Can Disappointing Muscle Mass In The Chest Necessitate Weight Lifting Pre-Exhaustion?
Posted: Tuesday, March 10, 2009
by Francesco A. Castano
IncrediBody.com
One of the most common muscle groups to target is the chest, with many bodybuilders seeking substantial muscle growth in the pecs through performing many sets of intense bench pressing. Despite most weight training plans centering upon the bench press as the primary upper body muscle building movement, there are numerous bodybuilders who produce disappointing progress in the chest region, and are searching for an alternative to the bench press for significant muscle gain.
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 the bench press exercise, which leads to disappointing muscle gain in the chest. Therefore, to rectify this scenario, a bodybuilder must institute pre-exhaustion, a technique that targets the chest in a more direct way, which fatigues the pectorals sufficiently to allow them a far greater chance for failure prior to the triceps and shoulders during the bench press, and this will result in far faster and more elaborate chest muscle growth.
The most potent pre-exhaustion exercise for the chest is pec deck, where both hands or elbows are brought together from an outstretched position either placing the forearm behind padding or holding a pair of handles, and this greatly overloads the pecs, causing them significant fatigue. When implementing this exercise prior to bench press, the triceps and shoulders will in most cases outlast the chest due to performance of this pre-exhaustion exercise (pec deck), and this allows the chest to receive the majority of stimulation during all bench press movements.
Some choose 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 unwanted shoulder fatigue (and the goal is to target the chest and avoid as much shoulder or triceps overload as possible). The pec deck focuses upon the chest in a very direct fashion, which is the true reason behind any pre-exhaustion technique, and thus pec deck should be performed immediately prior to the bench press for any bodybuilder who experiences disappointing chest muscle growth.
For weight lifters 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 do not own a cable crossover unit, therefore, in such a scenario, dumbbell flies are acceptable for chest muscle pre-exhaustion prior to bench pressing. You will find that the weight used during bench press will decline as compared with what you were able to lift prior to 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 problematic, as the total amount of overload will 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 most weight while targeting the primary muscle group, and for numerous weight lifters, when performing bench press as the first exercise of a workout, without pre-exhaustion, the pecs never receive sufficient overload to begin achieving their genetic muscle building potential.
Francesco Castano authors MuscleNOW.com, a workout routine for muscle gain without supplements or drugs. He also owns IncrediBody.com, an online fitness superstore selling exercise equipment at guaranteed lowest prices.
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