The Best Way to Build Your Upper Pecs

Summary

In this engaging video, Dr. Mike from Renaissance Periodization offers an in-depth guide on optimally building upper pectoral muscles. He covers the anatomy, effective exercises, and best practices for maximizing growth. With a light-hearted tone, Mike emphasizes the importance of variety in incline angles and adequate recovery to prevent injuries. He shares a weekly workout routine and advises against obsessively sticking to one technique, highlighting the benefits of combining angles and gradually increasing load and repetitions.

Highlights

• Incline exercises are key for targeting upper pecs, but variety is essential for balanced growth.
• The upper pecs are primarily stimulated with incline movements, but benefit from all types of pressing exercises.
• Avoid obsessing over the exact incline angle; variety and gradual progression are more impactful.
• Push-ups with feet elevated are a fantastic exercise for upper pecs and can be progressed with repetitions.
• It's vital to incorporate rest periods into your routine to allow recovery and avoid injuries.

Key Takeaways

• Mix up your incline angles for comprehensive upper pec growth.
• Your upper pecs grow from all pressing movements, not just inclined ones.
• Recovery is crucial to prevent shoulder injuries from too much incline work.
• Incline push-ups and various degrees of incline presses are excellent for upper pec development.
• No need to obsess over perfect angles; focus on how your body responds.
• Gradually increase the amount of weight or reps for steady progress.

Overview

In the video "The Best Way to Build Your Upper Pecs," Dr. Mike from Renaissance Periodization provides an exciting guide into building robust upper pectoral muscles. Starting with a humorous take on the obsession that many have with 'chest days,' he delves into the anatomy of the upper pecs and why they matter. Dr. Mike emphasizes the significance of the clavicular fibers and their role and provides insights on exercises that target these muscles effectively. It's not just about one size fits all - the variety of exercises plays a pivotal role in proper muscle growth.

One of the major highlights is Dr. Mike's advice on incorporating various angles into your chest workouts. While inclines are essential, they shouldn't be the sole focus. Combining different angles throughout your workouts stimulates the upper pecs while allowing rest to avoid injuries. Dr. Mike suggests mixing lower and medium inclines with traditional flat press exercises. This combination ensures balanced development across the entire chest area.

Dr. Mike's articulate explanation of techniques, progression, and balance is furthered by relatable analogies and humor. He underscores the importance of progression—either by increasing reps or gradually increasing weights over time. The casual, engaging tone invites viewers to understand how they can modify their routines for personalized gains. There's a scientific nod to the importance of rest and recovery as well, ensuring that one’s quest for prominent pecs doesn’t lead to burnout. By the end, Dr. Mike wraps up with a touch on how structured programs can assist beginners in their muscle-building journey.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction and Importance of Incline Pressing The chapter discusses the common practice of dedicating specific days for chest exercises, often focusing solely on incline pressing. It humorously references the idea of having multiple 'international chest days' dedicated to upper pectoral development. The text warns against obsessively doing only incline exercises without breaks, as it could lead to shoulder problems. It suggests taking a more balanced approach by varying exercise angles to allow for muscle recovery.
• 00:30 - 02:30: Understanding Upper Pecs and Stimulating Them The chapter titled 'Understanding Upper Pecs and Stimulating Them,' presented by Dr. Mike for RP Strength, delves into the anatomy and function of the upper pecs. The upper pecs, technically known as the clavicular fibers of the pectoralis major muscle, play a crucial role in moving the arm inward and upward simultaneously. This motion is akin to movements performed during incline pressing and incline fly exercises, which are effective in stimulating the upper pecs. The discussion aims to enhance understanding of how these muscles can be effectively targeted and developed.
• 02:30 - 04:30: Principles for Growing Upper Pecs The chapter discusses the growth of upper pectoral muscles (pecs) and how they are stimulated through various pressing movements. It highlights that while upper pecs are engaged in all pressing exercises, including decline moves, they benefit slightly more from incline work. The angle of incline exercises targets the clavicular fibers of the upper pecs, contributing to their growth.
• 04:30 - 07:00: Exercise Angles and Variations The chapter discusses targeting the upper pectoral muscles, acknowledging that while there may be a specific method to target these muscles, it is not universally the best for every scenario. The importance of developing the upper pecs is also highlighted, mentioning aesthetic benefits such as an 'armor plated look.' The chapter also notes the inclusion of video content featuring some visuals and examples.
• 07:00 - 10:00: Proper Technique and Progression The chapter titled 'Proper Technique and Progression' discusses the aesthetic appeal of having a well-defined upper pack, which resembles a shelf jutting out. This look is likened to wearing armor, which is perceived as cool and badass. The author shares a personal anecdote about being admired by older women, adding a humorous note with a playful reference to a well-known personality, 'Sagal'. Despite the playful tone, there's an underlying focus on the appreciation of physical progress and the positive attention it garners.
• 10:00 - 13:30: Sample Workout and Volume Progression This chapter focuses on the principles and techniques for effectively growing upper pec muscles. It emphasizes the importance of using correct angles and maintaining good technique during workouts. The chapter highlights the need for eccentric control and explains the concept of ramped loading, which involves gradually increasing the weights, reps, and sets to facilitate muscle growth. An example illustrating these principles is provided.
• 13:30 - 15:00: Mistakes to Avoid in Training Upper Pecs This chapter discusses common mistakes to avoid when training upper pecs, emphasizing the importance of strength progression. It suggests training upper pecs several times a week and prioritizing these exercises earlier in your workout routine. The chapter concludes with practical applications of these principles.
• 15:00 - 18:00: Training Cycles and Recovery The chapter discusses various aspects of training cycles and recovery, focusing on the importance of angles in training, especially for upper PEC work. It highlights that incline work is crucial and exists on a spectrum, ranging from flat pressing to high incline pressing at about a 60° angle. The chapter also notes that some shoulder pressing can effectively target the upper pecs, particularly when the chest is arched, and the shoulder blades are retracted. It concludes by saying that flat bench press and dumbbell press are also beneficial for upper pec growth.
• 18:00 - 19:00: Conclusion and App Promotion The chapter discusses techniques for achieving muscle growth balance between different regions of the pectoral muscles. It emphasizes using incline exercises at various angles (low, medium, and high) to effectively activate and develop the mid and lower pectoral muscles. The narrator suggests experimenting with different inclines to find the most effective for individual goals.

The Best Way to Build Your Upper Pecs Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 let's say you have Monday and Thursday is chest day international chest two International chest days that's right Fells really observing here a lot of folks just only ever do incline everything with no breakes like okay I need upper PEX to grow you're like okay dope all right incline everything you're like uh do you want to do some push-ups like nope got to be inclin like regular bench nope got to be inclin some people get really obsessive but every now and again you have to take the gas off and let your muscles recover so you don't end up inclining your way into like a nasty shoulder situation try to do a combination of these angles in any one week
• 00:30 - 01:00 hey folks Dr Mike here for RP strength let's talk about how to grow upper pecs best first question what are the upper pecs they are the clavicular fibers of your pectoralis major muscle they have the function of bringing your arm in and up at the same time this looks familiar than You' either seen a lot of robot demo videos or you know how to do incline pressing and incline fly work
• 01:00 - 01:30 it's located between your front belt and your mid peek sandwich somewhere in between and here's the thing your upper pecs are stimulated with all pressing moves even decline moves not just inclines so your upper pecs grow from all kinds of pressing moves but they do grow fractionally more from incline work work in which the angle is tilted toward Wards the clavicular fibers up as you go
• 01:30 - 02:00 in that is the most specific way to Target the upper pecs but it is not the only way to Target the upper pecs it is not categorically the best way in every single circumstance that's what the upper pecs are and that's fundamentally how they're stimulated why do we want them to grow well I don't know you clicked on this video but seriously they give you an armor plated look I don't know what thumbnails the guys are going to use for this but I there's some pictures of me Scott video guy which in
• 02:00 - 02:30 which my upper pack packs look pretty cool it's just like if you have this shelf jut out and then come down it just looks like you have a like armor on at all times and it looks badass um I have found that older sagales women just adore the look on me personally so uh take me to santol baby what's up what up Queen anyway oh I'm married uh but in a time machine Sagal in any case what
• 02:30 - 03:00 principles do your upper pecs grow best on first is the correct angles I'll tell you about that what in practice that looks like in a bit so you got to get the angles correct you have to have good technique you have to have Ecentric control some Ecentric control you have to have ramped loading loading that increases reps potentially to increase and sets that increase we'll talk about an example in just a little bit and and you have to demonstrate some
• 03:00 - 03:30 strength progression over time in most cases and another really big one is you should be hitting your upper pecs probably a few times per week at least once maybe two or three and you have to hit them fresh in many or most of those cases which means you can't put your upper pack stuff at the very end of a five exercise workout plan it's got to be exercise one or two and then it works really well so let's take those principles and actually turn them into practice
• 03:30 - 04:00 on the angles side what does that mean that means lots of incline work but incline work and upper PEC work more generally exists on a spectrum of flat pressing all the way up to high incline pressing which you are basically like pressing at a 60° angle and even some shoulder pressing can hit the upper pecs really well especially if you arch your chest up and retract your shoulder blades that means that flat is good the flat bench press and dumbbell press actually grow the upper packs a lot but
• 04:00 - 04:30 they grow the mid and lower packs so much that your upper packs don't stick out more which is a lot of times what people want so if you want to grow the upper packs just about as much maybe a little bit more and if you want the lower and mid packs to grow less inclines start to be good and inclines can be low inclines those are awesome in fact very low inclines have some of the best data on total pack activation I wouldn't take that too far but it's kind of neat medium incline 30 degrees or so uh 45 degree incline Works High incline works 60° Etc try them all and I would
• 04:30 - 05:00 say always do try to do a combination of these angles in any one week none of that fully optimal BS where you find that 17° was the ideal angle in 12 recreationally trained Nordic undergraduates from 1992 and that's the only you ever do you put on a couple plates get your gometer going right okay it looks like yep 17 nope nope one more plate 18 degrees great all right we're doing that I'm never doing any other press or fly or any kind of move at that's out of that angle that is just total nonsense because variation is
• 05:00 - 05:30 awesome and you never can quite tell how your own personal physiology and Anatomy will respond unless you try multiple different angles so from both of those perspective make sure just some incline work gets in there and you're pretty much good to go as far as the technique side you got to do a full range of motion in a get a deep stretch if you're Ultra stretching your packs at the bottom you're doing really well for yourself if you're not you have some things left to be desired you also want to do ramped loading which means when you pick an exercise and you get used to the technique start to increase the
• 05:30 - 06:00 weight over time 2 and2 PBS on the bar 5 lbs on the bar slowly over time over weeks and weeks and months and months if you can get your incline barbell press to gain you know 15 or 20 pounds at the same rep range for you in terms of weight on the bar hey man you're probably growing your upper pecs if you can't I'm not sure exactly what you're growing potentially you can program some rep progressions so if you've been fussing with like the 60 lb incline dumbbell press dumbbells and you're like what am I supposed to do go to 60 5 my
• 06:00 - 06:30 reps will go from 12 to like six that's nonsense no worries just stay on with uh whatever weight that you chose and increase the amount of repetitions by like one rep every week until you can't anymore then you Deo rinse repeat start at three reps in reserve and go again that way you might be able to hit the 50s for like you know 12 rep sets on average in week one and then like 16 rep sets on average in the final week um I was involved directly in a study where we tested only rep progression versus
• 06:30 - 07:00 only load progression and the rep progression group did a little teeny bit better under the hood in terms of growth outcomes than even the load progression group but it's statistically indifferentiable so we can confidently say scientifically minded that you get pretty much the same gains from adding reps as adding load unless you get into like above 40 or 50 reps and then it's too light so progressing reps and dumbbells is definitely thing you can do and if you're doing push-ups especially if you have push-ups where you put your feet on some kind of box or a bench and
• 07:00 - 07:30 then you have a deficit set up with blocks or plates uh just just beneath that you can actually do push-up and get an incline upper Peck activity especially if you take your butt and angle it up a little bit on those push-ups you get an amazing stretch somebody to follow who demonstrates that exercise incredibly well is Eric janicki first of all he's like big to the point where you're like he looks big on TV you see him in real life and you're like I've never lifted weights and why the hell do I even have a YouTube channel about the just massive massive dude super sharp really knows the stuff the
• 07:30 - 08:00 go-to guy for all really really creative ways of working out if your conventional exercises just aren't hitting your for you go follow Eric janicki he's awesome and he demos these push-ups amazingly well he actually puts two really big dumbbells and goes all the way between them it'll absolutely wreck you and those exercises typically can't load because what are you going to do put a 25 on your back have it slide up hit your head and it embarrass you in front of that one girl who always wears those you know pink yoga shorts and you've had so many just so any thoughts
• 08:00 - 08:30 about what's in those shorts man like why why you doing this to me Kelly Scott Kelly's a girl's name right yeah it's also a guy's name you don't like guy's named Kelly comment what about guys's named Courtney stop that's a thing bro stop come on all who's named Courtney dude there's like NBA uh former NBA greats named Courtney when you're when you're a 6'8
• 08:30 - 09:00 black dude you can be name whatever no one says in any case um they rep progressions are awesome so you can only do 12 push-ups like that as a second exercise no worries next week it's 13 then it's 14 and so on and so forth so definitely do that and of course sets if your upper packs haven't grown maybe you have just not trained them enough so start with eight sets of total chest work per week and over the weeks work up to 12 sets cool it take a D Lo come back start at 10 work up to 4 14 keep ramping
• 09:00 - 09:30 like that and after a while you may be like dude when I finally got into like the 15 to 25 set range for my packs much of that uh upper pack work then I started seeing awesome gains before that the Gams weren't that great it's a real thing so experiment with really progressing volume and you can really have a good time quick sample weekly workout what that would look like we have like a gajillion of these in the RP pery app link in the description if you want to get in on that but you can make your own and modify your own cart launch on that app it's actually Universal program generators you make whatever
• 09:30 - 10:00 program you want in there as long as it's trying to get you jacked but a sample workout you can do is you know let's say you have Monday and Thursday is chess Day International chest two International chest days that's right Fells really observing here uh on Monday you start with high incline dumbbell presses 60° angle big arch really let your chest open super super clavicular pack focused and then afterwards just lower the thing sometimes you can even use the same dumbbells um and do some flat presses so two exercise uh super High incline dumbbell press and then
• 10:00 - 10:30 flat dumbbell press awesome that's day one you know uh starting with two sets of each in your program working up to four or five sets of each like that'll cook you and then on the later day of your program so you know fourth day of the week uh let's call it you know Thursday or something like that Monday you do this workout Thursday you do a low incline Smith machine press different angle to begin with uh we like variation and then after you do uh high angle cable flies so you put the flies
• 10:30 - 11:00 in the very bottom part stand forward and then uh fly from below up to above you can gently touch your fingers together or just get to where it's close to your face and come back down that's it go guys notice this is a week of chest training for upper PEC Focus there are only four total exercises start with a few sets on each one progress to four or five sets on each at the end that's 15 to 20 work sets for your packs most of that upper pack work very likely you will have a good result and if you're handling way way easier uh the volume
• 11:00 - 11:30 than I would then just keep ramping and then eventually you might be able to throw out a couple more exercises or do five or six sets of everything and then you're really uh getting some bigger pecks that being said let's talk about a few things that can derail some fol so what kind of things should you not pursue if you're trying to get big upper pecs one is over worrying about the angle like I get questions all the time like this what exact angle do I need to optimize upper Peet growth that does not exist because human variation is so high
• 11:30 - 12:00 that we can't even pin one number we can have an average number and that average is probably like 15 to 30° or something like that for overall pet growth and probably really good for upper pecs too but then that's a different question because what if my overall pecs are fine and actually want my upper pecs to stick out a little more which means I don't really want to grow my lower pecs but I really want to grow my upper pecs well then a 60° angle is probably much closer to Optimal so if you're woring about angles a ton just do some godamn incline work and as a matter fact at least one
• 12:00 - 12:30 study shows that reverse grip flat bench pressing fries your clavicular pecs which kind of makes sense because you end up bringing your your arm up this way um it's a weird exercise get a spotter some people like it most people think it's the the devil incarnate uh I'm not going to render a judgment give it a shot but over worrying about angles just ain't it try a bunch have some variation as long as there's some uh your feeling your upper pecs get sore the day after you're good to go another one is the top squeeze a lot of guys get the flly going like squeeze right here
• 12:30 - 13:00 brother just squeeze it all in the top squeeze might have some advantages they've kind of eluded science for now and we know that the stretch and the cental control on the way down is just more important and so top squeeze is cool but don't piss away too much energy squeezing at the top when you could do some lengthen partials at the end of your set and really cook that bottom part so don't ever emphasize the top squeeze in most situations a related one is top end partials guys will be like I really bring up my upper pecs they get the Smith machine put four plates in it come down to here and come back up you know chin height or something and I
• 13:00 - 13:30 always like asking guys like why don't you go all the way down nonsense make belief biomechanic comes out of their mouth no offense we all do dumb every now again me I do dumb literally every minute and so it's just not really a good compelling reason for it unless you're hurt or something like that your shoulders are messed up going all the way down for a deep stretch is really really good even if you do your incline Smith pressing and you only ever come up halfway and then down all the way and then come up halfway and only come up fully to like uh rack uh right right as you lock out that's way better
• 13:30 - 14:00 than just uh halfway up all the way up to the top so consider that top end partials probably aren't it and another one is a lot of folks just only ever do incline everything with no brakes like okay I need upper packs to grow you're like okay dope all right incline everything you're like uh do you want to do some push-ups like nope got to be inclined like regular bench nope got to be inclin 30° incline low incline like nope it's got to be 90 degree incline or some like that now we're shoulder pressing some people get really obsessive and the worst thing is if you do that for a few months no big deal but
• 14:00 - 14:30 every now and again you have to take the gas off and let your muscles recover your nervous system recover let the joints connect if ties recover so you don't end up inclining your way into like a nasty shoulder situation so what I like to do is for a few months mostly inclines though at least one flat movement per week is probably good just to kind of keep that muscle there keep the good function going and then after that take a few weeks at least and maybe a few months to just do allaround pack work maybe just mostly like just average packs regular process some low incline work and then when you're kind of fresh
• 14:30 - 15:00 and ready again for some more incline Focus upper PEC Focus stuff then go back to more incline work more upper PEC work don't just like 365 only ever train your upper pecs cuz they'll get staleness to them they'll just be the same all the time way too much pushing all the time and the ROI is not going to be great so coming back around to whole chest training even sometimes focusing on Mid and lower pecs at the expensive upper pecs for a bit is a really good way to refresh that muscle come back later hit it really hard so in conclusion the basics over time fellas they're
• 15:00 - 15:30 undefeated it does not take a rocket scientist to be able to figure this out even though just as a hobby last week I became a special rocket surgeon um in the Doge Force that's right Elon called me he was like hey Mike I'm like who who who is this how did you get my number he's like it's Elon I'm like I know a lot of people name Elon Elon who and you know just the conversation just like went off and he was like how do I run the government can you help me I was like dude I got Butlers for this in any case um you know I'm a rocket Scott what
• 15:30 - 16:00 I say rocket something or other rocket Force Man rocket man is that Elton John yeah do you think Elton John's straighter than me I mean arguably arguably Basics work another one focus on the upper pecs then all around then the upper then all around then the upper then all around that'll get you those awesome Sawtooth gains that are kind of really really long term and if you need help the hypertrophy app has you covered
• 16:00 - 16:30 and the RP diet coach app will get you well fed at least tell you what you should and shouldn't eat and uh all those links are in the description if you want to pay us money so that I can continue to show up and pretend to be happy for you guys and pretend to give good advice even though all of this I copied from other YouTube channels who will remain nameless so that I continue to be rich and famous and cry myself to sleep see you guys next time [Music] he