chest and back done RIGHT (?)

[Idunno]

heya everyone, sorta new around here. been lately getting into weight lifting and this whole business

anyway, I need some advice regarding form and how do you "feel" when working chest and back.

when I work my abs, I feel 'em working, burning. when I work my triceps, I feel them working. when I work my legs and biceps I sure as HELL feel them burning... but back and chest? nothing. I've been doing 10/8/6 for reps, but I've tried doing to failure this week. and as it gets harder on bench presses, its my triceps failing not my chest... and bent over rows its my biceps failing, not my middle back, upright rows its shoulders, pulldowns its biceps again.

I just NEVER feel my chest or back really working, except my lower back(note I didn't mention it)... could I be doing the bench press, for example, so far off of form that's its just that bad? last night on the last set of bench press I thought to try flexing my triceps as hard as I can during the entire movement, to try and put more weight on the chest and I think it worked, for the first time I felt my chest working... I think.

wanted to ask is this how everyone do it? flex tri's on bench press? flex bi's on back exercises?

[3doz]

heya everyone, sorta new around here. been lately getting into weight lifting and this whole business

anyway, I need some advice regarding form and how do you "feel" when working chest and back.

when I work my abs, I feel 'em working, burning. when I work my triceps, I feel them working. when I work my legs and biceps I sure as HELL feel them burning... but back and chest? nothing. I've been doing 10/8/6 for reps, but I've tried doing to failure this week. and as it gets harder on bench presses, its my triceps failing not my chest... and bent over rows its my biceps failing, not my middle back, upright rows its shoulders, pulldowns its biceps again.

I just NEVER feel my chest or back really working, except my lower back(note I didn't mention it)... could I be doing the bench press, for example, so far off of form that's its just that bad? last night on the last set of bench press I thought to try flexing my triceps as hard as I can during the entire movement, to try and put more weight on the chest and I think it worked, for the first time I felt my chest working... I think.

wanted to ask is this how everyone do it? flex tri's on bench press? flex bi's on back exercises?

Are you only bench pressing? You can try incline first or incline dbs, for me it's superior to bb bench. For back are you using your biceps a lot when doing a pull-ups because I see this a lot at the gym.

[RU4A69]

Many people here attest that "feeling" has nothing to do with hypertrophy or mass gaining or the results you'll get, and I think they're right to a certain extent, but.................I say you will get better results from developing hyper-acute muscle sense.

For chest try bench or cable flies with a weight you can control easily; you can do this at various bench angles for better results.
For back I recommend Tbar-rows (if your using your lower back drop the weight a little), and single arm dumbell rows.

Another thing you can do before your heavy compounds is to pre-exhaust your assistant muscles-for back-do curls before your rows, for bench do your triceps.

If none of the above helps you, then do not be troubled, you will still get results-but it is most certainly worth your time to give it a try.


Your going to be using less weight than you would on bent rows or bench press which may deflate your ego a little bit, but the mirror will take care of that in no time.

p.s.-try switching over to dumbells on your bench press every once in while.

Hope that helps.

[Idunno]

so it's a no no... on flexing your assistent muscles, while working the main ones? i.e flexing tri's when doing BP, biceps for pulldowns and rows.

I do pre-exhaust my muscles. my workout is exactly as you outlined, biceps before back, triceps before chest...

oh and I would love to do flies, but I workout at home, only got a barbell and pullup/pulldown bars to work with(along with a bench).

[RU4A69]

Regarding your assistant muscles-it's gonna be impossible not to flex them on certain exercises, that's why I recommended exercises that it would be easier not to cheat on. Could you spare the money for some adjustable olympic dumbell handles-they are WELL worth the money and they go up to and above 120lbs each.

[Idunno]

yes I know its impossible to not flex the tri's when doing bench press and such, but if I'm already flexing them as is, they can "take" a lot less weight, so the chest takes more of the lift... I've tested it with my abs just now, do a crunch... then flex your legs really tight and do a crunch, that's the difference I feel during bench press...

I've read quite a bit about "bodybuilding" though, and don't think I ever heard about flexing assistent muscles during workouts.

I just might get a per of adjustable dumbells, yeah... but flies can easly be a shoulder exercise, not just chest, so I might suffer from the same "problem"

as people said, it all might be in my head, and I might be stimulating my muscles for growth and all even though I don't feel them directly, but... oh I dunno.