How do I work the center chest?

[on the rocks]

Whats the best exercise for the center chest area.

I work out at home and I am limited to what excercises I can perform. I have a multi purpose cage with a top cable and an adjustable bench.

I have decent pec size but I am lacking mass in the center.

Thanks!

[Aetolos]

Well, many people think it is the closer your grip, the more inner chest it works. That's sort of right because it allows your elbows to come closer together. Inner chest comes from a full range of motion. The closer your can get your elbows in a chest exercise, the more of the pec is worked. Many people (like I am guessing in your case) do wide grip bench for pecs, but that is only working that outer part of their pec because, like I sad before, their elbows don't come very close together. Start using dumbells is my suggestion.

[Brick]

Try some incline flyes or decline flyes. Also an important reminder, There is only upper and lower!!

[Aetolos]

Right there is, but you can also isolate outer because of not using a full ROM. Not bringing your elbows as close together as you can (which is what the pecs do). There's plenty of proof of this, I am one of the people unfortunately. I just switched to DBs for pecs.

Also make sure you check out the other threads in this forum on this. I think there are about two others on the first page that involve something like this. Maybe you'll learn something else that hasn't been said here yet.

[Brick]

You cannot isolate the inner of the chest, why? because there is no inner therefore you cannot isolate something that does not exsist. The upper and lower chest work as a whole no matter what grip width you use. The further out the more stress on the shoulder joint the closer in more stress on the tris. I do agree with the dbs though they work great.

[Aetolos]

There is an inner chest, but you can't isolate it. The wider your grip, the more of the outer pec is worked. But the only way you can get to inner chest is by using a full ROM, which would also involve outer pecs. So you're right, you can't isolate inner chest and I never said you could. I think saying tha there is no inner chest is a blatent challenge of reality. Where your pecs come closest, what is that? Trust me, Brick, I know what I am tlaking about.

[Brick]

Well his question was how does he hit the center chest. It will fill in as the chest gets bigger. Just everbody makes it sound like theres a muscle there. Which i was just clarifying to them. I was not suggesting your chest doesn't have a middle, it does thats what seperates the right from the left.

[on the rocks]

Thanks for the help, I will search the forum and see what I can dig up.

I was just describing the area of my chest that needs attention not the actual pectoral muscles.

I guess I should have worded it correctly by say the upper and lower "inner" chest area. Although my upper "inner" is more filled in than my lower "inner".

[Soshyopathe]

Guys, just because there's not a seperat muscle doesn't mean it can't be targetted.

Yes, the center chest can be targetted by close-grip, but not very intensely. Cable flies are your best bet. Through a full range of motion they will nail your inner chest.

Come on, haven't any of you read Arnold's book?

[Stormrider]

Close Grip Bench Presses are suppose to work the inner pectorals. Try it with a foot or so space inbetween hands.

[Lunatic]

Originally posted by Brick
Well his question was how does he hit the center chest. It will fill in as the chest gets bigger. Just everbody makes it sound like theres a muscle there. Which i was just clarifying to them. I was not suggesting your chest doesn't have a middle, it does thats what seperates the right from the left.

^^ he is right your inner chest eventually just fills itself in. You can't isolate it

[Lunatic]

Originally posted by Stormrider
Close Grip Bench Presses are suppose to work the inner pectorals. Try it with a foot or so space inbetween hands.

Close grip works triceps A LOT more than chest do not do close grip to work your chest

[Stormrider]

Originally posted by Lunatic
Close grip works triceps A LOT more than chest do not do close grip to work your chest

Worked fine for me and I did get more of pump in my chest than in my tris.

[on the rocks]

I think I will try moving my grip in a little closer, maybe 2 inches or so. I have been using a wide grip (pinkys on the outer rings) for about 6 months with no variation and my chest has grown alot,
its just that the inner area is not filling in.

Thanks for the input.

[Mark21087]

I used to have that same problem. As you gain mass, the chest will fill in everywhere, that's the best advice I can give you.

[J.S.B.]

bump mark- you need mass first before you can start to do iso movements. Your chest will grow as a whole. When the mass is there then sculpt it with your nutrition.

[undroo]

From a totally non scientific point of view.
No, you can't "work" the inner chest per se.
You can certainly do cable cross overs and feel the squeeze between the two pecs but that's all it's doing.
There is only the upper and lower pec.

If you think of a taut piece of string, if you pull that string from one end, the other end moves as well. Such is the nature of the pectorals.

Although I personally believe you can work the outer pec, but this is more to do with how much emphasis you're placing on the delt-pec tie in rather than any "direct" outer pec isolation. Generally the greater the incline, the greater the emphasis on the delt-pec tie in.

Infact, ...although I can't remember this for certain...
The pec is just a single head muscle except that the upper part of the pec has its muscle fibers tied in a different fashion to the lower pec? I can't really remember.

I'm sure some of the more advanced guys can say for sure though, but I reckon that that is something I read years ago and it stuck.

At any rate, I think inner pec is very much genetic. Check out Big Poppa Pump Scott Steiner on WWE RAW next week if you can. He has a big space between his two pecs. Compare that to someone like Arnold, who I personally think has the most pleasant looking pec development, but I haven't really seen any photo's of him as shredded as the modern day pros.

[J.S.B.]

undroo- you bring up a good point. Genetics plays a big role in this topic, as well as many others, it just seems alot of guys are fixated on this center of the chest thing.