Bench Press-Chest development

Just wondering everyones opinion on building a solid chest, I find it to be one of my weak points so I am trying to get down a good routine to hit it hard and maximize gains.
 
1)Should all forms of bench be worked?
2)Cable flies vs Dumbell flies
3) How many times a week should I do chest?
 

Well if you are just starting... go with the basics.
Bench Press
Incline Bench
Pushups

That is really all you need to do imo. But if you've been lifting for a while you can try the different benches like different grip positions, speed benching, and stability with chains and stuff like that. Most people would work ches once a week if on a split, but if you really want to work on it and build it up then go ahead and do it 2 times or maybe three. No more than that.

Bench: 70 Squat 135 Deadlift: 1??s 
Supps: Creatine, Multi, Fish Oils 

Jones's Log

If you really feel like you need a variety, the ones I like are Barbell flat, Dumbell incline, weighted dips.  But really you can just do one exercise like flat bench and still get good developement.

http://www.discussbodybuilding.com/Seos-Log-2008-m442008.aspx

1. No. Stick to flat bench and incline or just one or the other. The pectoral is ONE muscle.
2. Neither. Do dips.
3. 1-3 times per week depending on your routine

Perrynaytor


1. No. Stick to flat bench and incline or just one or the other. The pectoral is ONE muscle.
2. Neither. Do dips.
3. 1-3 times per week depending on your routine

It's one muscle but with many fibers, right?  Books speak of the clavicular head of the pectoral muscle.
It's not as if all pec fibers fire when you do a flat bench.  My upper chest didn't start to develop until I incorporated inclines.  The cleavage or separation did not look defined until I incorporated cable crossovers and flyes.  Is it even possible to get a fully developed chest with just flat presses?  Imo, you can't.
We also often hear that the rectus abdominus is all one muscle yet we do different exercises for upper and lower abs.  It's not all in our heads, right?

Incline presses have more help with the shoulders. Decline presses are just shorter range of motion flat presses. Isolations have their place with those who choose to use them.

When I cut out all the silly five thousand different chest movements and isolations and stuck to a barbell flat, dumbell incline, and weighted dips, my chest grew more than before. And in my newb days, "before" looked something like

Flat bench
Incline Bench
Incline DB fly
Decline DB Fly
Pec Deck
Cable Crossovers
Push ups

I was an idiot.

I've always followed a general rule for chest:

Incline=upper chest    
Flat=mid
Decline=lower

looking for something different to throw in ur routine give lying cable flys a shot. put the settings on the lowest mark.

But you've got to eventually do something besides flat presses to bring out the upper chest, right?  I know OH presses hit the upper chest too.  If you did flat presses, even with monster weights, til the cows came home, would your upper chest develop or not?  My thinking is that you've got to do inclines at some point.

If you press, your chest.. all of it.. will develop. Some people will disagree with me, but it's just one muscle and just really needs one press. Inlcine presses are really good though just for overall strength and mass in general, almost if not better than flat. So, keep the inclines.

The same way people do hammer curls, reverse, etc. It all hits the one muscle - the bicep.

Your chest is not 3 sections, please ditch this train of thought.

determined58


I've always followed a general rule for chest:

Incline=upper chest    
Flat=mid
Decline=lower

looking for something different to throw in ur routine give lying cable flys a shot. put the settings on the lowest mark.

6'3"  @213

Squat 1x20x275

press:200, Deadlift:475, Bench:300, P.clean:235, Squat:385

"The only failure that is final is to stop trying to improve"

Imo if you are doing flat bench and OH presses you shouldn't have problems with your upper chest developing with everything else.  And if it looks flat well maybe you just need to give it more time.  I certainly feel it in my upper chest more when I do inclines and seated over head press, but I think you can develop the chest with just heavy flat, you need everything to fire anyways when you are lifting heavy.

http://www.discussbodybuilding.com/Seos-Log-2008-m442008.aspx

Your chest is not 3 sections, please ditch this train of thought.

 
N$,
    But what does that mean?  What's the take away?  Can you fully develop the chest with one exercise or not.  Every book I have says the same thing:  Inclines work upper, flat works middle, decline or dips work lower, flyes or crossovers work for separation/cleavage at the sternum.  I realize doing all of that is overkill perhaps.  But you always want to be confusing the muscle by hitting it from different angles, right?  And even if it is one muscle, do different exercises work different fibers of that one muscle, or does every chest exercise work all of the fibers?  My understanding is that different exercises focus on different fibers.  This is a significant disctinction, because if I'm understanding you correctly, then many many people, including authors on the subject, have it wrong.

J, he is saying the chest is one muscle. This lower, upper, middle, seperation, la de da. All that happens when the chest muscle grows from training in general. The left and the right side grow which creates cleavage. The entire muscle is all proportionate. I don't know how else to put it.

At the end of the day, the flat bench press and dips are your bread and butter.

you can recruit more upper fibers with certain exercises, but Perry is correct flat bench will work everything.

Seo also pointed out that if your doing OH press (Full ROM OH press) and flat your upper chest should be getting enough attention. Adding incline is not bad, and is fine as an assistance exercise.

Its just people often think there is a top middle and bottom to correspond with Incline, flat and decline. And thats just not true.

dont think of it as top middle and lower. The chest is one muscle. If you HAVE to think of it like that its upper/lower. Some exercises simply recruit more lower/upper depending on what your doing.

decline is worthless btw, its simply a shorter ROM flat bench.

6'3"  @213

Squat 1x20x275

press:200, Deadlift:475, Bench:300, P.clean:235, Squat:385

"The only failure that is final is to stop trying to improve"

Perrynaytor


J, he is saying the chest is one muscle. This lower, upper, middle, seperation, la de da. All that happens when the chest muscle grows from training in general. The left and the right side grow which creates cleavage. The entire muscle is all proportionate. I don't know how else to put it.

At the end of the day, the flat bench press and dips are your bread and butter.

yeaa if u want some titties lol, me i cant get away with only flat bench, i guess its just my genetics, but i never started out with a square chest, it was way more lower chest, with non existent upper, i probably did straight flat bench for months before i ate my pride and started inclines, now i can almost rep what i can on flat, and my chest is more square and full.

if some of u have the problem i had, then inclines are a must, if u dont then lucky you stay with the flat

it really depends on the person and his physique, and the way his muscles grow

update! 8/3/09

maxes and goals
bench - need to remax
goal bench - 405

squat - need to remax
goal squat - 500

deadlift - need to remax
goal deadlift - 500
weight -174.8 8%bf 

Guys,  I hate to belabor the point, but I'm so confused.  My upper chest didn't start to develop noticeably until I did inclines on a regular basis.  The separation wasn't defined until I did crossovers and flyes on a regular basis.  I did what the books said to do and it worked.  When I just did flat benches, my chest looked feminine.  Am I the only one with this experience?

What does ONE MUSCLE mean?  When your brain tells your body to perform a flat bench press, does every pec muscle fiber in your body fire?  You've got fast twitch, slow twitch, and I even heard somewhere you have medium twitch fibers.  They don't all fire at the same time.  Fast fibers fire for explosive work and slow for endurance work, right?  Now, when you have your body push a weight up at different angles, basic physics tells you that different parts of the muscle are acting with different force and at different rates.  I also understand that either a fiber fires 100% or 0%.  It's either OFF or ON.  To lift heavier weights, more fibers turn ON than when pushing lighter weights.  Doesn't it stand to reason that when a "one muscle" is asked to move a weight to a different location that fibers in different portions of that muscle fire?  

When I do heavy inclines, I'm sore in the upper chest the next couple days.  When I do crossovers or flyes, I feel a burn where the left and right pecs come together.  Why is that?

Guys, I hate to be an absolute pain about this, but I have a hunch I'm not the only one who's totally confused.  :)

it all depends on your training level and what you have been doing.

your correct as I said different movements will recruit more fibers.

OH press and flat bench, if both done correctly will hit your chest and give you plenty of stimulation. Thats not to say that you cant do anything else, I would say that really depends on the trainee's level and genetics.

Once you have a good amount of training under your belt you can understnd your body more, what responds better then what and make informed and smart decisions about what isolations or extra work to add to your routine.

When I do heavy inclines, I'm sore in the upper chest the next couple days.  When I do crossovers or flyes, I feel a burn where the left and right pecs come together.  Why is that?

Anyone is going to feel sore and "burn" with exercises they arent used to doing or their body is not conditioned for. I add flyes every once in awhile and it always makes me sore, because my body isnt conditioned for it.

There are other things that actually play a role in what your talking about too. Bodyfat % is key in the definition of the chest your talking about. If your chest readilly holds fat or your BF% isn't low enough your not going to see much seperation and definition.

There is no Upper/middle/lower chest, but you can recruit more fibers depending on the movement and angles.

6'3"  @213

Squat 1x20x275

press:200, Deadlift:475, Bench:300, P.clean:235, Squat:385

"The only failure that is final is to stop trying to improve"