The chest exercises I used were the Nautilus 10 degree chest fly, followed immediately by the Med-X chest press. 

The 10 degree fly isolates the pecs, and does an extra good job of it by applying the resistance directly to my upper arms.  Unlike a standard fly exercise, I don’t have to hold anything, so there’s no strain on my wrists, elbows or grip.  This chest exercise can even be done on this machine if you have a broken wrist or hand, or even no hands.  I also get lots of resistance in the fully contracted position by squeezing the pads together.  On this one I like to achieve failure in a range of 7-10 reps.

After the chest fly, I go immediately to my next exercise in the chest workout, the chest press.  My pecs are already on fire, and on this one my deltoids and triceps are still fresh and can help drive my pecs to a deeper level of fatigue.  I like to keep the reps low on this one, usually 3-8.

Of course, if you don’t have access to all this fancy equipment, you can still do this chest workout. 

Using free weights, you could start with flat bench dumbbell flyes and go immediately to the barbell incline press or dips.

Using conventional machines, you could start with a pec deck or fly machine, and then proceed directly to a Smith Machine incline press, or any type of machine chest press to finish things off.

Remember to keep accurate records of the weights and reps, so you can make sure you make progress from one chest workout to the next.

Try this sequence on your next chest workout and let me know how it feels!

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Essentially everybody is performing their exercises very quickly. They throw the weight up. They let it drop back down. Mindlessly flailing their limbs with no apparent focus or concentration, often talking to someone at the same time. They rattle the barbell plates. They let the weight stack slam together. Momentum is utilized to the fullest extent possible. There is no pausing at any point in the entire set. The only time all this high speed of movement stops is between exercises, when the average trainee rests for several minutes, often while socializing, re-setting their I-Pod, texting somebody, watching television or checking their cell phone. It almost seems like they can’t wait to get their set out of the way, so they can get to these other activities with minimal disruption.

Why do people train like that?

I think that one reason they do it is since they see virtually everybody else doing it, they assume it’s the right way to do it, and that the one guy in the gym not doing it (me) is some misguided weirdo who is doing it wrong. This is the way a lot of people make all of their decisions-they go along with the majority, avoiding the painful job of thinking critically for themselves.

Once the trainee starts utilizing this method, they discover that moving the weights faster allows them to lift more weight more easily. Although less effective from a strength and muscle building perspective, this method is more satisfying to the ego. Fast reps also produce less muscular discomfort than slow reps, and avoiding pain is desirable for most people.

So what’s the problem?

The problem is inferior results. Moving the weights quickly lowers the intensity of the activity; and intensity is the stimulus required to cause an increase in muscular size and strength. Thus, the higher the intensity is, the more effective the workout will be. To maximize the intensity of each repetition, the weight should be lifted and lowered slowly, under full muscular control, utilizing the force of muscular contraction alone without momentum.

Going slow is also safer. Increased speed of movement increases the risk of injury. If you have ever witnessed, or been in, a car accident, you already know this.

In addition, going slower makes the workout more time efficient. You put more tension on your muscles in each set, allowing you to place a greater workload on your muscles in one set than the fast lifters get in 3 or more sets.

What exactly do I mean by slow? Here’s how I described proper form in my e-book, “High Intensity Muscle Building“:

“The lifting of a weight (including the weight stack on a machine) should take 2 seconds to perform. The lowering of a weight should take 4 seconds to perform. You should pause in both the start and finish positions on each rep. Thus, every rep you do should take approximately 7-8 seconds to perform. Simply put: lift in 2 seconds; pause; lower in 4 seconds; pause; repeat.”

The goal of your strength training program should be to get the best possible results in the shortest possible time with the least possible amount of effort. Performing slow, controlled repetitions is fundamental to achieving that goal.

Keep it slow to grow,

Dave Durell, MS, CCS, PTA
Author of High Intensity Muscle Building

P.S. This article was originally published in the High Intensity Nation E-Newsletter. For a FREE issue, AND advanced training video AND special report, enter your name and e-mail address to the right or below. I hate spam as much as you do and will never share your e-mail address.

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Talk soon,

Dave

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Get “unstuck” today,

Dave Durell, MS, CCS, PTA
Author of High Intensity Muscle Building

P.S. Leave A Comment Below!

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Jim is a 17 year-old tennis player who wanted to add some muscular strength and size.

Tennis players are almost always ectomorphs.  Ectomorphs are those real skinny people that anybody on a diet would like to kill, because they can eat whatever they want and not gain weight.

Also, tennis players run around a lot, in case you never noticed.

These factors make it extremely difficult for this type of person to gain muscular bodyweight.  It’s like they’re starting out with 2 strikes against them already.

We know from experience that ectomorphs are dead in the water if they try a multi-set, 6-days-a-week type program expecting to gain weight.

We also know their tolerance to very high intensity activity is limited.  It’s easy to make an ectomorph throw up or pass out while training.

A fine line indeed.

So here’s what we did with Jim:

From October 3rd, 2009 to November 9th, 2009, Jim performed 7 High Intensity Muscle Building workouts.  That’s 7 workouts in 37 days.

Here’s a peek at one of Jim’s workouts:

Here is a glimpse at his body composition measurements:

So if you are a “Jim”–an ectomorph, a.k.a. “hardgainer”, who has had a tough time adding some extra muscle, but someone who is highly motivated, coachable, and willing to work hard-maybe it’s time to give High Intensity Muscle Building a try.

To new muscle,

Dave Durell, MS, CCS, PTA
Author, High Intensity Muscle Building