This is what Shaun does for
his chest development.
1) INCLINE CABLE FLIES
ON A BENCH
SHAUN: “I like to warm up on the
cables as I feel I get a much better
pump and don’t need to go so heavy
in my pressing movements, as all the
blood and nutrients are in the
muscle early on in the session. I can
also focus on creating a better
range of motion and I love the
‘stretch’ part of the movement,
creating great time under tension.
This really helps me to make sure all
my joints, tendons and muscles are
as warm as possible before in-
creasing the weight in a pyramid
style. I normally do around 6 sets,
starting on 10kg for around 2-3
sets, before building up to 40kg for
my working sets. Everything I do is
to failure, but I always aim for
around 20-30 reps for 5-6 sets. I
never do below 20 reps on any of
my chest exercises”.
2) MACHINE PRESS
SHAUN: “I’m pretty warm by this
stage, so I do one warm up set, just
to find my seating position and get
used to the press movement.
Sometimes I’ll keep the seat slightly
higher to work more on a decline
position or will just have the seat
height so I hit all over development
of the pecs- lower, middle and
upper. One thing I will always do is
continually adjust my hand positions
until I can feel the muscle contract-
ing where I want it to. If it means
using more of a supinated grip, then
I will adjust accordingly or vice
versa with a pronated grip. I will also
adjust the width of the hand posi-
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tions, making them closer or wider
according to what’s feeling good or
not. Once again, everything is to
failure, so I perform 20-30 reps for
5 working sets. I’m super pumped
from the cables, so the weight is
never heavy, but heavy enough that
I still can contract the muscle
properly and hit my targeted rep
range.”
3) INCLINE MACHINE PRESS
SHAUN: “I like to make sure I’m
hitting upper chest a good 2-3 times
whilst training chest. It’s important
to try and maintain as much fullness
as possible whilst making sure the
upper pecs lift, pulling the middle
and lower chest up. On most people,
the upper chest is the weakest part
and requires a lot of work. By this
point I’m pretty tired, so I really need
to focus on my form over anything
else. I use a lot of slow negatives
and slow positives as well as static
holds and I like to use partials in a
controlled form towards the end of
the set. I always make sure I never
lock out, as I want the tension to
remain on the chest throughout the
movement. Over the last few years
I’ve started to pose in the rest
period and stretch the muscle I’m
working a lot more- I really believe
this has helped my growth”.