Frustrated to no end.

[Heizen]

I have been working out pretty regularly with the free weights I have at home, and yet still have a somewhat embarressing problem.

No matter what I do, my left pec is bigger then my right. Noticably.

I am doing dumbell fly and dumbell press, and while I am getting results, and there is a improvment, my left pecs grows in mass faster even though my right is now stronger. My thought is that the sets I am doing are only working out the outside part of the pecs, when I need to be working on the lower part; the part where the nipple is.

Is there any kind of exercise I can do to get a increase in mass? I can do anything involving dumbells, otherwise Its hard for me to get into a gym with my schedule.

Any help or tips is greatly appreciated.

 

[diablo]

By "larger", how much are we speaking of? There's a truism out there - that what seems so noticeable to you, nobody else has ever noticed about you. Unless your muscle has gained freakish proportions compared to the other, I wouldn't worry about it. If it has, however, say as much and I'll be glad to try to answer your original question.

 

[-.-]

The pectoralis muscle (chest) does not have inner or outer chest nor does it have lower and upper.

Having that said, your problem relies on either bad form or genetics. Post a pic, and we'll see if it's really that bad.

Either way, I heard single handed DB presses work good.

I have the same prob on my biceps.. But I can isolate it when I need to. Goodluck.

 

[DJBen]

Haha. If theres one thing I've learnt, my body will never be perfectly symatrical. From the very first day at school, I carried my rucksack on my left shoulder. I did it for years and years. Heavy or light, it was always on that shoulder - unless I was hiking or something. Then it was on both. Because of it, the left side of my traps is bigger than the right. My shoulder also sits slightly higher, cause it's easier to keep the bag there if you have your shoulder up slightly.

My left pec is a slightly different shape to the other, my right quad is different from my left, etc. But you know what? When I asked someone if I looked symetrical one time, the only thing they said was that I lean over to the left slightly! Thats all they could find, and I wasnt even aware of it!

How you see yourself and how OTHER people see you are way different. I dont know of any safe way to make it catch up with the other, but DB presses would be good. You could try just doing them on the smaller side, and keep the other DB in position on the other side, but without doing the movement.

"The pectoralis muscle (chest) does not have inner or outer chest nor does it have lower and upper."

These kinds of comments beg for someone to say 'well actually! this recent study, this uni found out that...' etc etc, or whatever. Just reminding you

 

[cmr662]

its probably all due to genetics. id stay away from db presses for a bit and move to bb presses. that will help your gains become more equal compared to db's

 

[Mr Spitfire]

I dont recommend BB presses. In my experience there is much more risk of shoulder injury with the BB and the DBs work a much larger part of the chest than BB.

I recommend making up the difference doing single arm on the fly MACHINE to make up the difference. I think it is the safest way to go, much more safe than the single arm DB idea.

And btw, to the guys that keep insisting there is no upper, lower, inner or outer chest, Thanks for the anatomy lesson professors, most of us mortals still need to isolate the upper, lower, inner and outer chest to get flat and full.

 

[Duke Togo]

there is an inner chest, outer chest, and upper chest, and they can both be isolated apart from the inner which is a small ligament and doesnt hypertrophy significantly.

to correct the problem with the ****ed up pec, just dumbell press with 1 hand flat, incline and decline till its in proportion. in the other hand use a very light weight 1KG to get the correct motion.

3 sets incline, 3 decline, 3 flat to stimulate the whole area.

 

[DJBen]

Decline are over-rated. Incline and flat is all you need.

 

[Duke Togo]

Originally posted by DJBen
Decline are over-rated. Incline and flat is all you need.

yes, but i put them in to replace dips as he cant do those with 1 hand, and there fore stimulating the whole chest area.

 

[Heizen]

Thanks for your help!

I'll try to add inclines to my usual workout since I am already doing flatpresses. Unfortunatly, I only have access to db's frequently so I am forced to use those, at least until school starts. The idea of doing a one armed DB press doesnt exactly excite me.

In the end I guess it is as Bishop and Ben said, it is probably just me. Its noticable to me, but in the past day or so I have been around tons of girls without a shirt and have had nothing but compliments. Well, thats and comments about tanlines

If anything I will just continue, hopefully it will be set off if I add some more muscle to both sides

Anyways, thank you for your help.