Question For Jamo..
Hey Jamo, I have 2 questions for u, not more no worries :)
Ok.
I feel that my weak point in my physique is my chest. So, i'm doing 30 push ups every morning to help improve them (hopefully).
Anyway, i was stretching one day when i realised something. I notice when my arms moved upwards (towards the ceiling), i feel my upper chest muscle start contracting. And when i brought my arms downwards, i found that my lower chest muscle start contracting.
That made me, somewhat, find a new way to do push ups for the upper and lower chest, instead of the standard incline and decline push ups.
Upper chest: Get down to a standard push up pose. Next, move your arms at least "one palm" forward.
Lower chest: Get down to a standard push up pose. Next, move your arms at least "one palm" backwards (towards the hips).
I tried them out and i did feel my upper and lower pecs working respectively.
So my first question is, what do you think about these 2 techniques?
My second question is that, i notice my outer chest (near the arms) curves out more than my inner chest. So my chest is like curving in. I asked my friend about it and he said that it was normal. He said the chest muscle starts developing from the outer and slowly moves in.
Is this true?
Thanks in advance Jamo :)
My MFT Brothers can also post ur thoughts here :)
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Thanks
Thanks bros for ur reply!
J_Dazzle: Yes, im learning more and more everyday! :) Its important to understand how ur body functions so that u can make full use of ur muscle :D
dazzaemm2k7: Bro, i don't think i'm overtraining coz its only 30 push ups and that's not like a workout for me. Its more like a warm up. I do it every morning when i wake up, really helps to stretch and get blood into the muscle. But, i'll see how things goes, if i feel like i'm over training, then i'll stop :)
Hmm...
I dont know if doing 30 pushups is even worth your time. If they're so easy they would be considered a warmup, then you're probably not going to grow from them in any area except endurance (but that would require you do as many as you can every morning, meaning more than just 30).
But thats awesome you experimented with your hand positioning... honestly that is a HUGE step into not just bodybuilding but fitness and "understanding your body and how it works" in general. Once you get that mind muscle connection it's like opening a whole new world. You can start experimenting with new exercises that you make up yourself based on how your muscles work (kinesiology).
My chest used to be horrible, now I have been able to bring it up to speed with the rest of my body part by incorporating new exercises that really focus on different areas (I know its a big debate whether you can or not, but I can definitely feel different muscle fibers contracting when I do a specific exercise in different ranges of motion and from different positions).
Don't be afraid to experiment as long as you know you are being safe in preventing injuries. Keep your spine in its proper alignment and make sure when you first try something that you use light weight and really focus on a great range of motion and a great contraction to really feel those muscles working!
"Obsession is a term the lazy use to describe the dedicated" - Anon.
"Shoot for the stars, you might just reach the sky" - Unknown
Thanks!
"My chest used to be horrible" - Damn! They look perfectly fine to me man! That's motivational for me :)
Thanks for the tips bro, will definitely experiment with my workouts :)
Hopefully i will be able to fix my chest :)
raj... your thinking is
raj...
your thinking is right, different areas that you place your arms and complete your reps contract different areas of the muscle, which will develop different areas of the muscles.
I would recommend starting flexing at the top and working down, meaning start with incline movements that will work the top of your chest, and move to flat and decline movements that work the lower.
when you do pushups, or any chest exercise for that matter, it is easy and most of the time necessary to bring your front deltoids into it, so dont worry about that too much.
just make sure you hit different angles, to develop your chest all together. it looks like you are starting to be able to tell the difference of what different angles work.
Good luck and train hard!
hay raj ;) first i just want
hay raj ;) first i just want to suggest you stop doing 30push-ups every morning because you will be overtraining your chest , to bring up a laggin body part you need to train the muscle hard and FOCUS on the chest muscles when you are doing the movements , dont try to make up complicated moves and think that there is some magic push-up that is going to make your chest grow, any push up will make your chest grow , the push ups you explained sound not very good in my opinion , your hands need to be in line with your chest in order for your chest to do the work , if you bring your hands towards your body more then that will put way to much strain on your front delts and it is not the proper push-up form so you are putting your body in a un-natural position and putting strain on your muscles and risking injury !! and the same goes for putting your hands further out infront of your body , this is un-natural and dangerous , stick to normal incline and decline push-ups !!
I also want to say that usually or at least in my own experience , lagging body parts are a result of not training properly , for example the body parts that i didnt like to train when i was younger was my legs because having muscly legs just didnt apeal to me , so whenever it was leg day i put like 50% effort in and i didnt even think about what i was doing and i didnt FOCUS on the muscles at all , and as a result my legs became an extremely lagging body part , however over the last year or so i have began to enjoy leg training and i have focused on the working muscle ( MIND MUSCLE CONNECTION ) when i was doing the movements and only then did my legs start to grow , i strongly believe you need to concentrate and focus and learn how your muscles work and feel the contraction when you are working out , try to start enjoying chest training because MAYBE your chest hasnt grown much because you were only putting 70-80% effort in , you really need to feel your pecks flex and think about your chest pushing the floor away ( when you are doing push-ups) and squeeze your pecks on every rep ! IT HONESTLY DOES HELP , only now after 3 years of training has my quads started to grow because i feel the muscle and visualise them working when i am squating etc , PS - i think you should be doing free-weights if you want to bulk up your chest , you can only get so much muscle by doing push-ups , start doing dumbbell bench and incline press's etc ;)
well thats just my opinions , i am not saying i am right and i may even be wrong but that is what has worked for me and my lagging bodyparts ;)