Inner chest

[Cap]

In your opinion do you think wider grip benches will help stretch and build the inner chest or should I go more narrow?  DO you think that flat flyes will also bulk up that area quickly?  I am thinking about keeping chest simple and doing a butt load of presses for a while, just flat and incline.

[dovidov]

I've found 2 particular exercises that really target the inner chest area- cable crossovers( not just bringing the hands together, but actually crossing the hands over/under each other for an amazing squeeze) and a narrow grip barbell press( pretty much just a close grip press , but at the top of the movement squeeze the chest for an awesome pump in the inner chest ) hope this helps-

[Faust]

I have the same problem. Chest is growing fine, but my inner chest looks pathetic.
Is there any db excercise that would help it?

Maybe i'll try flies more, i've been doing a lot of db incline and pullovers lately to bring up my upper chest.

[Tier]

ive read this many times beforeand theres no possible way to work any different 'part' of one muscle , the pectorious major is ONE muscle and the only way to have more inner chest is to build a bigger pectorious major

eg , get stronger in any of the pectorial movements and keep doing that , the bigger they are the more 'inner' you will have

the rest is genetics or drugs and genetics


and its late and im tired , again.......is it pectorial major or pectorious.....pecosauro ustransdominus..... 

[dontknowit]

It's one muscle,
there is no inner, outer, upper, under side.

One muscle, three parts,
upper, lower, side. You can emphasize a part by changing the angle, but that's got nothing to do with inner or outher.
Change the ROM by changing the grip or use dumbells,
and/or use cables cause they have a constant pressure during motion and no dead point.

[Overload]

your chest grows as a unit...the bigger your entire chest gets, the better your inner portion will look.

Flat/incline DB presses and Flyes will help...remember to flex and squeeze each rep for maximum contraction. always use full range of motion.

[Cap]

Ya I just want to accentuate the inner part because it is weak.  I am thinking maybe the wider grip on BP or DB press will stretch it out and hit it a little more.  I think I'm gonna do some cable crossovers (which I have been neglecting for some time).

[Montague]

Cap,
Similar to cable crossovers, you can also try unilateral peck deck flies.
The advantage to using one arm at a time is that you can increase the range of motion past where your hands normally stop when they meet at the center of your torso.
I usually bring the working hand to the opposite shoulder and pause for a beat to really squeeze and contract.

I agree that you can’t build just one part of the chest, but you can “emphasize” and add some detail to an area with certain exercises.
But you're wise to keep doing your heavy presses for the foundation and size. You can’t "whittle a twig."
 

[Montague]

One more thing...
I’ve heard some people report a feeling of inner chest activation when doing close grip presses.
But usually it’s from people who flare out their elbows during the movement, as this form recruits and activates more chest fibers.

I usually feel my outer pecs more when taking a wider grip, but everybody is different.

[Cap]

I was thinking dips too.  I get a good stretch at the bottom so maybe that will help.

[Overload]

I was thinking dips too.  I get a good stretch at the bottom so maybe that will help.

Everything will help...dips, flyes, BB press, DB press, pec-dec...etc.

it just takes time to build a soild chest...

there was a guy on here years ago who only did flyes and dips for his chest routine and his chest looked like armoured plates...he had been training drug free for 15 years.

it doesn't really matter too much what you do or in what order you do it, it just takes years of training and proper nutrition to build muscle. change up your routine often and stick with the basics. in time you will have a solid chest. it took me about 5 years before my inner portion of my chest looked well developed.

[pumpster]

I don't agree with the idea that it's not possible to hit various areas of a muscle because the muscle isn't configured to allow it. The same theory's been used for other muscles as well. IMO various exercises will in fact hit different areas & angles of a muscle. If this wasn't true, everyone would do only 1-2 exercises for each muscle and never change them.

Use a wide range of exercises over time, that way max. angles will be covered. Doesn't have to be every workout, different exercises can be rotated in over weeks or months.

Wide grip BP will generally hit outer chest, as someone mentioned.

IMO for inner chest use pec deck, lying cable flys or pulley crossovers, something with constant tension. Towards the top of the motion, keep the elbows fairly close together.

[Cap]

Ya I never do crossovers and that could be one reason why my inner chest lacks.  I will start incorporating them just to hit from diff angles like you said Pump.  Although all these guys like Ronnie and JOJ say all they do is free weights, they have to do other things as well.

[pumpster]

I think Ron knows what he's doing re: training, and some of his methods are progressive & also include cables, but also keep in mind that some of these guys are genetic freaks who don't necessarily need to know every last detail about training to grow. For example, Ron when asked didn't know what HIT was.

[Cap]

I think Ron knows what he's doing re: training, and some of his methods are progressive, but also keep in mind that some of these guys are genetic freaks who don't necessarily need to know every last detail about training to grow. For example, Ron when asked didn't know what HIT was.

What I mean is these guys say they only do one thing all the time but I don't think it's true.  Ronnie is a true freak for sure but even he needs machines such as cable crossover.  Ronnie would be the worst to ask for in terms of bicep advice considering the dude had 20 inch arms before he touched weights seriously.

[Tier]

dude your complicating this like never before , lift heavier and heavier over time on any exercise , muscle grows

 

[Cap]

dude your complicating this like never before , lift heavier and heavier over time on any exercise , muscle grows

 

Yea but doing things differently will hit certain areas.  Kind of like wide grip presses will hit the outer chest...

[Overload]

Kind of like wide grip presses will hit the outer chest...

Kinesiology says you are incorrect. the chest muscles major and minor work as a unit.

Chest muscle shape is genetic...it can only grow bigger as a whole.

i will not respond to any baseless attacks gentlemen/pumpster...lol

[Cap]

Kinesiology says you are incorrect. the chest muscles major and minor work as a unit.

Chest muscle shape is genetic...it can only grow bigger as a whole.

i will not respond to any baseless attacks gentlemen/pumpster...lol

Different grips will affect things differently, I think you would agree with that.  I feel a difference with Tbar rows with a parallel grip as opposed to a wide pronated grip, etc.  You know what I mean?  Even Luke Wood told me that wide grip flat and incline benches put a better stress on his chest and made the difference.

[haider]

I don't agree with the idea that it's not possible to hit various areas of a muscle because the muscle isn't configured to allow it. The same theory's been used for other muscles as well. IMO various exercises will in fact hit different areas & angles of a muscle. If this wasn't true, everyone would do only 1-2 exercises for each muscle and never change them.

Use a wide range of exercises over time, that way max. angles will be covered. Doesn't have to be every workout, different exercises can be rotated in over weeks or months.

Wide grip BP will generally hit outer chest, as someone mentioned.

IMO for inner chest use pec deck, lying cable flys or pulley crossovers, something with constant tension. Towards the top of the motion, keep the elbows fairly close together.

ditto. Peak contraction exercises like pec deck, especially where the resistance is centered around the elbows, is superior for chest (inner) development.

[pumpster]

Kinesiology says you are incorrect. the chest muscles major and minor work as a unit.

Chest muscle shape is genetic...it can only grow bigger as a whole.

i will not respond to any baseless attacks gentlemen/pumpster...lol

Baseless? No offense overload, but for '07 challenge yourself to disagree on concepts without interpreting everything as an attack & being defensive without cause.

The reality is that we all know that different exercises hit different areas-those who get bogged down in kinesiology are forgetting that. It doesn't matter whether technically it's all 1 muscle, 2 muscles or more, the reality is that different exercises hit different areas. Whether this amounts to hitting different muscles or simply different regions is semantics that some get bogged down in by focusing on the anatomy rather than the end result.

As i already said, if different exercises didn't act differently on different areas, BBs would only do 1 exercise per muscle. Instead, virtually 100% of BBs inherently agree with what i've said by doing multiple exercises per muscle.

[Montague]

Kinesiology says you are incorrect. the chest muscles major and minor work as a unit.

Chest muscle shape is genetic...it can only grow bigger as a whole.

Overload is right.
You can’t single out a specific area of the chest and work ONLY that part.
But it is possible to EMPHASIZE an area over the others.
Hence, incline work targets upper chest, decline targets lower, etc.
Your chest is all connected, but you know you are hitting primarily different parts of it.
How?
Everybody knows the differnce between DOMS in the upper vs. lower pec region.
Same holds true for outer/inner, major/minor.

[pumpster]

Overload is right.
You can’t single out a specific area of the chest and work ONLY that part.
But it is possible to EMPHASIZE an area over the others.

You've just contradicted yourself by saying that an area can only be trained overall while also acknowledging "emphasis". It can't be both.

In effect, he and you are confusing one issue with another, something commonly done BTW. The thread wasn't about physiology and the structure of the muscle. The structure of a muscle has nothing to do with targeting different sections of it. This is confusing to some here and many elsewhere.

[Montague]

I see your point.
I think in my mind (that's a scary place) I was thinking along the lines of isolating vs. targeting/emphasizing, etc.
As in you can't isolate lower abs, but you can put greater stress (emphasis) on them using the right movements.

You're right, though.
Different context.

Don't ever make the mistake of thinking I know anything.

[Cap]

I see your point.
I think in my mind (that's a scary place) I was thinking along the lines of isolating vs. targeting/emphasizing, etc.
As in you can't isolate lower abs, but you can put greater stress (emphasis) on them using the right movements.

You're right, though.
Different context.

Don't ever make the mistake of thinking I know anything.

I think we all meant the same thing but said it differently.