Many guys struggle with growing their upper chest. If you’re one of the many men with lagging upper pecs then read on my friend.
Lagging upper chest muscles could be due to many factors including genetics, lifting form, injury, natural body mechanics, and a host of other things. It could be caused by something as subtle as a slight twist or rotation of your humorous bone. Or maybe the angle of your upper arm and shoulder could be adjusted for better upper chest engagement.
Or maybe the fact is that you have less muscle fibers on your upper chest than normal.
As you can see there are many reasons for a lagging upper chest. Some reasons you can control and some you can’t.
Why the upper chest muscles are underdeveloped
An underdeveloped upper chest is normal (to an extent) because the upper chest is a small muscle subgroup.
Most of the muscle fibers that make up the pectorals are in the middle and lower area of the chest, making the upper chest seem like it’s lagging in comparison. Even so, this can make the chest muscles look incomplete.
The upper chest is often overpowered by the shoulders (front deltoids) and lower chest muscles. When the front deltoids overpower the upper chest muscles I would stretch out my front delts before training chest and in-between sets of chest exercises.
Another reason for a lagging upper chest could be how your neuromuscular pathways developed to control your lower chest muscles easily. But reduced your ability to contract the upper chest leading to underdeveloped upper pecs.
That’s why it’s a struggle to grow the upper chest without immense concentration and focus.
The Upper Chest Muscles Explained
Chest muscles can be divided into regions – upper, middle, and lower.
The pectoral muscles are designed to push your arms out aways from the torso and pull your arms in toward the median of your body.
The chest muscles are engaged by pushing motions. (Think bench press and dips.)
But they are also engaged by pulling motions such as pull-overs and cable chest flies.
How to Train the Upper Chest
The upper chest will naturally receive stimulation from any chest exercise. Barbell and dumbbell bench press, dumbbell and cable flies, pushups, dips, etc. will work the chest.
Your upper chest will naturally grow when your middle and lower chest grow. Even though your upper chest may seem to lag in proportion to the rest of your chest.
First and foremost, you need to have some chest muscle in general before worrying about building the upper chest specifically.
Build chest muscles with the basics – bench press, incline dumbbell press, and chest flies of all kinds.
I’ve had great success with Vince GiRonda’s famous Guillotine press. It’s one of the best exercises I’ve found for upper chest development.
In addition to the foundational muscle construction, the key to training the upper chest muscles is isolation and concentration.
Focus on building mind-muscle connection with your chest muscles. Mind-muscle connection takes serious concentration to ‘put your mind inside of the muscle’ to feel it working.
The stronger your mind-muscle connection, the better your muscle control. And muscle control is how you SHAPE your muscles.
I channel all my energy into my upper chest with pinpoint accuracy when training it. (I do that for every muscle when I train it.) Supreme mind-muscle connect is a skill to cultivate that pays handsome results.
After each set I flex and stretch the pectoral muscles to feel the sensation in my upper chest. This further builds mind-muscle connection and stimulates muscle growth.
That being said, let’s talk about the best exercises to target the upper chest.
Best Exercises to train the upper chest
The usual suspects of course top the list –
Bench Press – build overall strength and promotes ‘nerve force’. Strengthens muscles, mind, bones and sinew which is a force multiplier on the other chest exercises.
Dumbbell Bench Press – Allows for a greater chest stretch compared to the barbell bench press. Also allows you to find your sweet spot in turns of range of motion and movement pattern.
Chest flies of all kinds dumbbells and cables and machines.
Guillotine Press – one of the best chest builders in my humble opinion.
Training Tips for building the Upper Chest
In rapid fire format:
Flex your WHOLE chest as hard as you can. Feel it fill with blood. Flex the pecs until they cramp. This builds mind-muscle connection.
Isolating the upper chest can be difficult.
Incline press at several angles. 70, 60, and 45-degree angles. This goes for barbells and dumbbell presses. Use dumbbells to get a really good stretch, per usual.
Keep your chest nice and high. Reach your ribcage to the ceiling to stretch the upper chest.
Relax your deltoids and trapezius muscles so your chest does the work. You want to keep the tension on the upper chest at all times.be aware and don’t let the tension shift to your back, shoulders arms or joints. Keep the tension on the pectorals. I adjust the grip, angle of my wrist, and angle my elbow is bent until I get a sensation in my upper chest muscle. it takes practice and intense concentration. I sweat buckets just maintaining the correct body position. That’s how much effort is required sometimes.
No matter the adjustment I always lift slow and make sure my upper chest is doing the work to move my arm and weight through space. This is key.
Breathe as deeply as you can before starting each rep. I hold the air in until I reach the bottom of the fly movement, then I exhale and slowly raise the weight back to the starting point.
I then raise the weight to the point of peak upper chest muscle contraction and hold it there until I take another big breathe of air and repeat the rep. This may be pressing the dumbbells together or it might be when the dumbbells are 10 inches apart. All depends on your unique body mechanics.
Flex and contract your chest muscles all the time. Even outside of the gym. This tension is good for building and shaping the muscle. And flexing will strengthen the mind-muscle connection to make training lagging upper chest muscles easier as time goes on.
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