Best excersize to build inside of chest muscles?

Knendell

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I need to do more work on defining my inner chest and under the pec's if you know what I mean. Also during the routine am I supposed to flex these muscles while lifting to get the best results?
 

dietcola

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oh god how i have struggled with this area of isolation. maybe i can help you. you don't need to flex the muscles while working them, just concentrate to the best of your ability on using that part of your chest (as opposed to say your triceps). if you wish you can squeeze the muscles at the top of each rep, it can help you isolate.

excercises:

incline dumbell press. you need to focus on form with this excercise otherwise you will use mostly shoulders and triceps. start at a lower weight to perfect your form.

medicine ball push up. this is a lame link but shows you what it looks like.
if done with proper form this will shred the middle of your inner chest.

http://slideshow.ivillage.com/diet/get_ ... ine_b.html

chest pullover, i use a flat bench for this, having a spotter is good for this one too but you can do it solo.

http://www.thefitmap.co.uk/tools/exerci ... l-over.htm

those are the only two excercises i use for upper/inner chest and in 5 months they have done wonders for me. so give it a try.
 

mgmt

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been working this area myself the last few weeks. not sure about results, since im relatively new to targeting this area, but cable cross-overs feel awesome if you can squeeze the handles over the top of one another (at the tail end of contraction, its like a super squeeze).

another exercise i've been playing with is hammer-grip dB presses. with the db"s being in a narrower position, you naturally squeeze them at the apex which seems to target tri's and inner chest.
 

mgmt

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ohh yeah to the orginal poster... declines will target lower pecs and declines with a narrow grip will isolate yur tri's 8)
 

s.a.f

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Dumbell flyes, holding the weights in close to your waist as opposed to arms outstretched.
 

joseph49853

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s.a.f said:
Dumbell flyes, holding the weights in close to your waist as opposed to arms outstretched.

Yep, dumbell or cable flyes.... to the upper, lower, and middle of the chest. And to do the exercise properly, pretend you're hugging a huge tree.
 

Harie

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gsxr60097 said:
I need to do more work on defining my inner chest

I hate to tell you, but there is no exercise that targets the inner chest. The advice everyone above gave is good advice for lifting chest though.

It's all about how your muscles are made to look. Some people have a thick inner wall on their pecs, and they'll have great definition on their inner chest. Some people have a very thick outer wall, but not much of an inner wall, those people will probably never have a defined inner wall. It's all about genetics.


*Edit* I posted the below on page 4, but with the back and forth banter, most probably didn't read that far.

Much better pictures of the pectoral muscle. See how it fans out from your arm pit? See how the fibers run horizontal? See how it's just a mass of muscle fibers running the entire length from your arm pit to your sternum? http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/issa67abig.jpg

Good explanation:

"There is NO such thing as inner chest or outer chest! The fibers of the chest run horizontally somewhat like a fan shape. Therefore, you CANNOT target the inner portions more than the outer portions or vice versa because it's IMPOSSIBLE to work a portion of a fiber more than the other. Also, the entire length of a fiber will ALWAYS work at the same degree of stress and that applies to ANY muscle. The supposed feeling you thought you had in your inner chest from certain exercises is just a cramping sensation you got in your tendons by the sternum. A lot of this "inner chest" stuff has to do with GENETICS meaning muscle insertion points and bone structure. Some people's pectorals originate farther from the sternum, which would result in that gap. And your pectorals will usually follow the shape of your ribcage. Your best bet is to get your chest as developed as possible and in time it'll fill out. Lowering your bodyfat will also help a great deal in revealing your inner chest."
 

dietcola

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Harie said:
gsxr60097 said:
I need to do more work on defining my inner chest

I hate to tell you, but there is no exercise that targets the inner chest. The advice everyone above gave is good advice for lifting chest though.

It's all about how your muscles are made to look. Some people have a thick inner wall on their pecs, and they'll have great definition on their inner chest. Some people have a very thick outer wall, but not much of an inner wall, those people will probably never have a defined inner wall. It's all about genetics.

you're wrong, genetics play a part but they don't decide entirely how you will develop. if that were the case there would only exist one chest excercise, bench press.
 

s.a.f

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Yes any area of the chest can be isolated in an exercise upper, lower inner and outer. It all comes down to varying the angles and with a barbell the width of the hand spaces. Just experiment a bit.
 

Harie

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dietcola said:
you're wrong, genetics play a part but they don't decide entirely how you will develop. if that were the case there would only exist one chest excercise, bench press.

Look at the pic I linked. http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/satter16ebig.jpg
Then look at this pic. http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/satter16abig.jpg

Now tell me how you are going to have an exercise that hits the inner and outer wall since your pectoralis major is essentially 1 muscle. As quoted in the article found at: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/satter16.htm

"There is no reason to try to find exercise that will increase the size of the inner aspect more than the outer because there aren't any exercises that can do that."

More quotes from that article:

"There is no inner or outer aspect of the Pectoralis major, so stop wasting your time trying to work it."
 

Harie

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My reasoning:

From looking at the pics I linked, it's clear that there is no such thing as inner pecs. The pectoral fibers stretch from the arm pit to the center of the sternum. You can't work one end of the fibers without working the other. Any chest exercise will work the entire chest.

Like I said before. The people you see with killer inner chest development have genetic predispositoin to be that way. It's just like some people can have huge arms even though they never work out...Genetics make or break you.

*edit* It's amazing to see how many hits on google there are for supposed exercises that target inner and outer chest. If anyone bothered to look at a muscle anatomy chart, they'd see that it's impossible to target inner/outer since it's all one muscle.
 

roki

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or you could put silicon implants :x
 

dietcola

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while bodybuilding.com may have the odd useful article it is mostly full of crap written by joe schmoe or by the website team geared towards selling products in their superstore. it really is one of the worst sites to get your information from, unfortunately it's also one of the biggest.

a muscle doesnt just build because it's worked. muscle fibres tear and breakdown, then recover stronger. if you are breaking down the muscle fibres in your inner or upper chest more, they will also build more as they recover, even if it is still one and the same muscle.

a guy i have trained with on and off for years can only press and fly on incline and not on flat or decline because of his shoulder rotator, his chest is well formed but his lower chest is very much under developed.

if you try the excercise i suggested, medicine ball push up, you will see how much different it feels to work JUST your inner chest and not the rest of it.
 

dietcola

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Harie said:
My reasoning:

*edit* It's amazing to see how many hits on google there are for supposed exercises that target inner and outer chest. If anyone bothered to look at a muscle anatomy chart, they'd see that it's impossible to target inner/outer since it's all one muscle.

good lord, don't believe everything you read. and don't base your entire opinion on a stupid site like bodybuilding.com.

i've gone over this with training instructors, fitness professors and i've experienced it all first hand in the gym. you CAN isolate certain parts of a muscle.

hammer curls make your bicep WIDER, how? because a muscle can take on different development shapes when worked in different ways. not all fibres in a muscle break down and recover at the same time.
 

Harie

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If you don't like BB.com links, then how about these ones?

http://exrx.net/Muscles/PectoralisClavicular.html
http://exrx.net/Muscles/PectoralisSternal.html

You also have pectoralis minor, but it's responsible for totally different movements than pectoralis major. http://exrx.net/Muscles/PectoralisMinor.html

Clearly shows that you only have 2 mucles that make up the chest (pectoralis major). Pectoralis Clavicular & Pectoralis Sternal (upper chest). How are you going to isolate one side of your muscle fibers with any exercise? That's saying you can only use mostly the inner portion of your muscle fibers in the chest to lift a weight, while making the middle and outside portions either relaxed or not lifting as much weight. Won't happen.

Can you flex only the inner portion of your pec? If not, that answers your question.
 

dietcola

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omg harie you're so right, people have been wasting decades doing all these different chest excercises when they really only need 1 movement. you're so brilliant, go start a training facility.

i feel so stupid for listening to my trainer.


LOL at those links, are you trying to prove that the chest is one muscle? those are like the little diagrams they put on weight machines so ladies know what they are working out.
 

Harie

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dietcola said:
good lord, don't believe everything you read. and don't base your entire opinion on a stupid site like bodybuilding.com.

I have based nothing on BB.com. I knew you couldn't isolate inner/outer chest long before I ever found that site. It's common sense. If you look at the pics of your chest muscles, spot isolation is impossible (besides upper and lower).

As for your bicep comment...Your bicep muscle fibers run down your arm. So of course you can make them get wider. Look at a pic of your chest muscle fibers. They run horizontal...So you obviously can't isolate one side or another.

Chest muscles fibers run like this -------------------- Now I want you to only work the left most portion. See, won't happen.
 

Harie

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You so pwned me dietcola. I sure hope that anyone with a brain looks at the pics I linked and can see for themselves. But by all means, keep doing your "inner chest" exercises. You're a genetic freak that can tell one side of your muscle fiber to contract, while the rest doesn't.

And your trainer doesn't know sh!t...Just like most personal trainers out there. You can become a certified personal trainer for $150...Then can charge to give bad advice.

I'm done with this thread since I got owned so badly. :roll: Now I go cry.
 

dietcola

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Harie said:
You so pwned me dietcola. I sure hope that anyone with a brain looks at the pics I linked and can see for themselves. But by all means, keep doing your "inner chest" exercises. You're a genetic freak that can tell one side of your muscle fiber to contract, while the rest doesn't.

I'm done with this thread since I got owned so badly. :roll: Now I go cry.

why don't you post up some pics of your chest? i want to see what a real excercise guru can achieve.

go watch read some of arnolds old training routines from the 70s and 80s. read about how he lengthened his biceps an inch on each arm. or how he helped re-invent the pec deck to give a better range of motion specifically for outter chest. and how he invented a close grip bench press routine that bodybuilders still use to build inner chest specifically. watch his interview on youtube when he says he will beat ronnie coleman by having the nicest man-clevage anyone has ever seen. where he admits to training his inner chest for 2 hours a day, 5 days a week prior to competition.

i guess they were all stupid for assuming the could reshape a muscle, and even stupid for accomplishing it
 

Harie

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dietcola said:
a guy i have trained with on and off for years can only press and fly on incline and not on flat or decline because of his shoulder rotator, his chest is well formed but his lower chest is very much under developed.

Sorry, I can't resist I guess.

Of course his lower pecs are underdefined from lack of flat benching. As I said before, you have an upper and lower chest (totally separate muscles). By only doing incline bench/flyes, he mainly worked the upper pectoral muscles.
 
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