Dealing with Stubborn Chest Muscle Growth for Bodybuilding Men

Almost every bodybuilder is plagued by a stubborn bodypart that won't grow, and usually the cause is genetically determined. Sometimes the muscle's anatomic makeup is responsible: The short length of the muscle belly or the long tendon attachments impose limitations. Other times the structure of your bony skeleton is what hampers muscle shape. Occasionally the muscle just isn't neurally wired correctly, and so the nerves fail to generate an adequate muscle-building stimulus. If the rest of your muscles are flourishing, your training and nutritional programs must be working.

When a muscle group is genetically challenged you face an uphill battle to beef it up. You have to use every trick in the book to get that muscle to grow. I recommend an attack plan that combines the benefits of several bodybuilding principles, including prioritization, variation, pre-exhaustion and periodization. I have put together some strategies to plump out your pectorals.

First, prioritize your chest training by scheduling your chest workout at the start of each week, when you 're feeling fresh. Next, design a workout consisting of exercises that target each section of your chest upper, middle and lower. Put together a pool of nine chest exercises that you like and each week do a different selection of three exercises. By varying the content of your chest workout every week, the pectorals experience change. I strongly suggest you use the pre-exhaust principle, at the start of your workout: Make your first exercise an isolation exercise such as the fly, using the pec-deck, cables or dumbbells. The purpose of pre-fatiguing is to prime your pecs getting the muscles in the groove and firing up the mind-muscle connection before you proceed with a heavier compound exercise such as the bench press. Be sure to mix up the types of bench press you do. Alternate between flat-bench, incline bench, and decline bench presses. Switch between barbells, dumbbells and the machine press. Go heavy -6 to 10 reps a set - one week, and light - 20 reps a set -the next. Make sure you complete your chest workout within a half hour, doing a maximum total of 12 to 15 sets.

Here s my final piece of advice: When a muscle isn't responding, avoid the tendency, born of frustration, to overtrain by resisting the urge to do every exercise in the gym, resulting in a nonproductive chest workout that lasts two hours.