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Pump up the volume and flesh out the positions—one for stretch and one for contracted.
January 9, 2012 by Steve Holman
Q: I have a flat chest. I’ve been using your Positions-of-Flexion training for a while, and it’s given me some new detail, but I’m just not getting the size. I do two heavy sets of bench presses for midrange, then cable crossovers for stretch and contracted. I follow that with incline presses [upper midrange], then incline cable flyes [upper stretch and contracted]. Do I need more sets, higher reps or what? I want big, striated pecs.
A: You’re using a full-range POF chest routine that I recommend for trainees who have decent growth potential in their pecs. You’re not in that category. You no doubt have low neuromuscular efficiency, or nerve force, in your chest and/or you have fewer fast-twitch growth fibers there. The solution: Pump up the volume and flesh out the positions—one for stretch and one for contracted.
Here are two more-explicit POF chest routines you can alternate from workout to workout:
Chest Workout 1
Midrange: Bench presses
or decline presses (pyramid) 3 x 9, 7, 5
Stretch: Flat-bench flyes 2 x 10-12
Contracted: Cable crossovers (4X style) 3 x 12
Midrange: Incline dumbbell presses 2 x 8-10
Stretch & Contracted: Incline cable flyes 2 x 12
Chest Workout 2
Midrange: Smith-machine incline
presses (pyramid) 3 x 9, 7, 5
Stretch: Incline flyes 2 x 10-12
Contracted: High cable flyes (4X style) 3 x 12
Midrange: Dumbbell bench presses 2 x 8-10
Stretch & Contracted: Cable flyes 2 x 12
So at workout 1 you give the middle and lower chest a full-on three-exercise POF attack. Upper chest gets the back end and less work with abbreviated POF.
At workout 2 you flip-flop—full three-exercise POF for upper pecs lead off the program. Then your middle and lower sections get hit on the back end with abbreviated POF.
That may look like a lot of sets and exercises, but most trainees need to think of the chest as two body-parts—upper pecs and middle/lower pecs. The chest is a fan-shaped muscle, so you can attack different areas with different angles of pull—unique stress for an incredible chest.
January 9, 2012 by Steve Holman
Q: I have a flat chest. I’ve been using your Positions-of-Flexion training for a while, and it’s given me some new detail, but I’m just not getting the size. I do two heavy sets of bench presses for midrange, then cable crossovers for stretch and contracted. I follow that with incline presses [upper midrange], then incline cable flyes [upper stretch and contracted]. Do I need more sets, higher reps or what? I want big, striated pecs.
A: You’re using a full-range POF chest routine that I recommend for trainees who have decent growth potential in their pecs. You’re not in that category. You no doubt have low neuromuscular efficiency, or nerve force, in your chest and/or you have fewer fast-twitch growth fibers there. The solution: Pump up the volume and flesh out the positions—one for stretch and one for contracted.
Here are two more-explicit POF chest routines you can alternate from workout to workout:
Chest Workout 1
Midrange: Bench presses
or decline presses (pyramid) 3 x 9, 7, 5
Stretch: Flat-bench flyes 2 x 10-12
Contracted: Cable crossovers (4X style) 3 x 12
Midrange: Incline dumbbell presses 2 x 8-10
Stretch & Contracted: Incline cable flyes 2 x 12
Chest Workout 2
Midrange: Smith-machine incline
presses (pyramid) 3 x 9, 7, 5
Stretch: Incline flyes 2 x 10-12
Contracted: High cable flyes (4X style) 3 x 12
Midrange: Dumbbell bench presses 2 x 8-10
Stretch & Contracted: Cable flyes 2 x 12
So at workout 1 you give the middle and lower chest a full-on three-exercise POF attack. Upper chest gets the back end and less work with abbreviated POF.
At workout 2 you flip-flop—full three-exercise POF for upper pecs lead off the program. Then your middle and lower sections get hit on the back end with abbreviated POF.
That may look like a lot of sets and exercises, but most trainees need to think of the chest as two body-parts—upper pecs and middle/lower pecs. The chest is a fan-shaped muscle, so you can attack different areas with different angles of pull—unique stress for an incredible chest.