An Intelligent Approach to Building a Big, Strong Chest by Allen Cress - New Article!

[Joe Black]

If you’re a lifter, I guarantee you’ve been asked The Question “how much do you bench?” It's almost like a prerequisite to joining a gym nowadays...

The truth is, unless you’re a powerlifter, how much you bench is irrelevant. Developing a full chest, one that looks like it could bench a ton - lies in proper science and proper application of training.

Our very own Allen Cress covers the scientific principles and proper methodology for building the strong, muscular chest you want!

READ HERE

[Joe Black]

I also want to thank Allen and congraluate him on his first article on Wannabebig - he started off well

[brihead301]

Interesting article for sure. I definately learned something from it about the two planes of motion. I never realized that flies were important before for chest development.

The thing I don't like about it is that in the sample workout, which is a basic bodypart split, has a chest day, back day, shoulders day, arms day, and legs/functional chest day. I was always of the mentality that the lower body should be trained equally as much, if not more then the upper body. But with this split, it's as if legs are just kinda 'squeezed in' there with all the upper body work on the other 4 days....and even on the leg day, it's not even fully devoted to legs because it's a "legs and functional chest" day. This is typical gym rat thinking, and I thought we at WBB knew better then that!

[Berzinator]

The thing I don't like about it is that in the sample workout, which is a basic bodypart split, has a chest day, back day, shoulders day, arms day, and legs/functional chest day. I was always of the mentality that the lower body should be trained equally as much, if not more then the upper body. But with this split, it's as if legs are just kinda 'squeezed in' there with all the upper body work on the other 4 days....and even on the leg day, it's not even fully devoted to legs because it's a "legs and functional chest" day. This is typical gym rat thinking, and I thought we at WBB knew better then that!

I agree that it does seem like legs aren't really emphasized in this program. I mean again it is a chest developing article so maybe that's why.

The things I don't like about it is the "hit a muscle once a week" idea, when research shows far more benefit from hitting a muscle twice a week due to protein synthesis responses. I'm not saying once a week can never work, but for the majority of people, alternating upper and lower or some other way of hitting each muscle twice per week works way better.

Also I've heard that putting your feet up when you bench makes it harder, but only because of less stabilization, and the consequent reduction in load will take away from the primary stimulus of muscle growth - tension. I think using heavier weights with a normal bench would be more productive.

Sorry, not trying to attack here at all, there's just a few things I don't agree with and want to get a discussion going.

[Off Road]

Well actually, with this split, you are hitting your triceps and possibly your shoulders (depending on exercise selection) FOUR times a week. That's pretty aggressive pressing. I'd certainly want to keep the intensity in check with that frequency.

<edit> I changed the count after re-reading the split. I forgot the extra chest day. </edit>

[Allen Cress]

.

The thing I don't like about it is that in the sample workout, which is a basic bodypart split, has a chest day, back day, shoulders day, arms day, and legs/functional chest day. I was always of the mentality that the lower body should be trained equally as much, if not more then the upper body. But with this split, it's as if legs are just kinda 'squeezed in' there with all the upper body work on the other 4 days....and even on the leg day, it's not even fully devoted to legs because it's a "legs and functional chest" day. This is typical gym rat thinking, and I thought we at WBB knew better then that!

You have to understand the split is emaphsizing target training. The legs are being trained with as much volume as each upper body part. Performing functional chest work on leg day does not take away from legs by any means it just increases workload capacity that day. I have achieved great results with bodypart splits and so have hundreds of my clients so to say its doesn't work is not true by any means. But I also implement push/pull splits, upper lower splits it just depends on what the current needs state is of an individual.

There is no one best way to split your workouts and any and all can be used if designed properly. I understand there is a bias here about max strength and there is nothing wrong for training for strength, but this is for development purposes. You have to think outside the box sometimes and get away from traditionalism.

[ELmx479]

When it comes to training for looks I wouldn't doubt anything Allen says with his experience training himself and others. Good article.

[brihead301]

Again, in regards to building a massive chest, the article is awesome! Even with regards to bodypart target training, I have no problems there either. It's the 4/5 upper 1/5 lower thing that bothers me....

The only thing I don't like about that type of split (which only has 'legs' in there one day out of the week) is that there is too much emphasis on the upper body, and not enough on the lower body. On shoulder day, you are still training tris, traps, chest, back, etc... On chest day, you're hitting shoulders, tris, back, etc... Back day, you're hitting biceps, shoulders, etc... So the upper body is getting 4 whole days of work, and the legs aren't even getting touched. The legs are only getting one single day of attention out of 5 total training days. The upper body is getting 4 out of 5 days of attention (that's not to mention if you are doing squats and deads on the leg day, then the upper body is getting a 5th day of attention as well!)

Considering that the legs contain the largest muscle groups in the entire body, wouldn't it make more sense to have a 5 day split composed of quads, hams, chest, back, and shoulders? Train arms with shoulders, bis with back and tris with chest, etc....or something along those lines. That would even things out a bit more.

To me, having 4 upper body days, and only 1 lower body day is no better then having 4 lower body days, and 1 upper body day. Something like: 1 hamstring/glutes day, 1 quad day, 1 adductor day/hip flexor day, 1 calf day, and 1 upper body day....that would be crazy!!!!

Again, my point is simply against the unbalanced upper and lower body training, not against bodypart target training in general.

[brihead301]

When it comes to training for looks I wouldn't doubt anything Allen says with his experience training himself and others. Good article.

I agree. I just like to start trouble sometimes .

[Allen Cress]

I agree that it does seem like legs aren't really emphasized in this program. I mean again it is a chest developing article so maybe that's why.

The things I don't like about it is the "hit a muscle once a week" idea, when research shows far more benefit from hitting a muscle twice a week due to protein synthesis responses. I'm not saying once a week can never work, but for the majority of people, alternating upper and lower or some other way of hitting each muscle twice per week works way better.

Also I've heard that putting your feet up when you bench makes it harder, but only because of less stabilization, and the consequent reduction in load will take away from the primary stimulus of muscle growth - tension. I think using heavier weights with a normal bench would be more productive.

Sorry, not trying to attack here at all, there's just a few things I don't agree with and want to get a discussion going.

No need to apologize, everyone has a right to their opinion.

As far as hitting a muscle twice a week for better protein synthesis response, its not that black and white by any means. The degree of muscle activation and breakdown, toatal volume for the week, intensity factors, etc... all play a role in this. If a muscle is hit with enough volume in one day (dpending on the individual) it will elicit an adaptive response and create better protein synthesis.

Again we are not so much focused on load, although the weight needs to be challenging, we are focused on placing more stress on the targeted muscle. Again placing the targeted muscle under stress, time under tension, TEP(training efficiency percentage) which is the number or percentage of reps in a given set that elicit an adaptive response.

You do not have to be 1RM “strong” in terms of how much you can lift, to develop a body or develop strength; but you do need to apply max efforts consistently. For development How much you lift is secondary to how hard you lift. So it’s not about “lifting more” it is about “lifting better.” The mind muscle connection is at the heart of the notion that "the muscles work the weights; the weights don’t work the muscles".

[Allen Cress]

A

The only thing I don't like about that type of split (which only has 'legs' in there one day out of the week) is that there is too much emphasis on the upper body, and not enough on the lower body. On shoulder day, you are still training tris, traps, chest, back, etc... On chest day, you're hitting shoulders, tris, back, etc... Back day, you're hitting biceps, shoulders, etc... So the upper body is getting 4 whole days of work, and the legs aren't even getting touched. The legs are only getting one single day of attention out of 5 total training days. The upper body is getting 4 out of 5 days of attention (that's not to mention if you are doing squats and deads on the leg day, then the upper body is getting a 5th day of attention as well!)

Considering that the legs contain the largest muscle groups in the entire body, wouldn't it make more sense to have a 5 day split composed of quads, hams, chest, back, and shoulders? Train arms with shoulders, bis with back and tris with chest, etc....or something along those lines. That would even things out a bit more.

To me, having 4 upper body days, and only 1 lower body day is no better then having 4 lower body days, and 1 upper body day. Something like: 1 hamstring/glutes day, 1 quad day, 1 adductor day/hip flexor day, 1 calf day, and 1 upper body day....that would be crazy!!!!

Again, my point is simply against the unbalanced upper and lower body training, not against bodypart target training in general.

There is balance beacuse its geared towards isolating th emuscle as much as possible that you are training, Of course you can not truly take other muscles out of a lift but when using proper techinique you can take most of the workload and place it on say the back and not your biceps. This type of training requires you to put ego to the side and not just focus on how much you lift because that will cause more involvment from secondary muscles because at that point most are more concerned with moving a weight from point A to B.

There can be a few different splits as well but with any spilt its not used all the time. When a program runs its course you change the emphasis if needed. Again this is geared towards physique development. If this spilt didn't work people liuke myself, Shelby Satrnes, Scott Abel, and hundreds of bodybuilders would have never made any progress. Also realize This isn't the only way to train and I'm not saying it is. It is written in a general format for the masses and indivualism is the most important thing.

[chevelle2291]

Interesting Article, Allen. I've always found that DB presses, especially incline, really hit my chest more than anything.

I'd be very interested in seeing other articles by you, perhaps another bodybuilding article with a full routine for size? I'd also be happy to see an article talking about the mind/muscle connection and giving pointers to creating that connection in training for better results.

Thanks for the great article.

[Behemoth]

Excellent article.

[Berzinator]

No need to apologize, everyone has a right to their opinion.

As far as hitting a muscle twice a week for better protein synthesis response, its not that black and white by any means. The degree of muscle activation and breakdown, toatal volume for the week, intensity factors, etc... all play a role in this. If a muscle is hit with enough volume in one day (dpending on the individual) it will elicit an adaptive response and create better protein synthesis.

Again we are not so much focused on load, although the weight needs to be challenging, we are focused on placing more stress on the targeted muscle. Again placing the targeted muscle under stress, time under tension, TEP(training efficiency percentage) which is the number or percentage of reps in a given set that elicit an adaptive response.

You do not have to be 1RM “strong” in terms of how much you can lift, to develop a body or develop strength; but you do need to apply max efforts consistently. For development How much you lift is secondary to how hard you lift. So it’s not about “lifting more” it is about “lifting better.” The mind muscle connection is at the heart of the notion that "the muscles work the weights; the weights don’t work the muscles".

I agree that there is a minimum volume and workload that must be achieved to elicit an adaptive response in terms of protein synthesis, but I also don't agree that blasting a muscle once a week will cause the same increase in protein synthesis as splitting that workload into two sessions. There is a law of diminishing returns in protein synthesis response to a volume of a workout. In other words, (using arbitrary units) 5 units of work might cause 5 units increase in protein synthesis, but 10 units of work in the same session might cause 7 units increase in protein synthesis. Because of the time course of the response (at most 72 hours) it seems more logical to do a "5" workout twice a week resulting in a "10" in protein synthesis for the week, rather than once a week for a "7". Again the units are arbitrary and just to make a point. I will concede on this however since most muscle groups overlap and will get hit a little on other days, but I don't think it's quite ideal.

As far as the feet up issue, I am of the understanding that it isn't placing more tension on the muscles, but simply making the exercise more difficult through a less balanced environment. My argument was that a normal bench press with a heavier weight hits the chest more because a feet up bench forces you to use less weight due to instability, not because it focuses more on the chest. Anatomically there's no reason that placing your feet on the bench would result in better activation of the pectorals.

Also, I am by no means saying the things Alan says aren't true or don't work. Obviously he is in fantastic shape and his clients get great results (from what I hear), but that in no way means his way is the optimal way. There are many ways to get results but through pragmatic debate we can possibly determine if one way works better (even if the other way still works).

[depotman]

Excellent article Allen, I enjoyed reading it.

I think most people need to remember when reading this article that the article is on chest developement, therefore it's based around that. Not really getting into recommending what to do with the other muscle groups.

Most people if they wanted to follow the info could use the chest workouts on their chest day for the week and do their own thing the rest of the week for their other muscle groups.

Either way I liked the info given on chest development, well done.

[The J-Man]

Great article Allen, I really enjoyed it!

I think people often forget that weight is only ONE measurement of intensity. Looking forward to future articles.

[Shemz]

Interesting Article, Allen. I've always found that DB presses, especially incline, really hit my chest more than anything.

I'd be very interested in seeing other articles by you, perhaps another bodybuilding article with a full routine for size? I'd also be happy to see an article talking about the mind/muscle connection and giving pointers to creating that connection in training for better results.

Thanks for the great article.

I ² that!

If there is one guy here I always love to read from and learn from it's Allen (no offense to the others). I have read alot of your posts and have been trying to apply the knowledge I've gained to my training and I've only gotten benefits from it.

A more indepth article about mind/muscle seems very interesting to me, because imo the mind is the key to growth. An article for size seems somewhat "impossible" since we are all different people, but a few tips or tweaks for certain exercises/bodyparts, would also be nice.

Alot of people, including me, still lack alot of knowledge. Like you said in your own thread a few days ago: why not squat AFTER you have already made your legs somewhat 'tired'. I also read about this in an article yesterday by Jim Stoppani. We learn more every day.

Thank you.

[Off Road]

As far as hitting a muscle twice a week for better protein synthesis response, its not that black and white by any means. The degree of muscle activation and breakdown, toatal volume for the week, intensity factors, etc... all play a role in this. If a muscle is hit with enough volume in one day (dpending on the individual) it will elicit an adaptive response and create better protein synthesis.

Excellent response Allen. I just felt compelled to pull it out and quote it.

[Reala]

Did workout one today... OUCH!