Need help. My Chest will not get any bigger.

[EricSrom]

I am 19, Asian, 5'6, 140 lbs. I have been an athlete since high school and I always go to the gym 3-5 times a week, so I would like to say I have a fit and healthy body. Lately I have been trying to get overall muscle size while maintaining a strict diet and so far with different programs and workouts I do, it has been working except for my chest.

Now on to my question, How do I attain a bigger chest? Even with multiple programs and maintaining a strict diet I can not seem to get a bigger chest. On chest days I usually do a variety of push ups from claps, standard, military, tiger..and so forth that usually add up to 50-100 depending on the day. I do 3 sets of 10-15 reps of chest dips on a bar and sometimes i mix it up by doing triceps dips off a bench. I bench about 135lbs x 10 reps of 3 sets(current max is 175 x 1). each rep I squeeze my chest at the peak then flex down. I also do chest workouts with dumbbells such as regular bench, incline..etc.
I did some research(google, buff friends) some say its my diet and i need to eat more, some say its because of my Asian genetics that its a lot harder to attain a bigger chest, and so say i need to do less reps but more weight? and some say i need to change up the workout. What do you guys think?

My diet consists of
Smoothie for breakfast: Almonds(6-12 pieces), spoonful of greek yogurt, 4-5 strawberries, 1 banana, 10 blueberries, roughly 8 oz of fat free milk, creatine, and half a scoop of Muscle pharm Combat Powder Advanced Time Release Protein.
Brunch: a banana
Lunch: 2 x almond butter and strawberry jelly with whole wheat bread.
Snack: Banana
Dinner: Brown rice w/ either grilled chicken, salmon or steak(cooked without oil) and a random veggie
On workout days I eat 2 bananas while afterwards taking c4- preworkout creatine and post workout i drink the same smoothie but with a full scoop of protein powder.

My workout routine consists of this : Monday - Program called Spraticus 2.0. Tuesday - Powerlifting(cleans, snatch, squats, bench) Wed - chest thursday - rest friday - biceps/triceps saturday - overall body + back Sunday - rest.
The days do vary and are changed up since I do go to college and I have a part time job.

Anyways, This is my health and fitness life, feel free to critique it. Looking for what you guys think I should do about my chest and if you could (you dont have too) provide some science along with it( I enjoy learning the science of different types of workouts) science meaning whether Im working out muscle endurance, strength, how it develops or should develop, atp, etc. you dont have to like i said but it makes it easier for me to understand and go about it.

I am open minded so anything you say I will take seriously and try to understand it.

Thank you for your help!

[Kanexyz]

I didnot read through all of it since it's quite long.

I did look through you diet. which I think it looks pretty good already, what is your calorie amount look like for that meal plan?

have you been gaining weight lately?

change your routine and add more compound exercise for chest.

Bench press, incline press (or dumbbell). take those push up out or leave it to the last workout on your chest day and focus on weight training.

[EricSrom]

I didnot read through all of it since it's quite long.

I did look through you diet. which I think it looks pretty good already, what is your calorie amount look like for that meal plan?

have you been gaining weight lately?

change your routine and add more compound exercise for chest.

Bench press, incline press (or dumbbell). take those push up out or leave it to the last workout on your chest day and focus on weight training.

oh sorry for it being quite long. I used a tracker and the calorie intake depending on the day is 2,300+ at most around 3000. The other problem I should have mentioned is despite changing up diets throughout all the years I have always been around 130-140lbs never less never more. I think I gained a couple of lbs but not sure if that is water weight. And what do you mean by compound exercise?

[ANDYtheHUMAN]

Could try lowering weight and perfecting form while really focusing on using the muscle you wish to work. Activation or whatever. I do this now w WAY lighter weight and go super slow both contraction and negative. Tbh it's the best workouts I've had w by far the greatest results. My functional strength has become uncanny in comparison in my physical labor duties as well and no gym injuries

[Hulking51]

Try this out:
Monday - Chest/Tris
Tuesday - Back/Bis
Wednesday - Legs
Thursday - Shoulders/Traps
Friday - Bis/Tris

I noticed on your routine it seemed like you might be over training, this is the routine i use and it balances the amount of rest each muscle gets perfectly and i am seeing great results, if your goal is to get LARGER muscles then you will want use a rep range of 10-15 for 3-4 sets... The chest excersises I do include
DB bench
Cable flies
Decline Barbell bench
DB flies
Incline DB bench
Machine flies
Lastly... Put a 45 or 2 45's on your back and do push-ups, doing so many reps of push-ups like 50 will only tone you, but with the added weight you will more easily put on muscle and gain strength

[EricSrom]

Could try lowering weight and perfecting form while really focusing on using the muscle you wish to work. Activation or whatever. I do this now w WAY lighter weight and go super slow both contraction and negative. Tbh it's the best workouts I've had w by far the greatest results. My functional strength has become uncanny in comparison in my physical labor duties as well and no gym injuries

I always thought my form was really good, but interesting can you give me an example by way lighter? not sure how much I should try to drop, and with lighter weight should I increase my reps and sets?

[sicpsnake]

Eat more and bench more. That's all you can do. I used to do all sorts of chest exercises for my lagging chest but nothing helped more than bringing up my bench. Use good form and don't stop progressing, even if its one rep or 10lbs at a time.

Edit

As far as one of the above posters go, YOU ARE NOT OVERTRAINING. Excuse the caps, but the point must be made. Unless you're lifting weights for 3 hours every single day on 1000kcals you're not going to overtrain. I don't know why people are saying to decrease intensity/frequency when its obvious you need to be training MORE.

Op, get on smolov Jr a few times for your bench press and report back in 4 months, your chest won't be lagging anymore.

[EricSrom]

Try this out:
Monday - Chest/Tris
Tuesday - Back/Bis
Wednesday - Legs
Thursday - Shoulders/Traps
Friday - Bis/Tris

I noticed on your routine it seemed like you might be over training, this is the routine i use and it balances the amount of rest each muscle gets perfectly and i am seeing great results, if your goal is to get LARGER muscles then you will want use a rep range of 10-15 for 3-4 sets... The chest excersises I do include
DB bench
Cable flies
Decline Barbell bench
DB flies
Incline DB bench
Machine flies
Lastly... Put a 45 or 2 45's on your back and do push-ups, doing so many reps of push-ups like 50 will only tone you, but with the added weight you will more easily put on muscle and gain strength

Oh, interesting I will take that into consideration, I also forgot to mention that usually I would train like this for 3 weeks then take a 1 week rest of yoga and what not. its a routine I had during track as a sprinter where we would power lift for 3 weeks then rest and I usually saw results from that but not as much anymore.

[EricSrom]

Eat more and bench more. That's all you can do. I used to do all sorts of chest exercises for my lagging chest but nothing helped more than bringing up my bench. Use good form and don't stop progressing, even if its one rep or 10lbs at a time.

So I should increase weight no matter how many reps I will go into?

[Hulking51]

If you do not wish to change your routine, a simple, but effective method for my to break through chest plateaus has been as follows (pyramid schedule):
Example:
10 reps X185
8 reps X195
6 reps X205
4 reps X215
2 reps X225
4 reps X215
6 reps X205
8 reps X195
10 reps X185

Goodluck!

[EricSrom]

If you do not wish to change your routine, a simple, but effective method for my to break through chest plateaus has been as follows (pyramid schedule):
Example:
10 reps X185
8 reps X195
6 reps X205
4 reps X215
2 reps X225
4 reps X215
6 reps X205
8 reps X195
10 reps X185

Goodluck!

Sounds good, ill prob try it if anything! thanks appreciate it.

[Kanexyz]

oh sorry for it being quite long. I used a tracker and the calorie intake depending on the day is 2,300+ at most around 3000. The other problem I should have mentioned is despite changing up diets throughout all the years I have always been around 130-140lbs never less never more. I think I gained a couple of lbs but not sure if that is water weight. And what do you mean by compound exercise?

compound exercise is the exercise that works many muscle in the same time like bench press (Triceps, delts and Chest), deadlift and squat.

you can follow what other suggested about routine.

but ultimately you need to gain weight in order to gain muscles. you mentioned that 130 - 140 lbs all year round which is the reason why you do not gain muscle.

good that you know how to have a good meal plan and track your calories already, now you have to make it consistent.
if you cannot gain weight by taking in 3,000 cals per day then you have to increase it to make sure you gain weight.

at your weight I would suggest 1-2 lbs per week and once you start to gain alot of fat do something like 0.5 - 1 lb per week.

that's really all you need.


PS. you may even need to eat more than 3,500 cals per day if you have high metabolism rate.


also the reason I told you to take off push up is you need to lift heavy and heavier weight to gain muscles (you can search the term "Progressive overload") not same weight 100 reps all year round that will consider as a endurance training already, unless you add weight when you do pushups.

[EricSrom]

Eat more and bench more. That's all you can do. I used to do all sorts of chest exercises for my lagging chest but nothing helped more than bringing up my bench. Use good form and don't stop progressing, even if its one rep or 10lbs at a time.

Edit

As far as one of the above posters go, YOU ARE NOT OVERTRAINING. Excuse the caps, but the point must be made. Unless you're lifting weights for 3 hours every single day on 1000kcals you're not going to overtrain. I don't know why people are saying to decrease intensity/frequency when its obvious you need to be training MORE.

Op, get on smolov Jr a few times for your bench press and report back in 4 months, your chest won't be lagging anymore.

So what do you think I should do more exactly?

[sicpsnake]

So I should increase weight no matter how many reps I will go into?

You can bench 135 for what, 12? Up the weight until you get to a weight you can bench for only 5 reps and work on it until you can you can do 8 or more reps. Repeat until you can't progress anymore. Bench at least 3 times a week with varying intensities and volume.


Or get on smolov jr

[EricSrom]

compound exercise is the exercise that works many muscle in the same time like bench press (Triceps, delts and Chest), deadlift and squat.

you can follow what other suggested about routine.

but ultimately you need to gain weight in order to gain muscles. you mentioned that 130 - 140 lbs all year round which is the reason why you do not gain muscle.

good that you know how to have a good meal plan and track your calories already, now you have to make it consistent.
if you cannot gain weight by taking in 3,000 cals per day then you have to increase it to make sure you gain weight.

at your weight I would suggest 1-2 lbs per week and once you start to gain alot of fat do something like 0.5 - 1 lb per week.

that's really all you need.


PS. you may even need to eat more than 3,500 cals per day if you have high metabolism rate.

Cool really appreciate the advice I will try eating more.

[Kanexyz]

Cool really appreciate the advice I will try eating more.

I just editted my comments, please re read.

keep in mind, eating is a heart of bodybuilding as well as exercise.

[EricSrom]

You can bench 135 for what, 12? Up the weight until you get to a weight you can bench for only 5 reps and work on it until you can you can do 8 or more reps. Repeat until you can't progress anymore. Bench at least 3 times a week with varying intensities and volume.


Or get on smolov jr

I will look into it, sounds good thanks!

[ErikTheElectric]

1. Eat more
2. Alternate with DBs and BB
3. Pushups, BW exercises
4. Dips
5. Eat more than more.

[EricSrom]

1. Eat more
2. Alternate with DBs and BB
3. Pushups, BW exercises
4. Dips
5. Eat more than more.

K eat more will do thanks aha.

[ANDYtheHUMAN]

I always thought my form was really good, but interesting can you give me an example by way lighter? not sure how much I should try to drop, and with lighter weight should I increase my reps and sets?

What I did was ,say on one arm cable pull downs for tris, my heavy weight is 85 lbs but my form suffers after about 6 reps cuz it's heavy and I start really compensating w my shoulder abdomen whatever.

So I went down to 50 lbs and dropped my body position lower to keep the tension throughout the entire motion. I go super slow like 3 seconds down 3 seconds up focusing on perfect form and full extension/ contraction and breathing. My biggest 3 differences I've noticed in my body over the 3 months since I did this are
3) tricep width
2) inner chest grew
1) biceps finally peaked.

My old, now vaginally restrained, lifting buddy taught me his technique of this. I've never seen a slower pull-up and he's wide as hell. Manlet tho lol

Edit: forgot to mention though I dropped weight originally I am back up to 75 lbs now while on deficit

[ISean23]

I'd get on a push/pull/leg if I were you, that what helped my chest. flat bench(5x5), incline db's(4x8-10), and cable flys (4x10-12) on Push A. incline bench (5x5), flat db's (4x8-10), and pec deck or db flys (4x15) on Push B. either way, make sure you're getting all the calories you need.

[ErikTheElectric]

K eat more will do thanks aha.

I mean it. Seriously, eat more.

[nirvana709]

I mean it. Seriously, eat more.

you're one to talk. el oh el

[EricSrom]

I mean it. Seriously, eat more.

I was being serious? aha thanks will try too.

[EricSrom]

I'd get on a push/pull/leg if I were you, that what helped my chest. flat bench(5x5), incline db's(4x8-10), and cable flys (4x10-12) on Push A. incline bench (5x5), flat db's (4x8-10), and pec deck or db flys (4x15) on Push B. either way, make sure you're getting all the calories you need.

I have noticed i have been neglecting incline and other machines ill look into that as well thanks!

[Kanexyz]

I was being serious? aha thanks will try too.

the reason he said that is because most of the time people are alway neglect importance of eating in surplus. and that is the main reason people not gaining muscle.

just like I said too, you really need to eat and gain weight. not like you will try but you have to. you can train as hard as you can with the best routine in the world (for yourself) but you will gain little size and little muscle just because you do not eat enough.

so yes you HAVE TO eat in surplus.

[ErikTheElectric]

you're one to talk. el oh el

looks at sig.



loled.

[nirvana709]

looks at sig.



loled.

And? You've been on a bb site for 4 years and have gained what? keyboard jocky. go pick things up an put em down,

[ErikTheElectric]

And? You've been on a bb site for 4 years and have gained what? keyboard jocky. go pick things up an put em down,

Yeah, I'm under 200lbs. I must not know what I'm talking about, I have no idea what a carb is dude.

[BL17]

Try this out:
Monday - Chest/Tris
Tuesday - Back/Bis
Wednesday - Legs
Thursday - Shoulders/Traps
Friday - Bis/Tris

I noticed on your routine it seemed like you might be over training, this is the routine i use and it balances the amount of rest each muscle gets perfectly and i am seeing great results, if your goal is to get LARGER muscles then you will want use a rep range of 10-15 for 3-4 sets... The chest excersises I do include
DB bench
Cable flies
Decline Barbell bench
DB flies
Incline DB bench
Machine flies
Lastly... Put a 45 or 2 45's on your back and do push-ups, doing so many reps of push-ups like 50 will only tone you, but with the added weight you will more easily put on muscle and gain strength

A split routine and 6 exercises for chest? Plsgo if srs

Yeah, I'm under 200lbs. I must not know what I'm talking about, I have no idea what a carb is dude.

Haha me too, I know nothing either lulz