The Pectoral order

Whenever people find out that I am a trainer the questions start rolling in. My most recent experience was with my dental surgeon, moments before he would extract my painfully throbbing wisdom tooth. The question was a typical one asked by most men I encounter. After countless workouts  performing the bench presses, he wasn't getting any stronger and his chest wasnt growing. What did he need tp do to blast through the plateau?

In a nervous and suspicious state I tried my best to listen to his question. As he spoke I couldnt help but wonder whether is question  was a ploy to distract a fearful man or an honest curiosity for the answer to one of the most popular queries regarding training by young men.

The simple truth is that, the allure of a Herculian chest has fascinated men for years. All of our childhood superheroes and herioc leading men have been signified by their swollen pecs, resembling a barrier against lifes daily slings. Only the most confident men walk with the chest puffed out,seemingly ready for the glancing of bullets or the gentle caress of a fair maiden. Regardless of ones motivation for building a diamond shaped chest the instructions are below, read them carefully and with a little practive you will be graced with a shirt busting prowess reminiscant of the hulk.

1: Train the chest often

For many years coaches have been extoling the virtues of frequency of training for hypertrophy ( the increase of the size of a select area of the tissue). The bodybuilding greats such as Arnold Schwarzenegger were known for performing 6 workouts a week,  sometimes even training twice in a day. As silly as this sounds, the benefit of this constant exposure to resistance training forced their muscles to grow to garguantian proportions. The average man with a day job obviosuly cannot devote this much time to their training, but will still benefit from a similar thought process. One strategy that will ellicit a similar effect is to train the whole body including the chest 3x a week. The important thing to remember here is to reduce the volume each workout so that you are able to train the muscles more than once a week.

2: Vary your program often

One strategy that is very underrated is changing the variables every few weeks. Remember, success in strength training is largely dependant on exposing the body to various "shocks" so that it doesn't fully adapt to any given workout. It is widely believed that a complete overhaul of ones program should occur every 6 weeks for the beginner, 3-4 weeks for the intermediate and 1-2 weeks for the high level athlete. Strength coach Charles Poliquin takes it one step further by changing the workout every 2 exposures, insuring that the nervous system doesnt adapt.

3: Keep the muscles guessing

LIke the previous point we want to ellicit a shock to the muscles and nervous system when training, a simple way to create this effect is to vary the actual implements used during training. An example would be the athlete who trains primarily with machines switching over to training using compund movements. The exposure to new motor patterns will force the body to create new systems to complete the given task, often leading to an increase in neural drive. For the 8 weeks try performing your chest training with a different implement bi weekly.

week1-2: Dumbbells > week 2-4: Machine based > week 4-6: Barbells > Week 6-8: Cables

One thing that you will notice is a drastic difference in the weights you will be able to use with each implement. Dumbbells have the added benefit of training the stabilzers and forcing the body to cope with loads that move independantly, meaning a slight decrease in weight used. Whereas Machines and barbells are traditionally less demanding on the stabilzers allwoing for greater loads to be used.

4: Decrease your reps and increase your sets.

Earlier I mentioned the nervous system in regards to shocking the system. The nervous system basically acts as a control center for how much weight you can potentially lift. One thing that is very common amongst lifters who have hot a plateau is that the nervous system has become inefficient, relative to the goal. Heavier sets in the 1-3 rep range target the nervous system and teach it to increase the speed and rate of firing so that you can lift more weight, unfortunately training in this bracket can burn you out quickly. A more effective technique will be to drop your reps from the popular 10x3 to a 5x5 range. The 5x5  allows for neural adaptations and provides enough volume to stimulate some growth.

To perfrom this program properly choose an exercise such as an incline bench press. Complete 5 reps with about 80-88% of your one rep max, rest for three minutes then repeat 4 more times. A benefit to the longer rest period is that, you can perform a set for an opposing muscle group in the interim.

5: Expose the chest to a ton of volume.

On the flip side of the lower rep protocol is the 10x10 system. This high volume training system was popularized by Charles Poliquin for its ability to put in mass, fast. The theory simply states that by exposing the muscle to so much volume it is forced to grow rapidly. Be warned though, this system requires that the lifter have the time and nutritional supoport to recover adequately, and is not reccommended for beginners. The 10x10 method starts with selecting a large movement such as a bench press, loading up the bar with 60% of your 1RM and performing 10 sets of 10 reps with 2 mins rest inbetween each set. Once again you can perform a movement for the antagonist muscle group durin the wait, just make sure that the movement isn't too taxing.

6 Train the opposing muscle group.

If your chest is  not growing, it could be because your upper back is weak. The human body, much like a machine operates at its best when everything is in balance. The nervous system often will halt growth, in an attempt to curb injury if it feels as if the body is too out of balance. One method to circumvent this is to measure your abilty to bench press relative to the strength of your horizantal row, if there is a large discrepency then you are structurally inbalanced, or in laymans terms likely to get injured.
To correct this focus on strengthening the external rotators of the back, the lower traps and serratus muscles, this alone will have you benching well above your previous bests.

By incorporating these 6 techniques you are now armed with knowledge to build a heroes chest. Use this information wisely and you will find that your dream of benching big weights will become a reality.