Chest is out of proportion to the rest of my body

S

SDK

New Member
So like the title says, I have been using HST for a couple of years now and I have made some gains that I thought I would not have naturally. Overall I am pretty happy with how my size has come along, but I've always wanted a powerful chest and it seems to be lagging behind the rest of my muscle groups. I've been doing standard HST; Training looks like this:

Session A:
Dips
Lat Pulldown
Military press
Leg Press

Session B:
Incline Bench (30 deg)
Seated Row
Upright Row
Leg Press

Does anyone have any ideas on how I can play "catch-up" with my chest? A couple of ideas that I had were to do a short HST cycle of only chest exercises, or add negatives to my chest exercises throughout the 10's and 5's as well. Anyone think these ideas will work?
 
The negatives is part of std HST, they are only done duringt 5's though and without a partner they can be problematic, so many end up not doing them or doing only those exercises they can.

One idea that may work is to increase your training volume for chest only while maintaining normal volume for other exercises. Jules's book, "pimp my HST" has some inetresting techniques like Pulse strectches and loaded static strectches, these thinhgs can kinda wake-up muscle tissues IMO!
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Hi SDK,

Well, its a bit 'old school HIT style' but for areas of weakness - assuming that you're not overtraining the muscle - they (HIT people) will use 'specialization' which basically means - concentrate on working the chest first (which your routine implies you do anyway) when you have the most energy, and maybe add another exercise, or two, as Fausto suggests, for a couple of weeks to shock growth, before going back to your basic routine.

Its just an idea.  
I personally do both incline bench press and dips in each workout anyway - that works better for me than just one or the other.

HIT also use pre-exhaust techniques, whereby you would do an iso movement, like pec deck/dumbbell flyes and superset this with your bench or dips.
Its not really a HST technique, but its something different to try for a couple of weeks and see how you get on?

Or even simpler, maybe just change the one chest exercise you are doing? Try flat benches and decline benches instead of dips?

Good luck

Brix
 
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(Brixtonian @ Jul. 16 2009,7:08)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Try flat benches and decline benches instead of dips?</div>
I second this recommendation. Chest has been my success area (arms my weakness), and I've had some of my better gains with flat and decline bench (prefer dumbells). Dips are a great compound exercise but a little harder for me to squeeze and isolate pecs. Throw in some cable crossovers for upper chest. I rely less on incline presses to reduce shoulder involvement. Also, pay attention to form -- make sure you are truly utilizing pecs and minimizing shoulder and tri involvement as best you can. Fausto and Brix had some other good ideas to try....would especially agree with increasing the volume a bit. Good luck and let us know how you progress.
 
You may be ready for a little more volume. You could add 2-3 sets of a good isolation exercise to each day. This could even be just through the 15s and 10s. Volume gets hard to deal with once the intensity goes up in the 5s. Since you are targeting only one muscle you may be able to maintain through the 5s as well. My version of the HST program included isolation for most major muscle groups and I found that I had to reduce the volume as it progressed. Start the day with chest work so that you can give it your best effort.
 
i think a lot of people who have trouble building there pecs,tend to use other muscle groups more during bench/dips etc,so maybe isolating your pecs more with something like db-presses or even cable cross-overs could help.
 
this<div>
(faz @ Jul. 28 2009,6:34)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">i think a lot of people who have trouble building there pecs,tend to use other muscle groups more during bench/dips etc,so maybe isolating your pecs more with something like db-presses or even cable cross-overs could help.</div>
 
Yeah, wot Faz said, plus if you start out with fewer fibres in your pecs than the next guy then you will have a harder task bringing them up, especially without any chemical assistance which might aid hyperplasia as well as hypertrophy.

It was very apparent to me, from around my mid-teens, that my chest was going to be small in relation to the rest of my upper-body. I just didn't have a lot of muscle tissue there compared to a lot of my mates, even though I could outdo them at push-ups and bench-press. My younger brother by comparison, had much larger pecs without doing any training for them. Of course, there's still plenty of room for improvement so, like Faz said, you need to ensure you are using the most effective chest exercises for you.
 
Read the Myo-Reps thread (Borge Fagerli) and you may find your answer. My chest is also a lagging part, but 3 exersizes with Myo's gave a highly unusual pump. Others claim to be growing and gaining strength with them.

Personally, flyes never did anything growth-wise for me, but inclined db presses definitely built up the upper half of the pecs.
 
Some great suggestions as usual, any of which should help.

From my personal experience I'd go with an isolation type exercise, for me the pec deck did the trick
 
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(Lol @ Jul. 28 2009,10:29)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">My younger brother by comparison, had much larger pecs without doing any training for them.</div>
i was thinking about this the other day (genetics) you would think that brothers had the same genes,but noticing a few of my mates who are brothers,some of them are completly different bodytypes ie two of my mates (brothers) one puts on weight easily but isnt muscular (and used to train),while the other never puts on weight and is ripped (but has never trained).
 
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