Help! My Chest Won’t Grow

Last Updated on January 7, 2021

Is the Bench Press then the best exercise to build a chiseled chest?

Rocha Junior et al (2007) state that the bench press is a good starting point for some people wanting to build their chest however it is not for everyone. Scientific studies by Welsch et al (2005) showed that the deltoid muscles in the front of the shoulders had greater activation with the bench press then it did in the pectoralis major. Delavier and Gundill (2010) build on this premise by noting that poor recruitment of the pectoralis major could be why the deltoid muscles are activated more during the bench press. They state that some people including young gym enthusiasts are not natural bench pressers and thus need some time to work on motor recruitment by only focusing on recruiting the pectoralis major and not activating the shoulders or arms (Delavier and Gundill, 2010). The best exercises for these types of people to focus on pectoralis recruitment is straight arm bench flys with dumbells.

Other Obstacles that Stop your Chest from Growing

It is important to understand that a persons chest muscles are generally under utilised on a day by day basis. Unless you are in the habit of bench pressing your children or hugging and squeezing your girlfriend regulary throughout the day, you hardly use your pectoralis muscles at all especially if you are not regulary training in the gym. This may explain why young inexperienced gym goers have underdeveloped pec muscles or struggle to feel their pec muscles working when they start out on a chest program. Therefore jumping straight in with a heavy workload on the chest with little experience is a sure fire way to a long term injury and over developed and tender stabilising muscles.

Another problem is the excessive recruitment of the shoulders and arms during most chest exercises which reduce the effectiveness of the pec muscles working. Barnett et al (1995) agree noting that under utilised chest muscles become a bigger problem especially if you are trying to lift heavy. This is particularly evident during a heavy set on the bench press when form starts to deteriorate thus forcing the shoulders and arms to intervene at the detriment of the chest muscles.To overcome this problem, Delavier and Gundill (2010) state that you must feel your chest muscles working by undetaking a sensitization process that focuses on isolation exercises. These types of exercises include convergent machines that work unilaterally so you can improve your mind chest muscle connection.