Best exercise to make chest bigger?

[HeartofaLion]

Hey everyone, Ive been lifting for over 2 years and my chest is pretty much the same size, even though my numbers keep going up.
To answer whether or not I am hitting it right, it usually gets really sore after every workout so it is involved in the lifts.

My question is whether dumbell flat bench presses or incline would be most beneficial?

I realize that the upper chest is a laggy bodypart, but i was thinking that the flat would be better to make overall size larger than just the incline.

thoughts?

my current workout is
Incline dumbell bench press (85lbs)
Flat Hammer strength machine (180lbs)
Dips (body weight)
Pec Deck (115-130lbs)

all are 4x8-10

I also want to widen my chest because my lats are wide and it gives me an awkward body shape.

[TigerStealth]

I would recommend starting your workout with 3-4 sets of 15 reps of heavy, controlled cable crossovers. Do not think of it as "pre exhausting" but rather as a really good warm up and first exercise. You'll have a good pump in your chest before going on to your heavy presses and you should be able to feel your chest more during the presses and take your delts and tris out of it

[GymMeathead]

I noticed my chest getting bigger when I focused my chest days more on incline. Do incline cable flys, and incline dumbbell flys. Dumbbell pulls overs also help widen you. Stay away from flat for a little and really focus on incline.

[Boydson]

Fact is decline dumbbell press is going to require the most fiber recruitment=more mass gains. To bad decline dumbbell is a huge pain in the ass.

[HeartofaLion]

I would recommend starting your workout with 3-4 sets of 15 reps of heavy, controlled cable crossovers. Do not think of it as "pre exhausting" but rather as a really good warm up and first exercise. You'll have a good pump in your chest before going on to your heavy presses and you should be able to feel your chest more during the presses and take your delts and tris out of it

so youre suggesting i do an isolation over a compound exercise for mass gain?

[eatALLthefood]

honestly size depends more on nutrition than stimulus, but assuming you have proper nutrition, then i will tell you what i did that helped my chest grow and i will explain why it worked

this is one i did when i was a beginner. i had huge size gains on this
bench press: 5 x 12, 10, 8, 6, 4 (strength gain and this would also put a lot of blood into my chest)
incline press: 5 x 10 (10 reps for size. around 5-7% more focus on upper chest from the incline. also filling the chest with blood)
dumbbell flyes ~supersetted with~ dumbbell pullovers: 6 supersets of 15 reps each (pumps more blood into the chest due to high reps and i would get a very deep stretch in the pecs on the concentric motion, overall causing my chest to have torn muscles and be PACKED with blood. then, take a protein shake and all that blood allows for size expansion and a lot of healing for those tissues)

more recently i used this before i switched over to a powerlifting program:
Wide grip bench press: 5 x 8-12
cable incline flyes: 6 x 12-20 (deep stretch at the bottom and high reps for good pump, squeezing hard at the top for a few seconds. gives very nice size to the upper chest, which is the part that makes the chest pop out)
weighted dips: 4 x 10-20 (lower chest size and pump)
incline dummbbell press: 5 x 3-5 (strength, perfect for pec-delt tie-in and also works different stabilizers and again focuses on the part of the chest that pops

hope that gave you the idea behind a pump/stretch routine for chest.

EDIT: also, sometimes with that last routine i would do the flyes first for pre-exhaustion then do the wide grip chest press. if you understand pre-exhaustion, then you understand why i did it.

[eatALLthefood]

Fact is decline dumbbell press is going to require the most fiber recruitment=more mass gains. To bad decline dumbbell is a huge pain in the ass.

it's also too bad that the main portion of the chest that makes it pop is the upper chest

[HulkingBrute]

I usually rub an ice cube on my nipples, in a circular pattern over my aereola. This adds an almost instant 1/2" increase in size to my chest (well, how far my shirt sticks out at least). Usually gets a lot of stares in the gym especially, but the effects are of course temporary. This trick unfortunately doesn't work in the genital region, so don't even try it.

[Roidmonster55]

I usually rub an ice cube on my nipples, in a circular pattern over my aereola. This adds an almost instant 1/2" increase in size to my chest (well, how far my shirt sticks out at least). Usually gets a lot of stares in the gym especially, but the effects are of course temporary. This trick unfortunately doesn't work in the genital region, so don't even try it.

1/2" nipples? Were you related to Farrah Fawcett?

[HeartofaLion]

so the general consensus is that IDBP > DPB for overall chest growth??

[Tommy W.]

Fact is decline dumbbell press is going to require the most fiber recruitment=more mass gains. To bad decline dumbbell is a huge pain in the ass.

Thats why weighted dips are so great

[MWheatley]

Its tough to say what will and wont work for you. You will get 10 different recommendations for 10 different people because everyones body is different. The exercises you listed are all capable of growing a big chest as is your set/rep range. Its just a matter of whether or not your body responds well to that and if you are giving it the food to grow.

[eatALLthefood]

so the general consensus is that IDBP > DPB for overall chest growth??

yes

[P1noy]

decline bench, weighted dips, pull overs, cable cross overs, do push ups in between sets, try doing burn outs, try increase frequency of workouts, deload for a cycle if you haven't, try a pre-workout supp and or a creatine product, train with someone that will help push / spot you, EAT A LOT MORE!!!!