Help! My chest won’t grow
It is a common fault in most gyms. Young people starting a weight program with the sole ambition of building a well defined and chiseled chest. They begin each chest program with the bench press performing 4 sets before moving on to flys, pec deck, dips and finish with push-ups. Over sixteen sets of chest exercises with little or no results except for pain and tenderness in the front of the shoulders.
So what went wrong and why is the pain present?
Before addressing these questions, we must understand the anatomy of the chest muscles. The chest muscles are made up of the pectoral muscles that are divided into three bundles.
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Upper chest that attaches to the clavicle and is known as the clavicular portion
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Central chest that attaches to the sternum
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Lower chest
The chest muscles have multiple functions including moving your arms forward to hug your girlfriend or wife or moving your arms above your head with your fingers pointing skyward. The chest muscles also allow you to rest your hands on your thighs from a standing position. With so much movement and activation of the chest, it is imperative that all angles are exploited when starting a chest program.
One of the biggest problems with young gym enthusiasts is that they repeatedly train their chest through the same levels of movement that cause stress and excessive pressure on certain chest packs. For example, your chest program always begins with a bench press followed by pec deck and then machine flies. The problem with repetitive sets of these exercises is the pressure they put on the pectoralis minor, which is located just below the pectoralis major. Delavier and Gundill (2010) point out that the pectoralis minor muscle is a stabilizer of the shoulder and can cause pain in people who perform repetitive movements such as repetitive bench press sets. They also state that pectoralis minor tendonitis can easily be mistaken for shoulder pain due to its location. This explains why so many gym enthusiasts who overtrain their chest have shoulder-related pain.
So is the bench press the best exercise to build a chiseled chest?
Rocha Junior et al (2007) state that the bench press is a good starting point for some people who want to develop their chest, however, it is not for everyone. Scientific studies by Welsch et al (2005) showed that the deltoid muscles in the front of the shoulders had greater activation with the bench press than in the pectoralis major. Delavier and Gundill (2010) build on this premise by pointing out that poor pectoralis major recruitment could be the reason why the deltoid muscles are more activated during the bench press. They claim that some people, including young gym enthusiasts, do not bench press by nature and therefore need some time to work on motor recruitment focusing only on recruiting the pectoralis major and not activating the shoulders or shoulders. arms (Delavier and Gundill, 2010). The best exercises for these types of people to focus on when recruiting pecs are straight arm dumbbell bench flights.
Other obstacles that prevent your chest from growing
It is important to understand that a person’s chest muscles are generally used little from day to day. Unless you are in the habit of bench pressing your kids or hugging and squeezing your girlfriend regularly during the day, you hardly use your pectoral muscles, especially if you are not training regularly in the gym. This may explain why inexperienced gym-goers have underdeveloped pectoral muscles or struggle to feel the work of their pectoral muscles when starting a chest program. So jumping straight with a heavy chest workload with little experience is a sure path to long-term injury and over-developed and over-sensitive stabilizing muscles.
Another problem is the excessive recruitment of the shoulders and arms during most chest exercises, which reduces the effectiveness of the work of the pectoral muscles. Barnett et al (1995) agree that underused chest muscles become a bigger problem, especially if you are trying to lift heavy objects. This is particularly evident during a heavy set on the bench press when form begins to deteriorate forcing the shoulders and arms to intervene to the detriment of the chest muscles. These types of exercises include converging machines that work unilaterally so that you can improve the connection of the chest muscles and the mind.
A second solution that they analyze identifies the perception of failure as a limiting factor. Overcommitting to one rep, especially when you’re exhausted, doesn’t make your chest grow. Haykowsky et al (2003) agree that fatigue not only causes your form to deteriorate during the bench press or bench flight, but your chest becomes less and less involved in the movement.
Another obstacle that can restrict chest growth, especially in the clavicular chest bundles, occurs when the pectoralis major tendon is located very high in the arm (Delavier and Gundill, 2010). Delavier and Gundill (2010) state that the pectoralis major tendon in the arm restricts the ability to stretch the clavicular bundles of the thorax, which inhibits the activation of the upper part of the thorax and therefore requires a greater recruitment of the lower pectorals or shoulders. They argue that it is almost impossible to recruit the clavicular bundles with a high pectoralis major tendon by doing compound exercises like the bench press. Opposing cable pulleys are the best exercise for the pectoralis superior tendon muscles (Delavier & Gundill, 2010).
By understanding these limiting factors, I hope you have a better understanding of why you may be struggling to grow your chest. Simply lifting weights several times with your partners does not ensure a well-defined chest. Mix up your routine and exercises and focus on activating the muscle bundles you want to train. Use good technique and only add extra load when you feel comfortable and able to lift it and are on your way to developing that chest you’ve always wanted.
References
Barnett et al, (1995) Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 9 (4) 222-227.
Delavier, F & Gundill, M. (2010) Strength Training Anatomy Training 2: Human Kinetics: Paris
Haykowsky et al. (2003). Medicine and science in sport and exercise 35 (1): 65-68.
Rocha Junior et al. (2007) Brazilian Journal of Sports Medicine 13 (1) 43-46.
Welsch et al, (2005) Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 19 (2) 449-452.