Suggestions for lower section pecs

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pinheadplanet
pinheadplanet Posts: 24 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi

Can anyone suggest a body weight exercise that will improve the lower section of the pecs. i'm doing press ups, (about 150 in 5 sets) mainly wide and this has improved upper section but really need to develop the lower part for definition .

i'm also doing some sort of modified leg raises (3x10) whereby i use the perpendicular bars on my door gym, lift my legs right up to the ceiling at the same time pivoting my elbows so its part leg raise part chin up, it's great for shoulders, chest, middle back, abs and it's a lot of fun, but that still doesn't seem to be doing the lower pecs.

chin ups and pulls up are out, I have a medial epicondylitis (f***ed tendons) in my right elbow.

recommendations please.

cheers

Replies

  • theycallyoumister
    theycallyoumister Posts: 222 Member
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    I don't know if this will aggravate your elbow, but I've worked the lower pecs hard with progressively heavier dips. I found that they define that area by isolating it better than other exercises. I tie up to 100 lbs of weights on a belt and crank out 10 reps for 6 sets after warming up. Good luck :smile:
  • pinheadplanet
    pinheadplanet Posts: 24 Member
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    100lbs! That's like 45kgs! I thought iwas doing ok being able to do 10 unweighted lol. OK I'm a beginner but looks like I've a long way to go. I can do dips, think I'll try and make a dip bar outta some wood, it's just a basic frame. I not a gym member, my work takes me away so any money spent on membership would be wasted, which is why I'm just on calisthenics.
  • edwardkim85
    edwardkim85 Posts: 438 Member
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    Arnold, when asked whether he does decline bench to work his lower pecs, said:

    " why would I do decline bench and make my chest look saggy.... no... bad!"

    ---

    There's no 'lower' chest muscle. Petoral major/minor are the two muscle groups you need to work on in chest workouts.

    You MUST build mass in your chest to have that chiseled chest look.

    You are doing too many 'reps' by doing 150 reps in 5 sets. That's why you sometimes see people do 100 pushups daily and still have a flat looking/ undefined chest.

    Work on flat/incline bench press with bars 2 weeks/ dumb bell 2 weeks. Choose a weight that you can do 8-12 reps for 4 sets.

    Also start doing flat/incline dumb bell flies and variations of cable flies.

    A proper chest workout should take you a good 40 min + and it should exhaust you completely.

    As you build mass on your chest, the definition on the lower chest will follow.
  • pinheadplanet
    pinheadplanet Posts: 24 Member
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    Nice one, thanks. As I say I've not got gym access but I am waiting to get myself set up at home though with a bench and some weights and I'll be on to it.

    I don't mind spending the time on it but some things just get a bit too boring :( I was doing that weider A6W and I was doing 650 crunches a day, which took about 65 minutes, that gets a bit soul destroyingly dull which made it hard to focus. I've now cut that out as I wasn't getting any burn from it and I'm now doing a routine of much more intensive hanging knee raises, leg raises, HFL lying leg thrusts, crunches and quarter sit ups over the course of 6 minutes ! And I feel the burn, the last hanging knee raise of the second set is really a challenge so I know I'm working to max capacity. Not too sure about the HFL lying leg thrusts though, I don't seem to get on well with them, not sure about the right form
  • jcmolsen
    jcmolsen Posts: 2 Member
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    I agree with Edwardkim85, in the sense that you shouldn't worry too much about isolating the lower pecs. I'm not qualified or huge or anything, but I've made a lot of progress in the time that I've been doing calisthenics (Haven't touched weights and gained about 10 kgs before I cut back down). Like he said, doing 100+ reps at low intensity probably won't get you chiselled and what not, and although it has its place I don't think that should be the basis of your workouts.
    Because of doing bodyweight, you can't adjust weight that your lifting. Muscle building typically occurs in the 8-15 rep ranges, as long as those reps are completely tiring you out, so I use two methods for building size in my muscle groups once exercises become too easy: Tempo, and pre-exhaustion.
    With tempo, I would be doing only about 15 push ups, but each rep would last about 10-20 seconds, making the exercise much more difficult and tiring me.
    My pre-exhaustion works by just tiring out my muscles as much as possible before doing my workout, so, for instance, I would do those 150 push ups with minimal rest, and then do push ups and dips and stuff with rep ranges in between 8-15 to get the muscle building effect.
    Also, seeing as your dips numbers are at about 10, that means that's also in the muscle building parameters, so those should help out a lot if your looking at gaining mass in your chest.
    Hope all this helps, maybe try it out if you think you want to. But like I said, I'm not qualified, I'm just speaking from my own experience of what worked for me, so I'm obviously not saying my way is right, just something for you to try out maybe. Up to you.
  • pinheadplanet
    pinheadplanet Posts: 24 Member
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    That makes sense, less reps but harder workouts. I might try T Press ups instead of normal ones, as these incorporate a side plank and a press up together and then hold it for a few seconds on each rep.

    Suppose I could load up a rucksack with all me tools and do press ups with that on too

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