Chest muscles

[PHILBERT]

Exactly what do you use chest muscles for? I see guys at the gym who boast "I can bench press 315 without a problem" (seen them do it too), but can't even do 1 pull up or chin up. I always wondered why people work there chest muscles so much and can't really see how they are used in life.

[ElPietro]

Uhhh......any pushing motion using your arms...

[greyseal]

Why the chest when they can't do pull-ups? Simple. The chest is one of the things someone sees easily, like biceps. Most people ask this question when they find out ypou lift weights: How much can you bench press?
Cracks me up to see people who do only the upper body, you know, the Inverted Triangle Syndrome--big body on top with chicken legs below.:D

[IronFist]

ElPietro, I was under the impression that the sole purpose of your chest was to pull your arms inward from the side:

ex. Stand up and make a "t" with your arms sticking staright out to the side. Now pull them in front of you.

I know they help push stuff (a la bench pressing) but I don't think that's their primary purpose.

To illustrate, put your hand on the end of the tabe infront of you, and put your other hand on your pec (the pec on the side of the pushing hand). Now push the table forward, hard enough to bring your pecs into play, but don't knock over the table, especially if you're at work or something :) Feel your pec contract? Ok. Now push the table forward again, but also OUTWARD at like a 45 degree angle. You are still pushing the table but your pecs don't really come into play (ie. contract) unless you consciously do it.

Do it one more time, and push inward as you push on the table. That seriously brings the pec into play, because that's what pecs do :) (I think)

Now, on this subject, probably the one thing (probably the only thing) that I have differing opinions with Pavel about is the imporance of pec strength. Most of the people on his board don't do bench or any real chest exercises (aside from dips) because they don't think pecs are too in real life, ie. not involved in a punch, etc, so instead the do a lot of pressing movements because the delts are more important. I'm NOT saying this concept is wrong, just that I don't follow it :) If I have some huge guy on top of me I want all the help I can get pushing him off (which is like a bench press motion), but this is getting off subject kind of so I'm going to stop. (upon second though, you did[/i] ask what are pecs used for, so I guess it isn't off subject, is it?)[/i]

PHILBERT, the reason that guy can't do a pullup is probably any combination of the following:

1) he's fat (lots of fat guys are strong but can't do pullups
2) he never works his biceps/back (which is strange because biceps are a "mirror muscle, hehe")
3) He's not studly like we are :) hehe j/k
4) He may possess the strength to do a pullup, but not the neurological effeciency to. In other words, pullups can be tough if you've never done them before. This probably isn't the case, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

Alright guys I gotta run,

IronFist

[Qi dup]

The chest muscles are used for a lot of things as I'm sure everyone on here will be able to tell you. One use you might not think of is protection. Having a stronger chest and any of the msucles around it can help you take a blow to the chest. In my experiance I would rather have someone hit me where there is a lot of muscle. your pecks are a good shield for your upper ribs and brocken ribs are kind of a pain.

Interesting explanation IronFist, It works well.

[ElPietro]

Iron, i was addressing his question on what do you use them for...not the actual muscle mechanics. You are correct on how they work...but i was more concerned with what they are for in every day use. Generally when you push you are using your chest, tris and shoulders and yes as you push you could probably get more force by bringing your hands in as you do it.

hope this clarifies...

[Kumkuat]

actually, if I were to train my mirror muscles, I would just train my traps, calves, forearms, biceps and triceps. I don't know what these obsession with the bench either. I have a friend who can destory me in bench, and nothing but the bench. Oh well, at least he has something he can beat me at. :)

[IronFist]

ElPietro, gotcha :)

Kumkuat, pecs are totally a mirror muscle! What are you talking about?

Some people who don't train their backs too get really hunched over posture from the tightening of their chest muscles. Not ever stretching your chest also helps with this hunchback look.

We've got a guy like that at our college gym... pretty big dude, pretty strong and bulky, but horrible shoulders-rolled-forward posture which I assume is from lack of stretching and/or lack of back work. It might just be a spinal thing tho that he has no control over.

But seriously, this is good advice: Next time you are working out, and hopefully wearing a wife beater (one of those t-shirts with no sleeves) stand up sideways to the mirror and look 90 degrees to the side and check your posture. Are your shoulders rolled forward? If so, is it natural, or are you just slouching, you lazy mf? :P

IronFist

[PHILBERT]

Well before I go ahead and ask the question, IronFist, I have a similar problem as the guy at the gym. I am forced to hunch over no matter what. I CAN lift myself up, but once I relax, boom, I hunch forward. I can do 20 chin ups, pull ups, whatever (providing I do them before I start getting into the workout or I get tired and can only do like 8). So my back is pretty strong, but my spine is curved (you can only tell from the side and not the front, so if you look at me from the size, I look like a question mark [?] but not as bent at the top).

Ok now my question, rather than create a new thread. What one exercise helps build chest muscles fast? Other than bench. Right now I do seated cable flys and cable flys lying down. I can't bench worth **** (left elbow pops) and I want to build up my chest muscles. I can do about 90 on the seated cable fly and about 80 on my back. I know there are standing versions too. So what exercise can I do to build my chest up pretty fast? Thanks.

Edit: Hey IronFist, ever thought of getting a picture of the comic character IronFist for your avatar?

http://www.marvel.com/comics/bios/bio_ironfist.htm

I can cut his head off in the picture and resize it for you to 40x40 pixels.

[IronFist]

Well before I go ahead and ask the question, IronFist, I have a similar problem as the guy at the gym. I am forced to hunch over no matter what. I CAN lift myself up, but once I relax, boom, I hunch forward. I can do 20 chin ups, pull ups, whatever (providing I do them before I start getting into the workout or I get tired and can only do like 8). So my back is pretty strong, but my spine is curved (you can only tell from the side and not the front, so if you look at me from the size, I look like a question mark [?] but not as bent at the top).

Do you have scoliosis? This guy that I'm training for a wrestling tournament in two weeks has slight scoliosis, which causes his back to always be curved. I think scoliosis actually curves your spine to the side, but his is still resembling that question mark [?]. Other than that, it's pretty much a matter of getting yourself into a habbit of having good posture. Don't neglect your lower back and rhomboid/rear delt area, either.



Ok now my question, rather than create a new thread. What one exercise helps build chest muscles fast?

I would say bench.


Other than bench.

Hehe. Is there a reason you don't want me to say bench? If you already have a pretty good strength base built up and you are looking for fast chest growth I would try either pre-exhaustion or rest-pause techniques.


Right now I do seated cable flys and cable flys lying down. I can't bench worth **** (left elbow pops) and I want to build up my chest muscles.

You really won't build much size with cable flies. Sorry :(

Can you do pushups without elbow pain?


I can do about 90 on the seated cable fly and about 80 on my back. I know there are standing versions too. So what exercise can I do to build my chest up pretty fast? Thanks.

NOT cable flies :)



Edit: Hey IronFist, ever thought of getting a picture of the comic character IronFist for your avatar?

http://www.marvel.com/comics/bios/bio_ironfist.htm

I can cut his head off in the picture and resize it for you to 40x40 pixels.

Can you? That would be awesome!

IronFist

[IronFist]

Two more things I thought of, but you might not like one. First, maybe your elbow popping is your body's way of telling you you need to take some time off. Do you know what caused the popping to start?

The second on is, maybe you could do dumbell presses or flies. Try these and see if they hurt your elbow less. Please try to stay away from cable flies. Be careful with dumbell flies, though. Don't forget the pushups suggestion.

IronFist

[PHILBERT]

When I was young, something happened to my left elbow so whenever I move it, it pops. Whenever I flex my left bicep, my elbow pops. So when I lower the bar on the bench, it pops. I can do the bench, just not much weight because when my elbow pops, it causes me to loose alot of strength to pushing the bar back up.

I can do push ups like there are no tomorrow, its just that they take forever to do and I use to do something like 500 per workout and didn't notice a huge difference in size or strength. So I guess I'll stick to bench for size and flys for strength.

What is pre- exhaustion or rest-pause techniques?

Also, I don't have scoliosis, I have something called Shorman's Kyposis. Scoliosis bends the spine from left to right (clearly visible when you look at someone from the front), mine bends front to back (clearly visible when you see me from the side). I resemble more of Mr Burns from the Simpsons.

I could get surgery done, but I'd loose ALOT of flexability forever, and I would loose anywhere from 75-100 lbs from recovering, it is a major life or death surgery type thing. They'd cut open my back right down my spinal cord and insert steal or titanium hooks into my spine. Only cool thing is I'd set off metal detectors wherever I go!

Oh, what's your e-mail? Or you can e-mail me at

thrawn_18
@
hotmail.com

and I can send the avatar.

[Scarletmantis]

Hey if you could get some Adamantium claws to go with that Titanium spinal reinforcement, I'd go with it. You might not have a stronger chest, hell you might not be able to get a date, but who'd mess with you?:D

[PHILBERT]

Originally posted by Scarletmantis
Hey if you could get some Adamantium claws to go with that Titanium spinal reinforcement, I'd go with it. You might not have a stronger chest, hell you might not be able to get a date, but who'd mess with you?:D

But...NO DATING?! Hell no!

[IronFist]

Pre-exhaustion and rest-pause techinques.

Ok, pre-exhaustion is basically this: When you are doing a big compound movement, such a bench press or squat, you have a variety of muscles coming into play. Let's use squat for example. When you squat, you use quads, hamstrings, abs, lower back, forearm, etc. Now, the main muscle group of these that is getting worked is your quads, the other are just "helping" so to speak. So if you were going to do pre-exhaustion squats, you would do an isolation exercise for JUST your quads so that they are proportionally exhausted before you start squatting. So a smaple workout might look like this:

Leg extensions (which, I might add, is a rather useless exercise/machine EXCEPT for prefatiguing quads.): 2 sets of 40 (yes 40), with a light enough weight that you can complete both sets of 40, but heavy enough that you have to strain for the last 5-10 reps. Some people may do 50 or 60 reps in each set. The point is you want to fatigue ONLY your quads.

After you're done with that, now go squat. Be warned, however, that your weight will be MUCH lower if you're pre-fatigued your quads right than it would otherwise. Somewhere along the lines of 50-60% of what you would normally use.

Because of the light squatting weight, this exercise doesn't work well if you've got a big ego :)

Note: I'm not exactly sure of the percentages used for this because I've more or less quit bodybuilding. But, if you go search the issues archive at www.anabolicextreme.com there are a few good articles about this type of training.

Rest-pause. I'm not exactly sure this is right, but I think this is just using a weight that you could normally get like 10 reps with and then doing 20. So say you're doing lat pulldowns or something... you'd hit failure around 10 and then just rest there for a few seconds until you can do another one, bust one more rep out, rest until you can do another one, and keep going until you hit 20 I think.

Oh yeah, since benching and pecs were the muscle you mentioned, for pre-exhaustion of the pecs you would have to find an exercise that uses only pecs (or close to only pecs). So, I would try flies (dumbells perferably). Make sure you find a way to do this so that your shoulders and triceps are not getting fatigued, too, because it is these muscles that also work during bench press so you need them fresh.

Hope this helped,

IronFist

[hkphooey]

hey iron

i just wanted to give you props for dissing the leg extension machine!!!

i have to think there was some kind of co-op going on between the exercise equipment manufacturers and the orthopedic surgeons association...

mo' money, mo' money, mo' money....

[Kumkuat]

not only that leg extensions also shears your knees so you might actually damange your knees more if you do leg extensions. I had an article about that somewhere too.

[PHILBERT]

The leg extensions is when you sit down in the chair, but your feet behind a bar then lift the bar up using your ankles until your legs are completely straight in front of you? I always hated that thing and never used it.