I am having trouble getting my lats and chest to grow and strength to go up.

[Samurai]

I am having trouble getting my lats and chest to grow. My lats aren't widening out and that's probably do to fact that I can't do real complete chin ups because I am to heavy to lift my self up (I weigh 200lbs) even then I my lats are only strong enough to do 2 incomple range of motion reps, so I have been using assisted chin up machine until my strength level goes up. I have been training a year now on that assisted chins (50lbs assist), but my strength hasn't gone up at all, and I still can only do a complete shoulder blade contraction squeeze for complete chin up rep at 50lb assist on wide grip, 40lb on narrow. Why isn't my strength going up? I am assuming that I am not because only real chin ups using actual body weight give you the widening results to show up, but I can't get myself strong enough to do them....frustrating.

My chest is another problem especially my narrow lower chest area. For some damn reason my lower chest refuses to get wide and thick like the Oak's. My middle outer chest area is wider then my lower outer area of my chest. My strength isn't progressing at all. Lately, I am trying to work on my weak points 1st priority in my workout by doing dips first then go on to bench presses, flyes and cross bench pullovers (pyramiding).

I have never used a training journal to monitor my progress, but I somehow doubt that is going to help raise my strength levels up gradually. Is the rule about strenght increasing that every two weeks your stength should increase. My lats and chest are extremely stubborn and whats frustrating is that my arms seem to be the only things that are growing.

By the way, am an ecto-mesomorph, 5'10 and weigh 200lbs with very minimal body fat.

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[w00t]

whats your routine like? are you squatting and deadlifting?

 

[huskyguy]

200lbs is not too heavy to do chin ups I weigh 254lbs and I can still do 20 chinups in a row with very little difficulty. Challenge yourself on these and eventually Chin ups should become easy.

 

[Samurai]

200lbs is not too heavy to do chin ups I weigh 254lbs and I can still do 20 chinups in a row with very little difficulty. Challenge yourself on these and eventually Chin ups should become easy.

I can't even do one chin up all the way up to the bar, I strain just to get past the half way point. My lats are so fuckn weak that my biceps help out to much and still strain...I want them to get stronger with every chin up attempt in my back session but they just won't...I am not able to get my head above the bar.

Are my lats not catching up strength wise to my body weight because I didn't do chins when I was a teenager (when your natural Test levels are highest)? I am wondering if thats the reason why.

 

[shortz]

200lbs is not too heavy to do chin ups I weigh 254lbs and I can still do 20 chinups in a row with very little difficulty. Challenge yourself on these and eventually Chin ups should become easy.

Damn, that's strong.

I am 230lbs and on my first set I hit a solid 10-12 chins.

Here is the way I got my numbers up. This was from a SilverBack ATS routine. The first 6 weeks I was only taking 45 seconds to 1 minute rest between sets. THe first set I go to fatigue, then I split up the rest of the total 30 reps into equal sets, this way I know I am getting 30 resp each session. When I first started, I was only doing 6 reps on the first set and 3 on the rest, so you can see how many sets I was doing. After those 6 weeks, for the next 6 weeks, I was taking 2 minutes rest and still trying to hit a total of 30 reps the same way.

When you hit that 2 minutes rest, within two weeks strength explodes. I felt real strong. Do this for 6 weeks, then go back to the short rest times again and start over. This is a cycle and your body shoulnd't have enough time to get adjusted to make gains stop.

 

[thetopdog]

If you're really 5'10", 200lbs with minimal body fat, you should be pretty strong, since that's a decent size

I'm 5'10", 202lbs, probably 14%bf and I did a set of 6 chins last week with 55lbs strapped to my waist.

 

[Tryn2]

How many calories do you eat and how many grams of carbs and protein do you eat per day ???

 

[Samurai]

whats your routine like? are you squatting and deadlifting?

I am using Schwarzenegger's routine. Pyramiding...

Could it be that my chest is not getting bigger, nor my lats because I not getting in exactly 300 grams of protien a day...?

 

[shortz]

I am using Schwarzeneggers routine.

That may be your problem. Very few people can use his routines and gain.

 

[Tryn2]

Well diet directly affects your performance and your gains. The thing is lets say you should be getting 300 grams. Usually when one actuslly tracks what they eat from day to day they notice many problems. I would say start upping your protein intake. Though I dont think you said how much you consume try for a minimum of 300 grams. I would shoot for 400.......You want to be beast right ? I think this is a simple task but seems so hard for everyone to do everyday. Day in and day out. Its what will put you up the ladder...IMO....

 

[blackbeard]

flyes, cable crosses will do nothing to add strength/mass to your chest..stick with either Incline or flat presses as your bread and butter.

try BB rows for your back..youve been hitting chins for a year now its obviously not working..you need to change it up..BB rows, try some hammer row machines..even deadlifts

 

[Bimmer]

like Tryn2 mentioned, excersize alone will not get you results... you need to have proper nutrition and rest. What is minimal bodyfat to you?

 

[shortz]

flyes, cable crosses will do nothing to add strength/mass to your chest...

I have to disagree with this statement to an extent. Strength? I would agree, mass, I disagree. I also agree that big lifts should be a major part of the lifting, but, flies and cable x overs actually put more stress on the actual pec muscles than pressing does. When pressing, you are using tris, delts, biceps, lats, and the chest. Seems like alot of help when you're trying to work the chest. I am not always quick to throw out the idea of iso work.

 

[blackbeard]

I have to disagree with this statement to an extent. Strength? I would agree, mass, I disagree. I also agree that big lifts should be a major part of the lifting, but, flies and cable x overs actually put more stress on the actual pec muscles than pressing does. When pressing, you are using tris, delts, biceps, lats, and the chest. Seems like alot of help when you're trying to work the chest. I am not always quick to throw out the idea of iso work.

ive always included them and they have done absolutely shit for my chest..count how many people in a gym you see doing flyes and cable crosses and how many of them have a good chest?

 

[Tryn2]

Look I truely believe that your mind is very, very powerful. I actually think that you can shift what an excerise is doing for you by concentrating on where you want it to work.
Try this....Go into the gym and do bench with nothing but focusing on blowing the fuck out of your triceps. Picture them fucking growing like weeds, picture them doing all the work, focus and squeeze your tri's at the top, stretch at the bottom. Then the next week do the same thing yet shift that focus toward you chest. Squeeze your chest at the top of the movement hard ass fucking hell FOCUS !!!! and strecth it at the bottom. Focus on your chest being the fucking almighty !!!! Its all in what you want to happen. Your mind is the most powerful fucking tool you have. Shit they say humans use 2% of your brain. You want to step up your gains. Step up your fucking brain the rest will follow. Then add protein.

 

[Samurai]

That may be your problem. Very few people can use his routines and gain.

Why is that? I have the same body type as Arnolds...so I don't understand why it wouldn't work for me(I trying to get my phsyqe to be very comparable to Arnolds). I also have a day were I do power lifts. It must be the diet. I am getting in only 240 grams of protien a day. I eat like 4000 calories a day though.

 

[Samurai]

Look I truely believe that your mind is very, very powerful. I actually think that you can shift what an excerise is doing for you by concentrating on where you want it to work.
Try this....Go into the gym and do bench with nothing but focusing on blowing the fuck out of your triceps. Picture them fucking growing like weeds, picture them doing all the work, focus and squeeze your tri's at the top, stretch at the bottom. Then the next week do the same thing yet shift that focus toward you chest. Squeeze your chest at the top of the movement hard ass fucking hell FOCUS !!!! and strecth it at the bottom. Focus on your chest being the fucking almighty !!!! Its all in what you want to happen. Your mind is the most powerful fucking tool you have. Shit they say humans use 2% of your brain. You want to step up your gains. Step up your fucking brain the rest will follow. Then add protein.

Like Arnold, I always think of the muscle growing bigger during every set.

 

[Samurai]

Well today was my back day, and I did wide grip chins first thing in my workout.
I was only able to do like 3 reps at a time rested for 30 seconds then do another 3 or 4 reps. I did this for 3 sets until my lats fatigued.

The problem is I couldn't pull my head up to the bar level at the top of the movement. In other words, I didn't have the strength to reach the top of the movement.

 

[thetopdog]

Why would you be doing them wide grip if you can hardly do them? Swtich to a narrower grip

 

[gcs118]

flyes, cable crosses will do nothing to add strength/mass to your chest..stick with either Incline or flat presses as your bread and butter.

What do you recommend besides doing flat, incline or decline presses to supplement chest workouts? I usually rotate dips and flyes. Anything more optimal?