“Whenever I do chest exercises, notably bench press, I can’t really feel it working. I can feel it a little when doing fly, but not much. I’ve tried everything: dumbbell, barbell, mind-muscle connection. But nothing works.”
“I don’t get chest muscle soreness after working out anymore. Am I doing something wrong?”
“I don’t feel anything in the chest on chest days!”
People always ask a lot of question when they do workouts in the gym, but one of the most common questions is “I can’t feel my pecs when I bench!”.
Most guys want the huge King-Kong chests. However, even though they try to hit chest from several angels, it fails to grow! Why your chest isn’t troubling your shirt buttons or why your chest isn’t growing? It could be due to the following reasons.
- Neglect the correlation between strength and size.
There is a positive correlation between strength and muscle size. But the fact is that most average-size guys are not born with superhuman strength. Their strength increases as the muscle grow. If they bench stupid heavyweight (dumbbell press with the heavy dumbbells) in wrong ways, their chest will still be as flat as a pancake. Neither will be the strength.
If you want to make your chest grow like hell, GET a proper SQUEEZE! This is what makes chest exercise effective. Before you add any weight, try doing your bench press with the lightweight or an empty bar in the following manner:
- Focus your energy on using your pec muscle only.
- Keep shoulders back and down (retract and depress).
- Squeeze your chest muscles when you straighten your arms.
The pushing inward on the bar actually squeezes and flexes your chest muscles. And there is a “mind-muscle” connection established. There’s a lot of bodybuilders mentioning this concept. For example, Frank Zane, one of the most aesthetic humans to have ever walked this earth, has placed extreme importance on this connection.
It is extremely important for your chest muscles to grow with a proper squeeze. If you want to follow professional video-training instructions, find more on “Keep Trainer”.
2. Not Warming Up
Your chest muscles do the main lifting for the pecs workouts, so they need to be well prepared and limber. One of the most essential steps to grow chest is the warm-up. A proper warm-up will help develop your chest muscles to the fullest potential. At the same time, it increases blood flow and improves the muscle elasticity.
Start with a 5–10 min warm-up of light cardio before your chest exercise.
WARM-UP 1
- Middle Back Stretch: 5 reps per side
- Shoulder Circle: 5 reps forward and 5 reps backward
- Shoulder Rotation: 10 reps per side
WARM-UP 2
- Band Pull Apart: 15 reps
- Shoulder Tap: 10 reps per side
- Face Pull: 10 reps
3. Not Resting Right!
The rest period is another critical step of an effective chest workout. Most guys are lifting way too heavy. Therefore, the rest will take longer, which will result in the failure to activate chest muscle. Here is a secret tip: Try to hit your chest with MORE volume but LESS rest.
- Drop the heavyweights.
- Perform more reps and more sets.
- Take the rest no longer than 90 seconds.
Then you will feel the burn of your chest, whereas “ego bench press” could not provide.
4. Start from the Basic
If you still couldn’t handle proper press techniques, using your bodyweight is definitely a good option. Push-up is never out of date and still one of the most effective exercises for chest.
To learn more about bodyweight chest training, try downloading “Keep Trainer” and follow our FREE workout & plan.
