Am I doing something wrong on Chest Days

[crxin]

Its weird, and I am not sure if I am doing something wrong. One Bicep days I can really feel the burn and can really feel the soreness the next day, which makes me think I had a good work out, but on chest days I can't feel much of anything.... And the next day I dont have anywhere near the same ratio of soreness as I do with my biceps. Is this normal for people?

I dont do anything crazy, just normal chest excerises, dumbell flys, cable crossovers, butterfly machine, dumbell press etc....

I try and focus on my form and make sure to work and tighten the chest, and I find with the higher weights I struggle more than lower....but I would like to think I do pretty good staying true to it.

Any thoughts?

 

[Stumpy]

Can you write out your training routine including types of excersises, Nº of sets & Nº of reps.

 

[PillarofBalance]

Soreness doesn't necessarily equate to growth. But yeah do what Stumpy said.

 

[crxin]

I do not know all the names of the exercises, so I apologize ahead of time. I googled some of the names....

Cable Crossovers - 3 sets ; 8 to 10 reps
Butterfly Machine - 3 sets; 8 to 10 reps
Cable Iron Cross - 3 sets; 8 to 10 reps
Dumbell Bench Press - 3 sets; 8 to 10 reps (When I do this I rotate the weight on the way up, and sometimes I isolate them and do one arm at a time, while the other is still in the air.)
Dumbell Flys - 3 sets; 8 to 10 reps
Low Cable Crossover - 3 sets; 8 to 10 reps

Thanks for the help

 

[Stumpy]

You're doing too much isolation work. Start off with your compound movements first (pushing movements). Aslo, no need IMO to do Dbell press one arm at a time. Start off with your Dbell press, after warm up go as heavy as you can with a maximum rep range of 10. If you can do more than 10 reps then you've gone too light. You may find you need to take a smaller Dbell for sets 2 & 3 if you've really given 100% into your Dbell press.
Do you combine another muscle group into your chest routine ie. triceps?
Incline bench is also good but I'd let go of all this isolation work and concentrate on the compound movements.

 

[Turbolag]

An example can be:

Flat dumbbell bench press

Incline barbbell bench press

Flat barbbell bench

Chest flies

Onto biceps

Just an idea.

 

[oldschool1967]

agreed with the others, soreness doesn't mean growth, although throughout the years we have been pummeled with articles that make us believe so..way, way too much isolation work, i see no gains coming from a routine as the one you are on, at least no gains in muscle mass and i will assume you are bodybuilding due to your choice of exercises. only start with an isolation exercise if you are using 'pre-exhaust' , a semi-advanced principal. I would do this...
1- bench 4-5 sets pyramid up in weight down in reps.. 12,10, 8, 6,6
2- decline press 4 sets 12,10, 8,8,
3-dumbbell pullovers 4 sets 10-12

this is a sound chest routine, even if you choose not to do this, try ditching most of that isolation work, save 1 isolation move for your last exercise. good luck bro!

 

[crxin]

You're doing too much isolation work. Start off with your compound movements first (pushing movements). Aslo, no need IMO to do Dbell press one arm at a time. Start off with your Dbell press, after warm up go as heavy as you can with a maximum rep range of 10. If you can do more than 10 reps then you've gone too light. You may find you need to take a smaller Dbell for sets 2 & 3 if you've really given 100% into your Dbell press.
Do you combine another muscle group into your chest routine ie. triceps?
Incline bench is also good but I'd let go of all this isolation work and concentrate on the compound movements.

Yes I do Triceps on the same day, I just omitted the tricep routine sorry.

 

[crxin]

I never realized that it was so much isolation until it was just said, now looking back on it....it makes perfect sense! What other exercises would be considered compound exercises besides bench pressing?

 

[Jenner]

I do not know all the names of the exercises, so I apologize ahead of time. I googled some of the names....

Cable Crossovers - 3 sets ; 8 to 10 reps
Butterfly Machine - 3 sets; 8 to 10 reps
Cable Iron Cross - 3 sets; 8 to 10 reps
Dumbell Bench Press - 3 sets; 8 to 10 reps (When I do this I rotate the weight on the way up, and sometimes I isolate them and do one arm at a time, while the other is still in the air.)
Dumbell Flys - 3 sets; 8 to 10 reps
Low Cable Crossover - 3 sets; 8 to 10 reps

Thanks for the help

My experience is to stick with free weights as with machines and even cables it can be hard to use proper form/hit the right area. I had great results just doing the basics..BB press, incline DB press and DB flyes

 

[Vonderhawk]

If your looking for a burn and pump then up the volume and decrease rest periods. 12-15 reps with perfect form and full range of motion and keep rest to no more than 1:15. I do anywhere from 4-5 sets of a movement like that. Works great for me but maybe not for others.

 

[uphillclimb]

really, wtf is with all the crossover and fly exercises? Are you looking to cut, grow?

My bench blows in comparison to my other lifts but if I'm trying to increase numbers, I barely and rarely do a crossover/fly exercise.

Oldschool touched upon it but here's a tweak if you want to blow your chest up.

Try a reverse pyramid so that your heaviest sets are when you're fueled up the most.

Here's an example:

warmup 135 x 8
warmup 185 x 5
warmup 205 x 3

Then your working sets:

240 x 4
225 x 6
205 x 8
185 x 10

then burnout and do 135 x whatever you can do.

Then do dips, if you must throw in flies, go for it and mix up the press routine and finish with incline DB's doing both of them at the same time. Keep increasing weight until you can't get the 8th rep and stay there for 2-3 sets.

Another alternative:

One week do 185 x 10 for 5 sets, next week 225 x 3 for 8 sets or until you can't go any further.....


for the love of God (praise Jesus), don't be concerned with flies and crossovers if you're trying to increase strength.

Tri's are ok to throw in but I don't do more than an exercise or two because if you're pushing every rep to the max, you shouldn't have much left in the tank for anything else after the first example above. Dips are crucial....flies are not.


Edit: These numbers are just examples....I have no idea where you are for numbers.