# Cannot Get A Decent Pump On My Chest :(



## X.MIL (Jun 4, 2013)

Hey guys,

Im seriously getting p*ssed off at the gym on chest day!! I just cannot get a good pump on my chest like i do with my other body parts.

Im happy with all my training except chest exercises... anyone else like this?

Anyone recommend workouts?

Dont get me wrong the chest feels worked after a session and doms kicks in the day after... but i just want to feel pumped!!

ARRRGGGHHHHH hahahaha


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## Stephen9069 (Dec 11, 2013)

Whats your current chest routine ?


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## X.MIL (Jun 4, 2013)

Stephen9069 said:


> Whats your current chest routine ?


only just started back training.... but typical:

barbell bench press (flat)

2x 15 reps (warm up)

4 x 8-12 (working)

inclined/declined barbell (rotate every other week)

1x 15 (warm up)

3x 8-12 (working

DB bench press (flat and incline)

1x 10-12 (warm up)

3x 8-15 (working)

flies - will vary. Sometimes on pec deck / sometimes with dumbells and sometimes with cables. to be honest i hardly feel the muscle working with cables. but normally 3x 15


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## Pancake' (Aug 30, 2012)

Flat Bench Press, instantly superset with Dips. do 5 sets going for high reps on each set. Flat Bench, Dips, Flat Bench, Dips, Flat Bench, Dips, Flat Bench, Dips, Flat Bench, Dips. Then set up the angle to Incline Bench and superset your incline presses with Press ups. Incline Bench Press, Press ups, Incline Bench Press, Press ups, Incline Bench Press, Press ups, Incline Bench Press, Press ups, Incline Bench Press, Press ups.

Once you've done that go on the Chest press machine if you can and go absolutely crazy and perform as many reps as possible on set weights & start performing set after set in a dropset fashion. If you don't receive a pumped up pair of pecs of that, then you ain't pushing yourself hard enough. I trained Chest yesterday, as was bored and skipped it Friday to go out. I had such a pump, I was doing the pec dance without even knowing it.


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## seandog69 (Mar 8, 2013)

maybe add some dropsets into your flat bench routine


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## Captain lats (Mar 25, 2014)

bicycle pump or popeye spinach


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## teenphysique (Jul 1, 2014)

take a rest day before could have an over trained chest perhaps

1ltre of water before workout

intra workout carbs

if that fails fst-7

7sets 30 seconds rest between each set of 15 reps i always get a killer pump following this

i used to not get a pump very well in biceps and guess what i let them take a rest and lowed the volume boom i get a great pump

my arms on fst-7 grew 7mm after the workout from the pump

but i only do aje fst-7 workout like 1 time a month

not useful unless you want a great pump or on synthol


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## niko69 (Feb 4, 2015)

you might be activating too much shoulder / triceps. try to focus intensely on your pectoral muscles


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## nWo (Mar 25, 2014)

Dropsets. Not sure why you're chasing the pump, but if you can't get a pump with a triple-dropset then there's something wrong with your form.


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## nitricdave (Dec 12, 2014)

niko69 said:


> you might be activating too much shoulder / triceps. try to focus intensely on your pectoral muscles


This. Ive started with a face to face PT and i learned more with him than i did in hours of youtube form videos. I was doing exactly this and its so easy a trap to fall into untill somebody slaps you on the back of the head to point out your mistake. Simple things like angle of arm to the bar in incline bench, sitting at the wrong height on peck dec , wrong position in cable cross .. using to much weight and " soliciting help " from the shoulders or arms can avoid using the pec like the exercise fully intended.


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## X.MIL (Jun 4, 2013)

TommyBananas said:


> Why do you need a pump? It has no indication of anything.
> 
> Train, add weight when possible, eat.


I dont need a pump... ive never really felt a good pump on my chest to be honest mate!! when i train back and shoulders and i can feel them pumped to f*ck, it feels good!! hoping to get it with my chest lol!



seandog69 said:


> maybe add some dropsets into your flat bench routine


yea ill deffo do my next chest session with dropsets and supersets!


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## mbonheur (May 28, 2009)

Get a ****load of agmatine + do chest exercises and finish off with dips = mire your pump

And look a few hours later at your deflated chest = be sad


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## X.MIL (Jun 4, 2013)

niko69 said:


> you might be activating too much shoulder / triceps. try to focus intensely on your pectoral muscles


yea ive been told that i could be using my shoulders... but i make sure i squeeze my chest and let that do the work. ive dropped weight to ensure its my chest taking the weight.

i also try the bend the barbell... this puts more strain on my pecs!!


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## X.MIL (Jun 4, 2013)

TommyBananas said:


> I've never felt a good pump on my chest either and look at it
> 
> <


haha fair do's mate!! Ill just shut up now :whistling: :lol:


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## richardrahl (Nov 19, 2007)

niko69 said:


> you might be activating too much shoulder / triceps. try to focus intensely on your pectoral muscles


^^this^^...?

Many say to breathe out on the upward push of bench press, but this can cause you to round your shoulders. Try taking a deep breath at the bottom and holding while you press. It'll expand your chest and keep your shoulders out of it as much as poss.


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## Lewy_h (Jan 4, 2012)

richardrahl said:


> ^^this^^...?
> 
> Many say to breathe out on the upward push of bench press, but this can cause you to round your shoulders. Try taking a deep breath at the bottom and holding while you press. It'll expand your chest and keep your shoulders out of it as much as poss.


Think I need to try this, think I use my shoulders and tris more. Any more tips whilst we're here


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## X.MIL (Jun 4, 2013)

richardrahl said:


> ^^this^^...?
> 
> Many say to breathe out on the upward push of bench press, but this can cause you to round your shoulders. Try taking a deep breath at the bottom and holding while you press. It'll expand your chest and keep your shoulders out of it as much as poss.


ok cool... ill try this!! ive always been told to breathe out when pushing out the rep!! cheers for the advice :thumb:


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## richardrahl (Nov 19, 2007)

Lewy_h said:


> Think I need to try this, think I use my shoulders and tris more. Any more tips whilst we're here


It was just something a bloke told me as a kid and I've always done it. You'll lift slightly less, as you're concentrating on pinning your shoulders back and out of it, but unless you're chasing the numbers that means nothing.


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## X.MIL (Jun 4, 2013)

TommyBananas said:


> Train like this (weights used are an example)
> 
> 100kg x5
> 
> ...


sounds good mate.. getting so much advice on here already. ill try this aswel!! appreciate it :thumb:


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## C.Hill (Nov 21, 2010)

Cable flies to failure superset with dips to failure. Run that 3 times and admire the striations lol


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## nWo (Mar 25, 2014)

My shoulders never really get pumped, unless I was to do something not even worth my while like a few 50 rep sets. My biceps, on the other hand, gain an inch or two after my first warmup set :laugh:


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## X.MIL (Jun 4, 2013)

C.Hill said:


> Cable flies to failure superset with dips to failure. Run that 3 times and admire the striations lol


unfortunately, im not strong enough to perform dips /: and its embarrassing trying to smash out 2/3 dips after a few chest exercises lol


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## X.MIL (Jun 4, 2013)

I said:


> My shoulders never really get pumped' date=' unless I was to do something not even worth my while like a few 50 rep sets. My biceps, on the other hand, gain an inch or two after my first warmup set :laugh:[/quote']
> 
> i love a good shoulder pump :thumb:
> 
> feel like the hulk after a shoulder sesh... this is what i need for my chest sesh aswel!


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## BurgerKing (Mar 9, 2013)

Try decline dumbell press, that and cable flyes standing up straight are the only movements that give me a pump in my chest.


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## Lean&amp;Mean&amp;Clean (May 9, 2008)

here's my workout log for chest for last 2 weeks

wk1 decline smith - felt the mind muscle connection very well and getting pumped set after set it was addictive till the point I actually started losing that pump due to the many sets I did on the Smith. For some reason if I do lower the weight I still crank 5-6 reps (don't know where I read doggcrapp stuff or somth Beta Alanine should help with this and I avoid bothering to lower the weight) Anyway after that many sets (lost count) I went onto DB decline and mind muscle connection was just not there,tried to grip the DBs as light as possible concentrating on the pecs

wk2 decline smith - for whatever reason and lost the count of sets I done as they were mostly 5-6 reps at best so I compensate by doing more sets as the rep range is crap. this time did not feel the MM connection. Then went on the Dumbells decline and voila even with the hammer grip I was feeling every bit of the muscle including the inner part even when the dumbells were not positioned very closed to the body. still lost the pump later and there were no flyes/cables on that session

try not to grip too tightly is what I found works with lower weights but concentrating on the pec


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## Tasty (Aug 28, 2007)

Cable flyes give me a nice pump


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## GCMAX (Dec 31, 2013)

Looks like you aren't going heavy enough as you stated all working sets are 8+ reps. Reps will increase blood flow to an extent but really flooding the muscles with blood only occurs with heavy weight, so go to your maximum where you can only get 2-3 reps or even 1 rep. Always push as hard as you can and keep the frame very tight until lockout. Failing that do some flies and go to full stretch.


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## C.Hill (Nov 21, 2010)

X.MIL said:


> unfortunately, im not strong enough to perform dips /: and its embarrassing trying to smash out 2/3 dips after a few chest exercises lol


Well if you can't do a body weight dip it sounds like you have no muscle on your chest yet hence the reason you can't get a pump.

Shouldn't be embarrassing at all? So what if it's one or two dips? Try and get 3 next week! Don't quit them they're a big compound exercise for your upper body.

Forget about 'the pump' and keep adding weight to your pressing exercises.


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## Jamieson (Jul 11, 2014)

Follow TommyB's advice, get stronger and you'll grow regardless of the pump. The pump is not an indication of stimulating muscle growth, neither are doms, focus on good technique, retract that scapula and make sure you strive to keep progressing with weight and/or reps as frequently as possible and if you're diet's sound you'll progress.

Also, as C.Hill said, 3 dips are better than none and one sure fire way to improve them is do negative only dips, taking 8-10 seconds to do the negative part of the movement. Do this for a few sessions and you'll soon be strong enough to do 'proper' dips.


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## VeneCZ (May 30, 2014)

Pump is the second parameter for muscle growth, first is the load ("progressive overload"). If you really want to chase the pump, do some isolation excercise first (like peck deck), this will activate your pectoralis and then go for bench (or for better pec contraction guilotine press- check the form). Try to squeeze the bar as tight as you can a tend to push your hands together (like you wanna clap with you hands).


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## The Sweeney (May 8, 2014)

Just jumping in on this... with a shoulder injury, I'm restricted from pressing or dipping etc so have temporarily moved over to cable cross-overs and I must say they really are hitting my pecs hard. I know DOMS and pump aren't definitive indicators of progress, but boy do the cable cross-overs give me both in spades!


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## Kjetil1234 (Jun 10, 2014)

Make sure that you both laterally rotate, extend and abduct the shoulder joint in bottom, not just abduct.

On top you want medial rotation, adduction and shoulder flexion. This causes a complete stretch and contraction of both upper and lower pec, and WILL give a pump if done properly.

I have an article on it here: (use google translate and look the video)

http://treningogrehab.no/ubytte-benk-hantelpress/


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