Comments on: How To Build The Upper Chest

By: M

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 21:41:16 +0000

Hey zac..
I wanted to say that, i am also baked nad understand you CLEARLY! (:
Thanks!

By: zac

zac — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 09:08:26 +0000

Hi everyone! I just thought I’s chuck in my two cents (if you look hard you’ll see they’re actually wooden nickels ; ). Anyhow, for many years I had over developed lower (or sternal) pecs. I tried all kinds of stuff, stuff that should have worked; here’s why it didn’t: my lats were too tight. Your lats internally rotate the humerus (upper arm) and over time the pec minor, pec major and coracobrachialis shorten to accommodate their new working length. This problem usually won’t show up with the sternal portion of the pec because it’s still possible to work them through a normalish range of motion. I don’t want to blather on all “sciency” here so I’ll say this simply: if you fail to stretch the upper pec fibres during (which requires that the humerus externally rotate, which requires the lats to be loose (figuratively)and the middle and lower traps be tight (literally)) exercise then you fail to stimulate hypertrophy (and neural adaptations, read: strength). I use leaning forward dips on flying rings, Ring Flies, Skin the Cat (to stretch, go easy on these) and of course, dumbell inclines (keep your WHOLE back flat against the bench, traps, low back; everything). As many people have pointed out: you have to feel around with your position and how you keep your muscles tight throughout your movements, so that you call really feel those fibres being stimulated. Before I knew this I worked myself into a 110lb weighted dip on the rings and my upper pecs were non existant (figuratively ; ); I change how I do the exercise by using perception: results with only bodyweight!(initially). Please excuse my wanton misuse of anatomical terminology, I may have made word or two up: I’m baked. Have a stimulating(!) day (or evening or whatever). : )

By: Jeff Chui

Jeff Chui — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 10:49:54 +0000

Thank you for this article! I normally don’t bother commenting on these sites, but this was 100% brilliant.

I’ve been to the gym regularly for about 5 years now and my upper chest have always been under developed. It was not only until the past 6 months a friend gave me a simple suggestion to focus on upper chest and nothing else during my chest workout days. I took up the challenge and found that after 6 months, my upper chest has grown substantially.

I key which I found helped me was that since I focused just on upper pecs, I was able to set my mind to feel and stretch and focus on that part of my chest more intensely. I found that, through habbit, I was able to relax the lower chest while flexing the upper muscles with each repetition – this also helped with much lower weights (I used 3-4kg dumbbells and now use 5kg for incline flies). I find that using low weights and really concentrating to use only the correct muscles will build a great upper chest (i.e. chest work outs usually incorperate the triceps, and general chest…try to isolate the upper chests through technique and mind power).

By: andy

andy — Sat, 02 May 2009 15:08:29 +0000

Handstand pushups, pullups, and hindu pushups.. that’s about all i ever have time to do but they work wonders for me

By: Adam Cornwell

Adam Cornwell — Sat, 02 May 2009 14:39:21 +0000

Yes, definitely evil ! (ie a good piece of engineering thinking).

One step away from not laying in bed at night thinking……. but instead not having a bed, but sleeping in the said machine….