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Originally Posted by squat_this  James, you really are a freak...in a good way of course! Congratulations on the MP sponsorship, hope this helps you reach all your goals.
Apologies if you have answered this else where, but how were you training your chest "wrong" and what is involved in your new method which you feel is working it better? |
Hi James,
Hope you and Nicky are well, looking spot on in the latest pic mate.
To everyone else reading this I just thought I would expand on how to actually use your chest when training it. If you dont mind James?
I would guess almost everyone on this board trains chest wrong! Even those who are genetically gifted in the chest. The reason I say this is simple, take a look in the BEEF and just look how many guys have fantastic front delts, poor back development and poor chests (front and side poses).
Firstly are you a bodybuilder or weightlifter? A weightlifter requires 'functional muscle' and 9 times out of 10 you can see it in their physique. A bodybuilder (competitive) is someone whose physique is developed purely for cosmetic reasons. (That is what it is being judged on anyway, the judges don't give a **** how much you can bench or lift anything else for that matter).
Once you have decided what road you want to take the you must apply the correct method of training i.e. for bodybuilding purposes we concentrate on 'Hypertrophy' or an increase in size and appearance of the muscle.This means checking the ego at the door and relearning how to work the desired muscle you want to grow/improve.
Running my own gym and having trained virtually all over the world in the past 10 years, most people who train chest, use predominantly the front deltoids, triceps and lower pec's and to some extent the lat's, plus go far to heavy. WHY? It is only natural. The body will always find the easiest route to lift a weight, to limit damage and basically conserve energy. This is why we walk instead of run evreytime we go somewhere, use remote controls for neary everything etc we are incredibly lazy bastards, especialy bodybuilders
So with bodybuilding you have to do what doesn't feel natural e.g. saying no to cheese cake when dieting when your mind is trying to convince you that you need it.
Training is exactly the same, when training chest the body must be 'contorted' in such a way that as much stress is put on the chest as possible. This is the exact opposite of what the body wants you to do.
How to you contort the body in such a way? Well having trained with Milos Sarcev this year, this man is the master at isolating the muscle to be trained, doesnt give a f***k about weight and values every second spent in the gym not be wasted but to constantly improve.
To train the chest properly here are a few tips:
1. Pull the shoulder blades back as far as possible then lock them down. ( keep this position through the entire set).
2. Arch the back when on the bench keeping the ass on the bench and the traps fixed solidly at the top of the bench.
3. Breathe in and expand the chest as much as possible trying to lift the chest to the bar without coming off the bench.
4. Use a thumbless grip.
5. Go very slow on the negative and dont push from the bottom just simply contract the Pecs hard so the bar will automatically begin to rise, then at the top squeeze the pecs as hard as possible.
6. Lower the bar to either the bottom of the neck or if that is too uncomfortable then the middle of the chest will be ok.
7. Do between 10 to 15 reps to failure and put the mind in the muscle - concentrate.
But most of all train F****n hard like your life depends on it or don't train at all.
Hope this helps.
By the way anyone who wants to come and learn more for no charge then pay a visit to my gym and I'll show the techniques to isolate the muscle being trained.
One last tip if you do compete then admit your weaknesses then design a program to suit YOU and turn them into strengths.
Lee
www. severnsidegym.com