T
he chest- also known
as the pecs or pectoral
muscles. Always felt
by the female species on a
night out, and always trained
on a Monday by gym rookies
on international chest day!
Over the years, Shaun has had to
change his style of training con-
stantly, either because of injury, or
because certain exercises no longer
gave him the contractions they once
did. He started his bodybuilding
days off at Genesis gym, a gym
renowned for its strong guys. Run
by Dave Beattie, a world power
lifting champion, you can under-
stand why. Big benches and heavy
deadlifts were the norm, giving
Shaun that thick dense muscle. In
recent years, a shoulder injury he
incurred has given rise to many
issues, preventing the pecs from
firing properly, and resulting in the
loss of some of that great fullness
Shaun first had when he hit the
stage a few years ago. With his
boulders for shoulders it’s very
important that when he trains chest,
his delts don’t overtake any of the
movement and full tension goes
through the pectoral muscles.
104
FLEX | MARCH 2018
‘WHAT CAN YOU DO TO
STOP THE DELTS FROM
OVERTAKING?’
Many bodybuilders have great delts
but lack that hanging chest. As with
all body parts, it’s very important to
determine which movement, angle
and exercises work best for you.
One thing I have noticed is, most
people press from the delts with
little chest requirement and then
finish off with a lot more triceps
recruitment than necessary by lock-
ing the arms out too much.
One thing you can do to limit the
delts overtaking everything, is to
retract the scapula (also referred
to as the shoulder blades). When
you’re on the bench, or just stand-
ing, squeeze the scapula together,
and you will notice the chest will lift
and the delts retract- the chest will
already look bigger. The lower back
will be slightly arched and that’s
okay, but please make sure the
elbows aren’t coming up too high
towards the head in your pressing
movements as the tension can once
again leave the upper pec and hit
front delts.
Some people will also notice
when they come down too low in
the eccentric part of the movement,
that the front delt gets used too
much to move the weight back up in
the first part of the press. This
creates unwanted tension and
transitions from the pecs to the delt.
Making these small adjustments will
help the chest to work properly and
recruit as many muscle fibres as
possible.
Find what suits you best and
adjust the positions according to
what works and what doesn’t. This
won’t happen overnight and will take
weeks, months and even years in
some cases.