| Can Lagging Muscle Mass In The Chest Require Weight Lifting Pre-Exhaustion? |
One of the most common muscle groups to focus upon is the chest, with many bodybuilders seeking significant muscle mass in the pecs through performing many sets of heavy bench pressing. Despite most weight training routines centering upon the bench press as the main upper body muscle building movement, there are numerous bodybuilders who produce frustrating results in the chest region, and are searching for an alternative to the bench press for added muscle growth.
Many bodybuilders are likely still unaware as to the real reasons why the chest in many cases does not develop as quickly as other smaller muscle groups, and substituting the bench press is not a viable solution, since this particular exercise is very effective in adding chest muscle, that is, when the shoulders and triceps do not fail prior to the chest, which occurs far too often. This is the factor that many forget when analyzing how to produce a powerful chest building regimen, as there are quite a number of smaller muscle groups that participate in compound exercises such as the bench press, and if they offer less stamina than the target muscle that a bodybuilder is attempting to train (such as the shoulders or triceps experiencing fatigue prior to the pecs during bench press), the supporting muscles (shoulders or triceps in this example) will fail initially, and this will cause frustrating results in the primary muscle group (chest).
How this applies to building larger chest muscles specifically is that the shoulders and triceps are frequently insufficiently powerful to allow the pecs to fail first during bench pressing, which leads to poor muscle gain in the chest. Therefore, to rectify this scenario, a weight lifter must institute pre-exhaustion, a technique that targets the pecs in a more direct way, which tires the pectorals sufficiently to allow them a substantially greater chance for failure prior to the shoulders and triceps during the bench press, and this will lead to far faster and more impressive chest muscle gain.
The most effective pre-exhaustion weight training movement for the chest is pec deck, where both elbows or hands are brought together from an outstretched position either holding handles or placing the forearm behind padding, and this greatly overloads the pecs, causing them increased fatigue. When implementing this specific exercise prior to bench press, the shoulders and triceps will in most cases outlast the chest due to performance of this pre-exhaustion exercise (pec deck), and this allows the pecs to receive greater overload during all bench press movements.
Some decide to use dumbbells as opposed to the pec deck, performing a weight lifting movement known as dumbbell flies, but doing so is less effective than using pec deck since the dumbbell fly exercise forces less weight to be used, in addition to requiring the bodybuilder to balance the two dumbbells above the chest as if executing the bench press, which introduces unnecessary shoulder fatigue (and the goal is to target the chest and prevent as much shoulder or triceps overload as possible). The pec deck targets the chest in a very direct fashion, which is the goal of any pre-exhaustion technique, and thus pec deck should be implemented immediately prior to the bench press for any weight lifter who experiences lagging chest muscle gain.
For bodybuilders who cannot access a pec deck machine, the cable crossover is a somewhat less effective, but acceptable alternative, yet the chances are that those who are unable to use a pec deck likely also cannot integrate a cable crossover unit, therefore, in such cases, dumbbell flies are suitable for chest muscle pre-exhaustion prior to bench pressing. Keep in mind that the weight used during bench press will decline as compared with what you were able to utilize prior to introducing the pec deck as a pre-exhaustion technique, as your pecs will have experienced significant fatigue from pec deck prior to executing the bench press exercise, but this should not be problematic, as the total amount of overload will still increase due to a combination of the extra pec deck exercise and the greater focus upon chest fatigue during bench press that occurs as a result of pre-exhausting the pecs. The goal is to use the most weight while targeting the intended muscle group, and for quite a number of bodybuilders, when performing bench press as the initial exercise of a workout, without pre-exhaustion, the pecs never receive sufficient overload to begin achieving their genetic muscle growth potential.
Francesco Castano authors the  www.MuscleNOW.com web site, which is a bodybuilding program for muscle building without supplements or drugs. He also owns the www.FatVanish.com site, teaching exactly how to lose fat without supplements.
Article Source: UnArchived Articles
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