Chest Press - Where should it hurt?

CyberDave

I have been doing free weight chest press exercises for a while now. Barbell chest press incline and decline, dumbbell chest press, flyes etc. When I get get muscle soreness the following day it's on the muscles right in front of my armpits (not sure what they're called). Just wondering if I should be feeling soreness further in on my chest, like on the pecs themselves or does it mean I am doing the chest exercises incorrectly?

yomchi

CyberDave wrote: »

I have been doing free weight chest press exercises for a while now. Barbell chest press incline and decline, dumbbell chest press, flyes etc. When I get get muscle soreness the following day it's on the muscles right in front of my armpits (not sure what they're called). Just wondering if I should be feeling soreness further in on my chest, like on the pecs themselves or does it mean I am doing the chest exercises incorrectly?

The pectorals spread right across the chest and insert just above the arm pit and into the shoulder. You're feeling it right, flies especially will hit the wider parts of the muscle.

the-lad

Sorry for jumping in but does anyone know any good stretches for your chest. I get a shooting pain in my left arm/shoulder when i lower the bb
Thanks

CyberDave

Jon wrote: »

The pectorals spread right across the chest and insert just above the arm pit and into the shoulder. You're feeling it right, flies especially will hit the wider parts of the muscle.

That's good about the flyes anyway. I never have any soreness right in the middle of the pecs. I'm not sure if I should have or not. As well as the front of the shoulders, my pecs are only ever sore down the sides towards my ribs.

yomchi

Just to clarify, you are talking about DOMS right? As opposed to injury.

The majority of the pec working during the press movement is wide and high near the shoulder. Incline press will hit the front delts a bit more too, so thats normal.
To hit the inner pec, make sure the trajectory of your flies is good and squueze the muscle at the end of the positive movement. The pec-deck machine can be good for reaching the inner pec too with good form, working both the positive (pushing) and negative movement (bring weights back)

CyberDave

Jon wrote: »

Just to clarify, you are talking about DOMS right? As opposed to injury.

The majority of the pec working during the press movement is wide and high near the shoulder. Incline press will hit the front delts a bit more too, so thats normal.
To hit the inner pec, make sure the trajectory of your flies is good and squueze the muscle at the end of the positive movement. The pec-deck machine can be good for reaching the inner pec too with good form, working both the positive (pushing) and negative movement (bring weights back)

Yeah! DOMS, sorry. Thanks for the advice.

Racing Flat

CyberDave wrote: »

That's good about the flyes anyway. I never have any soreness right in the middle of the pecs. I'm not sure if I should have or not. As well as the front of the shoulders, my pecs are only ever sore down the sides towards my ribs.

If you are sore down the sides towards your ribs it may well be serratus anterior that you are feeling rather than pecs.



These are shoulder protractors and so would also be working for a lot of 'pec' type exercises which would typically involve shoulder horizontal flexion and adduction, movements which would often happen in conjunction with shoulder protraction.


In relation to pecs, there are 2 muscles, pectoralis major and pectoralis minor. You are probably more interested in pectoralis major, the big one that essentially makes up your chest. Pec major would often be split into 2 muscles in anatomy terms - the clavicular fibres and the sternal fibres. The clavicular fibres come from the collar bone, while the sternal fiibres come from the breast bone and you might be able to make out the different parts in the first pec picture posted above. You can try to 'bias' which part you use when exercising by changing your shoulder position.

I don't know enough about body-building or weight-lifting, but I imagine that fellows doing pecs exercises would like the big chest look and so targetting the sternal fibres specifically might be the most appropriate. Some of the more experienced lifters on here might advise you on specific exercises to specifically target the different parts of pecs.

CyberDave

Racing Flat wrote: »

If you are sore down the sides towards your ribs it may well be serratus anterior that you are feeling rather than pecs.

No, the soreness is not that far down. It's more the side of the pecs just below the armpit or Pectoralis Minor if I am correct.

Racing Flat

CyberDave wrote: »

No, the soreness is not that far down. It's more the side of the pecs just below the armpit or Pectoralis Minor if I am correct.

Perhaps this is a better picture - serratus anterior starts high up, originates from the upper 8/9 ribs, so almost higher than your armpit. Pec minor is more around the front than down the side.

CyberDave

Racing Flat wrote: »

Perhaps this is a better picture - serratus anterior starts high up, originates from the upper 8/9 ribs, so almost higher than your armpit. Pec minor is more around the front than down the side.

Yeah. The second picture explains the position of the soreness better. I guess I would like to target the pectoralis major more.

kevpants

the-lad wrote: »

Sorry for jumping in but does anyone know any good stretches for your chest. I get a shooting pain in my left arm/shoulder when i lower the bb
Thanks

That doesn't sound like a stretch is gonna sort that out. 9 times out of 10 what you're describing would be due to a rotator cuff injury. Do you do any of these:

Upright Row


Front Raise


Side Raise


If you do then stop. I purposely used pictures of halfwits performing these exercises to display their ridiculousness.

Start incorporating rotator cuff work with very light weights into your routine. Please don't let the campness of this guy put you off:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjA0YNAQI7U

yomchi

You look well with the 'tache mate

Colm_OReilly

Brilliant pics dude!

CyberDave, why so much chest work? Are you shoulder pressing? Squatting? Deadlifting?

Roper

at the pics!

CyberDave

Colm_OReilly wrote: »

Brilliant pics dude!

CyberDave, why so much chest work? Are you shoulder pressing? Squatting? Deadlifting?

Yeah I do other stuff too. Just wondering if I'm doing the chest pressing correctly.

Colm_OReilly

Get "Starting Strength" by Mark Rippetoe, well worth it

kevpants

Jon wrote: »

You look well with the 'tache mate

Thanks!

Just a little something I'm trying out.

SuprSi

kevpants wrote: »

That doesn't sound like a stretch is gonna sort that out. 9 times out of 10 what you're describing would be due to a rotator cuff injury. Do you do any of these:

Upright Row


Front Raise


Side Raise


If you do then stop. I purposely used pictures of halfwits performing these exercises to display their ridiculousness.

Start incorporating rotator cuff work with very light weights into your routine. Please don't let the campness of this guy put you off:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjA0YNAQI7U

Do you mean that these exercises are useless in this context or in general?

kevpants

SuprSi wrote: »

Do you mean that these exercises are useless in this context or in general?

Not in general. Always.

SuprSi

Oh - I'm curious as to why and if it's widely know that they're crap because I use them and have used them for some time and if I'm not making the most of my workout by a poor exercise I need to change it.

kevpants

SuprSi wrote: »

Oh - I'm curious as to why and if it's widely know that they're crap because I use them and have used them for some time and if I'm not making the most of my workout by a poor exercise I need to change it.

It's widely known that they're crap but they're widely used also. They're isolation exercises for one. Sure you'll see some bodybuilder on the net doing side raises but you cannot compare a bodybuilder to a normal gym goer. If you want to add mass to your shoulders concentrate on getting stronger at dumbbell and barbell overhead pressing and work your upper back and bench press.

Secondly these exercises cause injuries. Lots of 'em. Any one who does them regularly will regularly get little pinching pains in their shoulders, crunching noises, popping etc. They're just not natural shoulder movements.

Basically if these make up your shoulder routine you'll end up with injured shoulders and no extra mass or strength to speak of.