. Add 10 lbs. Do 10 reps. Add 10 lbs. Do 4 reps. Then go back to the original weight and burnout. This will increase your overall pectoral mass. For definition on the inside and outside of your pecs, use a lighter weight with more reps. To work outsides, use a wider grip. Insides, narrower. Also, if you want to work the tops or the bottoms of your pecs, incline and decline bench with the same techniques mentioned above will do this.
Remember, burnout is a good thing. It signals muscle failure which means that you are working your muscles to full potential. However, working yourself to muscle failure won't do any good unless you're giving yourself a day to recover. So, alternate days. Work the upper body every other day, and inbetween days work the lower body. This way you can keep lifting everyday, but it allows your muscles to rebuild.
The key to building pecs is not to just go to the bench press and pump the hell out of the weights. stay on a rep/weight program, and gradually increment yourself upwards. With the program I mentioned above, I boosted my bench press 65 lbs in two months. Part of that was because I was just getting back into lifting, but also because I kept with the program.
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daggerx
May 8, 2002, 3:21 AM
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This may sound dumb but what are flys? I think I know and call them pull's but im not sure.
Thanks
DaggerX
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arete2
May 8, 2002, 3:46 AM
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Fly's could be described a million different ways, none of which I think I could explain in a forum, but I am sure someone will find a pic, to show you.
Arete
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apollodorus
May 8, 2002, 5:42 AM
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DUMB FLY: you take a dumbbell in each hand, and lay back, flat, on the bench. You hands are on the ground, with your arms straight. Then, like a big bird, you flap your arms up (no cheating) until the weights are together. Try 5 lbs. first, until you're sure you won't rip your sockets to schreds.
You can also do them on a slanted bench, either head up or head down to work more muscles.
Dumb flys will get you in shape, not just for those SI bathing suit beach shots, but also for them offwidths. It's called an arm-bar. Look it up.
[ This Message was edited by: apollodorus on 2002-05-07 22:48 ]
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daggerx
May 8, 2002, 7:01 PM
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Yea thats what I thought, I all ready do those. A machine is on my bench at all times that you add weights to do that. I usally do between 40 and 50 lbs on each side, with the machine or I use 35lbs on each side with free weights.
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findaway
May 8, 2002, 7:37 PM
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All of the above info is great but you also need to keep in mind overtraining. You really shouldn't lift more than four times a week. And when you add all of the other activities you may not be giving your body adequate down time. Muscles develop when they are resting, so no rest equals no growth. I struggled with overtraining for a long time and finally got results after training less. I used to say this muscle group will rest while I train this muscle group, but climbing and kyaking involve many different muscles ,and your CNS (central nervous system) needs rest along with your muscles. Check out the fitness message board at www.menshealth.com for all the fitness info you could possibly need. Good Luck
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quickclips
May 10, 2002, 4:01 PM
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You have to make sure you're working the whole pec. Try some dumbbell flys, and when you do bench, the wider your hands the more chest you use, the narrower, the more arms you use.
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jdcox_9
May 15, 2002, 3:39 AM
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i like to bounce my pecs up and down
sometimes i match the rythem of music
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tim
May 15, 2002, 3:46 AM
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This is going to sound like heresy, but if you want good muscular development that will also help you when climbing, you should be doing dips, with as much weight as you can handle for 6-12 repetitions. If you have gimpy shoulders, stay away; don't allow your form to deteriorate in pursuit of higher reps. But, after building up to the point where I could press 270 pounds (between my senior year of high school and my freshman year of college, when I was really serious about wrestling, as in, NCAA division I serious), I switched over to *only* doing dips. My pecs are still sizable, but I feel like my usable strength for climbing is much greater as a result of the supporting and stablizing muscles that dips work. Sometimes I do dumbbell presses for amusement value and to stretch the top part of my chest, but the dips are what make me stronger. Same logic for doing weighted pull-ups -- they give me useful strength for other pursuits. Squats, hanging raises, all the lifts I do these days, are really to keep me from getting injured, and to help me in other sporting pursuits. I feel that the dip is a better exercise for most people than the bench press, because it builds strength that is almost universally helpful.
More succinctly, you'll be glad you dipped, every time you push out a mantel.
It sounds like you may be training too much. You might want to throttle back your lifting to 3-4 days a week, and do more kayaking and climbing instead. Muscles grow while you are sleeping, not while you are lifting. Rest!
[ This Message was edited by: jabbeaux on 2002-05-14 20:51 ]
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knotrocket
May 26, 2002, 2:36 AM
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first off, take a break! You aren't lifting the same muscle groups every time are ya? Hammer each group, or two groups (chest/triceps, back/biceps, etc.) and then leave 'em alone for two days! But anyway, chest is all about the bench and the different angles, incline/flat/decline, and the grips you use. Hit 'em from every possible angle/grip, and you won't need to do anything else unless you want to. But unless you want to make friends with an orthopedic surgeon, don't pass parallel to the ground with your upper arm. Do the touch the chest thing and you'll end up under the knife. How much weight you push doesn't matter as much as FORM FORM FORM!. As above, you grow when you rest!
Oh and keep in mind that the actual chest musculature is about the most unFUNCTIONAL group. It's all for show, but man it feels good to get the blood goin'!
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