No, this is not a "I'm so thin I wanna get big give me some exercises peeps!" thread.. I know we have at least 2 trainers on this board (DonnyMost & Classic IIRC) so hopefully I'll get a good answer.. my problem is that everytime I workout my chest, it doesn't get sore or tired at all, but my arms kill me.. Not only that, but by the end of the workout, my arms are the ones that fail me, not my chest.. if I had another set of arms, I would probably do double the weight & reps I'm doin with mine.. it pisses me off so frickin much.. some possibly unnecessary background info: Spoiler I started working out seriously back in November, and I gained a good 30 pounds with absolutely ZERO supplements, keratin, and the other good stuff.. thing is, it seems like I got minimal gains in the chest and delts.. I started with a "superset" split 4 days a week with chest, back and arms on 1 day, then legs and shoulders on the next. I kept goin at it for 2 months, then I twisted my knee while hoopin, so I completely stopped legs workouts and I moved to a similar 4 day "superset" split with chest/back on 1 day and shoulders/arms on the other.. then 2 months after that, I stopped the "superset" system and started regular 3 sets for each exercise with 1 minute rest. I kept my rep range between 4-8. I seemed to have plateaued in the past month or so, so I started a new 4-day split today: Chest, shoulders, back, and legs+arms on Thu, sat, Sun, and Tue respectively.. I'm planning on keeping each workout around 8-10 exercises with 3-4 sets each, and rep range between 4-8.. today was the first day I started this "single muscle group each day" split, and it was all chest.. I did intense 10 minute cardio first, then I did, chronologically: (bench press, flat bench flyes, incline bench perss, incline flyes, dips, flat dumbbell press, incline dumbbell press) and then some sit ups.. my chest seems unaffected whatsoever, but arms (especially triceps) are sore as hell.. I'm hoping that I feel some soreness in the chest tomorrow, but it sure doesn't look like it.. it's worth noting that my first priority is always correct form, and while I add a lot of weight sometimes, I still try my best to maintain a great form.. so, takin all that B.S I typed above into account, why in god's name does my chest not get sore? I look like a god-forsaken chicken with big arms but a tiny chest
go with the double d's... jk have you tried doing bend presses w/ dumbells instead? how about doing butterflys w/ dumbells?
It's all in how many reps you're doing as well as the amount of rest you're putting in between sets. How long did the entire upper body workout take for you? It very well could be that your arms are limiting you because the weight is too high and the reps are too low. Mix it up as well, if you're not feeling anything in your chest change up your grips on bench, do wider or closer grips (within safe limits of course), do resistance flys instead of weighted ones, do entire bench days (ie. Bench press 4 sets of ten reps per set at moderate to heavy weight with limited rest, incline bench of the same nature, and decline bench of the same nature). Generally you wanna get your major body exercises out of the way first (i.e. bench, incline, decline) then move onto arm exercises.
when bench pressing, how far apart are your arms? the further away they are the more your chest is put to use. if your arms are right above your shoulders, then you're mostly using your triceps. practice it with push ups. you can feel the difference in which muscle is being utilized.
If you're doing all those flyes properly you should be feeling it immediately in your chest, esp the last few reps. Perhaps use less weight and extend your arms out further laterally, not to where your elbow doesn't bend at all but closer to 180 degrees than 90. And try to maintain that elbow angle through the whole motion.
A little known technique I've picked up over the years is to start out any chest day with flies to pre-exhaust the muscle before I hit the mass building bench exercises.
Simple - Your arms are being worked too hard. During chest workouts, your triceps get worked out and during back, usually your biceps get worked out. Try using the wider grip with lower weight as mentioned and do alot of flys one day and see how it goes. Keep everyone posted. We all want to see you not look like a god-forsaken chicken with big arms but a tiny chest.
Sweet. A topic that I know a lot about. The goal is to go up on benchpress, except your arms are the limiting factor right? Exact same thing happened to me and I slowly built my triceps up and it definitely helped my bench max / reps. The following things seemed off to me based on your description. 1. You're doing a lot of stuff that tires your triceps, so at the end, you can probably get weight off your chest, but you can't lock out because your triceps are conked. For example, inclines bench is much more taxing than flat on your triceps, and dips is mostly triceps. Seems like you're doing a lot of set / reps of tricep heavy movements, so that's probably why they're more fatigued than your chest. 2. Why you say you're doing "arms" 2 days before "chest"... does that include triceps? If so, that might not be good, you probably want your triceps to be 100% rested before you start your bench day, because otherwise it'll give out early. What I would recommend would be: 1. Do chest and triceps on the same day, but obviously triceps after chest, so you don't tire it out first 2. Do some heavier weights, with a spotter. Like sets of 3-4. Low rep heavy targets chest more than high rep light, which again drains triceps. Also, at the end, if your triceps are conked, but your chest is still good, you should still be able to get the weight to the middle position, and then do a few reps where the spotter helps you get the second half of each movement, which is more tricep heavy 3. Incorporate exercises that target tricep strenght. Like heavy skull crushers. Also, I find that doing bench press clusters help increase tricep power, especially if you're tall, because you have to do that extra lock-out (which is all triceps) each time 4. Don't be frustrated in the beginning if your triceps are still limiting your bench max, because the point is to eventually have your triceps catch up to your chest Anyway... not a pro, but that's my perspective.
first off, thanks for all the advice/replies.. danny, bladeage, and rrj_gamz, I have to admit that I actually LOL'd at the "double D's" and the "girl" comments.. macalu and Pizza, I definitely think that grip is a problem for me.. I know about wider grip = more chest, but due to my height (5'7) and not so impressive wingspan, I can barely pick up the bar from the rack with my current grip, so I don't think it's much possible to go wider.. it's worth noting that my grip is about 2 inches away from each shoulder, so I think it's pretty satisfactory.. I will def. try a wider grip, but I would need a spotter (which isn't always available, and I don't like takin anyone with me to workout simply because we end up wasting our time talkin) yipengzhao, yes, my situation is precisely the one you just described.. being limited by arms on benchpresses.. and to answer ur question, today was the first day for me with the new split, so my arms are fairly fresh (last time I worked out was 4 days ago)... and thanks so much for your useful post.. I'm gonna def. start workin out triceps after chest, and leave biceps and legs alone for that day.. but, I'm still kinda confused.. are my arms OVER-developed compared to my chest, or are they UNDER-developed?? this is the question right now.. should I work harder on arms right now to improve my chest? and would using smith machine for BP be advantageous in my situation because it utilizes less arms/stabilizing muscles?
Your question is honestly a little too involved to answer it on a BBS. Maybe I can help you in person. Gratis, of course. (quick answer: try training in unstable environments using non-traditional weight apparatus... i.e. not barbells)
I weigh 135 lbs. I need to look all swo and buff before the start of summer so i can go to galveston or Huntington or Seal Beach. I need to add about 50 lbs of muscle. what can you do for me? how much do you charge?
When you train someone, what are you doing? Do you tell them how to lift, or what to lift? And what to eat and stuff like that?
Yeah, pretty complex question. I'll give you a few of my opinions. 1. Don't do arms two days before you do chest. Also, someone mentioned the idea of combining triceps with chest but I think that is a bad idea. I like to do biceps if I am going to mix a muscle group with chest because your tris will be too exhuasted by the end of it for them to get a really good workout. 2. I personally stick to 4 exercises, 5 at most but not generally, for chest. I'll do 5 exercises for the bigger groups like back or legs. I wouldn't suggest doing like 6 exercises with the rep range you're doing. 3. You need to vary up how you approach each set. For instance, I like to do a heavy pyramid set on my first exercise to get the workout going. Say I'm doing flat bench, I'll do: 135 lbs (warmup) 15 times or so, then 225 12-15 times 245 8-10 times 275 6-8 times (some times if my spot is working out with me I'll do this set twice) 225 8-10 times then a superset burn out with 135 for like 10 right when I get done with the 225. Then, my next exercise, let's say incline db flies, I'll pick a weight and stick with it and keep good form but do three or four sets of 12. Next exercise I might superset two exercises for sets of 10 and on the last one I might do a set of 10 and then an immediate burnout of the same exercise, lighter weight three times. Point is, I always mix up how I do my sets. I may do all pyramids one day or all 4 sets of 10 one day, just however I'm feeling. 4. I also give myself way more than one minute between each set. I'll give myself generally three minutes or so because I'm going for exhaustion but I let my muscles recoup some energy. I think you're losing a lot of tricep stamina there. You need more rest especially if you're doing a heavy ass weight in the 4-8 rep range which I don't suggest for size building. That rep range is more for strength building as if you're going to be powerlifting. 5. If your split is tue, thur, sat, sun I might suggest the following: Chest(4 exercises)/bis(3 exercises)-tue shoulders(4 exercises/traps(shrugs)/tris(3 exercises)-thur back(5 exercises)/reardelts(I love rear delt flies on back day)-sat legs(5 exercises)/calves(3 exercises)-sun This gives enough rest so that no muscle group that assists on another will be fatigued when you do them. Make sure you do your chest before you do your shoulders (with atleast a days rest) so that you don't run the risk of rotator cuff injury (been there, done that). So, my advice: Don't do as many exercises on a particular day. Rest more in between sets. Vary how you approach each set with different combinations of pyramiding, reverse pyramiding, burnouts, supersets, and straight sets. Stick to sets with reps for the most part higher than 8. Change your splits. Now, go get swoll. I have no idea what your diet is but that is my advice.
sorry, this is a bit of a hijack but i think something's wrong with my left shoulder. i haven't lifted in about 2.5 months. anytime i'm bench pressing, as soon as i bring the bar down to my chest, i feel a sting. well, i tried hitting the weights again after the long layoff and it's still there. goddammit, i think i need to see a doctor. it doesn't hurt otherwise, but it's really ****ing up my workouts and i'm gaining a lot of fat.
It's your rotator cuff. Your problem is that you're bringing the bar down to your chest. I cringe every time I see somebody do that. If you don't want the ligaments in your shoulder to be doing a whole lot of work (which you don't), you only bring the bar down to a 90 degree bend in your elbow. Anything more than that and you transfer the weight of the bar off your chest and into your rotator cuff. You need to rehab your rotator cuff. Find a trainer at your gym, buy and hour and just have them show you that at the very least. Learn better form while you're at it as well to prevent further injury.
