Is there an exercise to target the upper inner chest? I am doing inclines and close grip bench press, but is there a specific exercise that targets the upper portion of the inner chest or will close grip be enough to build that separation in the pecs?
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Thread: Inner upper chest?
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12-18-2010, 10:20 PM #1
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12-18-2010, 10:24 PM #2
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12-18-2010, 10:40 PM #3
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12-18-2010, 10:57 PM #4
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12-18-2010, 11:00 PM #5
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12-18-2010, 11:07 PM #6
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12-18-2010, 11:07 PM #7
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12-19-2010, 12:43 AM #8
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12-19-2010, 01:05 AM #9
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12-19-2010, 01:09 AM #10
you don't isolate the inner chest, you just hit it harder.
when i hit the chest with presses/flyes, i noticed that only my outer and central portion of my chest was being developed. i incorporated close grip bench press, and i got the the development of the separation between the pecs that i wanted. the same happened for many people i know.
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12-19-2010, 01:15 AM #11
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12-19-2010, 01:18 AM #12
It's possible to target the inner chest because it is a separate head of the muscle. Although it's only worthwhile if the upper head makes up a significant portion of your chest mass, like Branch Warren for example. If you have a 'normal' chest, upper chest work isn't really necessary, and worrying about 'inner' upper chest is just retarded.
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12-19-2010, 01:56 AM #13
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Don't get me wrong; I agree that the difference is so miniscule as to make any real difference in the long run. (I was just being controversial ).
Nevertheless, there are enough people incline pressing out there for me to believe that, for some, inclines can be superior for overall chest growth compared to flat.
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12-19-2010, 09:10 PM #14
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12-19-2010, 09:13 PM #15
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12-19-2010, 09:18 PM #16
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12-19-2010, 09:28 PM #17
I don't think spidey was saying we couldn't emphasize that, just that absolute isolation isn't possible, which is fine because absolute isolation of entirely different muscle groups is pretty difficult too.
I think the question is why the muscle cells of the fiber nearest the sternum/clavicle would get harder than the muscle cells of the fiber that attach to the humerus.
It's fine in theory, but why might this happen? I'm not discounting that it could.
I think everyone can agree that the entire muscle fiber contracts, but people seem to disagree on whether the stress is spread equally along the fiber and whether or not it hypertrophies equally along the fiber or that you can somehow emphasize inner or outer portions.
One thing I propose we keep in mind: the inner(medial) lower chest fibers seem to take up more space of what we call the "inner" chest because the sternum attachments are more of a vertical line whereas the inner(medial) clavicular attachments of the pec are more 'upper' ish and do not form that close line where it is lines up with the other pec on the opposite side.
On the same note, based on the illustration, the lateral/outer portion of the upper pec fibers seem to lie on top of the deeper lateral portion of the lower pec fibers. Isn't this because the pectoral fibers actually kinda "spiral" as they attach to the humeri tendons?
So in that way, even if we were actually stressing the fibers equally, emphasizing hypertroph in the clavicular pectoral fibers might seem to build 'outer' chest and doing so for the sternal fibers might seem to build 'inner' chest.
Or in short, the sternal attachments usually seem to be closer to the middle of our body than the clavicle.
I think a big reason for the controversy is that a lot of people's pecs are built differently and the cutoff point for attachments can vary a big deal. For example check out the difference in attachment between Kofi Kingston and Ezekial Jackson:
What seems apparent is: Ezekial's pec attach closer to the middle on his sternum and they also look like they attach deeper down on his torso (though maybe Kofi doesn't work his lower chest much, I dunno)
I think the "inner chest" is just emphasizing whatever portion of the pecs attach closest to the middle of the body. I think this tends to be lower rather than upper pec, but in the cases of people who have very low pec attachments which fan out and attach to the lower ribs rather than the sternum, it would actually be the "middle" pec but in terms of vertical not horizantal displacement.
Basically middle in terms of being between top and bottom, not being the most medial closest to the midline.
For people with very wide pec attachments, I don't think any exercise will move it any closer together. But you can try to target whichever pectoral fibers attach closest on the body, but I think you still need to do that by proper selection of the incline of your exercises, not by focusing on the contracted or stretched portions.Last edited by Tyciol; 12-19-2010 at 09:35 PM.
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12-19-2010, 09:56 PM #18
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12-20-2010, 02:06 AM #19
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12-20-2010, 02:24 AM #20
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12-20-2010, 01:16 PM #21
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12-20-2010, 01:33 PM #22
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12-20-2010, 01:39 PM #23
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12-20-2010, 03:10 PM #24
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12-20-2010, 03:33 PM #25
Other than the ones you're using I found that simple pushups with my legs on a bench or a chair, work out my upper chest really good...
But other than that, usually you do exercises to get a bigger upper chest, then you do the other exercises that fill the parts in the middle...
I don't know what it's called when you lie on your back on the bench, hold 2 light dumbbells, with your arms slightly bent you get your arms to the side, then back up, then get them to your chest, then back up, and away, you do 4 sets of 12 reps of those with the same weight ...
If someone knows what it's called please share
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12-20-2010, 03:33 PM #26
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12-20-2010, 04:49 PM #27
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12-21-2010, 12:30 AM #28
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12-21-2010, 01:28 AM #29
Did I say that close grip bench press ISOLATES the inner chest? No, I said that it works the inner chest, hence it EMPHASIZES it. If you ever worked out, you would know this.
Close grip bench press where your grip width is extremely close will work entirely your triceps.
Close grip bench press around shoulder width will work your inner chest, along with your triceps. If you tweak around with the grip width until you find the "right" one, you'll be able to emphasize your inner chest a lot.
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12-21-2010, 01:29 AM #30
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