Bigger pressing musculature??

Training Q&A [Moderated]
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Hey all,

I hope y’all are doing well! I’ve got what may be a simple/easy question to answer and I’m just overthinking it? Maybe y’all can help!

TL;DR: I’m mostly back and legs, what do to increase chest/shoulder muscle??

I’ve been following the BBM programs, podcasts, and YouTube’s for years and I’ve grown a lot thanks to this group of talented and powerful individuals. You’re all a massive inspiration to me.

That being said, for years I’ve noticed my chest and shoulders fall behind my back, posterior chain, and legs. I’d like to grow my chest/shoulders to fill out my frame. It’s somewhat for vanity but it’s also for increasing potential pressing strength later down the line (of course strength is not directly linked to getting bigger, but if I can increase muscle cross-sectional area it’ll be easier).

The programs I’ve been swapping between have been Strength I and Powerbuilding I, usually running them as written and then my second/third time in a row (as long as I’m still making progress) I alter overload movements, i.e high bar to front squat. I go for walks and HIIT conditioning 3x/week each.

The past few months I’ve been running PB I and have consistently gotten stronger, in fact I’m hitting all time PRs on squat and deadlift this last go around. I’m still progressing in strength for my bench, however I’d like those muscles to be a bit more developed like my legs and back.

These past few months I’ve also been on maintenance calories (eating ~1.5g/kg of protein) and I just started taking creatine last week (Watermelon Peri-Rx for the W)! I’m also in a small cut for 6 weeks and getting my wisdom teeth removed sometime in September/October, so I’ll be out of training for a few weeks (kinda unrelated to this post).

So my question(s):

  1. How can I go about increasing hypertrophy in pressing movers?

2a. Should I enter a developmental block to increase chest/shoulder hypertrophy?
2b. If so, how should I go about that?

  1. Could I replace a GPP pull day with a press? Or replace the barbell rows (PB I) with a press?

  2. Should I wait to focus on this after my wisdom teeth are removed?

I think those are all my questions, this is by no means urgent, but I definitely want to pursue these goals in some way and BBM guidance I will always seek out and take.

I appreciate your time, thank you!

2

Vinny,

Thanks for the kind words. Nice work so far as well. To your questions:

  1. Modest weight gain + appropriate training stress. I don’t think a cut is supportive of growing your upper body, but you may have other reasons for wanting to reduce body fat at this time. I think conditioning 6x/wk + the lifting in PB I/Strength I might be a bit much to tolerate adding additional volume if you’re responding well strength wise depending on the duration and intensity of each. I’d be in favor of adding accessory work like DB lateral raises, decline DB bench, and/or DB or machine flies - doing one at the end of each lifting session for 3-4 sets of 10-15 reps @ RPE 7-9.

  2. Both programs cycle through programming schemes in an effort to drive continued progress. I’m not sure I would completely abandon this.

  3. I wouldn’t. Back and posterior shoulder girdle development are important too.

  4. I don’t think so, no.

Hope this is helpful!

-Jordan

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Incredibly helpful, thank you!

As a follow up, I want to drop down to 32-32.5” waist (currently 33.4” weighing ~187lbs, height 5’8.5), mostly for own personal aesthetics. I wanted to enter a maintenance phase after reaching that ~goal, so my body can adapt to that weight/size before increasing calories. Then after a few weeks, go into a slight surplus until weight begins to fluctuate upwards and keep calories at that point for a while. All in hopes to stay around 32.5” waist during that time and making strides to get bigger pressing movers.

  1. Does this sound reasonable?

  2. Would it be sound to add in those accessories during that maintenance phase so I’m like primed for entering that surplus?

Any guidance is appreciated!

4

VG,

  1. Yep.

  2. You won’t really be primed to gain muscle at any particular point in this process and I don’t think you need to wait to add the accessories. They’ll work on a “cut” too :slight_smile:

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Ahh of course, gains can kind of be made at any time (but it’ll be more likely at or above maintenance)!

Thank you Doctor

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I think that may be true in most cases for untrained individuals, but I wouldn’t swear to it.

1 Like