Upper Chest vs Lower Chest: Workout & Exercises To Build Big Pecs

QUESTION: I’ve been working out and making decent progress everywhere except for my upper chest which seems to be lagging behind. This makes my overall chest muscle look uneven and unbalanced.

The lower half sticks out more than the top half because of how small and flat the upper part looks. How do I fix this? What type of workout and exercises should I do to build a bigger upper chest?

ANSWER: Ah yes, the upper and lower chest. They of course go along with the inner and outer chest to form what I like to call The 4 Sectors Of Very Annoying Questions. T4SOVAQ for short.

Why? Well, for starters, it’s just one of those topics that come up over and over again on weight training forums. Is there an upper and lower chest? Does the incline isolate one area and the decline isolate another? Will my chest muscles grow unevenly if I don’t hit it all from every possible angle? How do I target one area and make it bigger?

And then it usually turns into an argument about how the chest is one solid muscle and there’s no such thing as an upper or lower chest. Or how you can or can’t target one area in isolation of the other. Or how you must hit it from all angles for the best results.

At around the 10,000th time you see it, it begins to get annoying. So let’s see if we can solve it once and for all.

Here’s Why You DON’T Need To Build A Bigger Upper Chest

Before we get to the answer you’re probably looking for, we need to begin with the answer you actually need.

You see, in my experience, most of the people asking about building up their upper chest are asking the wrong question. In fact, they really shouldn’t be asking a question at all.

Why? 4 reasons come to mind…

1. Lack Of Overall Muscle

The majority of the people who think they need more upper chest muscle really just need more chest muscle, period. Or just as commonly, more muscle on their entire body, period. So Mr. 140lb skinny ectomorph guy who thinks his upper chest is lagging is mistaken.

In reality, his entire body is lagging… chest included.

2. Body Fat

Then you have the people mistaking chest fat that has accumulated around the lower portion of their chest (thus creating the “man boobs” appearance no guy wants) for a lagging upper chest. Nope, wrong again.

In this case, your chest fat is just making it appear as though your lower chest is big and your upper chest is small by comparison. Building a bigger upper chest isn’t the real solution here… losing body fat is.

3. Gynecomastia

Similar to the above scenario, you have guys with gynecomastia, which is the other common cause of “man boobs” that mostly occurs naturally for guys during puberty (where all kinds of wacky hormone stuff is going on), old age (when more wacky hormone stuff is going on) and also as a side effect of steroid use (where again, wacky stuff is happening with hormone levels).

Now while it was just body fat on the lower chest in the previous case, with gynecomastia it’s actual breast tissue that only surgery can remove (not diet or training). But again, the issue here isn’t a lack of upper chest muscle, it’s an abundance of fat and/or breast tissue on your lower chest that is giving you that appearance. Additional details here: How To Get Rid Of Man Boobs

4. Reality

And finally, we have good old reality. What do I mean by reality, you ask?

Well, aside from the huge role genetics play in the shape of your chest (a big reason why one person’s chest can look very different than another’s), actually seeing a person who has JUST a big upper or lower chest doesn’t actually happen.

Even seeing someone with a noticeably underdeveloped upper or lower chest is surprisingly rare. I mean, once you eliminate people who fall into one of the previous 3 categories (plus genetics/chest shape), the number of legitimate cases of people with one part of their chest clearly lagging behind the other is much lower than you think. A lot lower.

And when/if you do see it, it’s often only with bodybuilders who are fairly advanced. They’re super lean and have already built the majority of the muscle they are capable of building… which means this type of symmetrical difference (which of course is something they step on stage to be judged on) can actually be seen.

And in all honesty, you have to be pretty close to fitting that description before any of this upper or lower chest stuff truly begins to matter or make much (if any) visual difference.

Which is just my nice way of saying that worrying about different “parts” of your chest is usually a big waste of time for most people, at least until you’ve built enough overall muscle for it to actually matter. And even then, it’s still not going to matter THAT much.

That’s not to say you should ignore it entirely. For the best overall results, I actually think a small amount of focus should be there. Just not lots of focus, especially the kind that takes the place of focusing on the stuff that matters most.

Which, by the way, is typically what all of this upper/lower chest stuff ends up doing… distracting people from more important stuff. So instead of just focusing on progression and eating to support it, you’re busy worrying if you need more or less sets of incline presses than decline presses.

Now back to the question at hand…

Is There An Upper Chest Or Lower Chest?

To answer this, let’s dive into all aspects of the anatomy of the human chest and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Well look at that… I’ve already bored myself to sleep.

So let’s instead just focus on the basic stuff that anyone reading this will actually give a crap about.

For starters, we have what many people confuse as being the upper and lower chest: the pectoralis major and pectoralis minor (aka “the pecs”). They are in fact NOT fancy words for upper and lower.

Instead, the pectoralis major is the big fan shaped muscle that makes up the majority of your chest musculature. When we talk about the upper and lower chest, we’re actually talking about the upper and lower part of the pectoralis major. The pectoralis minor on the other hand is just a small muscle that lies underneath the pectoralis major.

The words we’re really looking for here are the clavicular and sternal head. The clavicular head is the portion near the top of your chest right below the clavical, while the sternal head comprises the middle and bottom portion.

So while it’s technically all just “the chest” or “the pecs,” there are indeed different “parts” to it. You know, kinda like how the triceps brachii muscle has 3 different “parts” to it as well (the long, lateral and medial head).

And this of course brings us to the next big question…

Can You Isolate The Upper or Lower Chest?

No, you can’t.

Regardless of any of the dumb stuff you’ve seen or heard before, it is impossible to isolate different parts of your chest. That’s a myth.

Instead, EVERY chest exercise will hit EVERY part of it. So yes, that means incline exercises still hit your lower chest, and decline exercises still hit your upper chest. Even if you only did one type of pressing exercise for the rest of you’re life, you’re still going to build your entire chest.

Can You Put More Emphasis On One Area Than Another?

Yes, you can. At least a little.

Let me clarify the difference. What you can’t do is just train your upper chest or lower chest in isolation of the other. But, what you can do to some extent is put a little more targeted training stress on one area than the other. Not isolate… just put a bit more emphasis on it.

And it’s all exactly what you’ve probably already known.

Various decline pressing/fly exercises and dips DO target the “lower chest” a bit more than incline movements do, while various incline pressing/fly exercises DO target the “upper chest” a bit more than decline movements do. Flat exercises fall somewhere in the middle and hit a good bit of everything.

Nothing too surprising there.

But again, it’s not that one exercise targets one part of the chest and NOTHING else. Every exercise still “hits” every part of the chest. There are just certain exercises and certain angles that place slightly more emphasis on one portion than the other.

Do You Need A Flat, Incline, Decline and Fly/Crossover Exercise To Build A Complete Chest?

I can say with 100% certainty that you absolutely DON’T.

So if your “chest day” involves a flat barbell and dumbbell press, an incline barbell and dumbbell press, a decline barbell and dumbbell press, dumbbell flyes and cable crossovers to hit the upper, lower, inner, outer, major, minor, bigger, smaller, taller, shorter and whatever other part of your chest you think needs to be hit (don’t forget the upper nipple!!)… then you’re training like an idiot.

And in that case, you should probably read this: Bodybuilding Workouts SUCK For Building Muscle

The truth is, there are plenty of people who have built an awesome looking chest by doing nothing but flat pressing variations. Their upper and lower chest grew just fine.

There are plenty of people with an awesome looking chest who, because of shoulder injuries, have avoided most typical exercises (flat bench press, incline bench press) in favor of more shoulder friendly exercises like decline presses and floor presses. Again, no portion of their chest ended up lagging. It all grew just fine.

There are plenty of people who have built an awesome looking chest despite doing all of their chest exercises at a slight incline because they just “feel” it better that way. They aren’t all walking around with an amazing upper chest and a big empty space underneath it.

Hell, there are plenty of people with an awesome chest who built it by doing nothing but different types of push-ups. Or just dips.

In the grand scheme of things, none of it really matters all that much. Everything gets hit, everything grows, the upper and lower chest still get built anyway.

Do I think any of these scenarios are optimal for chest growth? I lean towards probably not for a variety of reasons. But, I do think they can all get the job done just fine, and any differences won’t be THAT significant with all else being equal.

So Then, What Is Optimal For Overall Chest Development?

Well, in my opinion it’s some combination of either:

  • A) a flat and incline exercise (always a 15-30 degree incline… anything higher becomes mostly shoulders).
  • B) a decline and incline exercise (extra good for those who have shoulder issues when flat pressing).
  • C) some kind of flat OR decline pressing exercise, plus some kind of incline pressing exercise, plus an isolation movement (which is the combination I’ve personally seen the best results from).

Specifically for me with “C,” the flat barbell bench press, incline dumbbell press and/or the Hammer Strength incline press machine, and dumbbell flyes. My chest is my best body part in terms of size, and that’s the combination of exercises I’ve used more than any other.

I should mention that I don’t do all of this in a single workout. I also don’t have a “chest day” (and there’s a 99.9% chance you shouldn’t have one either).

It also doesn’t mean you even need all of this in your program at one time. Depending on your set up, you can either get this in over the course of the week (for example, combined from 2 upper body workouts like The Muscle Building Workout Routine does it, or like many of the programs in Superior Muscle Growth do it).

Or, you can get these exercises in over the course of weeks/months by adjusting your exercise selection after each training cycle.

The Most Important Part

Of course, all of this chest training stuff is meaningless in the absence of the small handful of things that matter most.

This means:

  • Actually train your chest. If you do a chest press of some kind and feel it mostly in your shoulders and/or triceps but hardly at all in your chest, you’re probably going to have awesome triceps and shoulders and a not-so-awesome chest. Either improve your ability to actually activate your chest (by either fixing your technique or fixing your “mind/muscle connection”) or adjust your exercise selection so you’re doing exercises that don’t have (or at least minimizes) this problem for you. For me, it’s that combination I mentioned a minute ago. For you, it could be something different altogether.
  • Do it safely. Chest exercises and shoulder injuries go hand in hand. So if there happens to be one (or more) that cause any pain, problems, discomfort or just feels as though it may not be perfectly suited for your body in some way, avoid it in favor of exercises that feel safe and right for you. For me, it’s that combination I mentioned a minute ago. For you, it could be something different altogether. And let me tell ya… nothing prevents you from building an awesome chest quite like a shoulder injury that prevents you from actually training your chest.
  • Create progressive overload. All of the best “upper” and “lower” and “inner” and “outer” chest exercises in the world won’t amount to (Chris Farley voice) JACK SQUAT if you’re not getting progressively stronger over time. It’s the single most important aspect of muscle growth for any body part, or any part of any body part.
  • Eating to support growth. Sure, this has nothing to do with exercises and workouts, but if you’re not eating to support growth, those exercises and workouts won’t matter.

And honestly, if there is anything you’re going to take away from this article, let it be the 4 items on the list above. The rest barely matters.

Additional details here: The Best Chest Workout Routine For Men

Summing It Up

So to sum it all up, there IS an upper and lower portion of your chest. You can’t isolate them. Every exercise will always hit every part to some extent. But, certain exercises can indeed put slightly more training emphasis on one part than another.

With all of that in mind, the true keys to building an awesome chest are choosing exercises that best allow you to actually train that target muscle group (as opposed to just your shoulders/triceps), and train it in a way that is both safe (by choosing exercises that feel right for your body) and progressive (by getting stronger over time). And eat to support it, too.

Do that, and you’ll build the most wonderful upper, lower, inner, outer, eastern, western, etc. chest you are capable of building.

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About Jay
Jay is the science-based writer and researcher behind everything you've seen here. He has 15+ years of experience helping thousands of men and women lose fat, gain muscle, and build their "goal body." His work has been featured by the likes of Time, The Huffington Post, CNET, Business Week and more, referenced in studies, used in textbooks, quoted in publications, and adapted by coaches, trainers, and diet professionals at every level.

82 thoughts on “Upper Chest vs Lower Chest: Workout & Exercises To Build Big Pecs”

82 Comments

  1. Lmao eastern and western chest.

    Great article yet again Jay. I hear people bitch and complain about their upper chest all the time when their real problem is their WHOLE chest. It’s 99% of the time just a case of them not having any appreciable mass on their chest to begin with, and they want to only improve their upper chest for vanity reasons.

    The only time I’ve ever seen someone complain about their upper chest and have it make sense was when Phil Heath would say it in his training videos preparing for the Olympia. He really needed to bring up his upper chest to make his physique more symmetrical and impressive. Needless to say, 2 Olympia wins later, I think he’s done quite a bit of work on his upper chest lol.

    But outside of juiced up pros like Phil, people really just need to focus on hitting their chest as a whole.

  2. Great write up thanks! Its all fairly logical and stuff I kinda realised but its nice to get the technical low down on it. As an aside, since I’ve been following your three day rolling split I’ve been seeing “all kinds of gains” (said in Hodge Twins style voice). I’m seriously thinking about investing in your book. Was initially skeptical but based on your excellently researched, sane advice, it seems also like the logical thing to do. You should rename yourself The Logical Guy’s Workout Routine 😉
    Keep up the great work!!
    G

  3. Great article as always! Everything you say makes so much sense. Thank you. Looking forward to your next article.

  4. Say what you want,but I find that oclusion 85 degree decline while shaking your legs in the air provides the best isolation for my lower nipples.Other than that,great article !

  5. I think I read too much of your stuff that I actually know what the article will say before reading. Or I actually knew this from experience. I had a weak upper chest 3 months into weight lifting. When I asked a trainer in my gym, he recommended incline presses. I ignored his advice and kept on using your beginner routine. 6 months later, when my chest actually grew bigger, it all looked symmetric. And I did not do incline presses, not even once.

    • Awesome! I’m not sure what makes me happier… the fact that you just followed the program rather than changing/adding stuff (especially as a beginner). Or the fact that you ignored the advice of a trainer in your gym with great success. Or, maybe the fact that you’re a perfect example of one of the big points of this article.

      Whatever it is, I’m happy.

    • Exactly! Trainers will tell you anything that makes them seem smart. I was told at one time to stop doing flat bench presses because it makes my “lower” chest muscles grow more. Ugh! When I started using one of Jay’s workout routines I saw results faster than I expected. When people ask me what I do I simply direct them to this site. One girl asked me how to get the flab of her arms, and I simply directed her to Jay’s “How To Lose Face Fat FAST!” blog. Not only was she enlightened, but she got a good laugh out of it.

      • Happy to hear it! Also happy to hear your friend came away from that article enlightened and laughing. Some miss the point and just get angry and annoyed. Seems to go about 60/40.

  6. Once again you give me the insight I need. You break this stuff down so that laymen like me, who just want to get strong and feel young for as long as possible, can understand. Thank you for not adding all the scientific, anatomy mumbo jumbo, and getting straight to the point. Ever since I started reading your articles my workouts have gotten so much simpler, and so much easier, and results are being seen much more.

  7. “Upper Nipple”…lol I am glad you wrote this article, I have read in other places that incline/decline/flat were all really hitting the same muscle groups and made little difference; this confirms it for me.

  8. Wow. The industry is really filled with nonsense nowadays! I’m glad you wrote this to clear the broscience that goes on in our daily lives! Very grateful to have someone like you who can give information without all the bull. I’ve been seeing all kinds of gains and fat loss, exclusively only thanks to you!

  9. I’ve generally thought (without certainty) that genetics was about the only thing that determined muscle shape,we can only develop size not the shape.

    But now and then I do watch a youtube video or read an article that contradict this (but not hugely or often) I hear people say that by doing concentration and preacher curls you will get peaky (for want of better words, bigger towards the middle?stand up more?) biceps… and I’ve also heard people suggest doing crunches certain ways to get a similar peaky effect so that abs are better defined.

    Are we able to control muscle shape to any degree? Or is this a myth?

    I know personally I have noticed that my biceps have grown more outwards (towards the outside of my arm since I started doing some reverse grip exercises a few months ago. Is this just coincidence and just natural growth progression or is the exercise change making a difference? (I’ve been doing your outstanding arms routine for nearly 6 months now, love it!)

    • Nope, you can’t change the shape of a muscle. All we can do is make it bigger or smaller.

      Now sometimes when you make it bigger or smaller it appears as though the shape of your muscle may have changed. But, what actually happened is that the size of a the muscle changed in a way that may make it look differently shaped (e.g. let’s say one specific head of your triceps was always lagging, and you adjusted some aspect of your training to fix that… did the shape of your triceps change or did you just build more muscle on one part of it than you previously had?).

      Which I guess is all just a long way of saying that you can’t change the shape of a muscle… you can only change the size of it… and sometimes changing the size of it can make it appear as though the shape changed too (which it didn’t).

      • Yeah makes perfect sense what you are saying, for example for me I had been doing entirely neutral grip bicep exercises for a long time, and since adding reverse grip to my routine the outer (long head?I think ) might be getting a tiny bit extra work out that it wasn’t getting before.
        To the casual observer nothing noticeable, but just noticeable to myself.

        In other words the difference is barely enough to worry about.

  10. Finally, a new article.
    I definitely fall into the ‘complete lack of chest’ category unfortunately. At least I’m aware of it.
    Great article, as usual.

  11. Hi, Many sites has mentioned different grips like medium grip, closer grip of barbell target different parts of the chest ? is there any difference between them..? What is the best grip to start up as a beginner?

    • The best grip is the one that’s most comfortable for your body. Some people prefer slightly narrower, some prefer slightly wider, some prefer somewhere in the middle. Experiment and see which feels the most “right” for you.

      Having said that, extra wide is usually not a great idea, and close grip becomes more of a triceps exercise.

      • I was wondering why the extra wide grip should be avoided? I’ve always leaned towards the wide side because i feel more stable and my triceps already have nice definition, though I don’t think my grip is “extra” wide.

  12. Hi,
    Have you seen a relation between be a tall guy with longs arms and the difficult doing dips?
    I feel than i can’t put my shoulders symetrically during any press with the arms separates of the body.

    Actually , i feel better doing push up (close grip) and pec decks

  13. So after all my email was wrong. Hahaha! That is why I’m thinking how the optimal volume could compensate for each chest part. To my epic surprise, we (at the moment) only need the flat pressing. 😀

    Thank you for the honest and legit info!

  14. You mention ‘shoulder injuries’ quite a bit in this article. I don’t know if you have mentioned it elsewhere on this website, but many of these pressing injuries are caused by improper form. I had a torn labrum (not from lifting… from throwing a football). I made it worse by benching with bad form. For two years I couldn’t bench press. Instead, I did pushups… all variations. This allowed me to heal. I’ve been back to benching for over a year now with proper form without pain or issues (and I’m 42). Proper form for bench pressing (flat or incline) is:
    1. Shoulder blades pinched (like you’re trying to hold a pencil between them) while pushing shoulders down.
    2. Back arched (not excessively) so that shoulder blades and glutes are in firm contact with the bench (if you are pinching you’re blades correctly, if you grab the bar and lift your blades off the bench and firmly seat them back onto the bench, you’ll feel the entire surface area creates a flat, solid foundation).
    3. During the press, your upper arm should remain at about a 45 degree angle from your torso. If you flar it out toward 90 degrees, you increase your injury risk.
    4. Echoing the author of this website here… Your last rep in a set is when you THINK your next rep MAY break proper form. If you go for that last, questionable rep, injury risk is very high. This holds true for most lifts.

  15. Great article that really covered up my confusion. After reading close to all your articles I feel extremely more knowledgeable on weight training and fitness in general. The only thing left that I would love some expert advice on is abdominal training. Do you think your write an article on it sometime soon in the future? Thanks for your help

      • Thanks a lot for the fast response, would love some advice on ab training if you ever have the time please feel free to email me. Appreciate it!

  16. In your upper/lower routine is it ok to replace chest flies with something that hits the serratus, like a cable one arm standing chest press (the punching movement)?

  17. First, I love your site. I had not been in a gym in over 10 years and started following your diet plan and beginers workout plan in January and I have now lost over 30 pounds. Second, I have recently started experiencing some significant shoulder discomfort while bench pressing. My gym does have hammer strength machines as an alternative to the traditional barbell bench press. The are three hammer strentgh machines, bench press, incline bench, and decline bench. I have been able utilize all of these hammer strength machines without experiencing any shoulder discomfort. For purposes of the beginners program, is one of the hammer strength machine preferred over the others?

    • If the barbell bench press can’t be done (and if it bothers your shoulders when proper form is being used… you should avoid it), the next best replacement is probably the dumbbell bench press. After that, a machine like you mentioned would be fine as well. I love Hammer Strength’s incline press, but the flat press would probably be a better replacement in this case.

  18. what do you do if you have a injured your rotator cuff and all chest workouts create a pain. Doesn’t one still need to workout their chest so there is not any muscle imbalance?

  19. This is a really interesting article. I guess my problem is I don’t know which category I fit into.

    I had a really good chest, and then it started to go uneven. As in my pecs started to sag. At the time I had been doing a lot of flat bench, so naturally my first thought was to cut this out. Since then I’ve tried cutting down my body fat (I already ate really well) and doing incline stuff. Over 2-3 months and nothing has changed. After reading the above, my thought now is that my range of motion wasn’t great. And I was lifting too heavy with low reps.

    At the moment I feel like I’m stuck in no mans land – do I keep up the cardio for however long til I have a flat chest (and can wear t-shirts again). Or do I go back to your suggested chest workouts to correct the imbalance. The most frustrating thing, is that I had a good chest 3 months ago. How can it be this much work to fix my problem?

    • Depends what you mean by “sag.” Muscle wouldn’t really make your chest sag, so it’s doubtful that that’s your problem. It’s more likely that body fat, gynecomastia or loose skin would create a sagging effect.

  20. As always great article, you are the man!

    I have noticed over the last year or so that I don’t seem to “feel” much, if anything in my chest when doing basically any bench press, whether it’s flat, incline, or decline. I don’t feel that my chest is lagging, and I can progress just fine with the bench presses, but I do feel that I may not be hitting it as hard as I maybe could. I have had dips and flyes and even push-ups in my routine at certain points over the years and honestly the one exercise I really “feel” in my chest is push-ups. I’m kind of at a loss on this one.

    • Sounds like your shoulders/triceps are taking over too much and/or you’re just not doing a good job “pushing with your chest” similar to how people have a hard time “pulling with their back” rather than their biceps.

      Search around Lyle McDonald’s site for an article called “benching with the pecs” or something like that. It’s all about solving this problem.

  21. how is it that when i flex my biceps the left has a better peak/form compared to my right which seems to me is flat (i’m a rightee)? i don’t really engage in a lot of biceps exercise. just plain bb curls ff by another variation like chinups or alternate db curls or the like. i usually do three sets of each with 10-12 reps maintaining the same weight. would doing more reps on the right resolve the problem if ever there is one?

  22. I loved your article. I have been working out for a year, doing mostly “circuit” training. I’ve lost 60 lbs, I’m at my target weight, and I feel and look 1000% better. So I recently decided to take it to the next level and sought out the advice of a trainer. He now has me doing “target” workouts which consist of back and bi’s one day and chest and tri’s the other. To be honest, my chest has improved (according to my wife) but I still have some excess fat in the lower chest, hence why I’m here. I was told, workout your back and bi’s twice as much as your chest to improve your chest. More pull, less push. Do you subscribe to that theory and what are your thoughts on target training. I’m nt trying to get on the cover of muscle fitness magazine, just trying to be more lean and mean for my better half, the mrs.

    • More pulling than pushing is good general advice for shoulder health, as doing tons of chest work with little to no back work (like many people commonly due) is a frequent cause of shoulder imbalances and injury.

      And a strong upper back will give you better pressing stability for various chest pressing exercises which may indirectly have a positive effect on pressing strength.

      But, there is absolutely no direct way that back/biceps training will somehow improve your chest.

  23. Great article mate! Very informative.

    I’ve got a quick question, is there any huge advantage in doing flys and excerizes that supposedly “widen” your chest muscles, or is that also a myth?

    Cheers.

  24. Hi Jay!

    Quick question here…
    What is your opinion about specialization routines? Say focus on my back more 1-2 months while maintaining the rest, then switch body part and so on?

  25. Hi,
    I have fat in surrounding to my nipple area of chest, i reduced my weight around 18lbs from past 2 months but not at nipple area. I do cardio 30 mins, swimming 30 mins and heavy weight workouts everyday. Please tell me some exercises to reduce nipple fat.

  26. Hi! In The Best Workout Routines, what is the reason for you to have dumbbell flyes in lower rep ranges (8-10) than isolation exercises for other muscles?

    • I think anywhere between 8-15 reps is suitable for isolation exercises, though these days I lean more towards 10-15 (and a future update to The Best Workout Routines will reflect this… stay tuned).

  27. Good article. I’m having issues with my bench press. I have long arms and a narrow torso, so when a lower the bar it’s still 4-5″ above my chest. any lower and it’s tough on my shoulders and elbows. However, my incline (wide grip) bench press is powering ahead and I can lower the bar a couple of inches from my chest. Any suggestions?

  28. Just to clarify – you say flyes are useless but you in one example above you mentioned flyes in one fo your routines…. are flat/incline flyes worth doing?

    This is a great site !!

  29. A Work Out Routine,

    What about your trapezius? Would it benefit from targeting upper vs. lower part? Or is it the same story as the pecs?

  30. Hey Jay! I am getting ready to start some busy times and was wondering if I would still get the same strength and muscle building results from doing version 1 of the targeted muscle workouts? It’s the most basics one but I may need to keep things basic for a while.

    For example, can I still get big round shoulders from just doing shoulder press or am I mostly hitting my front delts?

    Thanks for your help!

    • Think of it this way… if I didn’t think/already know that Version 1 of that routine worked well for muscle growth, I would not have included it as an option in a book about building muscle. 😉

      • Sounds good! I’m working out at home at the moment and my bench does not go to a full 90°. Maybe 75-80°. Will I still be hitting my side delts? I ask because I lack shoulder width and roundness. Have your SMG book and its awesome!!
        Thanks for your help!

        • Yes. I actually prefer 80 degrees or so instead of 90.

          Keep in mind though that if improving your shoulders is your primary goal, using a workout that includes lateral raises in it will likely produce optimal results.

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