Hey All! Hope you're all doing well! - Alpha Progression App: alphaprogression.com/HOUSEOFHYPERTROPHY Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 0:28 Part I: Is the Flat Bench Overrated? 3:33 Part II: Other Chest Exercises 13:23 Part III: Could These Build the Chest Even Better? 15:49 Part IV: Summary
Yep! For the most part those are the foundational things that matter the most. But, there are some nuances such as whether upper or lower dedicted work is needed (and nuances with other muscles like lat training and how different exericses may grow different regions)
@pandajohn5911 but if an exercise puts 60% of the stress on the upper pec and 40% on the middle pec, and another exercise puts 50% on the lower pec 30% on the middle and 20% on the upper pec. Which exercise would you do to grow that upper pec shelf?.
@@Paul-Weston the one with the best SFR, with least amount of joint pain and that I enjoyed the most. Also, change between them during the different mesocycles. No need to only pick one forever! All great choices
I'm glad you spoke on the current trend of over-emphasizing the stretch to the point of losing leverage and tension on the target muscle for the sake of pleasing youtube comments.
As a fledgling bodybuilder (1 and a half year after 6 years of powerlifting), I've found that using barbell bench press in combination with isolation exercises that target each head respectively is the best way to shape the chest.
@@VredesStall A wide grip is best for targeting chest, it becomes more of a triceps exercise with a short grip. The bar typically has some marks that show where your grip should be, you should use the outer markings for a wide grip. As a general rule for the wide grip, it should be outside of your shoulder width.
If you have difficulty building upper pecks these are great for that. Raise you feet level or higher than your hands help too. And 1 sec pause at the bottom. Time under tension is king!
You can do the same with a smith machine. You can push the weight up with both arms and lower the weight with 1 arm. You can also use a higher weight that way and train explosiveness when you push and try to control the weight on the way down.
People do les rom with dumbbells almost in every case. Look at people training, even the pros, they don't go all the way on the stretch part. And when we talk about delts, it is just 90 degree elbow, that means 0 delt almost , only triceps. So yes, the dumbbells let you go deeper, but only if you are not an ego lifter. Very good video assessing those issues.
More than a thousand views in an hour? You clearly have come this far. I'm sure in no time you will be hitting the million subs. This high quality videos can't be ignored. Great video, as always, keep rocking!
@@HouseofHypertrophyI'm really glad they do. Not kidding, not kissing asses, just telling the truth, you're my number one for consulting gym doubts, and after you, the legendary Alpha Destiny. You really have some quite high quality videos. And now that you started posting shorts, I'm sure soon enough you will make it.
Lately deficit ring/trx pushups and seated cable press have been blowing my pecs up (rings at home, trx at gym. Too lazy to bring my rings lol). The deep loaded stretch is supreme, and as a big boy (215lbs) the deficit ring pushups are perfect for me without needing to add weight for heavier work, and the cable presses for higher reps
As long as the exercises addresses the primary function of the muscle, they’re all equally effective if effort is the same between exercises. Effort is what causes your nervous system to recruit a lot of muscle fibers. Some exercises may require more effort than others making it “better”, but if you simply take the exercise to failure, the exercises will be extremely similar in their effectiveness for muscle growth.
I can't believe he doesn't mention the clear #1 chest builder. #1 exercise: the wide Ring pushup It's absolutely the best because it has everything from high load through full ROM. Stretch under load. Freedom of movement but still stable enough. Easy to adjust the angle.
You still have to stabilize yourself and it will kinda work your triceps, plus it's kinda hard to progressive overload there. For a chest-focused development with a full ROM I don't think there's anything better than the pec deck machine where you push with your elbows. Technogym has one, search for the pec deck fly machine and you'll see what I'm talking about. Every time I do a drop set on one of those I get my chest sore for 4 to 5 days.
Barbell bench press destroys my shoulders, dumbbell press is superior to everything, the range of movement is just more ergonomic and natural and I feel less tension on the joints
Man, I just love your content! I try to incorporate this data into my routines for maximum efficiency. Workout 6 days a week, so I see gains. would be interested to see content about rest and recovery for muscle growth. Thanks for all you do!
Adding the high possibility of shoulder injury doing BPress, then you have more good and rational reasons to think that with machines, you not only obtain almost the same result that free weight, also you will prevent of hurting your self by doing machines
great! And are you still planning to do an episode on isometrics? I always wondered if it is possible to build the same amount of muscle with isomertics, or if there is something special to do a motion with the weights :)@@HouseofHypertrophy
9:40 a explanation for the partial being better than the full rom in the tricep study can be that what matters is not weight but tension in the muscle. You get maximum load at the 90º position, the partial range of motion passed more than around the 90º position compared to the full range of motion where the 0º and 140º have littel to no tension.
Maybe, but the notion of just training the ROM around the sticking point isn't consistently supported in the research, some of the data was detailed in this older video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-14hQqiHoVoU.html
Flat bench with standard and narrow grip with weighted dips are gold for chest. The rest are just finishers and to give that little bit more. And that's about it.
If you could do an analysis on forearm training, and give some intuitive colloguial taxonomy to the muscles there, it would be appreciated. The forearm is complex, and it is not easy to remember all the muscles there, or to know what to train and how. It would help especially the arm wrestling community. Thanks.
4 days now, still waiting for the references/studies...I waited till now to ask... Perhaps am one of the few here who follows your channel for the studies also, and actually goes & reads them! Do post the links to the studies! Thanks!
Bench press targets the chest very good and it's a pretty stable exercise too however the range of motion isn't the best unless it's the cambered bar wich i would argue is the king of all chest exercies, but for some odd reason it's not in most gyms out there. Also about the tricep thing, i do find that accurate because i barely feel my tricep stretching at all, and in fact when they're in the most stretched position it's only the elbow pain that i feel lmao.
Yep! the cambered possibly could be better (as detailed in the video). Even so, I don't think ROM is a major problem, the current evidence suggests greater ROM does not always mean more gains, and so long as you get a solid pec stretch with the bench, it's probably quite great for gains (as evidenced by the research finding substantial pec hypertrophy for flat barbell benching).
@@HouseofHypertrophy Well i can say that i don't get that much of a stretch when doing the bench press, but still it feels good. And heck i think the chest press machine from technogym gives me a better pec stretch (to the point where my back gets contracted), but the cable fly gives the best stretch, like i can almost feel my chest stretch apart on heavy enough resistance. Good vid tho!
The reason that a better range of motion and stretch is "less effective" for hypertrophy relative to shorties, is because the better the stretch, the less the load that can be moved efficiently and sufficiently. I think both shorts and deeps are necessary for hypertrophy AND strength because muscle size and strength are joined at the hip. As with triceps or any pushing muscles, a set or two of heavy weight like a flat bench skull crusher with dumbells (hammer grip) with a shorter range of motion but high intensity with 8-12 reps, will trigger hypertrophy but still allow you to drop the weight by about 20-50% and do more volume (more reps and sets) with a better stretch and ROM for that pump. On the heavy sets, your intensity will be high enough to do less volume and still activate hypertrophy so you won't need to do more than 3 sets of that exercise to get the maximum benefit of heavier weight. If you're advanced, this will allow you to take advantage of some high volume hypertrophy with lighter weight sets of the same move but with a better rom for a good stretch and pump. This method of training will eliminate any guess work about whether you're going to grow or not. DO BOTH and you know you're going to grow
instead of pushups from the ground, wonder how pushups via olympic rings would work since you need to stabilize more. I know the first time I tried them, holy hell! Tis a way different animal!
Sergio swore by the partial benches again and again. For example, in magazine interviews (see tan slacks of dezbo pan website and his book coauthored by the machette guy) and you can see him doing them this way in clips on youtube and in photos from booklets/magazines. You can also see serge nubret and arnold benching this way in various youtube clips.
Here my own experience: started going to gym in 1988 at 18, 178 cm or 5'10 x 58 kg or 127.8, really a skinny young man (the typical young guy who could eat great amounts of food without gaining the slightest amount of weight) with a thin frame. In my training years I never took a thing, not even amino acids nor protein powders. 2 trainings per week (2 hours and one half per training), one single routine, so nothing too fancy, as you can see. My shape has been in the middle between bronze and silver era guys at some point, now after 15 years of no training is still almost bronze era like, believe it or not. It took me almost one year to see results, but after the first maybe two-three years I was weighting at 177 lbs (always 5'10 BTW;-) made up with muscles. I can still recall to these days with pride the surprise of one friend's mum noticing my chest had grown in width and complimenting me (and the thing ended there, to be clear). My training days ended in 2008, at 38, (187 lbs, again very little fat) and I've lost some but surprisingly to me quite few muscle mass since, maybe due to the fact I never took shortcuts, or maybe just lucky genetics, who really knows. Now at 54 I'm finding myself more and more often thinking I could go back to gym for my last 10-15 years of training, using as usual my old single routine. If made with wisdom, bearing well in mind I'm heading towards my 60s now, and further I'll be towards my 70s, it should carry me in a decent shape well into my final days. Anyway, here the routine: 2 and one half minutes rests always 1) barbell flat bench press 4 series aiming to 8 reps; 2) incline bench press (barbell or dumbbell) 3 series aiming to 8 reps; 3-4) other two chest-shoulders exercises in rotation, always 3 series each, always aiming to 8 reps; 5) pull ups 3 series aiming to 8 reps; 6) lat machine (I know it's almost the same thing, but it is what it is) 3 series aiming to 8 reps; 7) another exercise for dorsal muscles in rotation, always the usual 3 series aiming to 8 reps; 8-9-10-11) legs: squat machine (I've constantly been trying all through those years to save my back, as I know I have only one) 4 series aiming to 8 reps plus various machines always 3 series aiming to 8 reps, calves; 12) abs varying exercises (at least 20 minutes). I've never made a single series for triceps or biceps, in my view those get made while doing pectorals and dorsals. And that's it, apologize both for the length and my English guys!
I don't have access to a cambered bar, but i can attest that doing a few series of deficit pushups at the end of your chest day will destroy pecs and stretch them at the same time.
He forgot to mention extensions. I guess he touched it when mentioning stretching muscles don't always help with hypertrophy. But I feel it works after BB bench press you isolate the pects with cable extensions
I will indeed have more videos on the other regions! The upper chest video will include some discussion on the front delts, but I'll have to see if it's worthwhile making a seperate video on the front delts!
I actually think that's a perfectly fine method! We'll discuss isolation chest exercises more in an upcoming video, but it's not exactly essential to have presses in your training, using an isolation approach is a viable alternative
I know this may not mean much, but I prefer machine chest press (specifically, the Hammer Strength plate-loaded chest machines, not the ones shown when mentioning machine studies) and Smith machine presses for my hypertrophy chest workouts because… I can actually go to failure without self-guillotining myself. 😬 One other thing I found that’s a problem with free-weight bench press is it tended to severely irritate and always make sore my muscles near the coracoid processes on both sides after almost every bench press session. The massaging for those was intense and lovely in a painful-pleasure kind of way (never hurt my rotator cuffs, surprisingly). Once I stopped free-weight bench pressing, the soreness near those areas stopped as well. I wish hypertrophy using Smith machines vs. regular bench press was actually more studied, though. Again, the fact that I know, mentally, not to stress out about hurting myself when using machine variants allows me to push myself beyond what I’d usually do with a free-weight bench press, but there’s also no need to stabilize yourself, so maybe it’s a trade-off for hypertrophy and, hence, not the “most optimal”?
My criticism of hammer strength chest presses is you don’t get a deep stretch. It makes it perfect for the start of a session as you can fatigue greatly in the shortened range without impacting performance on following exercises massively. Whereas exercises with a deep stretch would have a big impact on hammer strength performance!
the fact that so many have gotten pec tears from flat bench press, is proof that the exercise is most assuredly working the pecs under load and tension. The chest is working hard, otherwise it would not ever tear
Perfect timing for chest day tomorrow 😂 also, I prefer the dumbell press bc it feels better on my shoulders. And it's easier to dump the weights if you fail a rep
I've found my chest has grown by doing presses on the cable machine by standing upright. This allows me to stretch right back with the handles. I can hit lower or upper chest by altering the height of the machine handles.
The great thing about push ups is that you can do them everywhere, anytime. If you travel a lot, choose a backpack so you can wear it while doing push ups.
Arguably press-ups can match the dumbbell press for stretch if performed on handles, or on boxes with a gap to sink into. However, I don't know, I feel those deeper stretches are also good places to find an injury. For instance there are many warnings around flyes to this regard, and cable exercises are just better flyes. The dumbbell press is awkward without 2 trainer partners to hand you the weights, otherwise you are forced to bounce them off the legs, or some other similar sketchy move like falling back with arms extended. There are no easy answers with the chest I think, one always seems to need trade in risk. The barbell is surely king, but it is undoubtedly a technical lift, go to any gym where people bench press and you'll find men walking around rubbing their impinged shoulders. There are no easy answers with the chest I think, one always seems to need trade in risk. Probably it's best to err towards what you are confident you can execute well.
That likely can be excellent! Though I wouldn't neccessarily call it the best as cambered bar benching and deficit push-ups can be trained with a partial at long lengths similarly :)
In my case, my favorite (sensations and results) exercice for chest is the weigthed ring push-up. This might not be the most optimized but i really enjoy doing it. More than the others variations 🙂
There is definitely a technique to it. I use 100lb DBs without a problem. BBs cause shoulder pain for me. The freedom of DBs allows a more natural motion instead of being locked into the grip of the straight bar.
are there studies that investigate incline barbell bench press versus flat barbell bench on hypertrophy? My shoulders hurt when on the flat so I only do incline bench, so I'm wondering how this would impact chest muscle growth.
For me flat bench press was the most ineffective thing I done to my chest, I trained it far too long. Everything changed when I switched to incline, finally I felt my chest and now it's day and night diffrence when I focus on stretch, use more machines and intensity techniques. I think that due to my short arms flat bench was ineffective.
How do you feel about shoulder joint safety when comparing DB, barbell, and machine/smith machine? Asking as someone who is currently using pushups as my main chest exercise but wants to expand into benching.
