Disclaimer: If, for second, you care about how much weight you can bench press, don’t waste your time reading any further!
The Cashout Chest - 1/28/13 - sorry for the poor pic quality battery was dead in my good camera
In the Beginning, I did a lot of what everyone does for chest…bench, bench, and more bench. Initially, my results were promising but I quickly plateaued and my chest development stagnated shortly thereafter.
So, as is the case with everything I’ve ever done, I sought out the insight of experts.
Unfortunately, in the bodybuilding world, we often associate the term “expert” with someone who has great physical development. A lot of times that has more to do with genetics as opposed to knowledge and insight. So, after talking with some of the body builders in my gym who had great chest development, I understood, according to them, benching was the key to developing a chest.
The problem was that was not getting the job done for me anymore. So I had to re-think my chest training on my own. After much trial and error, I did develop not only a chest first rate chest but also some of my own rules for chest building. So without any further delay, here they are.
Chest Training Rule #1 – Check your ego at the door!
How much you can bench has little to do with the quality of your chest development. I’ve seen lots of guys throw up big weight. In 99% of those case, they don’t have half the chest development that I have. To that end, I can tell you that I doubt I could bench 350 if my life depended on it!
Too many time guys get hung up in the inescapable question – “How much can you bench?” That is the first thing someone says to me when they meet me and it has been for 25 years. The simple answer is I don’t know but they never want to hear that. Somehow “how much can you bench?” has become a measurement standard around the world. I’ll tell you, if your goal is to develop a quality chest – thick, proportional, rippled, and dense, you need to get out of the how much do you bench mind set.
Chest Training Rule #2 – Don’t let the supporting muscles be your lynchpins.
Tris and shoulders are a lot smaller muscle groups than chest. In most chest exercise they are heavily involved. As a result of their supporting role, they are likely to be the first things to fail when you are training chest. The simple fact is that they often give out before chest is done. This is where I again employed a pre-exhaustion style of training with fantastic results.
Chest Training Rule #3 – Emphasis the stretch and contraction.
I learned early on that with Dumbbells I could get a much better stretch than if I used a tradition bar for benching movements. Additionally, dumbbells provided me a way to focus on the contraction at the top of the movement too. So using dumbbells was and still is a big part of my training.
Chest Training Rule #4 – Form and Feeling First!
I see lots of guys in the gym bouncing a bar off their chest. Similarly, I see lots of guys using dumbbell and not taking the weight down to their armpits. You are short chaning yourself by doing this and it typically goes back to Rule #1 If you are going to focus on form and feeling the muscle versus lifting weight you will not be able to lift as much weight BUT you will get a better quality of work in the chest.
So what does a common Cashout Chest session look like today?
Well here was the last chest routine I used.
4 Sets of Dumbbell Flyes 80lbs X 10-12 reps Super setted with Flat Bench 225 X 10-12 Reps Super Setted with three-way cable cross overs 30 lbs X 10-12 to each position (High, Middle, low)
3 Sets of Incline Bench 205 X 12-15 reps Super setted with weighted dips 75 lbs X max reps to failure
That session takes about 30 minutes start to finish and your chest will feel like to swollen balloons when you are done!
The Cashout Chest - 1/28/13 - sorry for the poor pic quality battery was dead in my good camera
In the Beginning, I did a lot of what everyone does for chest…bench, bench, and more bench. Initially, my results were promising but I quickly plateaued and my chest development stagnated shortly thereafter.
So, as is the case with everything I’ve ever done, I sought out the insight of experts.
Unfortunately, in the bodybuilding world, we often associate the term “expert” with someone who has great physical development. A lot of times that has more to do with genetics as opposed to knowledge and insight. So, after talking with some of the body builders in my gym who had great chest development, I understood, according to them, benching was the key to developing a chest.
The problem was that was not getting the job done for me anymore. So I had to re-think my chest training on my own. After much trial and error, I did develop not only a chest first rate chest but also some of my own rules for chest building. So without any further delay, here they are.
Chest Training Rule #1 – Check your ego at the door!
How much you can bench has little to do with the quality of your chest development. I’ve seen lots of guys throw up big weight. In 99% of those case, they don’t have half the chest development that I have. To that end, I can tell you that I doubt I could bench 350 if my life depended on it!
Too many time guys get hung up in the inescapable question – “How much can you bench?” That is the first thing someone says to me when they meet me and it has been for 25 years. The simple answer is I don’t know but they never want to hear that. Somehow “how much can you bench?” has become a measurement standard around the world. I’ll tell you, if your goal is to develop a quality chest – thick, proportional, rippled, and dense, you need to get out of the how much do you bench mind set.
Chest Training Rule #2 – Don’t let the supporting muscles be your lynchpins.
Tris and shoulders are a lot smaller muscle groups than chest. In most chest exercise they are heavily involved. As a result of their supporting role, they are likely to be the first things to fail when you are training chest. The simple fact is that they often give out before chest is done. This is where I again employed a pre-exhaustion style of training with fantastic results.
Chest Training Rule #3 – Emphasis the stretch and contraction.
I learned early on that with Dumbbells I could get a much better stretch than if I used a tradition bar for benching movements. Additionally, dumbbells provided me a way to focus on the contraction at the top of the movement too. So using dumbbells was and still is a big part of my training.
Chest Training Rule #4 – Form and Feeling First!
I see lots of guys in the gym bouncing a bar off their chest. Similarly, I see lots of guys using dumbbell and not taking the weight down to their armpits. You are short chaning yourself by doing this and it typically goes back to Rule #1 If you are going to focus on form and feeling the muscle versus lifting weight you will not be able to lift as much weight BUT you will get a better quality of work in the chest.
So what does a common Cashout Chest session look like today?
Well here was the last chest routine I used.
4 Sets of Dumbbell Flyes 80lbs X 10-12 reps Super setted with Flat Bench 225 X 10-12 Reps Super Setted with three-way cable cross overs 30 lbs X 10-12 to each position (High, Middle, low)
3 Sets of Incline Bench 205 X 12-15 reps Super setted with weighted dips 75 lbs X max reps to failure
That session takes about 30 minutes start to finish and your chest will feel like to swollen balloons when you are done!
