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Upper chest

FrancoC

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Nice addition to the board adding this sub forum!

Aside from incline press, what are some workouts that really target the upper chest that you guys do?
 

EpicFlash

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Seated cable flys is nice. If your gym has it. I believe the trick is to keep ur shoulder almost scrunched up near your ear…imagine the sensation of throwing a punch. Most guys do cables like an uppercut or a roundhouse….Regardless of their body position, they begin the change of direction with their arms below their nipple line. I suggest having the sensation of throwing on overhand or right/left cross and changing the movement direction with ur arms above the nipple line. At least that’s what works for me.
 

JDLift

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Get on the incline and bring the bar down to your chest like normal, now pause and hold it juuuuuuuust above your chest. Like a centimeter, just enough to not let the bar rest on your torso and make sure the weight stays in your hands and on your pecs. Slowly move the bar up toward your throat while maintaining that verrrryyy small gap between bar and body, now slooooowly move it back down to the normal point you press from. Do this for a minute or so, you will have an incredible upper chest pump. You can add weight to the bar if you want, but it's not really necessary; This is simply a great way to cue the body to send blood to the area, which a lot of people claim is what induces growth. I believe it has amped up the growth of my clavicular area upper pec muscles for sure, probably not by itself but this in conjunction with other movements afterwards where I can really get a great squeeze in the area.
If your gym has one of those multi grip 'football' bars with close angled handles in the middle, you can get a much better upper chest contraction on inclines with this than a normal barbell. Rotate the bar so that the angled handles are in such a way that to hold them and press the bar requires an underhand very narrow grip and bring the bar to your touch point on your chest, then instead of thinking about 'pressing' the weight simply think about bringing your biceps into your sides. In order for them to get closer to your center line the arm will have to move. Hold at the top for a few seconds (It'll be a pretty short ROM but you will feel it) then do another. Should not take much to blow your chest up. If you lack this bar, try to replicate with dumbbells. Technically a straight barbell could function for this but it'd be sketchy.
Finally finishing off with close grip inclines on a standard barbell for a high intensity/strength movement is certainly a good idea.
 

Aoi_611

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Like what’s been said above, more incline pressing and flys to bias the upper clavicular fibers. Incline also puts your shoulders in a better/safer position for pressing so that’s a plus.

Try to keep your delts out of it. The best queues for chest is thinking about rowing into the bottom and then driving your biceps into your pecs - also think about bringing elbows together, rather than just driving the weight up.

For flys (I prefer cables) Row into the bottom and then hard finish driving biceps into pecs with arms straight. Keep delts out of it by thinking of bringing elbows together kinda bringing arms around your rib cage to a hard finish.
 

PrimalPrimate

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Nice addition to the board adding this sub forum!

Aside from incline press, what are some workouts that really target the upper chest that you guys do?
Training the upper chest is like saying training the upper bicep…
 

PrimalPrimate

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Lol no.

You’ve never seen a bodybuilder with poor or sub par upper chest development in comparison to medial/lower?
I’ve seen those results from people who don’t truly understand physics and anatomy. Whether they compete or not is irrelevant.
 

FrancoC

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I’ve seen those results from people who don’t truly understand physics and anatomy. Whether they compete or not is irrelevant.
I’m not understanding your point?

If you train only flat and/or decline bench does one get a developed upper chest? We both know the answer to that. Comparing it to saying being able to train upper bicep is where you lost me since biceps are a much smaller muscle group and can be hit in totality with essentially any bicep workout. Chest cannot be approached in the same way.
 

Gullinbursti

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I’m not understanding your point?

If you train only flat and/or decline bench does one get a developed upper chest? We both know the answer to that. Comparing it to saying being able to train upper bicep is where you lost me since biceps are a much smaller muscle group and can be hit in totality with essentially any bicep workout. Chest cannot be approached in the same way.
Decline bench is the stupidest thing in existence. I'm pretty sure that the readings for upper chest and mid chest were very similar between flat and incline though
 

psauce

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I’m not understanding your point?

If you train only flat and/or decline bench does one get a developed upper chest? We both know the answer to that. Comparing it to saying being able to train upper bicep is where you lost me since biceps are a much smaller muscle group and can be hit in totality with essentially any bicep workout. Chest cannot be approached in the same way.
I think he is advancing the argument that any movement that recruits a muscle group recruits all... can't target upper chest, upper abs, etc.

Anyone who makes that argument based on physiology should be ready to answer why the clavicular head of the pec major exists as a discrete motor unit if it doesn't have a specific function, and why it would be uniquely unable to respond to stimulus with hypertrophy.

Sometimes people brandishing "science" don't really understand any of it.
 

Gullinbursti

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I think he is advancing the argument that any movement that recruits a muscle group recruits all... can't target upper chest, upper abs, etc.

Anyone who makes that argument based on physiology should be ready to answer why the clavicular head of the pec major exists as a discrete motor unit if it doesn't have a specific function, and why it would be uniquely unable to respond to stimulus with hypertrophy.

Sometimes people brandishing "science" don't really understand any of it.
Why don't you circle back around to that other thread and explain how every compound increases testosterone. You seem to have some very in depth, well worded explanations and that's the one I'd love to hear.
 

psauce

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Why don't you circle back around to that other thread and explain how every compound increases testosterone. You seem to have some very in depth, well worded explanations and that's the one I'd love to hear.
Which thread? I’ve never said that.
 

Lee_48157

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Decline bench is the stupidest thing in existence. I'm pretty sure that the readings for upper chest and mid chest were very similar between flat and incline though
Interesting you say this. I was just recently listening to a podcast w Phil viz a reknown coach who said that a slight decline ( a plate under the front of a flat bench) is one of the best ways to get the anatomy of the chest to fire. I’m not saying you or he is wrong, but I will say that 99% of decline benches are entirely too steep putting your AC joint at a high risk. Not posting to argue, but just thought it was interesting you said this about the decline. I’ve also watched john meadows YouTube saying the same thing about a slight decline being beneficial.
 

FrancoC

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Interesting you say this. I was just recently listening to a podcast w Phil viz a reknown coach who said that a slight decline ( a plate under the front of a flat bench) is one of the best ways to get the anatomy of the chest to fire. I’m not saying you or he is wrong, but I will say that 99% of decline benches are entirely too steep putting your AC joint at a high risk. Not posting to argue, but just thought it was interesting you said this about the decline. I’ve also watched john meadows YouTube saying the same thing about a slight decline being beneficial.
You’re not wrong. 99% of incline benches are also too high up putting the same amount of unnecessary stress on the joint and focusing more on the shoulders. Whether at an incline or decline position, it only needs to be a slight one to target the desired area of the pec.
 
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