Hey everyone,
I've been sticking to a push/pull/legs split lately, though since I'm a long-distance runner, I really only hit legs once a week. I'm probably not as "scrawny" as you'd imagine for a runner though - I'm 184cm, 78kg, and sitting at about 11% body fat.
My issue is that my chest has just hit a total wall in terms of size and strength over the last few months. I'm hitting incline and decline bench, dumbbell presses, pec flys, and some push-ups here and there, but it just won't budge. It's frustrating because my shoulders have blown up and my triceps are definitely showing progress too, but the chest just feels weak by comparison.
Does anyone have any specific tips or tricks to get the chest growing again? I'd love to hear how you guys broke through a plateau like this.
honestly man sometimes the triceps and shoulders just take over the movement and leave the chest doing nothing lol. try lowering the weight a bit and really focusing on the stretch at the bottom of your dumbbell presses. if your shoulders are blowing up they might be doing all the heavy lifting! maybe try pre-exhausting the pecs with some flys before you even touch a barbell- it worked wonders for my plateau.
your stats are actually solid for a runner bro! 11% body fat is lean as hell. for the chest wall maybe try switching up the rep ranges? if you've been doing 8-10 reps forever try some heavy 5x5 or go the other way and smash out 15-20 reps for a massive pump. sometimes the muscles just need a different kind of shock to wake up again.
i had the same problem for years and it turned out my grip was way too narrow on the bench so my triceps were doing 90% of the work. try widening your hands a bit and see if you feel the "burn" more in the outer pecs. also since you're a runner make sure you're eating enough... 78kg at 184cm is lean so you might just need more calories to actually build that tissue!
weighted dips are the goat for chest growth imo. if you aren't doing those yet definitely add them in at the end of your push day. lean forward as you go down to really target the chest instead of the triceps. i swear my chest grew more from dips than it ever did from flat benching.
maybe drop the decline and decline stuff for a bit and just focus on one heavy incline movement and one good stretch movement like cable flys. sometimes we do too many exercises and don't actually progress on the ones that matter. also check your form - if your shoulders are way ahead of your chest at the bottom of the rep you're losing all the tension! gl man.
