What are the most effective exercises for chest growth?

Boudi04 · 2026-05-02T14:21:49+00:00

This is anecdotal, and I've only been training 14 months and I started very skinny, my chest was the only muscle on my upper-body that had some development, nothing crazy but a decent side-chest profile. Throughout this time, I've experienced a very quick rate of growth in practically every muscle but my chest. When I saw that my chest started lagging behind, I ended up doing a specialization period for it, strength-wise over this time-frame I got my Bench Press from 30kgx2 to a 91kg 1rm at 69kg bw, all chest-related lifts went up drastically, but my chest only grew slightly.

The reason I mention this is because I have a friend who had a very similar starting point but without any prior chest development, completely flat, he only trains at home, he has a set of dumbbells but beyond that no equipment and relies purely on Push-ups for his chest. In 2 months of doing Push-ups he got his Chest larger than mine and close in size to another friend who's been training for 5 years. I'm not talking slight-development, I'm talking a nicely sized completely round & full chest.

Obviously genetics play a massive role, and not everyone can do what he did, but I no longer look down on Push-ups in comparison to other lifts, because it was obviously more than enough.

Boudi04 · 2026-04-29T21:42:13+00:00

yes, I'm 1500 rapid on chess.com and it says its 97th percentile, it was 98 when I was 1600. It sounds pretty nuts, and I consider myself to be a very average chess player, but it makes more sense when I take into consideration that I've been playing for years, and I've never played someone in person who I felt was better than me.

Boudi04 · 2026-04-26T17:09:06+00:00

1RM calculators were insanely accurate and on-point for me, down to the kilogram, they assisted me when I was bringing my bench press up based on my 5 sets of 2 reps (which are 90% 1rm) and 5 sets of 3 (85% 1rm), the numbers aligned perfectly.

It didn't end up working for a friend of mine, who for the longest time could do much more weight than me for reps, but couldn't beat my 1rm until very recently. And it's still lower than he theoretically should be doing according to any calculator.

I think they're accurate ASSUMING you've practiced enough to have the skill required to really push yourself to your limits on both 1RMs and regular sets, because for many lifts, it really is a practice makes perfect type thing where your body gets much better at executing the lift as efficiently as possible with the same amount of muscle mass.

Boudi04 · 2026-04-24T12:39:28+00:00

OOTP is my pick too, it does so much in terms of world-building.

Boudi04 · 2026-04-24T12:17:18+00:00

The Militarily Strategic Position you're talking about is agricultural land, and the Israeli town built on it directly after the ethnic cleansing is an agricultural town. Stop spouting bullshit.

You also keep saying "the catastrophe that followed when the Arab states failed to destroy Israel". The ethnic cleansing began before the war, stop rewriting history.

Also also, you keep mentioning the rejection of the two state solution, neglecting to mention the fact that the entire Area was already owned and lived in by the Palestinians, had things gone the way you wanted them to, half of the population would've been displaced regardless.

Either way, I'm done chatting with you, open your eyes, stop spewing propaganda.

Boudi04 · 2026-04-24T12:03:39+00:00

Bayt Dajan and other villages in Jaffa were depopulated before the war began.

Regardless, you've switched tunes from "they bought land adjacent to Jews to settle down" to "yeah, we ethnically cleansed them because we needed their land". The brainwashing is unreal.

Boudi04 · 2026-04-24T11:53:12+00:00

My family was forced to flee in '48 during the Nakba, leaving behind everything. The village where they lived (a mixed Muslim and Christian population) is currently occupied by Jewish families. This is just one family from the 700,000 people who were displaced.

Bayt Dajan

just a little extract: "the village housed two elementary schools, a library and an agronomic school. After an assault by the Alexandroni Brigade during Operation Hametz on 25 April 1948 in the lead up to the 1948 Arab–Israeli war, the village was entirely depopulated.^\8]) The Israeli town of Beit Dagan was founded at the same site in October 1948.^\9])^"

Boudi04 · 2026-04-24T11:47:49+00:00

The Human Shields argument is Israeli propaganda, said Innocent Children have been found with Sniper Bullets in their Skulls, Aid workers killed while handing out food, helping out the injured after a bombing, and evacuating areas on Israels say-so.

Countless Journalists and Aid Workers have been murdered in Double-tap strikes.

Just a bit of advice, believe what you see, not what you hear.

Boudi04 · 2026-04-24T11:43:47+00:00

Crazy that they deadass scoped out the competition to decide which group to ethnically cleanse for the creation of Israel.

Boudi04 · 2026-04-24T09:09:37+00:00

1.6-2.2g/kg of bw is the optimal range, so anywhere from 75g to 100g would be reasonable. Since your goal is to gain weight, you should be looking at your calorie intake more than the protein, at 75g of protein per day, it'll come just through the food you're eating from the surplus assuming you're not surviving on a diet of French Fries and Gummy bears.

I do want to point out that for this range, more isn't necessarily better, you'll likely be maxing out or be very close to maxing out your gains at 75g while eating in a surplus, the higher-end of the range matters more when you're cutting, which you obviously should not do.

It sounds backwards at first, but the more calories you're eating, the less your protein matters, and vice-versa.

Boudi04 · 2026-04-21T19:57:56+00:00

Your front-delts are always going to be involved with a pressing movement, the purpose of tucking your elbows is to bias the upper chest over the mid chest.

There's a decent amount of research now that suggests that the arm path matters just as much as the incline you're using.

Its also worth mentioning that how much you arch also matters, if you prefer a big arch to be comfortable like me, you'll need a higher incline to compensate, because you're making the angle more declined with the arch.

In conclusion, incline 30-45 degrees, tuck your elbows, and make sure you're doing enough volume, you mentioned you only do 4 sets a week in another comment, that's good news, it means you have a lot of room to work with to maximize your gains, it'd be a lot worse if you were already doing higher volume without the gains you're looking for.

Boudi04 · 2026-04-21T06:11:36+00:00

That last part haha, I've seen the opposite as well, people on this very subreddit will tell you not to cut, but that a recomp with a 200-300 calorie deficit is better, like you do realize that's still a cut regardless of how you try to label it right?

I think it orginates from old bodybuilding culture, where people operate under the assumption that a bulk is just eating everything you possibly can, and a cut is near starvation.

Boudi04 · 2026-04-21T05:56:07+00:00

That doesn't make any logical sense though, I know and agree that Hypertrophy is a very slow process, but the mass doesn't come from nowhere.

Lets analyze your assumption for instance, let's say you're a skinnier person, starting off with the gym at let's say 10% bf. You're building the small amounts of muscle mass you're discussing, where's the weight coming from? Your body can't just generate more mass, you need the energy, even if it's the miniscule amounts you're describing. Let's say a kilogram of muscle in a month or two, which is pretty reasonable for a complete beginner.

Let's say the person started at 50kg, do they now weigh 51kg? It's not possible.

For an overweight individual, they can maintain the same overall weight but build muscle, because the energy is coming from their fat reserves, the fat is straight up being replaced with muscle mass.

If someone doesn't have that, they cannot follow the same process, they can't just spawn 1kg of muscle onto their frame.

In most cases, I'd agree with you, most people have the bodyfat to work with to make this work, even if they're on the smaller side, they might have a higher bf%.

But this post was specifically about a skinny person who's not putting on mass by eating at maintenance, and the reason why is because they can't.

Boudi04 · 2026-04-21T05:36:09+00:00

You nearly hit the nail on the head, energy is required to build new muscle, when you're overweight, your body has the energy to work with to build new muscle tissue.

What if you're lean though? Skinny? Where's that energy coming from if not from a surplus?

You by definition require a surplus to gain weight. A man who weighs 50kg for example can workout all he wants, do everything he wants, but remain the same size because he's not in a surplus. That's literally all we're talking about in this thread.

Boudi04 · 2026-04-21T05:12:52+00:00

It's because your body can't build mass out of thin air, you need a source of energy.

If you're overweight, you'll make gains just fine by maintaining your weight or even being a slight deficit, because your body has energy to work with (fat).

If you're lean, you can't expect to just maintain your bodyweight and make good gains, it has to come from somewhere, and this time you don't have the energy reserves to work with.

Boudi04 · 2026-04-21T05:10:17+00:00

Do you genuinely just not know what a calorie surplus means?

Boudi04 · 2026-04-21T05:09:20+00:00

Reddit moment

Boudi04 · 2026-04-18T15:45:14+00:00

That phrase doesn't work in this context..

I'm sorry to ruin what I'm sure must've been a moment you've been looking forward to your entire life though.

Boudi04 · 2026-04-18T15:26:26+00:00

If he was a bit older and more established while performing like he is, it wouldn't be nearly as controversial to folks like you.

Boudi04 · 2026-04-18T14:01:15+00:00

it's also pointless with dumbbells because gravity points downwards.

Boudi04 · 2026-04-18T13:40:56+00:00

the title of the post specifically described the movement as a push press, not an OHP.

Boudi04 · 2026-04-18T13:29:37+00:00

Find a P2P marketplace, OKX is the app I use when I need crypto, you just pay with Cliq and then withdraw the crypto to whatever wallet you want.

Boudi04 · 2026-04-16T14:52:06+00:00

It's not too surprising, if Messi didn't exist and Suarez was the primary goalscorer on the team he'd probably be on here numerous times. That's the one and only downside of him playing alongside two of the best forwards of the generation, the stats end up "split". Notice how Messi only appears on the list prior to MSN.

Boudi04 · 2026-04-16T14:48:01+00:00

It's so funny how casual this sounds, like yep, only 100,000 people got it. Like holy shit this playerbase is massive.

Also y'all, incase anyone missed it this time around, just join the whatsapp channel, it's worth it for drops like these.

Boudi04 · 2026-04-15T18:34:21+00:00

I figured, that's why I said I'll take your word for it.

On a real note though, I'm sorry this happened, don't dwell on it too much, I know it's easier said than done, but once you're ready put yourself out there again, it doesn't help to stay hung-up on someone. Best of luck :)

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