Question about Chest Exercises in CTX

[UNLVCrjChick]

Hello Cathe (and everyone else),

I have a question about the chest exercises in the Step and Intervals workout.

I had my barbell set at 18 pounds when doing the bench press exercise. What I don't understand is why I don't really feel the exercise much in my chest as opposed to my arms. I swear, I can barely make it through any of the chest exercises, those with dumbells included, without feeling that my arms are going to fall off. Is it possible that I'm doing something wrong or are you supposed to feel it in your arms somewhat, since they are assisting in the movement?

Thanks in advance!

Sherry

 

[kimmy0169]

Bump.....I too experience the same thing with the barbell. Would like to hear comments.

 

[Aquajock]

Select arm muscles, especially the triceps, are certainly recruited during bench presses with either a barbell or dumbbells. Triceps are involved in elbow extension, which is performed when pressing the weightload up; triceps are also recruited eccentrically on the lowering phase to control the lowering back down. The anterior deltoids of the shoulder region are also recruited to a certain degree.

The closer you place your hands on the barbell when performing a barbell bench press, the more your triceps will be recruited. If you are not feeling any exertion in the pecs, try placing your hands more widely on the barbell to perform these presses. You will never be able to (and never will want to) erase the contribution of the triceps completely, but the wider the hand placement, the more the pecs are recruited. (The same holds true for push-ups.) Be careful about this though - you can place your hands TOO wide on the bar when getting into position, and that can put undue strain on the shoulder joint.

Also understand that your forearms and hands are working a ton in any supine lifting. Often that's what gets me overly fatigued (probably because I'm lazy about targeted forearm and hand strength training).

Hope this helps -

A-Jock

 

[UNLVCrjChick]

Thank you so much A-Jock,

Since I had worked my triceps the day before, that would explain why my arms were overly exhausted.

I did make sure to have my arms wide enough so they would, to quote Cathe, "make a goal post" on the way down.

Next time when I work the chest, I will make sure I do so the day after the Power Circuit workout; the back is worked in that one.

 

[clareMc]

Sherry:

The chest exercises in CTX upper body split always get me too, I use a 20 or 25 pound barbell, the latter on a good day. I love the barbell section, it is extremely effective, however, like you I feel it a lot in other upper body muscle groups, noticably for me, the shoulders, at the front.

I think Cathe's teaching of good form on this video is superlative. I make sure, as you do, to keep good hand placement on the bar, and concentrate as she says on really firing up the pecs on the push up movement. This I can feel every time I focus on it.

Because the shoulders get so tired I find, when doing the entire upper body split, that it can leave me feeling whacked, and shoulders comes right next! What I am thinking of doing, and this is something for you to think about also if you do the entire split, is switch around the order of the exercises to avoid tiring shoulders excessively before I have had a chance to properly target them, i.e. do back, then shoulder, then bicep, then chest, then tricep. This order would work better for me. Since you have DVD, rearranging the order of exercises will be a piece of cake!

So, no, I don't think you are doing anything wrong, just, like me, you are still building up your strength in the upper body, and that's OK.

Clare