Chest and Tricep advice

[frankzanefan]

Hi everyone. Hoping to get some experienced advice on growth. My goal is to increase chest thickness and width, Tricep size.

Genetically my legs are my babies. My calves are 20" my Thighs are near the 30" mark. They grow easy and i don't have to try hard to do it.

My chest and triceps however piss me off. I am relatively strong and have seen growth over the last year, but I want to make sure i am working them to potential.

My stats are as follows:
age: 44
Weight: 260
Ht: 6'2"
BF%: around 12-14
Currently running: Test e 600 per week. Deca 500 per week and just finished last day of 30 day dbol Yesterday. This is the end of the 4th week of a 12 week Cycle.

Eating about 350g protein a day.

I lift 5 days a week. Are there any old school, new school, weird school ideas that may help my chest and tricep growth?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Foby]

Dips.

 

[Conrad415]

A lot comes to my mind here: diet, current exericies, last years progession, supplement use, time restraints in gym


What exercises are you doing now?

 

[barrysanders]

Agreed that dips are an amazing exercise to incorporate into your routine (especially weighted dips), do about 4-6 sets 25 reps and you'll tri's will grow if your eating enough protein.

As for chest. Make sure that you are involving DB's into your routine and having proper form. Try to hit the chest as in many angles as possible; Lower, upper, Middle.

 

[Foby]

One other thing most people forget about too, is form. If you are sticking your chesting out and pinching your back especially on things like bench press, your going to be hitting alot more delt than chest.

So just remember to keep your chest out, shoulders pinched, and your set.

 

[frankzanefan]

Typical chest day is Flat bench, Incline bench, Then either DB flys or machine flys depending on how busy the gym is.
Decline every other week. Cable cross's every couple of weeks. And always end with some tricep exorcise. Dips or pull downs etc.

I feel them and can see them growing, just not at the pace i guess i feel they should, but i may be forcing that thought into my head.

 

[TonySuicideKing]

those legs sound massive man. you got almost 5" on me in both sections lol. What do the arms look like? I have the same situation. Legs are gainers, the arms and chest not so much.

 

[frankzanefan]

At last measurement Sept 25. I was 17.25 arms, 15.25 Forearm and 49 inches around the chest.

 

[drewbolic]

watch your elbow position of lifts a lot of the time chest wont grow bc tri's are taking the load or vise versa.
Proper form to isolate.
Elbows out= chest
elbows in=tri's

 

[drewbolic]

also increase the range of motion and try hitting the chest from different angles

 

[RJ]

How much are you benching and what rep range are you using? If you're not incresing weight often you will not grow.

And are you sure your stats are correct? Those stats with those measurements sound sketch. You got any pics you can post? Somethings not right.

 

[frankzanefan]

My last chest day...Dec 13, i did the following on bench.

wu, 135 x 15 x 2
225 x 12
275 x 8
315 x 4
225 x 17 Burn out (goal is 25)

we use 3/4 extension to keep chest engaged.

I have some distinguishable tattoos on upper body so i cant really show, but i will try to get a leg pic in soon.

 

[frankzanefan]

ok, this hopefully helps. found a way to black out some of the photo.

 

[RJ]

Thanks. That helps. I would put you more towards the 14% range than the 12%. But at your size thats not bad.

Either way, i would stop that drop set routine and start a sets across style and try and increase by 5lbs every week. Only do a couple of heavy work sets to failure and forget alot of that isolation bullshit. Short of genetic deficiency, getting big is about getting strong and eating.

Me personally i would try a low volume routine like the one below to try and get the strength up and in turn increase your overall size.

http://www.steroidology.com/forum/547098-post126.html

 

[MuscleGuru]

One great thing that you could do would be to evaluate what type of muscle fiber is dominant in your chest and triceps.
Slow Twitch Fibers (red tissue), Fast Twitch A, and Fast Twitch B fibers (White tissue) very different from one another.
Everything from motor neuron size, oxidation capacity, resistance to fatigue, main energy stores, contraction time, energy output, etc. are all dramatically different from one muscle fiber type to another.
Everyone has both fast and slow twitch fibers, but genetics determine which ones are dominant in your body, and where.
This is why two different people can follow two identical training programs and end up with very different results.
There is no magical rep range, a one size fits all exercise, or perfect training volume. So asking what a guy with a great chest or triceps does for his results won't necessarily work for you. What he does works for him, and it's because he has learned his body, and what his body requires.

The most beneficial thing you can do would be to evaluate what muscle fiber type is dominant in you chest and triceps. Once you know that, 90% of the work is done, as you will be able to determine exactly what those muscles require for maximum stimulation, recuperation, and ultimately growth.

 

[drewbolic]

What helps me is progressive over load.
Like RJ mentioned I increase weight every other split.
But once a month I really switch things up "progressive overload" change weight-higher or lower,change rep range higher or lower,different ROM,different lifts all together.
This works on the idea of muscle confusion and really stresses the muscle group in trying to hit causing higher levels of GH and causing growth.

 

[frankzanefan]

One great thing that you could do would be to evaluate what type of muscle fiber is dominant in your chest and triceps.
Slow Twitch Fibers (red tissue), Fast Twitch A, and Fast Twitch B fibers (White tissue) very different from one another.
Everything from motor neuron size, oxidation capacity, resistance to fatigue, main energy stores, contraction time, energy output, etc. are all dramatically different from one muscle fiber type to another.
Everyone has both fast and slow twitch fibers, but genetics determine which ones are dominant in your body, and where.
This is why two different people can follow two identical training programs and end up with very different results.
There is no magical rep range, a one size fits all exercise, or perfect training volume. So asking what a guy with a great chest or triceps does for his results won't necessarily work for you. What he does works for him, and it's because he has learned his body, and what his body requires.

The most beneficial thing you can do would be to evaluate what muscle fiber type is dominant in you chest and triceps. Once you know that, 90% of the work is done, as you will be able to determine exactly what those muscles require for maximum stimulation, recuperation, and ultimately growth.

is there someplace where this is done? or is this through trial and error?

 

[MuscleGuru]

is there someplace where this is done? or is this through trial and error?

There can be precise test done,where they actually take samples of your muscle and examine them, but it is expensive and painful.

The most common method used among athletes is to perform a rep test. In your case, since you want to test your chest and triceps, use standard barbell bench press as your testing method. This is a good compound movement that uses both muscles. Although you can test each muscle individually by using isolation movements.

For the sake of explanation, I will use the bench press as an example, but the rules are the same.

First, determine your one rep max on bench press. Be as honest as possible with this, picking a weight that is a little too light, or counting a forced rep or assisted set as your max, will not give you accurate results.
Once you have your one rep max determined, rest and recuperate. I would recommend finishing your workout as usual, and finishing the rest of the test on a new day, when you can start fresh.

When you are rested and your muscles and CNS are fresh, you can finish the second half of the muscle fiber test. Warm up appropriately, but be careful not to wear yourself out, or waste too much energy in an attempt to warm up too much. You just need to get the muscles stretched and ready for the movement they are about to perform. I would recommend a single light set of bench press with about 10 reps.

Once you are warmed up, load 80% of your one rep max on the bar. So, if your max was 200, load 160 on the bar, if it was 300, load 240 on the bar, etc.

Now, when you are ready for the set (don't rush it), perform as many reps as possible. Again, do not decide that you are "tired" and give up before absolute failure, or go the other route and start counting forced reps. Have a spotter on hand, but do every rep by yourself until you reach muscular failure. Once failure is achieved, your spotter can help you rack the weight.

Now, this is how you determine muscle fiber dominance.

If you achieved less than 7 reps with 80% of your one rep max, than you have a dominant amount of Fast Twitch B fibers.

If you achieve between 7 and 12 reps at 80% of your one rep max, you have a dominant amount of Fast Twitch A fibers.

If you achieve more than 12 reps with 80% of your one rep max, than you have a dominant amount of Slow Twitch Fibers.

After you know which muscle fibers are dominant, it is actually pretty easy to get the results you want, as long as you are following good nutrition, and are consistent. However, each muscle fiber type has A LOT of info to go along with it as far as it's requirements for stimulation, recovery, etc. So I will leave that for another post.

I believe learning your muscle fiber type is the number one most important factor in training, and unfortunately 95% of athletes do not do this, so they simply play the guessing game on what their body needs, and sadly never reach their potential.

Learning your muscle fiber type with be a major turning point in your training and results.

 

[RJ]

you could do all that... or you could skip all that shit and start adding weight via progressive overload.

This isn't rocket science brother. to get big you gotta get strong. Plain and simple.

 

[frankzanefan]

Lol rj, I'm gonna take both factors and run. 1st because I want to grow but not necessarily for competition. And 2nd because I have a weird need to understand more about these things in order to help others too.
So ima at least see how well guru's advice helps, while still trying to go heavy!
I did get 225 up for 20 last night at the end of my set. Felt good about that. Sore as hell today!