Big arms and back, small chest

[Tarazino]

Hi, after I have been training for 5 months I noticed that my chest muscles are not caught up with the rest of my upperbody. I have received many comments about it. I started to train pectoralis 2 times a week but it seems like I get no results, the only thing that grows when I train chest is arms: / any ideas on how to reduce the imbalance??

[TrueIce]

What does your chest workout consist of?

[Tarazino]

What does your chest workout consist of?

Incline dumbelpress, incline bench press, incline bench machine, dips, pecs flyes

[geoffstgermaine]

Why do you perform so many incline movements? I'd certainly consider replacing one of the incline presses with aa flat or decline pressing movement.

[Tarazino]

Why do you perform so many incline movements? I'd certainly consider replacing one of the incline presses with aa flat or decline pressing movement.

I also have a problem with my upper pecs thats why they are small too

[Sulo-Eno]

Incline dumbelpress, incline bench press, incline bench machine, dips, pecs flyes

Is it possible you are over-training your chest, making gains more difficult to come by? I think 9-10 sets (probably 3 exercises) is normal for someone who has been lifting a while.

[jonesym4n]

Are you making strength gains ?
Are you making any size gains?
What are you eating.


P.S. Do some squats and your whole body will grow. I can see you don't do too many.

[Tarazino]

Yeah im increasing the weight, i started with 20 kg each dumbbell now i use 35 kg each dumbbell
I eat everything all the time, 4 months ago my weights was 72 kg, now 85kg.

Are you making strength gains ?
Are you making any size gains?
What are you eating.


P.S. Do some squats and your whole body will grow. I can see you don't do too many.

[geoffstgermaine]

I also have a problem with my upper pecs thats why they are small too

So your chest is too small compared to your arms and back and your upper pecs are small compared to the lower portion? I think you are overanalysing and overthinking things. You should focus on a solid pec development routine and not specialized training for the upper area if you are having problems with pec size in general. Build some size and then alter your movements if you actually have an issue at that point.

[Tarazino]

So your chest is too small compared to your arms and back and your upper pecs are small compared to the lower portion? I think you are overanalysing and overthinking things. You should focus on a solid pec development routine and not specialized training for the upper area if you are having problems with pec size in general. Build some size and then alter your movements if you actually have an issue at that point.

ok so i should focus on flat dumbbel press, bench and everything else, is it possible to overtrain if im gaining strenght and weight?

[TrueIce]

Are you doing all those exercises in one workout? If so, that's too much..

You should concentrate on doing flat chest first because your won't see as much gains with upper chest as soon as flat.. Even it out.. One day do flat, one day do incline.. But don't do more incline than flat right now..

And target each exercise better.. 4-5 sets, with 8-12 reps (2-3 exercises).. Plus, along with legs, you should be doing chest at least 3 times a week if you want to see changes..

[Matisshere]

To much incline movements.

[Tarazino]

i think my schedule is wrong. day 1: chest. day 2 Back. day 3 chest, day 4 legs. day 5 arms

[Eventhorizon191]

i think my schedule is wrong. day 1: chest. day 2 Back. day 3 chest, day 4 legs. day 5 arms

I have had the same issue. Everyone tells me i should work my chest more or something, sometimes you have to accept you have a lagging bodypart. You can improve it but it may never be up with the rest of your body.
However, having struggled with the same problem and having made decent headway here is my advise:
You're going to have to subject your chest to a larger range of motion. Moderate volume, and focus on *raising the weight while keeping sets and reps the same.* Do it systematically and regularly. Muscle strength correlates with cross sectional diameter (thickness) so its good to pick whatever movement you can rep out heavy weight with. This was weighted dips for me. Big ROM, you keep good muscle tension during the lift, and it's relatively easy to pile on the weight. Please don't cut out all the incline work though. It does wonders for real world useable strength and chest asthetics. Just cut some of it down and focus on some high rep heavy dips. Also if you're gaining still dont worry about weather youre doing too much. Don't fix a routine that isn't broken.

[Coke_Zero]

My chest was lagging a lot but has started to get bigger now, it just took time for it go grow. What I will say is when I started adding dips (emphasis put on the chest when doing them) my chest definitely reacted well.

[CaptainGorgeous]

My chest also lagged behind my lats and arms.

Decline presses and dips solved the problem for me. I don't focus as much on incline work anymore because decline presses and dips seem to hit the entire pec.

[Tarazino]

Thanks for all answers, i talked to a personal trainer today at the gym he told me that i was doing the exercises wrong, i need to keep my shoulders back when i do chest exercises. and it worked! My pecs was pumped for the first time

[Tillday]

Thanks for all answers, i talked to a personal trainer today at the gym he told me that i was doing the exercises wrong, i need to keep my shoulders back when i do chest exercises. and it worked! My pecs was pumped for the first time

Good you found out, I was going to ask because this was a huge issue for me for the longest time, I had to learn to push with my chest not my tri's and when I finally did the difference was huge.
Remember your objective isn't so much to push the weight from your body, but to squeeze your upper arms together using your pecs which forces the weight out.

[transamdroptp08]

Form was going to be my suggestion. Just like with any exercise you want to have good form and squeeze the muscle when you are at the peak. IE when doing curls you should flex the bicep at the top of the movement forcing blood into the muscle. Pick form over weight everytime. Full range of motion is another. If you do 2reps of 225#'s but only go down three inches what is the point!?

[AdamOlympia]

Thanks for all answers, i talked to a personal trainer today at the gym he told me that i was doing the exercises wrong, i need to keep my shoulders back when i do chest exercises. and it worked! My pecs was pumped for the first time

Thanks for the tip man, I`m your age and have been having the same issue. Hopefully I`ll start seeing some gains within the next few months!

[OrigamiProdigy]

I would stop working out my back completely. Start using dumbbells instead of the Olympic bar and isolate your pecks as much as possible. Throw pec deck in your routine. Depending on body type the standard bench press can put too much weight on back and triceps. You need to re balance your chest and back. Focus strictly on the pecs.