Inner Chest

[Spud]

I was wondering what are some good exercises that isolate the inner chest. I noticed that I have good outter chest developement, but poor inner chest. Also I lack some size in my upper chest as well. Any suggestions?

 

[Citruscide]

Flat bench hits my entire chest... but if you need an exercise that will hit the center of your chest... one that I love, but can no longer do, due to a shoulder injury, is the "pullover".

I'm not even sure if i have the correct name for it... but when I did them, I layed perpendicular on a flat bench, with my shoulder blades on the bench. I took the weight behind my head (so it would be on the same plane as my body? if that makes sense) and bring it up to my chest...

the whole time, my arms were semi-straight, with a slight bend in the elbows and I gripped the dumbbell with the Diamond grip... both palms up and index fingers touching as well as thumbs.

Also, Close Gripped bench, but that also hits tris too...

C-ditty

 

[louden_swain]

Sounds like flat bench is responsible for this. Here is what I recommend:

Incline Barbell Presses - 5 x 10,8,8,6,4
Parallel Weighted Dips - 3 x 8
Flat Bench DB Flyes - 3 x 8

This routine will hit the upper, outer, inner and lower chest.

 

[Exodus]

close grip is a great tricep exerise, but if you go with less weight and concentrate on your chest, you can make it very effective.

X

 

[youngyoung]

hate to break the bad news to you.. You can not isolate or emphasize the "inner chest" with exercises. You may feel the innser chest on certain exercise but it does not directly correlate to working them more.

This is not my opinion. It is strictly science (anatomy)

 

[Rogue Warrior]

youngyoung is correct! When you work a muscle it is stimulated from origin to insertion. You can't work the outer without the inner being effected. You can hit the upper chest without the lower being effected and vice versa if my knowledge of basic anatomy is correct. Anyone back me on that?

 

[guldukat]

Rogue and Young are right, bro. The pecs are serviced
by the same tendon of insertion. There really IS no
upper, middle, lower, inner, or outer pecs, though you
can hit certain portions a bit harder than others
with certain exercises.

The question is, though, *why* focus on a particular
area when you could do an exercise that hits them ALL
really hard? I've seen people do weighted dips exclusively
and get very good, complete pec development (check
out some of the gymnasts...for their bodyweight, they're
supporting light or middleweight-competitive pecs).

If you want inner pec stimulation, just train hard and
be sure to spend more time with your girlfriend than
you do in the gym or even THINKING about the gym. Whether
or not your inner pecs are really freaky depends on
how lean you are--that is, what you can SEE--and
your genetics. Lt. Heavy Team Universe champion Ron
Coleman had a gigantic cleft between his "inner pecs"
purely by birthright. Others have pecs that touch yet
cannot flat bench the bar and one wheel/side.

 

[ASALT]

Try cable crossovers...

 

[Spud]

Thanks guys, Im going to take all your information in account and redo my chest workout. Im going to focus more on slow controlled movements instead of explosive like Ive been doing in the past. More squeeze and wrist rotation at the top of DB instead of hitting them together, and slower estrentric movements for BB. Ill try this for a couple of months and let you guys know what happens.

 

[goahead]

YEah Yeh, muscles are worked from origin to insertion , you cant build inner/outer/peak etc....

Right ?

WRONG !

While the muscle goes from origin to insertion, you have a whole bunch of them, to form inner and outer layers.

Typically the force needed to lift a weight is ditributed among the fibres but not equally!

It is believed that the big exercises indeed tax the most fibres and in particualr also hit the deep inner fibres.

Yes, the benchpress has a bigger potential for building chest than cable cross, but with cable cross you can also tax the oute strings (which are londer because of the increase in diametre of the whole bunch) and need a FULL contraction for optimum stimulation.

while cable crosses alone probably wil not cut you a big chest (because you skip the majority of inner fibres, ) and benchpress will not always give you a full chest, it's the combo that makes a complete picture.

This is debated over and over again and while many pro's recognize you should be able to do some really heavy bench and dumbell presses for reps, most of them throw in a movement to finish the package....

 

[ThePolishHammer]

You may feel the innser chest on certain exercise but it does not directly correlate to working them more.

You know im just gonna use simple logic for this one, but from my expierience at the gym. If you feel that a particular area has been worked then odds are that parts going to grow?
And if muscles are worked from origin to insertion then it should be impossible to feel stress in one particular area more then others. This is even more true if you consider that the ammount of stress you feel in particular muscles varries between exercises. What you said implys some movements effect diffrent areas of a muscle diffrently.

 

[bignate73]

YEah Yeh, muscles are worked from origin to insertion , you cant build inner/outer/peak etc....

Right ?

WRONG !

While the muscle goes from origin to insertion, you have a whole bunch of them, to form inner and outer layers.

Typically the force needed to lift a weight is ditributed among the fibres but not equally!

It is believed that the big exercises indeed tax the most fibres and in particualr also hit the deep inner fibres.

Yes, the benchpress has a bigger potential for building chest than cable cross, but with cable cross you can also tax the oute strings (which are londer because of the increase in diametre of the whole bunch) and need a FULL contraction for optimum stimulation.

while cable crosses alone probably wil not cut you a big chest (because you skip the majority of inner fibres, ) and benchpress will not always give you a full chest, it's the combo that makes a complete picture.

This is debated over and over again and while many pro's recognize you should be able to do some really heavy bench and dumbell presses for reps, most of them throw in a movement to finish the package....

superficial vs. deep is not the issue here. its hypertrophy at one end or another of said fibers that is. varying types of movements will ensure maximum development but as for shaping the muscle itself by targetting a specific region of the muscle.....nope. overall growth will give fullness to the shape of a muscle which can be misconstrued as a part of it "coming in".

 

[gettinlarger]

Thanks guys, Im going to take all your information in account and redo my chest workout. Im going to focus more on slow controlled movements instead of explosive like Ive been doing in the past. More squeeze and wrist rotation at the top of DB instead of hitting them together, and slower estrentric movements for BB. Ill try this for a couple of months and let you guys know what happens.

Turning your wrists does nothing bro.

 

[Spud]

Turning your wrists does nothing bro.

So rotating your wrists at the top of DB movement does nothing?? I feel as if I get a better squeeze if I turn the DB's inward cause the DB's are too wide to get in close if you keep them horizontal.