I have a feeling I've been doing all manner of chest exercises wrong.

fuzzybabybunny

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During pushups, dumbell flys, dumbell presses, etc. I've never felt any kind of ache in my chest muscles. The ache and fatigue always comes from the shoulder and bicep/triceps region.

Uhhhh... aren't these exercises kind of straight forward? I do shoulder width apart or a bit wider for each exercise.
 

presidentender

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Have you made progress with the weight you're using? Do you look better than when you started?
 

enwar3

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Pretty straighforward (in my opinion). As long as you are increasing weight at some rate, you're making progress (even if you don't feel "the burn").

If you're not making progress I'd take a better look at form videos on youtube, weight lifting forums, etc. Actually I'd take a look at them anyways.

And it COULD just be that your shoulder and arms are comparatively weaker than your chest. How long have you been working out?
 

KoolDrew

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Jun 30, 2004
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The chest muscles are mainly responsible for pulling the arms across the body. Keep that in mind when doing presses. Instead of concentrating on just pressing the weight straight up, as most people do. If you don't perform the full ROM, you won't get much of a chest workout either. Another problem is that you are simply not going heavy enough and I'd say this is more the issue by your choice of exercises.
 

fuzzybabybunny

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Maybe I don't really know what it's supposed to feel like. Am I supposed to feel something immediately on either side of my sternum? Somewhere around the nipple? Right now I feel it only in a small area in the upper corner of the pectoral, next to my armpit.
 

fuzzybabybunny

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Originally posted by: Howard
Muscles above sternum get especially sore

What? Yeah, I'm definitely doing something very wrong then. The reason I ask the question is that I was talking to a buddy of mine and he mentioned that after one of his chest exercises his whole entire chest was sore. I was very confused because I have never had that sensation in my life.

What do you mean by the muscles above the sternum? The sternum bone goes right up to my trachea, which basically a layer of skin on top of it, no thick muscle. You mean on either side of the sternum?
 
Mar 22, 2002
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Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
Originally posted by: Howard
Muscles above sternum get especially sore

What? Yeah, I'm definitely doing something very wrong then. The reason I ask the question is that I was talking to a buddy of mine and he mentioned that after one of his chest exercises his whole entire chest was sore. I was very confused because I have never had that sensation in my life.

What do you mean by the muscles above the sternum? The sternum bone goes right up to my trachea, which basically a layer of skin on top of it, no thick muscle. You mean on either side of the sternum?

Sternum is where your rib cages meet. From your sternum's level to your clavicle are your pecs. They should be getting sore however sometimes I had trouble hitting them hard. I wanna ask you what presidentender asked you about what kind of numbers are you putting up in what kind of rep/set combo? This may have something to do with it.

Also, just looking at what you're saying, you don't include bench press, incline bench press, dips, etc. These are the main lifts for the chest. This is perhaps why you're havin' trouble.
 

Howard

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Oct 14, 1999
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Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
Originally posted by: Howard
Muscles above sternum get especially sore

What? Yeah, I'm definitely doing something very wrong then. The reason I ask the question is that I was talking to a buddy of mine and he mentioned that after one of his chest exercises his whole entire chest was sore. I was very confused because I have never had that sensation in my life.

What do you mean by the muscles above the sternum? The sternum bone goes right up to my trachea, which basically a layer of skin on top of it, no thick muscle. You mean on either side of the sternum?
By above I don't mean vertically above, I mean above if you were looking at a cross-section of the chest. bone -> muscle -> fat -> skin
 

SludgeFactory

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Sep 14, 2001
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Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
During pushups, dumbell flys, dumbell presses, etc. I've never felt any kind of ache in my chest muscles. The ache and fatigue always comes from the shoulder and bicep/triceps region.

Uhhhh... aren't these exercises kind of straight forward? I do shoulder width apart or a bit wider for each exercise.

So quit cheating. Not that soreness is a great indicator of much of anything, but if you're truly not hitting your pecs, focus on using those muscles to facilitate the movements. Use little girly weights if you have to, get your form right.

And yeah, you can substitute with a number of muscles. You can be a delt bench presser, where you overuse and overdevelop the anterior delts relative to the pecs, which ultimately limits how much weight you can lift since the pecs are a big muscle. Keeping the shoulder blades retracted throughout the pressing movement is a helpful cue to keep the pecs engaged.
 

Koing

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Oct 11, 2000
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Are the weights going up? Are the weights feeling 'lighter'?

Soreness is not an indicator of progress. Lifting more weight, shorter rests in between sets and more volume in reps or sets are.

If you take 10 days off doing any chest and then do some chest stuff your chest will be burning. If you do chest often you have to mix it up.

Try flat bench press, decline or incline at various points in your training cycle.

It may also be that your chest is strong and you won't be feeling it in your chest due to it's relative strength compared to your triceps/ shoulder.

I never feel push ups doing my chest if I do it regular style. Only my triceps usually.

Koing
 
Jul 10, 2007
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i've gotten sore from doing tons of pushups after not working out for months so u must be doing something wrong.
 

brikis98

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Jul 5, 2005
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1. Soreness is not an accurate indicator of progress. Being able to do more weight or reps is.
2. Although chest exercises aren't "difficult" to learn compared to say, the squat or snatch, it's still possible to use improper form on them. How far apart your hands are, the position of your elbows and how you position your body on the bench can all make a big difference. Stronglifts has a pretty good guide on the bench press I'd suggest your read. Starting Strength is an excellent resource for learning just about any barbell exercise.
3. You must use full range of motion to ensure all the proper muscles are being used. On the bench press, this means the bar goes from touching your chest to lockout. If you don't go all the way down, you're primarily using your triceps and delts and it's quite possible your chest isn't getting much of a workout.
4. If you are relatively new to weight lifting, you really don't need that many chest exercises. Doing heavy (ie, 3 sets of 5) bench press and dips 1-2 times per week would be plenty. Just make sure to balance it out with an equal amount of pulling exercises (pull-ups, rows) and overhead exercises (OH press, push press) so you don't develop rotator cuff imbalances and ultimately, injuries.
5. In my experience, some muscles and body parts are more prone to getting sore than others. For example, my traps get sore pretty easily from the overhead press, but my deltoids almost never get sore, no matter what I do with them. Despite that, both my deltoids and my traps got stronger and bigger. Once again, it just goes to show that soreness is not an accurate indicator of much of anything.
 

DomS

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Jul 15, 2008
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Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
During pushups, dumbell flys, dumbell presses, etc. I've never felt any kind of ache in my chest muscles. The ache and fatigue always comes from the shoulder and bicep/triceps region.

Uhhhh... aren't these exercises kind of straight forward? I do shoulder width apart or a bit wider for each exercise.

I don't really either, not a lot. But a lot of those exercises work several muscles in your upper body. With benching a lot of times whatever the strongest muscle in the group (tris, anterior delts, or pecs) will take over an be the primary mover so to speak.
 

jiggahertz

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Apr 7, 2005
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Originally posted by: DomS
Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
During pushups, dumbell flys, dumbell presses, etc. I've never felt any kind of ache in my chest muscles. The ache and fatigue always comes from the shoulder and bicep/triceps region.

Uhhhh... aren't these exercises kind of straight forward? I do shoulder width apart or a bit wider for each exercise.

I don't really either, not a lot. But a lot of those exercises work several muscles in your upper body. With benching a lot of times whatever the strongest muscle in the group (tris, anterior delts, or pecs) will take over an be the primary mover so to speak.

So what you're saying DomS, is you don't get DOMS?
 

purbeast0

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Sep 13, 2001
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My shoulders are probably my most dominant muscle on my body and strongest proportionally, and they are the muscle that NEVER is sore after my shoulder exercises. and my shoulder workout is pretty intense and heavy.