Can Disappointing Muscle Mass In The Chest Necessitate Weight Lifting Pre-Exhaustion?

One of the most popular muscle groups to focus upon is the chest, with many bodybuilders seeking substantial muscle growth in the pecs through performing numerous sets of intense bench pressing. Despite most weight lifting routines centering upon the bench press as the main upper body muscle building movement, there are many bodybuilders who produce disappointing progress in the chest region, and are searching for an alternative to the bench press for significant muscle growth.

Many bodybuilders are likely still unaware as to the real reasons why the chest in many cases does not develop as quickly as other smaller muscle groups, and replacing the bench press is not a reasonable solution, since this particular exercise is very potent in packing on additional chest muscle, that is, when the shoulders and triceps do not fail prior to the pecs, which occurs far too often. This is the factor that many neglect when analyzing how to produce an effective chest building regimen, as there are quite a number of smaller muscle groups that assist with compound exercises such as the bench press, and if they are weaker than the target muscle that a bodybuilder is attempting to train (such as the shoulders or triceps experiencing fatigue prior to the chest during bench press), the supporting muscles (shoulders or triceps in this example) will fail first, and this will cause disappointing results in the primary muscle group (chest).

How this applies to building larger chest muscles in particular is that the shoulders and triceps are frequently insufficiently powerful to allow the pecs to fail first during bench press, which leads to poor muscle gain in the chest. Therefore, to rectify this scenario, a weight lifter must institute pre-exhaustion, a technique that targets the chest in a more direct way, which fatigues the pectorals sufficiently to allow them a substantially larger chance for failure prior to the shoulders and triceps during the bench press, and this will result in far faster and more impressive chest muscle gain.

The most potent pre-exhaustion exercise for the chest is pec deck, where both elbows or hands are brought together from an outstretched position either placing the forearm behind padding or holding a pair of handles, and this greatly targets the pecs, causing them increased fatigue. When performing this specific exercise prior to bench pressing, the shoulders and triceps will in most cases outlast the pecs due to performance of this pre-exhaustion exercise (pec deck), and this allows the chest to receive greater overload during all bench press movements.

Some decide to use dumbbells instead of the pec deck, performing a weight training movement known as dumbbell flies, but doing so is less effective than using pec deck since the dumbbell fly exercise forces less weight to be used, in addition to requiring the bodybuilder to balance the two dumbbells above his or her chest as if performing the bench press, which introduces unnecessary shoulder fatigue (and the goal is to target the pecs and prevent as much shoulder or triceps overload as possible). The pec deck focuses upon the chest in a very direct fashion, which is the goal of any pre-exhaustion technique, and thus pec deck should be implemented immediately prior to the bench press for any weight lifter who experiences disappointing chest muscle gain.

For bodybuilders who do not have access to a pec deck machine, the cable crossover is a somewhat less effective, but acceptable alternative, yet the chances are that those who are unable to use a pec deck likely also cannot integrate a cable crossover unit, therefore, in such cases, dumbbell flies are acceptable for chest muscle pre-exhaustion before bench pressing. Keep in mind that the weight used during bench press will decline as compared with what you were able to lift before implementing the pec deck as a pre-exhaustion technique, as your pecs will have experienced fatigue from pec deck prior to performing the bench press exercise, but this should not be of concern to you, as the total amount of overload will still increase due to a combination of the extra pec deck exercise and the greater focus upon chest fatigue during bench press that occurs as a result of pre-exhausting the pecs. The goal is to use the heaviest weight while targeting the primary muscle group, and for quite a number of bodybuilders, when performing bench press as the first exercise of a workout, without pre-exhaustion, the pecs never receive sufficient stimulation to work towards their genetic muscle building potential.