Triceps taking over on chest day

[nikthegreek]

Ive struggled with chest development and have come to the conclusion that it's down to my triceps taking over the lift (obv on pressing movements). My close grip bench is now 5kgs less than my normal grips 10 rep max, and if I do both with the same weight, the close grip is far far easier to complete my 10 reps.

I have always had unusually large arms for my body size, and so train them accordingly, triceps on chest day once a week for 9 sets with 12 for chest. Thinking about lowering my sets for triceps?

Been working out on and off for 5 + years.

Any ideas to solve this?

[qoohhlt]

Ur chest looks weird...Lol

[gregoryalanday]

Swap some triceps for chest isolation, i dont personally like chest isolation movements but then i dont have the same problem as you. Whats your routine, chest/triceps 1x per week??

[CrazyAssasin]

Use dumbbells .

[nikthegreek]

My routine is 4 sets incline bench, 3 sets flat bench, 3 sets dips and 3 sets incline flys for chest. Triceps is 3 sets close grip bench, 2 sets bench dips, 2 sets kickbacks and 2 sets overhead dumbbell extensions. I did do skull crushers but it didn't agree with my elbows.

I would use dumbbells but I work out at home and can't get more than 15kgs on which is no good, so go heavy on the barbell press.

On my pressing movements I am making sure not to press all the way up as I know that's where the tricep are involved a lot more than the bottom portion of the movement.

What isolation exercises (that can be done at home) do you recommend?

[jaydk]

My routine is 4 sets incline bench, 3 sets flat bench, 3 sets dips and 3 sets incline flys for chest. Triceps is 3 sets close grip bench, 2 sets bench dips, 2 sets kickbacks and 2 sets overhead dumbbell extensions. I did do skull crushers but it didn't agree with my elbows.

I would use dumbbells but I work out at home and can't get more than 15kgs on which is no good, so go heavy on the barbell press.

On my pressing movements I am making sure not to press all the way up as I know that's where the tricep are involved a lot more than the bottom portion of the movement.

What isolation exercises (that can be done at home) do you recommend?

what about trying to hit tricep first, that way it would be somewhat exhausted and therefore not taking over in the following chest exercises

[nikthegreek]

I'm definitely going to try that, thanks. Genetically I'm quite narrow so I know my chest will have it's limitations, but after making very good gains in my back width and thickness, im determined to do the same with the front!

And 'qoohhlt', luckily 8+ months on from that picture my chest doesn't look quite so 'weird' haha.

[JimTC]

what about trying to hit tricep first, that way it would be somewhat exhausted and therefore not taking over in the following chest exercises

I, personally, don't recommend this. My trainers and the training material I've read so far have recommended against it, too. Hit the bigger muscles before the smaller ones. In a compound movement like the bench press, the smaller tri's will fail before the bigger pecs are ready to give out -- especially if you've already hit the tri's directly.

Try supersets of flyes and presses. I definitely get more out of the pecs this way -- working first on flyes to hit the pecs without the added stress on delts and tri's.

FWIW, I separate chest and tri's by 3 days -- chest on Tuesday, shoulders and tri's on Friday. I used to do chest and tri's the same day, but I get better results with the current schedule. You might try something like it to see if it fits better.

[nikthegreek]

I did think about pairing up shoulders and triceps actually, once my triceps are recovered from yesterdays chest and tris workout i'll try that. Gonna superset dips and flys too.

I'm doing 13 sets for chest which I find sufficient, so don't know whether to try adding in a few more sets for a month or two to see if that works for me.

[otrebla]

I think it is useful to differentiate the work of the triceps than your chest.
you must get to use loads of 6 reps slow and controlled: horizontal dumbbell bench press, incline and decline, in addition to these, put 3 sets of cables high up to failure, stripping series 10 10 10+8+ 8 failure.
Finally, series of contractions with peak pose of 5 seconds for 4 or 5 sets.

[gregoryalanday]

the only chest isolation there realy is is flys and the variations of it, with cables ect. I wouldnt do the tricep thing as your presses will just fail so quickly and the chest wont actually be worked.
If you were to use pre exaustion then it would be chest isolation, followed by chest presses, then tricep work. I personally dont like pre exaustion, some people seem to think it works and others disagree so you could try it i guess.
Also maybe you should change your pressing technique. For example flat bench with medium grip i can feel my triceps work somewhat. Whereas decline with a wider grip i wouldnt feel any tricep involvment really. Just experiemtn with different tenchniques, different presses ect.

[JimTC]

I'm doing 13 sets for chest which I find sufficient, so don't know whether to try adding in a few more sets for a month or two to see if that works for me.

Yes, you'll have to see what works. I thought of a couple other things you might try:

1. Make some alternative routines for the same muscles so that you don't get into a rut. You mentioned working out at home; so I realize your options may be limited here.

2. I often pyramid up on incline, then pyramid down on flat bench with shorter rest periods. I notice you listed incline before FB. That's usually the order I follow, since incline demands more delts than FB, and I definitely get more out of incline when I'm fresh.

Back to working bigger muscles before smaller: I can think of one** good exception to the rule right off -- I've written this before, but it bears repeating. One of my trainers recommended just one set of shoulder raises -- I usually do side laterals here -- with a light set of dumbbells to prep the delts for the stress of a chest workout.
____________________
**Thought of another: I sometimes do calves before quads.

[MikeKK]

Ive struggled with chest development and have come to the conclusion that it's down to my triceps taking over the lift (obv on pressing movements). My close grip bench is now 5kgs less than my normal grips 10 rep max, and if I do both with the same weight, the close grip is far far easier to complete my 10 reps.

I have always had unusually large arms for my body size, and so train them accordingly, triceps on chest day once a week for 9 sets with 12 for chest. Thinking about lowering my sets for triceps?

Been working out on and off for 5 + years.

Any ideas to solve this?

Maybe your form is ****ed up? Are you keeping your back tight etc? Watch "so you think you can bench" on yt, it should help. Another thing is trying to do reps only halfway. My best bet is your form. If you don't keep your back tight pressing against the bench then your tric tends to take the load.

[StrygwyrBS]

Ive struggled with chest development and have come to the conclusion that it's down to my triceps taking over the lift (obv on pressing movements). My close grip bench is now 5kgs less than my normal grips 10 rep max, and if I do both with the same weight, the close grip is far far easier to complete my 10 reps.

I have always had unusually large arms for my body size, and so train them accordingly, triceps on chest day once a week for 9 sets with 12 for chest. Thinking about lowering my sets for triceps?

Been working out on and off for 5 + years.

Any ideas to solve this?

Okay I have an idea for you to try. I've tested it myself and it works very well.

Now I'm gonna start this with saying that people will troll this because there are some huge misconceptions about what a "proper" bench press is and isn't.

The correct way to perform a bench press is to lower the bar and create a 90 degree angle with both of your elbow joints. If this means that at a 90 degree angle you reach your chest then so be it. If you have long arms and it reaches 5 inches above your chest this is also fine. This is the safest and best form for a bench press.

With that being said I will explain to you why. When you go lower than a 90 degrees this immediately switches the stress off of your chest and onto your anterior deltoids. Also when you push your arms all the way to the top and lock (or almost lock) your elbows, those 15 degrees or so works out your triceps.

Here is my solution. Go down to 90 degrees then push back up right until your triceps would get the most amount of force to finish and go back down again. This will maintain full force of the weight on your chest for the entire duration of the bench press.

When you are bench pressing really focus on that muscle. Think about your pecs. Think about flexing your pecs. Imagine them getting bigger. The connection between your brain and your muscles is key. Arnold S. swore by this.

I will tell you for any given task or exercise you are only as good as your weakest link. If your triceps are lacking the strength or endurance to complete you will feel it in that area first.

You can also use isolation exercises such as various flys as well.

[nikthegreek]

JimTc id say you're probably right about being stick in a rut, trying to keep all my workouts simple and based around compounds doesn't leave much else bar some flys to finish off with. Pyramid sets are something I've not implemented working set wise in years so would be interesting to see how that goes. Thanks.

MikeKK funnily enough I've recently dropped the weight on most of my lifts down to focus on form, bench went from 70kg for 10 down to 50kg for 10 to improve my form.

In terms of form I have my shoulder blades pinched together with my shoulders down, back slightly arched and a grip 6 or so inches outside my shoulders. I go down to 90 degrees at the bottom portion of my chest in 2 or so seconds and push up stopping before my arms straighten out to avoid too much emphasis on the triceps. I have long arms so the 90 degree mark is about 2 inches above my chest.

StrygwyrBs ive been trying to really focus on the muscles when I'm lifting, for some reason I only succeed at that when it is dips and incline flys being performed for the chest. I feel a good contraction in my chest when I'm bench pressing at the last couple of reps where I hold it at the top to catch my breather but apart from that not much!

[nikthegreek]

Gregoryalanday i used to decline bench when I went to the gym (as opposed to working out at home) and found it quite hard on my shoulders and lats, decline cable flys were great though

[HallucaNIC]

I don't have anything to add about the chest, as everyone has covered it, but I noticed you mentioned you couldn't do skull crushers do to your elbow. Well, there's a way around that. I slide my head completely off the bench and do skull crushers that way (pushing the bar at a 45 degree angle, as a opposed to a 75-90 degree angle), it alleviates pressure and pain from the elbows and put direct tension on the triceps. Hope it helps.

My instructions are rather vague, so if you care to, watch Scott Herman's technique of skull crushers, they are identical.

[AlecAzam]

if i were you i would stop doing triceps all together. You will still stimulate them on pressing movements so they won't shrink or anything. Take out dips as well and do 3 flys; incline, decline, and cable. It may seem boring, but it will really burn the chest.

[StrygwyrBS]

JimTc id say you're probably right about being stick in a rut, trying to keep all my workouts simple and based around compounds doesn't leave much else bar some flys to finish off with. Pyramid sets are something I've not implemented working set wise in years so would be interesting to see how that goes. Thanks.

MikeKK funnily enough I've recently dropped the weight on most of my lifts down to focus on form, bench went from 70kg for 10 down to 50kg for 10 to improve my form.

In terms of form I have my shoulder blades pinched together with my shoulders down, back slightly arched and a grip 6 or so inches outside my shoulders. I go down to 90 degrees at the bottom portion of my chest in 2 or so seconds and push up stopping before my arms straighten out to avoid too much emphasis on the triceps. I have long arms so the 90 degree mark is about 2 inches above my chest.

StrygwyrBs ive been trying to really focus on the muscles when I'm lifting, for some reason I only succeed at that when it is dips and incline flys being performed for the chest. I feel a good contraction in my chest when I'm bench pressing at the last couple of reps where I hold it at the top to catch my breather but apart from that not much!

Alright so my next suggestion will be your workout cycles. This, for me, is what a typical 12 week cycle that focuses on mostly size and a sub focus on strength.

Endurance: 2 sets, 15 reps, 60 second rest time (Most exercises) (Mostly isolated exercises)
Hypertrophy: 3 sets, 10 reps, 90 second rest time (Less exercises) (Mostly multi-joint/muscle exercises and some isolated)
Strength: 5 sets, 6 reps, 120 second rest time (Least exercises) (Mostly multi-joint/muscle exercises)


1. Endurance
2. Hypertrophy
3. Hypertrophy
4. Hypertrophy
5. Strength
6. Strength
7. Hypertrophy
8. Hypertrophy
9. Hypertrophy
10. Strength
11. Strength
12. Endurance

Day 1 Legs
Day 2 Shoulders
Day 3 Back
Day 4 Chest
Day 5 Biceps
Day 6 Triceps
Day 7 Day Off or Abs (if i didn't put abs on one of the arm days)/Light Cardio

I find that when i swap from one type to the next it gets hard on my muscles since they are not used to the workout type. I keep the intensity HIGH on everything. I would suggest giving this type of a cycle a try.

Make sure you are eating a lot, drinking plenty of water, getting plenty of sleep and not drinking alcohol.

[StrygwyrBS]

if i were you i would stop doing triceps all together. You will still stimulate them on pressing movements so they won't shrink or anything. Take out dips as well and do 3 flys; incline, decline, and cable. It may seem boring, but it will really burn the chest.

Rep^

This is also a viable option. As far as bodybuilding goes you are basically a sculptor. If you are lacking in a certain area and gaining too much in another, to even it out you sometimes need to slow down on something and beef up the other.

[progralifter]

forget about the barbell, go with dumbbells, and go with a wider grip which focuses on the chest more ( of course W proper form and controlled motion ).

[qoohhlt]

I'm definitely going to try that, thanks. Genetically I'm quite narrow so I know my chest will have it's limitations, but after making very good gains in my back width and thickness, im determined to do the same with the front!

And 'qoohhlt', luckily 8+ months on from that picture my chest doesn't look quite so 'weird' haha.

Lol I think theres something wrong with ur dips, try to lean forward with ur body
Click here for more info
http://stronglifts.com/how-to-perfor...per-technique/
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/ridgely8.htm

[dday39]

paused reps
better form

EDIT*
just noticed your lifting stats

eat more food, choose a better program, get bigger and stronger