I met with Hassan at 1 pm to train chest. We both thought we should take the advice Jerome had given me and start with incline exercises to burn out the upper chest first. A big part of my lack of upper chest development is because I tend to perform flat exercises first and incline exercises second. That way the upper chest is always tired by the time I get to it and never really has a chance to get the stimulation it requires to grow.
We found the poundages we could use for both the incline barbell press and the incline dumb bell press were significantly heavier than they usually are when they are performed after flat presses. I tried to really focus on getting as much upper chest fibre recruitment as possible while pushing as much weight as possible for both of these exercises.
After we were done with the incline exercises we went on to our flat presses. Hassan suggested we start with flat barbell bench presses. In this case I decided to use slightly less weight than the maximum I would usually use because I was already fatigued from the incline presses. We super setted the flat bench presses with a lying flat Hammer press. I find machines are great to super set with because despite being fatigued from the first exercise there is a fixed movement, which is much safer. Super setting these two exercises gave me a really full feeling in the chest as my pecs swelled up with blood.
For our last compound exercise we did flat dumb bell bench presses. I was a bit too eager with the weight choice on the first set. Each of us only managed four reps with one hundred pounds. I dropped my weight down to ninety pounds for the second set which was much better and I was able to get around eight reps. We super setted with a nearby pec fly machine because Hassan had to get going soon and we wanted to get a few fly exercises in.
The next exercise we tried was a pec fly machine with two cylindrical pads that sit in the elbows. The angle of the machine’s arms was such that I had to lean slightly forward just like a cable crossover. Because of the available range of motion I was able cross my hands over and then as my chest became more fatigued I repped out with partial reps. This exercise was good but it was difficult to maintain the isolation of the pecs towards the end of the set as they fatigued and the delts tended to become involved.
Hassan suggested we try out modifying a lying plate loaded pressing machine to a pec fly. He said Silvio Samuel had showed him this exercise when he first started working out at Gold’s. I found this exercise a little awkward because the machine joints tended to want to move in a pressing motion and I had to lead it out into a fly type motion. After three sets we were done and Hassan had to head off to work.
Before he left Hassan said he would’ve liked to have done an incline fly if he had’ve had more time. We had already done heaps but it gave me an idea especially because the last exercise had been awkward for me. I decided to do three super sets of standing cable flies from two high pulleys and cable flies from the corresponding low pulleys. I tried to generate some intensity and fast pace here and after the three super sets I was well and truly done.
I intend to make my upper chest a priority over the coming months and will be starting most of my workouts with incline exercises instead of flat. Hopefully combined with some of the techniques I have learned here and developing a strong mind muscle connection will pay off and start to bring everything into proportion in my upper body.
The Workout:
Chest
Smith Machine Incline Press – 225 x 14, 235 x 10, 245 x 8, 255 x 6 Incline Dumb bell Press – 75 x 13, 80 x 12, 85 x 10, 90 x 8, 95 x 6 Flat Barbell Bench Press – 225 x 10, 225 x 10, 235 x 8, 240 x 7 Super setted with: Flat Hammer Bench Press – 180 x 11, 180 x 11, 180 x 11, 180 x 8 Flat Dumb bell Bench Press – 100 x 4, 90 x 9, 90 x 8, 95 x 6 Supersetted with: Pec Fly Machine – 150 x 9, 150 x 9, 150 x 10, 150 x 10 Pec Crossover Machine – 110 x 15, 140 x 13, 165 x 10, 180 x 8 Flat Plate Loaded Fly – 180 x 9, 190 x 9, 190 x 8 Cable Crossover – 80 x 10, 80 x 10, 80 x 10 Super setted with: Standing Incline Cable Fly – 60 x 10, 60 x 10, 60 x 8
Abs and Lower Back
Cable crunches – 150 x 40, 150 x 30, 150 x 30 Hyperextensions – BW + 25 x 30
