GST and upper chest

[Alexander Egebak]

Please explain your conclusions to normal people; so planche really works upper chest or what?

[Coach Sommer]

Please explain your conclusions to normal people; so planche really works upper chest or what?

 

No, it does not.

 

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

[Brian Li]

So is the info here wrong: http://www.exrx.net/Articulations/Shoulder.html#anchor102874

 

Would maltese hit the upper chests too? I think OP should just do incline presses or very inclined (almost HS) push-ups to best build up the upper pecs.

[Daniel Burnham]

Hollowback hit upper quite well. As do swinging dips. The hollowback progressions work quite well for upper body pressing which inevitably relies largely on the entire chest.

[Alessandro Mainente]

One thing is talk about major muscles actors, another this is the little work of cooperative muscles.

for example squat works the traps? not but with long time you will develop it. benchpress works the glutes? no, they help the movement and stabilization but they are not the most important actor. since the request was an exercise to build up the upper chest you need an exercise that work on it during all the ROM and where the upper chest is involved for the major part. for my opinion there is no exercise that could be used seriously to build up the upper chest. the reason is the posture. the protraction takes off a big part of chest work, while the retraction is fundamental.

[Toni Laukkavaara]

you should try a van gelder to a front uprise victoran. While wearing a weighted vest ofcourse

Edited June 13, 2014 by korija

[Flavio85]

what about declined ring flyes? the humerus goes up (towards the clavicle) and to the center (towards the sternum) hitting the clavicular fibers

[Daniel Burnham]

what about declined ring flyes? the humerus goes up (towards the clavicle) and to the center (towards the sternum) hitting the clavicular fibers

Sure. But now you're talking about using the rings for muscle gain in specific places. Which is basically body building. Musing them in this way misses the point if the advantage that complex bodyweight exercises could give. It is important to remember that form should and does follow function.

In some cases there will be a weakness that needs to be addressed either due to body shape or having had some problem in the past which may require "spot training". However most of us are weak all over in the eyes of coach and would benefit from staying focused and knowing in the end it will all be there. And specific goals will be even more accessible.

[Samuli Jyrkinen]

As long as you eat enough and your CNS is dumb enough, you will gain muscle easily with GST, your upper chest included. I have mostly done low rep strength work for years and I don't look any smaller to those who have done bodybuilding with the same years of training experience. The real difference between me and them is in mobility and strength. I have followed the way of eating like a bodybuilder but training like a gymnast, and it works.  

[Chris Hansen]

the only reason of why a bblder does not use a declined version (declined i mean with head lower then feet) is due to pain or as you said weak shoulder. said that in 2012 were done by T.Bompa (i'm searching the study link) a study to measure the IEMGmax (integrated maximum stimulation electromyography) to measure the most motor units activation in BBding exercise.

decline dumbell bp and decline bp with bar has respectively 93% activation and 90% activation of the major and lower chest. the most activation for upper chest was with INCLINED version. the variability due to different tendons length or insertion is not significant. IEMG is far the most productive technique and i do not have reasons think different. i'm not supposing, those are scientific data set.

What comes to my mind is that, although the position of decline bench press and planche may be similar, the force is exerted in very different directions so the muscles used would have to be different. If you were to compare laying-on-your-back-on-a-bench exercises, planche would be more like lifting a barbell off your hips with straight arms.

[Benjamin Goodale]

i've always liked a simple rings push-up, feet on a plate or box if you can manage, and go as deep as you can, and then really squeeze the rings together at the top and protract the scaps, its less advanced variation than the rings-flies, doesnt require the straight arm strength of the fly, so lower bar of entry, but it definitely burns out the chest

 

also, wide grip bar dips, go for long holds at the bottom

[Keenan Smith]

I've heard iron cross does like crazy, though I've never gotten close to one.

[Aaro Helander]

I've heard iron cross does like crazy, though I've never gotten close to one.

Assisted cross pulls (arms through the straps) do. An easy and extremely stupid and dangerous way to test this:

1. Lower yourself to the assisted cross position (hands through straps)
2. Hold it for as long as you can
3. Quickly release yourself from the position
4. Enjoy your upper chest fibers ripping your collarbones out of your body

Seriously though, when I do assisted cross pulls, i feel them almost exclusively on my very upper chest.