How effective is the Bench Press at building the chest muscles?

[tomlee8188]

[Miezko]

I've always found it effective, though your pecs are some of the hardest muscles to really isolate and develop. Personally, I put more stock in dumbbell press, it requires you to balance it more so you'll be activating more stabilizers. I typically do chest two to three times a week depending on how hard I'm training. I'll do one rep day, light weight 6 sets of 12 to 15 reps (I say light weight, but it should still be a challenge to hit 12 or 15 reps). I'll do that for flat bench, incline, and decline and than I'll do a burn out set on what either the bench or dumbbell. There next day I do chest I'll go heavy pyramiding 1 set of 8, than add weight and do a set of 6, add weight and do a set of 4, than add weight and try for 2 (this should be what you max out at) and you'll do this for flat, incline, and decline. My last set this day will be a burn out (go to failure) on either the bench or dumbbell press (if I did dumbbells heavy I'll do bench here, if I did bench heavy I'll do dumbbell). And my third day, if I'm really training seriously (and not everyone is going to be able to hit their chest 3 days a week and that's okay) I'll super set my dumbbell press with my bench press. I'll do 8 to 10 reps on the bench and and than with out taking a rest I'll do a set of dumbbell press going to failure. I'll do 4 sets for each flat, incline, and decline. Normally I pair my chest with my back, I was taught (though I don't know if it's true) that doing a push with a pull exercise will complement each other, but on my superset day I only do chest. I also start every work out with 3 sets of 15 wide grip pushups and 3 sets of 10 diamond push ups (plus 3 sets if pull ups, but that's for your back not chest). If you really want to develop your chest you really have to focus on it. Arms, shoulders, back, legs, if you ask they're all a whole lot easier to develop than your chest. And this is how I do it, but it's definitely not the only way, it's just the way I was taught.

[Miezko]

The anonymous guy hit on it, but I'll add 70 to even 80 percent of what you do is nutrition. You can be going nuts in the gym (I'm a good way), but if you aren't eating right it's not going to show.

[Anonymous]

It's as effective as your consistency, progressive overloading, nutrition, attitude and form. If those are done correctly then it will be very effective.

Some argue that chest dips are better but those have their own disadvantages... I find the Isokinator chest routines to be the most effective... probably due to the constant Time under tension (TUt) as can be seen in this illustration (shows a bicep curl but you get the idea).

s33.postimg.org/51q6yslhr/Isokinator_TUT.gif

[electromagnetic]

It's a start but you'll need variations. Do you have a gym membership? There are a lot of machines there that can help.

[tomlee8188]

Yep I have a gym membership and do Bench Press, Slight Incline Dumbbell Press, Decline Cable Fly and Pec Deck for my chest. I train it 2 times a week with Bench Press and Decline Cable Fly in one of the workout and the other 2 movements in the other workout.

[mghowmasculinist]

How many repetitions do you do? How many sets? Do you increase the load after you can do 8-12 reps easily?

[electromagnetic]

@mghowmasculinist
I workout 5 days a week so my results vary from yours. Plus I can't build muscle mass without steroids either.

Any ways, I do 12 reps on 3 sets in circuit training. ( If that makes sense) I do the 2 second up pump 4 second decline. (again, if that makes sense)
I increase my load after about 2 weeks once I know my body can fully handle the weight I have preset.

[tomlee8188]

You can still build some muscle

[mghowmasculinist]

Maybe you don't get enough recovery time.

[electromagnetic]

@mghowmasculinist
I'm not worried about recovery time. I make sure to take enough. My workouts are naturally 30 minutes. Not enough Estrogen but again I'm not worried.

[anonman32]

it is a compound movement where the triceps and shoulders are also engaged. it is not an isolation movement. it will increase your testosterone because this is the nature of compound movements, but you will need other exercises if you want definition in your chest.

[genericname85]

i don´t like bench pressing, cause there´s just an intensity peak at the very bottom and basically nothing when you fully lifted it. i do them on the cable mashines, this way you can have equal intensity on every point of the movement.

[Decentguy]

i think its pretty attractive