The REAL Reason Your Pecs Won't Grow

If you ever wondered what the real reason your pecs won’t grow is, this is a must watch video. Here I’m going to take you through a series of just a few questions to unpack the exact reason your chest muscles are not responding to your chest workouts the way you want them to. In just minutes you are going to know not only exactly why you aren’t getting good chest gains but, more importantly, what to do to get them started.

And it starts with the first question. Are you even bench pressing. A lot of times, people with underdeveloped chests don’t even do the most effective exercise for building a big chest - the bench press. This can be for fear of doing the movement, shoulder injury, or even just not wanting to showcase their weakness on the chest exercise in a public gym.

The sooner you learn to bench press properly and safely however, the sooner you will start to kickstart the size of your pecs. The rule of thumb is, if you haven’t incorporated this exercise into your chest workout routine consistently for at least a year and a half, then it is too early to tell if you are truly a chest non-responder. You need to start the exercise again and work to progressively build up your strength on the move.

That said, speaking of strength, what is yours on the bench press? In other words, how much ya bench? If the answer is less than 1.25 times your own bodyweight, then again this is an indicator that you likely haven’t invested enough time and reps into the movement to really tell if you are a pec non responder or not. Do this first. If you have and you still haven’t seen enough chest growth, then proceed to the next step.

The next question I ask is, are you supplementing? No not in terms of the food you are putting into your body but in the other chest exercises that you are including in your chest workouts. The bench press alone is not going to do the trick for most, save for the most genetically gifted or enhanced. You need to do more. The exercises you choose however are not created equal. If your pecs won’t grow then you are going to want to find the chest exercises that help you to engage and activate the chest fully.

Here you’re going to want to include exercises that help the chest to reach a complete contraction - namely those that incorporate adduction of the arm across the midline of the chest. While there is adduction performed during a bench press, pushup and dip there simply isn’t the type of full contraction capable as you can achieve with something like the cable crossover.

Lighten the weights and work on letting the chest do the work on every single rep of this exercise and you will start to build up the mind muscle connection that is necessary for driving not just new gains but the improved activation of the exact muscle you are struggling to build right now.

If the incorporation of this exercise or others that also help reach a better contraction still doesn’t do the trick, then it’s time to look in the mirror. I’m talking about, questioning your genetics. Now before you go and blame mom and dad for your underdeveloped pecs, not so fast. Everyone can have a great looking chest, even if it doesn’t necessarily look as full as Arnold’s or Larry Wheels. The key is optimizing the chest development through carefully selected exercises and techniques.

The length of someone’s clavicles can easily determine the size of their pecs. Quite simply, if someone has a much wider span between their AC joints they are going to have longer clavicles. This gives more opportunity for upper chest fibers to attach and ultimately build - leading to a bigger upper chest and overall chest for that matter. Just because you can’t fight your own anatomy doesn’t mean that you cannot build a big chest though.

That is where the other recommendations really help. My three favorite are to perform pause reps on dumbbell bench press and dips to start. Most underdeveloped pecs are at the expense of dominant delts. If you have access, the cable bench press is a phenomenal way to build a big chest.

Remember, this is not to be done at the expense of the bench press. Instead, compartmentalize the bench press as a strength movement that you are going to continue to do for that purpose.

If you’re looking for a video on how to get a better upper chest or lower chest, be sure to click on the links at the end of this video and remember to subscribe to our channel here on youtube via the link below and turn on your notifications so you never miss a new video when it’s published.

[alexshavers]

1.) lighten the weights
2.) slow the pace
3.) allow the chest muscle to do the work

[garrettbaratheon]

I’ve been lifting for over 10 years, struggled by far the most with chest, it wasn’t until I started doing heavy weighted dips, as low as the shoulders will comfortably allow you to go, that I got good chest growth

[kazvall]

Listen man, I just wanted to say Thank You. I had not touched a weight or walked into a gym in 10 years. I was about to turn 35 in October and told myself, "Damn, now is the time." I went down a bit of a youtube rabbit hole. Luckily I found this channel, among others, and have applied the great knowledge Jeff has provided. Now I am addicted to going. It feels great. No matter what age you are, it is never too late. I've got my nutrition plan on point, and am slowly cutting towards a 6 pack while building muscle. Thanks for all the tools, Jeff! Fairfield County represent, haha.

[derricuswise]

Jeff strikes again. I've been following him since 2013 and still seeing consistent gains and this video is needed for myself and others who have complained in the past about chest gains. Thanks Jeff!

[chrishartwig]

One of the best ques when benching to activate the chest properly is to imagine that you are pushing your body away from the bar rather than pushing the the bar up.

[Yashuop]

Your consistency and quality of content never disappoints! ❤️

[nitogravelord]

I get better at bench press by doing push up, and get better on push up after doing bench press. Now i feel the squeeze of muscles. Never stop developing.

[danielmulero]

Great timing Jeff! Tomorrow is international chest day and I will be training mine restarting for the second time Jacked! The results of my first time through have been great: gains in muscle and strength and particularly in my case a very big improvement in hip strength and control. I needed this kind of training with limited equipment after my lumbar stenosis surgery 18 months ago.
Thank you so much for your tips and inspiration.💪

[KellySKline]

I won the giveaway! In my mid-forties, and the content that Jeff and his team produce has been my foundation for the last 3+ years that I have been back in the gym. Thank you!

[SeanJepson]

Some form of pressing movement straight after cable/band crossovers is my contribution to this conversation

[JesusRodriguez-fobr]

The idea is simple. Train every segment of your chest during your workout. Ideally, you'd want to focus on dumbbells at first to develop some mind muscle connection. Start with regular dumbbell press. Then go on to incline dumbbell, then use a pec fly machine with a range if motion that isn't to wide. If you did 4 sets of 10 reps on each exercise, and gradually increase the weight by maybe 5 pounds per set, you're gonna make some gains if you stay consistent

[travismora]

Thanks for the great videos… you have increased the effectivness of my workouts 10 times. Over forty and still building muscle.

My chest is sore today. I notice that you can really feel the activation of the muscle when it sore. Like the activation of center chess and lower chess muscles. People can use soreness to really understand what muscle groups are training. For me anyway. Thought that might be helpful for someone.

[rtherknav]

Love the part about slowing down and developing the mind-muscle connection.

[Mr]

Been religiously doing dumbbell bench press the past months and I think my greatest struggle so far with chest workouts is that my arms give out first before feeling any significant pumps to my chest.

[snmiller]

Agree with these tips. For me however, has been frequency, and not getting hung up on that one day- International Chest day. Lol. Once I started doing chest 2-3 days per week, thats when I saw real results.

[xm]

You make me put in the work every single time I exercise. Thank you good sir!

[Krptokrayon]

It wasn't until I started using bands and doing straight arm pulls parallel to the wall that I started getting good growth. Better than bench and flys. Pull Mid, low and high. With a focus on high reps instead of strong bands. 120 to 180 reps per pec.

[mikevigliotti]

What I’ve been doing and worked for me is I change my exercise up every month. So for a month I’ll do mostly bench press and dumbbell press and then like 2 sets of flys after the pressing movements. Then the next month I’ll warm up my chest with 2 sets on the bench and then do all fly movements like dumbbell flys and cable flys and machine flys. Then after a month of that back to pressing. This REALLY helped me build and shape my pecs fast. Also gotta eat enough protein. Your nutrition needs to be on point and ultimately some people just build their chest slower. I may have a strong chest and bench more than most guys and a naturally big rib cage and torso but what I noticed is that my chest development is slower than the rest of my muscles for some odd reason and it’s always been like that my entire life so I put extra emphasis on my chest workouts and do chest at least 2 times a week. That’s just what works for me personally

[rckptt]

I literally searched for this on your channel an hour ago. Timing bro

[Samysthetics]

Thank you Jeff for these daily tips, I am a personal trainer and thanks to you I learn every day and it helps me in my job to coach my current clients 🙏