In all chest exercises, there is a piece of equipment in the gym that is very common, but long-term observation shows that few people habitually add it to their chest training plan. That exercise isequipment decline press chest

equipment decline press chest

Bodybuilding legend Charles once said:

If you ever just perform one exercise, it would probably decline for chest ,why because it works the whole chest not just the lower part of the pec.

Charles said if you train your chest, you should choose one exercise, that is the decline press chest training,because it doesn't just train your lower chest, but works your whole chest muscle from bottom to top.

Today Max will share Charles' favorite teaching chest training——equipment decline press chest

Our content will be divided into 5 aspects:,

• First, the 2 most common mistakes
• Second, the influence of grip on chest muscle
• Third, the influence of palm force point on training site
• Fourth, how to better target the lower chest
• Fifth, a pause training method recommended by Charles

First, the 2 most common mistakes

Error one seat height is too low

The movement trajectory of fixed equipment is unchanged. If your seat height is too low,the result is that your arm angle is too largeIt's just like when doing barbell bench press, we emphasize not letting the arm angle reach the horizontal position.

Error one seat height is too low (large arm angle)

Because when you load and train your shoulder joint abduction, if the arm angle is too large or your elbow is at the level of or above your shoulder, it may cause damage to your shoulder joint.

The correct method is

adjust the seat height slightlyso that the arm and body torso are approximately at a 45-degree angleIf you find that you've already adjusted it to the highest, you can still feel uncomfortable, you can completely don't sit on the seat, just stand with your feet and lean on the backrest.

Adjusting the body height so that the arm and body are at a comfortable angle

Error two push up when pushing forward shoulders

You want to train your chest muscles, not your triangular anterior head, so when doing equipment decline press chest training,you should never let your shoulder blades move away from the seat back.

Error two push up when pushing forward shoulders

If you find it difficult to do this, let me give you an image,your two shoulder blades are like a plow, and the backrest is the ground. Think about plowing the ground, and you can very well stabilize your shoulder blades.Ensuring shoulder blade stability means better chest muscle action

Remember, ensuring the stability of the shoulder blades is the prerequisite for all chest muscle action! Otherwise, you're just completing a from A to B action!

Second, the influence of grip on chest muscle

Your grip the narrower, at the end of the movement, the starting point of your chest muscle fibers will be closer to the middle of the chest, and the contraction feeling at the middle of the chest will be stronger

A narrow grip gives you a better contraction feeling in the middle of your chest

Conversely, the wider your grip, the starting point at the end of the movement will be slightly further away, so your contraction feeling will also be slightly more towards the outer side

A wide grip gives you a better contraction feeling on the outer side of your chest

Third, the influence of palm force point on training site

This is one of the details that most people ignore. We say that the main force point of the palm is two places, namely

the wrist pointthe little finger point.If you push with the little finger side, you'll feel more outer side of your chest muscle

Pushing with the little finger point gives you a better outer side feeling of your chest muscle

If you push with the thumb and index finger circle wrist point, you will give more force to the inner side of your chest muscle!

Pushing with the thumb and index finger circle wrist point gives more force to the inner side

Fourth, how to better target the lower chest

Since the movement trajectory of fixed equipment is unchanged, if you want to change the angle of force direction of the muscle fiber, so that the force line is more along the lower muscle fiber direction, you need to adjust it yourself

The adjustment is very simple

You just need to slightly increase the body tilt angleThe size of the tilt angle varies from person to person, all based on your own training feeling!Adjusting the body angle makes the lower edge of the chest muscle participate more

Fifth, a pause training method recommended by Charles

In order to let the tension stay in the chest muscles, Charles shares this movement with 2-second pause, these two pauses are at

the bottom of the movementhalfway point.During the bottom of the movement and halfway point, do a 1-second pause

In the bottom of the movement and halfway point, do a 1-second pause

Pay attention to the 1-second pause at the bottom of the movement, it's not to completely let go of the weight, you still need to support the weight yourself, and the 1-second pause at the halfway point, pause for about 1 second, then exert force to press up and complete the peak contraction!

If you think the training is boring and lacks challenge, you can try this more challenging training!

The easter egg one unilateral trainingIf you want to target the middle of your chest more, so that the middle of your chest has a stronger contraction feeling,we can try to make the starting point of your chest muscle closer

after leaning one side to complete unilateral decline press chest training

! And consciously lengthen the peak contraction time!

One-sided training by leaning

Finally, give a reminder, decline press chest, not only a good chest training equipment, when you finish it, it's also a very good place for bilateral chest muscle stretching!

Stretch your chest muscles after finishing!

I am Max, a fitness author with grounded and deep content!

Max