chest isolation routine

[mtex]

have any of you ever gone on an isolation only chest routine. if so how were the results? i have been having shoulder problems lately & was thinking of droping the loved heavy compound lifts . such as barbell & dumbell presses (flat & incline).
i was thinking of fly's , cable cross overs & if i do any compound press movement it would be at the end of the routine so the weight would not be heavy.
opinions welcome

[mtex]

opinions? anyone ?

[Spook]

How are your shoulders bothering you? You can drop the barbell routines and still do dumbbell routines but you have to keep the shoulders back and out of the movement as much as possible. You can do pec dec flies, dumbbell pullovers, cable flies, cable crossovers, etc.....

The main thing is to keep the shoulders back and use the pecs to contract and push the weight up....shoulders only help you cheat and don't give the isolation that you need to focus on the chest.

[mtex]

yea spook, they feel better when i do DB's

[Sacklunch]

hmmm, for chest isolation you may want to try doing flys with cable crossovers. that really helped me out a lot. usually i will do my compound excersizes first, then finish up with supersets of cables and flys...

[Stanny]

A lot of shoulder issues come from the fact that we all think we must bench the barbell with a ton of weight while possessing a wide grip to get a big chest....NOPE. Although with a wider grip on the barbell the pec region feels as if it's being stressed more, the realization is yes it's being stressed more as your tris are not much involved but now the stress has been altered to your shoulder area. So as we stack the lbs on and we can't wait to push up 405lb our shoulders are quietly saying "F you pal, I will shit all over you and screw up ALL your workouts if you attempt that weight." You can help eliminate this by closing in your grip. Personally I find that if I take my pinky's and place them on the spot line on the barbell my shoulders feel great any wider and I'm screwed. Also look to do more dips and dumbell pressess. Stay away from the fly's for a while or any range of motion that will open you up or cause a rotation motion in the shoulder area. Decrease shoulder workouts, slowly bringing them back into play as well as adding ice to post workout in your shoulder areas. You do not want to screw your shoulders, you need them for about 90% of your workouts excluding abs and legs.

Good luck bro.......:up

[From Zero]

No. 1, most important: Rehab your rotator cuffs and strengthen them up. Dumbbell cleans, cuban rotations, et cetera.

You may want to switch to incline barbell presses if flat is bothering you.

For now, try doing machine presses for your chest.

[T-Dawgg]

Originally posted by From Zero
No. 1, most important: Rehab your rotator cuffs and strengthen them up. Dumbbell cleans, cuban rotations, et cetera.

You may want to switch to incline barbell presses if flat is bothering you.

For now, try doing machine presses for your chest.

great advice