Big chests withgout Big weight

[Mikel fikel]

A friend of mine is having serious probs with his shoulder and can't add weight to the bar when benching, he can dip his own body weight but when he adds weight the shoulder gets sore for a couple of days.

Is it possible to grow a big chest with out a HEAVY bench press or db press?

If yes, what kind of training style would he use?

He can bench around 50% of his max without pain.

Cheers

 

[slowmo214]

He should definitely try pre exhausting the pecs with flyes or cable crossovers.

 

[SaintStephen]

This sounds like the same problem I am having... lately my left shoulder hurts on all of my pressing exercises. I am staying away from presses for a few weeks and substituting on chest days with more flys and cable crossovers. I think this may be beneficial to me anyway, as I think my shoulder were getting a lot of the work from my benches .

 

[goahead]

ONE WORD: DUMBELL PRESSES!!!

These allow for heavy weight and full range of motion while giving the delts a bit of a break...

Once you get past the stabillizing issues and be able to cranking out some really heavy dumbells, this exercise is for many people a much better overall chest developer than barbell presses.

So give it a few weeks until you get the right feel/groove and weight and watch chest take shape from outside to inside!

A lot of pros use them dumbells eventhough they have no delt problem....

 

[RealDeal]

ONE WORD: DUMBELL PRESSES!!!

These allow for heavy weight and full range of motion while giving the delts a bit of a break...

...this exercise is for many people a much better overall chest developer than barbell presses.

A lot of pros use them dumbells eventhough they have no delt problem...

So you're saying that dumbbells are better for developing the chest? Trying not to read too much into your statment since you said "overall". So many people say that the bench is the best chest exercise for building size, yet my observations over the years show the majority of people (incl. seasoned "vets" w/awsome builds) using dumbbells.

This has been my main problem area next to calves, so I'm trying to kick the sh*t outta them both. What's the opinion here...barbell bench or dumbbells?