Chest Exercises

[yoginiju]

I'm on the 2nd mesocycle of STS and I've come to realize that I've never felt my chest muscles on any of the chest exercises.

Push ups, chest flies, bench presses... Nothing. I only feel those exercises in my arms and front of my shoulders. And not in a good way.

I almost immediately feel pain in my shoulders in my shoulders with these, especially chest flies. I can barely do them with 3 pound weights. (However the shoulder exercises to not hurt my shoulders. Weird.) Also, I'm extremely top heavy, way past DD. Could that be the reason?

I've tried all the form pointers in the dvds, but still... I don't feel a thing. When I had trouble with the deadlifts, I adjusted them to the supermans on the ball and that works well, but I can't find any alternatives for the chest exercises.

I'm sure I'm not the only one. Any help anyone could give me will be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[TRSTACIE]

I wish I could help you but I felt the chest exercises in STS quite a bit. There were was a stretch of weeks where it hurt to put on my coat everyday due to the DOMS from the chest exercises. I know that you said you have been following the form pointers but are you sure you really are keeping a good form? I only say this because there were several exercises that I thought I was doing right until my son pointed out that I wasn't doing them quite right. He was comparing how Cathe did it vs how I was doing it while he was watching me workout one day. He was right too -- I was doing some of them wrong. Some people use a mirror as well just to make sure that their form is correct.

 

[Nanbo]

You can also video tape yourself and watch your form, that way you won't be out of alignment trying to look at yourself in the mirror. Are you letting your arms go lower than your bench height on the presses and flys? This could strain your shoulders. Do you grip your weights hard? This could cause you to fatigue your arms. I hope you can solve this and that some other people can join in and offer up more suggestions!

 

[yoginiju]

Thanks for your feedback. I'll use a mirror to check my form.