Written by Flex Wheeler
21 August 2018

Chest-Back-Vic-Dex

Tips to Build a Bigger Chest and Back

Blueprint for Mass from Dexter Jackson & Victor Martinez

 

1) FW: It seems like we see plenty of huge shoulders and arms, but thick chests and backs aren’t so common anymore. Let’s start with chest. Why do you think we are seeing fewer and fewer great chests these days?

DJ: I really don’t know. Maybe they don’t hit all the angles. I started out when all the guys in the gym still had that old-school mentality. We did flat presses, inclines and declines. I hardly ever see anybody doing decline presses anymore. When did somebody decide those were no good? I used to get great results from barbell declines.

VM: Most guys now think they can replace free weights with machines. You can’t! I never once thought that. Free weights will always build a denser, thicker chest than any machine could.

victor-dexter-back-chest1

2) FW: Then there’s back. Even though we all supposedly know that shows are won from the back these days, and Mr. O champs like Lee Haney, Dorian and Ronnie were all known for their awesome back development, we hardly see any truly great backs today. Why do you think that is?

DJ: I’m sure part of it is how they train their backs, but genetics play a role. All three of those Mr. Olympia champs you just mentioned had tremendous genetics for back width and thickness. It’s not like they had weak backs early on in their careers and then made them awesome.

VM: You have to do your deadlifts. You have to do your bent rows and T-bar rows. Those are the core exercises for back thickness. They are also the most uncomfortable exercises you can do. That’s why so many guys avoid them and just do cable rows instead. The toughest and most uncomfortable exercises are the most effective exercises. If you baby yourself and do cables and machines, you’re gonna have a baby back! Baby back ribs are delicious, but a baby back is pretty sad.

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3) FW: Even for guys who have decent chests, we still don’t see a lot of thick upper pecs out there. Would you recommend that most guys should start their chest workouts with some sort of incline press to prioritize it?

DJ: If your upper chest isn’t weak, you should still do that every other workout. But if it’s weak, of course you should start with inclines! Why wouldn’t you? Another thing I tell guys who need more upper chest is to lower the bar higher up on the chest near the bottom of your throat instead of down close to the nipple line. That puts more stress on the upper chest.

VM: I always emphasize to bodybuilders that they need to start with an incline movement, and they should include not one but two incline movements in every chest workout. In general, your chest is going to hang regardless, the bigger it gets. That’s why you have to focus on the upper chest to lift it up. You can see who does and doesn’t do that in shots like the side chest, front lat spread, and most muscular.

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4) FW: Do you feel chest and back both deserve their own training days, or would you train anything else with them?

DJ: I wouldn’t do any other body parts. I like to train five days a week now and focus on one area at each workout. Chest and back actually work pretty well together because they are opposing muscle groups. But it’s still too long of a workout.

VM: I think it’s fine to do a smaller body part like biceps after chest. They are both pretty short workouts relative to something like legs or back, and working either one doesn’t take away from the other because there’s no overlap. Back has to have its own day. If you do pull-ups, deadlifts, barbell rows and a couple of other exercises too, you shouldn’t be able to train anything else. If you can, either you’re Superman or you weren’t working very hard on your back.

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5) FW: For all the MD readers out there who seriously need to beef up these two body parts, I’m going to ask you guys to come up with what you feel would be a solid routine to follow. First up is chest.

DJ: First, I don’t suggest dropping the weight. You always go up. What I mean by that is, you warm up as much as you need to, and then all your work sets should increase in weight and become more difficult to complete the reps on. I go down in weight at times now, but I’m in a different situation from most of the readers due to my age and how long I’ve been training. I’m really not trying to get any bigger at this point, just maintain. So the routine I would recommend is:

Flat Barbell Bench Press            4 x 6-8

Incline Barbell Bench Press        4 x 6-8

Dumbbell Flye or Pec Deck       4 x 8-10

 

VM: Here’s my suggestion:

Incline Barbell Press                  4 x 8-10

Incline Dumbbell Flyes               4 x 10

Flat Dumbbell Press                  4 x 8-10

Flat Dumbbell Flyes                   4 x 10

Dips Leaning Forward                3 x 10

Dumbbell Pullovers                    3 x 10-12

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FW: Now, what’s a great back routine they can do?

DJ: I would have them do this:

Barbell Rows                                                       4 x 6-8

Lat Pulldowns                                                     4 x 8-10

Seated Cable Rows                                            4 x 8-10

Shrugs (if not working traps with shoulders)          4 x 8-10

 

VM: That’s pretty close to what I would suggest, but you left out pull-ups!

Pull-Ups                                                    5-6 x 10

Barbell Rows                                             4 x 10

Lat Pulldowns                                            4 x 10

Dumbbell Rows                                          4 x 10

Seated Cable Row                                     4 x 10

(use a short bar, overhand grip)                   4 x 10

victor-dexter-back-chest6 

 Dexter’s Chest Routine

 Smith Machine Incline Press             5 x 10

 Smith Machine Flat Press                 4 x 10

 Dumbbell or Machine Flyes               4 x 10

 

Victor’s Chest Routine

Incline Barbell Press                         2 x 15 (warm-ups) 3 x 10

Incline Dumbbell Flyes                      3 x 10

Hammer Strength Vertical*                3 x 10

Bench Press Machine                       3 x 10

Dumbbell Pullovers                           3 x 10

 victor-dexter-back-chest7

Dexter’s Back Routine

Lat Pulldowns                                   5 x 10

Barbell Rows                                    4 x 10

Rack Deadlifts                                  4 x 10

Seated Cable Rows                          4 x 10

One-Arm Dumbbell Rows                  4 x 10

or

Hammer Strength Rows                   4 x 10

 

Victor’s Back Routine

Pull-Ups                                          4 x 10-12

Lat Pulldowns to Front                     4 x 10-12

T-Bar Rows                                     4 x 10-12

One-Arm Dumbbell Rows                 4 x 10-12 each arm

Seated Cable Rows                          4 x 12


 Dexter’s Training Split

Monday:           Quads

Tuesday:          Chest and calves

Wednesday:     Back

Thursday:         Delts and hams

Friday:              Arms

 

Victor’s Training Split

Day 1:  Chest and biceps

Day 2:  Quads and calves

Day 3:  Shoulders and triceps

Day 4:  OFF

Day 5:  Back and hams

Day 6:  Chest and biceps

Day 7:  Quads and hams

*The order of body parts trained remains the same, but because there are four different “training days,” the rest day constantly shifts in terms of where it falls in the rotation.

 

 

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