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Post by underdog on Mar 2, 2010 9:10:29 GMT -5
Hey guys. For a while I've been trying to figure out why my chest hasn't improved for the last couple of months and I think I've found the issue.
After taking a week off I've started hitting the gym with renewed energy. Yesterday during my chest workout, I noticed my triceps completely failed on my third set of incline bench. The issue with this is that I feel I hadn't really stimulated my chest at the point, I mean it was my first exercise in the line up.
As I thought about it, it kind of struck me that my triceps have been doing this for a while, and it's really hurting my gains in terms of muscle growth for my chest.
I don't usually add an arms day in my workout week, I just don't have the time, and I'm starting to wonder if that's hurt me. Any suggestions or insights would be helpful on this one.
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Post by ChemProf on Mar 2, 2010 11:50:20 GMT -5
One suggestion would be to do a pre-exhaustion exercise on chest first that doesn't involve the triceps. You could do db flye's, machine flyes, or cable crossovers.
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Post by rantorcha on Mar 2, 2010 18:26:27 GMT -5
UDog, IMO if your tris are failing before you get a good chest workout, it's probably more to do with not performing the chest exercise correctly. I'm not sure what exercises you're doing or how you are doing them, can I'll bet my car that you are probably lifting weight that's too heavy for you and you have practically no mind-muscle connection. In other words, you are moving the weight, but not really feeling it. (please correct me if that's inaccurate)
I had a similar problem. So, after years of practically no growth, I threw everything out the window and started over. I went back to basics and forgot about the weight I was using and concentrated more on using the weight to "push the muscle". Contraction, pause, and the negative - I "felt" all three phases.
Try lowering the weight and "feeling" the muscle do the work instead of auxillary muscles.
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rdsu
P/RR/S Newbie
P/RR/S User! :)
Posts: 35
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Post by rdsu on Mar 2, 2010 19:21:35 GMT -5
UDog, IMO if your tris are failing before you get a good chest workout, it's probably more to do with not performing the chest exercise correctly. I'm not sure what exercises you're doing or how you are doing them, can I'll bet my car that you are probably lifting weight that's too heavy for you and you have practically no mind-muscle connection. In other words, you are moving the weight, but not really feeling it. (please correct me if that's inaccurate) I had a similar problem. So, after years of practically no growth, I threw everything out the window and started over. I went back to basics and forgot about the weight I was using and concentrated more on using the weight to "push the muscle". Contraction, pause, and the negative - I "felt" all three phases. Try lowering the weight and "feeling" the muscle do the work instead of auxillary muscles. So true... This also happened to me  This is a common problem in all the Gyms... |
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Post by underdog on Mar 3, 2010 1:36:23 GMT -5
While I agree that this could be a root for this problem, I don't feel it's the case. After high school I got away from the "How much can ya' lift?" type of thinking, and schooled myself on the basics of body building such as the mind-muscle connection. And while not a master I have become fairly well versed in using the mind-muscle connection.
I will add that I find it hard to "feel" my upper chest working during incline bench, and will keep in mind all the suggestions given thus far, especially revisiting my form. However, I think I've always had weak triceps.
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rdsu
P/RR/S Newbie
P/RR/S User! :)
Posts: 35
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Post by rdsu on Mar 3, 2010 5:54:41 GMT -5
Couldn't be because you train Triceps some days before Chest, and don't have enough time to recover them?
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Post by naturalleo on Aug 8, 2010 17:03:34 GMT -5
If you know the basics of triceps anatomy coupled with the knowledge necessary to design a triceps training program that will increase your functional strength and power. Now I don't want to bore you will any trivial information, so let's keep it simple here.... the triceps are made up of three separate heads: the long, medial, and lateral heads. The primary function of all three is extension of the elbow; however, as I am sure you already know by now that certain movements hit the triceps heads differently.
Here is the good news P/RR/S is great because we already hit each muscle groups from various angle or position thus by varying position of each range (a compound, or midrange, movement, stretched, and contracted position, which allows you to flex and squeeze the muscle against resistance.) In fact, most triceps movements are largely performed by the medial and lateral heads. The long head is most heavily recruited when it's pre-stretched, such as in exercises where the elbow is overhead (e.g. overhead dumbbell extensions). So, just get after it and hit the gym hard with maximal intensity and effort utilizing what you and everyone on this site have all learned to love so much that is P/RR/S.... there is no conclusive reason to have to reinvent the wheel so to speak I mean after all it is set up this way for a reason, because it works. Stick with the program and send a messages to the ONE I am sure he will be more then glad to respond to any questions or concerns. Best.
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