Good Inner Chest Exercise

[Sad Clown]

I am looking for a good inner chest exercise. My chest routine currently consists of dumbell exercises for the following:

Dumbells:
Incline Press
Flat Press
Decline Press
Flies

Machine:
Seated Bench

I don't do any chest exercises with the bar anymore as it causes too much pain and discomfort in my shoulder (old injury). I enjoy the dumbell exercises more as they allow me to get a more complete range of motion per rep.

What do you guys recommend for an inner chest exercise? I would prefer something that involves dumbell's.

 

[KoolDrew]

You don't need 5 different movements for a single bodypart.

Also, you cannot make a muscle fiber thicker at one end than the other. All you can do is make them thicker throughout the full length. So you're wasting your time trying to isolate the inner chest.

 

[Deeko]

Flies where you cross over in the middle hit the inner chest more. This can be done to an extent with dumbbells, but work much better with cables.

edit: btw the seated bench is a waste.

 

[presidentender]

What Deeko said.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Hm, I've never heard such a detailed request. "Inner chest" is part of the same muscle as most of the rest of the chest. You're not going to be able to make the inner portion of the muscle larger. You're going to have to increase overall size of the pec major. That's just how it works. Supposedly incline bench utilizes the most muscle fibers out of the chest exercise, but that's information that has come from bodybuilding.com so it may or may not be reliable.

 

[Deeko]

Well, incline is a different animal because it targets a different head of the muscle. The pectoralis major is composed of a clavicular head and a sternal head. Incline bench targets the clavicular head much more than flat bench, so you truly are hitting the muscle in a different way and producing different results. Decline will target the sternal head along with flat, but decline uses the lower muscle fibers more heavily, and thus targets the bottom of the sternal head.

As far as flies go, its a range of motion thing. As you do a fly exercise, you start out using mostly pectoralis minor, and the resistance gradually moves from your shoulder across your chest. You aren't fully engaging the pectoralis major if you do a dumbbell fly until the point that the dumbbells touch.

Unfortunately, genetics play a large part in how your muscle is shaped though, so while the cable crossovers will help, there's only so much you can do.

 

[Deeko]

To be more technical...one of the movements the pectoralis major accomplishes is adduction of the arm - pulling the arm towards your body. When you do a bench press (or a partial fly) you are adducting the arm, but not fully. This is why the cable crossover is a more complete range of motion exercise for the pectoralis major.

 

[Sad Clown]

That's a lot of good info folks. I will have to incorporate some cable crossovers into the routine.

 

[MetalMat]

Originally posted by: Deeko
Well, incline is a different animal because it targets a different head of the muscle. The pectoralis major is composed of a clavicular head and a sternal head. Incline bench targets the clavicular head much more than flat bench, so you truly are hitting the muscle in a different way and producing different results. Decline will target the sternal head along with flat, but decline uses the lower muscle fibers more heavily, and thus targets the bottom of the sternal head.

As far as flies go, its a range of motion thing. As you do a fly exercise, you start out using mostly pectoralis minor, and the resistance gradually moves from your shoulder across your chest. You aren't fully engaging the pectoralis major if you do a dumbbell fly until the point that the dumbbells touch.

Unfortunately, genetics play a large part in how your muscle is shaped though, so while the cable crossovers will help, there's only so much you can do.

How about doing dumbell flies on a ball? That seems to work pretty good for me versus on a bench.

 

[Chunkee]

make the dumbbell fly motion like you are hugging a big tree...dont buck in your shoulders and chest when doing so...

 

[Deeko]

Originally posted by: MetalMat

Originally posted by: Deeko
Well, incline is a different animal because it targets a different head of the muscle. The pectoralis major is composed of a clavicular head and a sternal head. Incline bench targets the clavicular head much more than flat bench, so you truly are hitting the muscle in a different way and producing different results. Decline will target the sternal head along with flat, but decline uses the lower muscle fibers more heavily, and thus targets the bottom of the sternal head.

As far as flies go, its a range of motion thing. As you do a fly exercise, you start out using mostly pectoralis minor, and the resistance gradually moves from your shoulder across your chest. You aren't fully engaging the pectoralis major if you do a dumbbell fly until the point that the dumbbells touch.

Unfortunately, genetics play a large part in how your muscle is shaped though, so while the cable crossovers will help, there's only so much you can do.

How about doing dumbell flies on a ball? That seems to work pretty good for me versus on a bench.

The ball adds a lot of extra stabilization to the mix, but it doesn't increase the load on your chest.

 

[KoolDrew]

Originally posted by: Sad Clown
That's a lot of good info folks. I will have to incorporate some cable crossovers into the routine.

Simply adding another exercise in addition to the 5 you already have is not the way to go about it. I'm interested, what does the rest of your routine look like? Also, how tall are you? How much do you weigh?

 

[Special K]

Originally posted by: KoolDrew
You don't need 5 different movements for a single bodypart.

Also, you cannot make a muscle fiber thicker at one end than the other. All you can do is make them thicker throughout the full length. So you're wasting your time trying to isolate the inner chest.

:thumbsup:

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: KoolDrew

Originally posted by: Sad Clown
That's a lot of good info folks. I will have to incorporate some cable crossovers into the routine.

Simply adding another exercise in addition to the 5 you already have is not the way to go about it. I'm interested, what does the rest of your routine look like? Also, how tall are you? How much do you weigh?

I agree. In my experience, if you pick one or two compound exercises and work to become as strong as possible on them, you'll probably have better results than doing a half dozen isolation exercises. My chest size increased more in the 6 months of the Bill Starr 5x5 routine, when bench press was my only chest exercise and I increased it by ~50lbs, then it did in 2 years of all sorts of dumbbell flies, cable crossovers, pec dec, etc. It's also worth mentioning that body fat percentage might be playing a role too. My chest, especially the inner part, became much more chiseled/defined after I lost 43lbs. Even if you have the muscle mass in your chest, having a thin layer of fat over it can make a big difference in how it looks.

The flat bench press - with dumbbells or barbells - is usually the best choice for almost anything chest related, but you have to use full ROM (bar must touch chest). Work to increase this lift as much as possible, and I assure you your "inner chest" will look fine. Another excellent option would be ring dips. If you can do 20 of these with full ROM from the proper support position, you'll have no complaints about your inner chest.

By the way, what shoulder injury do you have? Are you sure you are using proper technique when bench pressing? For example, if your hands are too far apart, or your elbows are too close to a right angle with your body, you're putting a lot of extra stress on the shoulder joint. And when you do bench press, are you balancing it out with an equivalent amount of pulling work? The bench press primarily develops muscles in the front of the rotator cuff and if you aren't careful, you will get muscle imbalances in the rotator cuff which almost always lead to injuries. For every rep of a "push" chest exercise, you should do a rep of a "pull" exercise, such as pull-ups or rows. The overhead press is also helpful in restoring balance as it works all parts of the rotator cuff equally.

 

[KoolDrew]

There should be a maximum of 2-3 movements per bodypart.

1) This is the main lift. It should be a compound lift and done heavy. Reps should be anywhere from 5-8. I usually prefer doing 5x5 for these.
2) This would be an accessory movement similar to the first, but more reps less weight
3) Would be an isolation movement done for high reps to "finish" the muscle

For example, for chest something like...

Bench press 5x5
DB Incline Press 3x8
Cable Crossover 2x15

For every rep of a "push" chest exercise, you should do a rep of a "pull" exercise, such as pull-ups or rows.

I've recently been doing a ton of face pulls. Works great for keeping the shoulders in balance. This would ideally be performed after pull-ups or rows though and for higher reps.

 

[Deeko]

Yes, three movements for chest is a pretty good balance - provided you switch it up. One week do incline, the next decline. One week do cable crossovers, the next do dumbbell flies. Its not going to help you to do them all in the same day - but they all do provide some benefit.

 

[Eric62]

I have a natural gap between my pecs.
Most scientists say you can't work just a segment of a muscle. I'm not here to agree or disagree.
I will say that if you pack on enough pec thickness, then that gap will lessen considerably. Heavy benching followed by heavy dips (using parallel bars, or bars angled inwards - not a machine) is the key to max pec mass IMO.
I'll also say that about 18 years ago I read an article supposedly written by Lee Haney that claimed he did his DB fly's with a twist at the top. That is he turned his wrists so the bells touched each other end to end at the top. I've been doing that ever since, and I can feel an inner pec contraction on every rep.
I've also read that close grip benching is good for inner pecs. I don't agree, but I do think it's good for triceps mass, and benching lockout power, so I often do it with arm training.
Most importantly, don't over train...

 

[StageLeft]

IMO the best exercise for chest is incline dumbell press. I used to use flat bench as a staple but I have concerns about what it does to shoulders. It seems that a lot of people complain about that (it may be technique related, though). Honestly, all I've done for a decade now is either flat bench and incline dumbells or just incline dumbells (last couple of years, just that). I am doing a little more pushups but only because I'd like to hit a 100 pushup this year if at all possible.

If the devil is in the details you may need more than 1-2 exercises, but once you give up on the idea of doing a lot you'll find that you can get most of the development you need with a single movement, whether it's one of the main compound lifts or whatever. And I mean you can get a lot of good development. A half dozen select exercises are enough to really develop a good physique. Just because somebody invented some other movement doesn't mean you need it!

 

[Sad Clown]

Sorry for taking so long to respond. Been swamped with work and other stuff this week. I am 27 years old, 5' 9" 185 lbs, down from 270 lbs from this time last year. While I have been lifting weights since I was 20, I finally got my act together in regards to my diet and the weight just came off on its own. I am still shooting for another 10-15 lbs to drop over the course of this year.

As for the shoulder injury, I threw out my shoulder when I was in high school and it never healed properly. The joint is what I would consider "loose" and there are certain positions I can't put it in as the least amount of pressure will cause it to dislocate.

This question was spurned by a friend of mine who was doing some new exercise in the gym and he claimed it was inner chest specific. I watched him do 3 sets and it looked more like a tricep exercise to me but it got me thinking about my own routine and how I tend to stick to the more bread and butter exercises.

I understand what you guys are saying about the variety in exercise being superfluous but it is more just me trying to keep things interesting and changing things up on occasion. I typical do 3 sets of 9-7-5 reps. I may consider switching things up to a 5x5 set/rep workout and see how things go from there.

 

[KoolDrew]

I am still shooting for another 10-15 lbs to drop over the course of this year.

You're not going to be adding any mass to your chest by losing weight.

 

[Sad Clown]

I did 5x5 on my chest workout today and I have to admit, I did much more weight, had better technique, and got an overall better workout/pump then I usually do. I think I will have to stick with that set/rep routine and keep on stepping up the weight.

Thanks again for the great info folks. I know I don't post often here but I will be honest, I have received a lot of great info that I have used for great results from ATOT Health & Fitness. You guys are the best!

 

[KoolDrew]

How often are you working chest?

 

[Sad Clown]

Currently, once a week but I may have to increase that to twice a week depending on how I feel.