So you can’t build a big chest no matter how often or how much you bench press? In this video, I’m going to show you the biomechanical and scientific reason why this is the case for you and, more importantly, give you an exercise for your chest that will make it grow better than everything else you’ve tried.
The key to a bigger chest is making sure that you are activating the pecs and not your shoulders and triceps during your pressing. Some of the limitations of the bench press are known to be inhibiting the very activation that you are seeking. These are worsened by the fact that some people just aren’t genetically as predisposed to flourish with the bench press.
Let’s start by discussing the biomechanical limitations of this popular chest exercise. First, the range of motion. We know that horizontal adduction of the arm across the chest (at the shoulder joint) is one of the primary functions of the pec major / chest muscles. During the bench press, your arm only goes through about a total of 80 to 90 degrees of adduction. This comes from a negative fifteen degrees at the bottom of the bench press up to about 70 degrees or so at the top of the rep.
When people have a hard time building their chest they simply don’t get enough activation of the pecs to stimulate growth. This is worsened by the fact that they often substitute pec contraction for deltoid and triceps activation to move the bar.
The second thing to note is that the strength curve of the bench press is descending, meaning that as the bar moves away from the chest the exercise gets easier and tension is lost on the pecs. So when the shoulder is in its most adducted position, the corresponding tension on the pecs is at its lowest. This again does not bode well for the exercise in its capacity to add lots of mass to the chest.
Biologically speaking, certain individuals have lower proportions of fast twitch fibers in their chest, which only further decreases the responsiveness of the exercise to a heavily loaded exercise like the bench press. Don’t misunderstand, the bench is a formidable exercise for your chest in terms of its ability to be progressively overloaded and to create chest growth by simply applying more tension to the chest than other pec exercises. It just isn’t enough.
The length of ones arms can also be a negative when it comes to seeing chest gains during the bench press. Those with longer arms will have a harder time creating the leverage needed to lift heavy weights on the exercise and therefore tend to struggle more with letting the chest lean on the delts and triceps too much for assistance during the lift.
The answer to your problems is to incorporate the cable chest press with adduction as well. This powerful chest mass booster is one of the most underrated and effective exercises for building a bigger chest. The key to the success of this chest movement is the fact that it addresses all the primary weaknesses of the barbell bench press. Not only can you get much more adduction from the movement but the tension on the chest at the peak of adduction is far greater, leading to more overall stimulation during the exercise.
Additionally, the strength curve compliments that of the barbell bench press and allows for a much better stimulation of the chest over a greater portion of the range of motion. Using this along with the bench press performed heavy, is one of the best one-two combos you can use when you are trying to build a big chest.
Be sure to follow the tips for setting up this exercise correctly and how to perform it with proper form so as not to leave any of the potential gains on the table. I include setup instructions in the video as well.
If you are looking to build a bigger chest fast and feel glad you found this video but wish you had a complete workout program that would get you results without thinking, be sure to check out my programs at athleanx.com via the link below and start training with science. By putting the science back in strength, you can get your muscles to grow faster and better than ever using the same workouts used by today’s top professional athletes.
For more videos on chest workouts to build mass and the fastest way to build a bigger chest, be sure to subscribe to our youtube channel via the link below and turn on your notifications so you never miss a new video when it’s published.
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46 comments
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You are really good sir great coach
Thanks Jeff your the best. Your videos are so informative they really are helping me out please keep up the good work. Big fan from South Africa
HOW THE F ARE ALL THESE CONTENTS FREE
Cant relate my chest been growing with push ups and flat bench
Hi jeff, how are you? What about shoulder enjuries from bench press? The cables, in this case, is better, isn´t it?? By the way, very good video! Thank you for sharing!
My gym doesn't have a bench for the cables. Will doing this from a standing position have the same effect?
We all have a bench but not cables!
Stop doing bench presse!, stop doing flys! Use this machine that no one has
I have been training for forty years as a bodybuilder and a strongman never heard so much bull . If you try to build muscle his way you end up with soft small muscle like him .
Can I Do This With Dumbells Instead Of The Cabels?
Meanwhile Arnold :- (in his accent) am I a joke to you
7:40 hands come together, i come down, rest back, and my shirt disappears if this didn't happen you are doing it wrong 😛
The new rap god, fitness version..
You Look so like Di Maria 😂
I don't have this machine at my gym 😭
It’s been 3 weeks since I started going to the gym but I have seen little to nothing improvement in my chest size
My dream body is your
7:46 jeff's shirt automatically dissapears when working out
well great, i cant do it because there is no way i can bring the bench over to the cable machine in my gym
sounds good jeff really does… my problem is finding the cable bench machine. my gym dont carry it. damn.
What if I don’t have access to cables or a gym??
I don't care much for bench press. I've been doing them since I started lifting about 8 months ago and still am not satisfied with how it works my chest. I've finally got the whole "pull your shoulders back and down" thing thanks to Pump Chasers (shrug up, pull shoulders back, bring shoulders down) but that's still not enough. I have bad posture and rounded shoulders AND I often shrug my shoulders up. But I can get my shoulders in the right position for pressing, finally.
I might just be shitty with chest movements in general.
But the best chest exercise I've had has been one I think I got from Scott Herman: floor flys followed immediately (super set) by pushups, from 15 reps counting down to 5, with like 60 secs between sets. That workout has gotten my chest far more sore than the normal gym chest exercises (barbell press, dumbbell press, machines, etc).
Who else is here to read the comments and laugh? 😂
Wait guys so longer arms=equals easier muscle activated on the bench press???
Anybody else find how he says "oh sh*t" as he falls off the bench absurdly funny 7:10 🤣🤣🤣
What about adding 3 sets of these after you bench??
If we should use cables for more adduction, we can just do this exercise standing up, right?
We don’t have this machine in my gym. Rip.
do more facial expression to make it look funnyer when u make a joke xd
6:43 I feel like I'm being spoken to directly with my long arms 😂
Right off the bat
We don't have this machin in our gym what should i do :/ ?
Is there anything similar wen it comes to legs
We don't have that kind of machine Jeff.
Jeff is by far the best trainer on line , indeed his knowledge of exercise physiology is vast, but what takes him over the top as numero uno is his passion ,yes his Italian passion woven to his dna, it matters not if he can or can't speak more than a sentence in Italian .best videos on this field .
Thats great jeffrey but i workout at home i don't have that machine
Bench press is bad for the shoulders even with proper form
Dumbells does my job
Please tell me what is the music name at the end🙏🏻🙏🏻
Jeff don't use watch because muscle imbalance.
I have never seen that cable machine that he is using.
what brand of functional trainer machine did you use in this video?
If you can't build a big chest from bench press is because you are not benching a lot of weight like more than 225lbs
The bench press is killing your gains
So no bench if you want a big chest and ain't getting it?? So maybe before you dismiss this classic make sure your pushing yourself properly,not going against Jeff he's way more qualified than I and the schooling to prove it but just hearing about not benching is sort of weird to me. However I have noticed for me I can only build so much chest the rest is strength. I build on incline decline dumb bell Flys center push outs and peck deck and cable Flys. I've had the best result with cable Flys and peck deck not that the others don't work it'd just for me those 2 work wonders