recruiting pecs

[HeavyLiftr]

Originally Posted by nickw

I have been using 35 and 45 pounders to ensure proper form

Bottom line here is pushing forward for a while and getting to at least 70 or 80 pound dumbells for 10 solid reps. 35 and 45 pounders... I mean, not for nothing bro, that's not going to build you up (I wanted to say something else, but I digress).

Do you include dips in your routine? What about pushups? Sounds like you need to learn how to force your body to feel the chest more when pushing. You may very well be going too light and not using your chest to push that weight up. But you definitely gotta get some heavier dumbbells in there.

HL

[nickw]

Sorry it took so long I had to go to work. I am 5' 7" and 155# and I am pretty small, so I'm limited to lighter weights for a while. Today is chest day so I will try dips and see what kind of results I get.

[thick]

at 155lbs your lt pec can't be much bigger than your right b/c youcan't have much for pecs. I still say work up slowly with heavier db's. dips are also good but u need to do weighted dips. at your weight, bodyweight only dips wont even be productive for your current goals and problems IMO.edit: also post your workout routines such as how many days/week u lift, what exercises you do etc.

Originally Posted by nickw

Sorry it took so long I had to go to work. I am 5' 7" and 155# and I am pretty small, so I'm limited to lighter weights for a while. Today is chest day so I will try dips and see what kind of results I get.

[nickw]

I lift four days a week. sunday is back and bi's, monday is legs and abs, wendsday; shoulders and traps, thursday; chest, tri's and abs. This is kind of a wierd schedule but I work twelve hour shifts four days one week and three days the next and it's tough to have a good workout schdule some times. Anyway, for my chest I do four sets of incline bench's an 100 pounds with twelve reps, flat db presses at 45 pounds and I just started using the pec deck at 90 pounds for three sets but I think I need to up the weight with that. A day or two later I am pretty sore with that workout.

[B_D]

hey bro, i would drop the pec dec. add some dips in. sometimes all i do for chest is 4 sets of dips with weight. see if you can hit your other pec with them, make sure you lean forward.

[Bob Smith]

You need to totally revamp your chest workout.

Try this instead:
Incline bench 5 sets of 5 reps (use the same weight each set)
Decline 3 sets of 5 reps

No flyes no pec dec, none of the crappy isolation movements that so many people use.

[nickw]

Thanks I will give that a shot.

[thick]

try that with the heaviest weight you can use for the 5 sets of 5. i would keep it with db's. After 3-4 weeks do a week where you do 5 sets of 5 but pyramid up. So start off with 50 lb db for ex. and do it 5 sets of 5. after 3 or 4 weeks or longer if you are continuing to get stronger and use higher db's every week. when youquit getting stronger do a couple of weeks of pyramiding such as one set with 35lbs, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60 or whatever your max weight is. After a few weeks of this you should be ready for HST, or some other w/o where you are hitting each body part 2-3 times per week. Go to www hsnhst .com and start reading. I would wait on hst until you have more of a foundation built up. you will get stronger by just doing 1x/week right now.

[lionel]

What if the imbalance of pec size is just caused by plain ol imbalance in power. Right handers normally have stronger right hands. So how does one bring up the weaker, in this case, left pecto ensure symmetry?