Written Nov, 6th 2013.
PECS being the term used to describe the pectoral muscle aka the chest muscles.
A common question I am asked in the gym is how to shape the chest better, how to build a bigger chest, how to cut the inner chest and create a deeper cut in the inner chest.
First I think it’s important to understand the bodybuilding anatomy of the chest.
Each and every muscle group in your body has an origin and insertion point. These are the two points where the muscle is attached to the bone. The origin point is fixed and hardly moveable which for the pectoralis major is the clavicular head (medial half of the clavicle), the sternal head, the sternum, upper costal cartilages and the external oblique.
The insertion point is the moveable side. Contraction of the muscle occurs when movement brings the insertion point towards the origin point. Adduction of the humerous will contract the chest muscles and bring the insertion point close to origin as will – extension of the arm. Notice these two movements are the similar technique used for a bench press and a chest fly.
These origin and insertion points described above are genetically inherited meaning you are born with them. It’s written in your DNA.
They are fixed and are related to how your chest is shaped.
They cannot be moved, changed or altered.
The shape of your chest is fixed and physiologically cannot possibly be changed.
That being said, its not all bad news.
You can increase the size of what you have.
For some this proves very difficult and a case of making the best of a bad job. For others, making the chest muscles grow is easy.
A lot of people are still stuck trying to re-sculpt and reshape their chest using light weights and ridiculous exercises such as incinerator’s OR reverse incinerator’s OR using drop sets OR superset cable crossovers straight in to decline reverse super flies. All of this to form a larger gap between the inner chest to make a deeper cut and get more definition.
I’m sorry it’s never gunna’ happen. As stated above your inner chest is fused to the sternum (bone between the pecs) and can never be moved NO MATTER WHAT you do!!!!
So now I hope you understand that, my job is to try and teach you what you can do to get a better chest, naturally.
Let’s get on with it.
How To Get Better PECS
Since we have ironed out the fact you are never going to change the shape of your chest we will now look at how you can build more size and get more definition.
The only possible ways to create more definition are:
1) by increasing the muscle size and maintaining body fat levels making the muscle appear larger OR,
2) maintaining muscle mass while reducing the body fat surround the muscle digging out the fat from the inner chest and from the underside revealing striations and creating a ripped chest.
By varying the exercises used overtime and applying progressive overload to gradually get stronger it is possible to increase the overall muscle size and bring the pecs out to improve a lagging inner or upper chest.
Now Down To The Hard Training
It is important to understand your body’s own recovery ability taking into account supplements diet and other chemicals being used to determine which training routine is best for you and how hard / how many times per week you can train each muscle group to fully recover to grow and get stronger week in week out.
DO NOT just follow what everybody else does or a program you found in a magazine because Jay Cutler or Ronnie Coleman once did it. You have to learn your own body for yourself and try different things monitoring your progress writing down your results to see what YOUR body responds to best.
Your body may respond better to full body 3X per week OR 4 or 5 day splits targeting 1,2 or 3 muscle groups separate each day with more or less exercises per muscle group.
Depending on your ability to recover will depend upon the training routine you will follow to maximise muscle growth.
Done the same routine and the same weight for months? It’s no wonder you haven’t improved your pecs. Change it up and start monitoring your progress, don’t waste any more time. Don’t just follow your training partner or your fellow gym buddies because that seems like the best thing to do.
If anybody questions what you’re doing because this week you aren’t training ‘chest on a Monday’ OR, doing 6 exercising for your chest this week – just tell them you’re getting nowhere doing it. If they have a stupid response they obviously have limited knowledge about training and nutrition anyway so leave them to get on with their dumb overkill routine.
You can find more about supplements that work to improve your recovery and intern improve your physique. More info on diets and training right here on this blog and if you liked this post be sure to click like and share it with your friends.
For those that respond best to training each muscle group separate and have 4/5 days in your routine to train each individual muscle on different days here’s a little routine for you to follow for 6 weeks. Jot down your progress push yourself and allow a good consumption of protein every day.
1) Pec Dec – 3 sets 6-10 reps
2) Incline Bench Press – 4 sets 6-10 reps
3) Flat Dumbbell Press – 4 sets 6-10 reps
4) Cable Crossovers – 3 sets 12-16 reps
Conclusion
Stop trying to use stupid exercises and taking ridiculously long rest times between your sets to talk or text or check facebook. Stop focusing on trying to use light weights and reshaping and sculpting exercises to sculp and shape your chest.
Work out a routine that works for YOU.
Focus on dieting and seek some advice if you’re not sure and stick to it. Get stronger week in week out, push yourself drop the light weights and eat some good clean muscle building food to gain some mass and add in some cardio after your weights to drop some body fat.
I have got to dash and take a Bootcamp now and see my dedicated clients.
Be sure to comment, re tweet and like / share this post and I’ll see you in the comment section.
Remember. If you need a personally tiered nutrition or training plan, hit me up. We can chat and I’ll get a personal plan made up for you. At a cost obviously.
Simon
