Hey All! Hope you're all doing well! - Alpha Progression App: alphaprogression.com/HOUSEOFHYPERTROPHY Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 0:28 Part I: Is the Flat Bench Overrated? 3:33 Part II: Other Chest Exercises 13:23 Part III: Could These Build the Chest Even Better? 15:49 Part IV: Summary

common theme for these videos seems to be that the exercise selection usually doesn’t really matter, but stretch, tension, progressive overload does

As a fledgling bodybuilder (1 and a half year after 6 years of powerlifting), I've found that using barbell bench press in combination with isolation exercises that target each head respectively is the best way to shape the chest.

Weighted deficit push ups are underrated

I'm glad you spoke on the current trend of over-emphasizing the stretch to the point of losing leverage and tension on the target muscle for the sake of pleasing youtube comments.

People do les rom with dumbbells almost in every case. Look at people training, even the pros, they don't go all the way on the stretch part. And when we talk about delts, it is just 90 degree elbow, that means 0 delt almost , only triceps. So yes, the dumbbells let you go deeper, but only if you are not an ego lifter. Very good video assessing those issues.

More than a thousand views in an hour? You clearly have come this far. I'm sure in no time you will be hitting the million subs. This high quality videos can't be ignored. Great video, as always, keep rocking!

Can’t wait for the video on dips! Love the word puns 😂

Lately deficit ring/trx pushups and seated cable press have been blowing my pecs up (rings at home, trx at gym. Too lazy to bring my rings lol). The deep loaded stretch is supreme, and as a big boy (215lbs) the deficit ring pushups are perfect for me without needing to add weight for heavier work, and the cable presses for higher reps

Best fitness channel

Thanks for the awesome content as always! I'm adding this info to my personal notes.

now this is the video i’ve been waiting for i love this channel

I hope there is a "the best abs exercises for building muscles" in the work. Amazing work as always.

Perfect video when I was thinking about choosing chest exercises for my plan

Gotta help with the algorithm

Outstanding report! Well done, very Well done. Thank You!

Barbell bench press destroys my shoulders, dumbbell press is superior to everything, the range of movement is just more ergonomic and natural and I feel less tension on the joints

Man, I just love your content! I try to incorporate this data into my routines for maximum efficiency. Workout 6 days a week, so I see gains. would be interested to see content about rest and recovery for muscle growth. Thanks for all you do!

As long as the exercises addresses the primary function of the muscle, they’re all equally effective if effort is the same between exercises. Effort is what causes your nervous system to recruit a lot of muscle fibers. Some exercises may require more effort than others making it “better”, but if you simply take the exercise to failure, the exercises will be extremely similar in their effectiveness for muscle growth.

I do incline barbell or incline dumbbell presses, but nothing pumps up my chest like flies.

thanks for your videos ❤️, they are always so good I like the fact that you include EMG data while being critical about it

The push up part was really enlightening.

Great work! I appreciate your summaries!!!

I know this may not mean much, but I prefer machine chest press (specifically, the Hammer Strength plate-loaded chest machines, not the ones shown when mentioning machine studies) and Smith machine presses for my hypertrophy chest workouts because… I can actually go to failure without self-guillotining myself. 😬 One other thing I found that’s a problem with free-weight bench press is it tended to severely irritate and always make sore my muscles near the coracoid processes on both sides after almost every bench press session. The massaging for those was intense and lovely in a painful-pleasure kind of way (never hurt my rotator cuffs, surprisingly). Once I stopped free-weight bench pressing, the soreness near those areas stopped as well. I wish hypertrophy using Smith machines vs. regular bench press was actually more studied, though. Again, the fact that I know, mentally, not to stress out about hurting myself when using machine variants allows me to push myself beyond what I’d usually do with a free-weight bench press, but there’s also no need to stabilize yourself, so maybe it’s a trade-off for hypertrophy and, hence, not the “most optimal”?

What about chest flyes? This is the exercise providing the most tension at the streched position, and was the favorite exercise of Arnold.

Bench press targets the chest very good and it's a pretty stable exercise too however the range of motion isn't the best unless it's the cambered bar wich i would argue is the king of all chest exercies, but for some odd reason it's not in most gyms out there. Also about the tricep thing, i do find that accurate because i barely feel my tricep stretching at all, and in fact when they're in the most stretched position it's only the elbow pain that i feel lmao.

If you could do an analysis on forearm training, and give some intuitive colloguial taxonomy to the muscles there, it would be appreciated. The forearm is complex, and it is not easy to remember all the muscles there, or to know what to train and how. It would help especially the arm wrestling community. Thanks.

Lately i started replacing barebell bench press with machine press, cuz i can stretch better in the machine, feels better on the chest

Id say the reason bench is better for triceps than dumbbell is the forarm stay more parallel to the resistance and thus only the upper arm is moving.

Pushups on Olympic rings with a weight vest really blows my chest up

9:40 a explanation for the partial being better than the full rom in the tricep study can be that what matters is not weight but tension in the muscle. You get maximum load at the 90º position, the partial range of motion passed more than around the 90º position compared to the full range of motion where the 0º and 140º have littel to no tension.

The V-shred segment was hilarious LMAO

Holy, you got me at 13:37 almost fell from my chair before the "just kidding".

Been waiting for this one :)

Digging your work!! 🙏💪

Great freaking video!!!

The stretch is not important, force production at long muscle lenghts is.

Its awesome to see the humble push-up keeping up with the barbell bench.

The best chest exercises are the ones done consistently with tremendous effort.

Adding the high possibility of shoulder injury doing BPress, then you have more good and rational reasons to think that with machines, you not only obtain almost the same result that free weight, also you will prevent of hurting your self by doing machines

The reason that a better range of motion and stretch is "less effective" for hypertrophy relative to shorties, is because the better the stretch, the less the load that can be moved efficiently and sufficiently. I think both shorts and deeps are necessary for hypertrophy AND strength because muscle size and strength are joined at the hip. As with triceps or any pushing muscles, a set or two of heavy weight like a flat bench skull crusher with dumbells (hammer grip) with a shorter range of motion but high intensity with 8-12 reps, will trigger hypertrophy but still allow you to drop the weight by about 20-50% and do more volume (more reps and sets) with a better stretch and ROM for that pump. On the heavy sets, your intensity will be high enough to do less volume and still activate hypertrophy so you won't need to do more than 3 sets of that exercise to get the maximum benefit of heavier weight. If you're advanced, this will allow you to take advantage of some high volume hypertrophy with lighter weight sets of the same move but with a better rom for a good stretch and pump. This method of training will eliminate any guess work about whether you're going to grow or not. DO BOTH and you know you're going to grow

Alpha progression is one of the phew youtuber apps I still use to this day. Solid app

Converging flat/decline press and converging incline press, possibly one pec dec/cable fly exercise. All that is ever needed.

instead of pushups from the ground, wonder how pushups via olympic rings would work since you need to stabilize more. I know the first time I tried them, holy hell! Tis a way different animal!

Its Really obvious every time I watch this channel that the creator clearly knows how to think critically. Great stuff

Incline bench, decline pushups, dips, flys - works for me.

I can't believe he doesn't mention the clear #1 chest builder. #1 exercise: the wide Ring pushup It's absolutely the best because it has everything from high load through full ROM. Stretch under load. Freedom of movement but still stable enough. Easy to adjust the angle.

Due to my small rib cage, my pectoralis major is a pectoralis minor, hope this will help 😆

Just finished doing chest😢 thank you for this info❤

Very nice video. Can you do a video on all parts of the chest? And the front delts?

Arguably press-ups can match the dumbbell press for stretch if performed on handles, or on boxes with a gap to sink into. However, I don't know, I feel those deeper stretches are also good places to find an injury. For instance there are many warnings around flyes to this regard, and cable exercises are just better flyes. The dumbbell press is awkward without 2 trainer partners to hand you the weights, otherwise you are forced to bounce them off the legs, or some other similar sketchy move like falling back with arms extended. There are no easy answers with the chest I think, one always seems to need trade in risk. The barbell is surely king, but it is undoubtedly a technical lift, go to any gym where people bench press and you'll find men walking around rubbing their impinged shoulders. There are no easy answers with the chest I think, one always seems to need trade in risk. Probably it's best to err towards what you are confident you can execute well.

thx for all bro

ahah this is great Dr Mike hits again

Just partial dumbell flyes for me. Dont need anything other. The only compund pushing exercise i do is OHP and i still have a good chest.

Here my own experience: started going to gym in 1988 at 18, 178 cm or 5'10 x 58 kg or 127.8, really a skinny young man (the typical young guy who could eat great amounts of food without gaining the slightest amount of weight) with a thin frame. In my training years I never took a thing, not even amino acids nor protein powders. 2 trainings per week (2 hours and one half per training), one single routine, so nothing too fancy, as you can see. My shape has been in the middle between bronze and silver era guys at some point, now after 15 years of no training is still almost bronze era like, believe it or not. It took me almost one year to see results, but after the first maybe two-three years I was weighting at 177 lbs (always 5'10 BTW;-) made up with muscles. I can still recall to these days with pride the surprise of one friend's mum noticing my chest had grown in width and complimenting me (and the thing ended there, to be clear). My training days ended in 2008, at 38, (187 lbs, again very little fat) and I've lost some but surprisingly to me quite few muscle mass since, maybe due to the fact I never took shortcuts, or maybe just lucky genetics, who really knows. Now at 54 I'm finding myself more and more often thinking I could go back to gym for my last 10-15 years of training, using as usual my old single routine. If made with wisdom, bearing well in mind I'm heading towards my 60s now, and further I'll be towards my 70s, it should carry me in a decent shape well into my final days. Anyway, here the routine: 2 and one half minutes rests always 1) barbell flat bench press 4 series aiming to 8 reps; 2) incline bench press (barbell or dumbbell) 3 series aiming to 8 reps; 3-4) other two chest-shoulders exercises in rotation, always 3 series each, always aiming to 8 reps; 5) pull ups 3 series aiming to 8 reps; 6) lat machine (I know it's almost the same thing, but it is what it is) 3 series aiming to 8 reps; 7) another exercise for dorsal muscles in rotation, always the usual 3 series aiming to 8 reps; 8-9-10-11) legs: squat machine (I've constantly been trying all through those years to save my back, as I know I have only one) 4 series aiming to 8 reps plus various machines always 3 series aiming to 8 reps, calves; 12) abs varying exercises (at least 20 minutes). I've never made a single series for triceps or biceps, in my view those get made while doing pectorals and dorsals. And that's it, apologize both for the length and my English guys!

Still waiting on that chest isolation video on flyes...

*House of hypertrophy uploads a video* Me: Mom, HouseofHypertrophy just uploaded a video!

House of Hypertrophy 🤝 Renaissance Periodization

Great videos!! Can you do a video like this for Ab / core exercises?

Flat bench with standard and narrow grip with weighted dips are gold for chest. The rest are just finishers and to give that little bit more. And that's about it.

Finally

Excelente, muchas gracias por esta valiosa información desde México 🎉

You can do a barbell bench press that is like a dumbbell bench press with a curved bar for a deeper stretch

13:23 Vibes

The "best" chest doms Ive gotten is from the flat bench dumb bell chest fly, you can get excessive stretch

A deficit push up is...a dip!

Obi answering the phone then throwing it away 😂😂😂😂😂

Barbell press animations show 2+3 plates 😱

4 days now, still waiting for the references/studies...I waited till now to ask... Perhaps am one of the few here who follows your channel for the studies also, and actually goes & reads them! Do post the links to the studies! Thanks!

Sergio swore by the partial benches again and again. For example, in magazine interviews (see tan slacks of dezbo pan website and his book coauthored by the machette guy) and you can see him doing them this way in clips on youtube and in photos from booklets/magazines. You can also see serge nubret and arnold benching this way in various youtube clips.

What did I just witness He made 7k subs in a single day

At 9:25, you say and write glute max but you highlight hamstrings.

I've found my chest has grown by doing presses on the cable machine by standing upright. This allows me to stretch right back with the handles. I can hit lower or upper chest by altering the height of the machine handles.

Perfect timing for chest day tomorrow 😂 also, I prefer the dumbell press bc it feels better on my shoulders. And it's easier to dump the weights if you fail a rep

I don't have access to a cambered bar, but i can attest that doing a few series of deficit pushups at the end of your chest day will destroy pecs and stretch them at the same time.

i swear incline dumbells and incline flys are the only combo that get the chest line going all the way up to the bottom of the neck.

Don’t see how cable flies aren’t better than bench pressing, you get a deeper stretch and have the ability to converge

I developed a chest from pushups and d.b press only,no bp ever.

Thank you for the great analysis on how to develop properly popping pectorals. Personally, I prefer push-ups on gymnastics rings and cable flys.

are there studies that investigate incline barbell bench press versus flat barbell bench on hypertrophy? My shoulders hurt when on the flat so I only do incline bench, so I'm wondering how this would impact chest muscle growth.

Diferent things works for diferent people...but in general low incline will blow up your chest and shoulders the best.

the fact that so many have gotten pec tears from flat bench press, is proof that the exercise is most assuredly working the pecs under load and tension. The chest is working hard, otherwise it would not ever tear

Make a house of hypertrophy podcast please!!!! With all these videos

I though there were some on inclined bench showing greatly improved sterno-clavicular portion of pectoralis

I agree that progressive overlaod is key to hypertrophy gains

is there any data on chest presses on an incline or flyes?

Main part of dumbbell better than barbell is u can push to failure safely on dbs.

I don't like dumbell bench press just because its very hard to enter in the position with heavy weight.

He forgot to mention extensions. I guess he touched it when mentioning stretching muscles don't always help with hypertrophy. But I feel it works after BB bench press you isolate the pects with cable extensions

Hello HOH, What do you think about paused reps for muscle growth. It is already popular for strenght training but i wonder what it does for hypertrophy. Basically paused reps is a way to avoid stretch reflex and so you must produce more force. As a consequence, you may reach mechanical failure way faster than you would with normal "strecth reflexed" reps at the same weight. Thanks in advance

Pec-tacular! Am I the only one who found that funny! 😂😂😂

13:36 I nearly died 😂😂😂

We’re about to get that milkers with this guide 🔥🔥

lol obi wans "hello there"

shoulder injuries seem more common with barbell.

How do you feel about shoulder joint safety when comparing DB, barbell, and machine/smith machine? Asking as someone who is currently using pushups as my main chest exercise but wants to expand into benching.

The great thing about push ups is that you can do them everywhere, anytime. If you travel a lot, choose a backpack so you can wear it while doing push ups.

I never bench press,,, , only done body weight dips, have a decent chest for my weight,,

I flat bench on Monday and use machines on Thursday haha

great