Everyday Systems

Just curious which movement everyone thinks most successfully targets the chest muscles. Judging from where it hurts during my routine I'm thinking the chest might be getting a little neglected. Or maybe I just don't feel the burn in the pecs like I do in the arms and shoulders. Any thoughts? By the way currently I do shovel, churn, chop wood, flip lever, drive post, and hoist sac.

I wouldn't worry about certain parts of your body feeling more worked than others -- if you're interested in useful movements, certain parts SHOULD be more worked than others. It's kind of like in the army how you've got front line soldiers and then a whole mess of auxiliaries and supply train behind them. Arms do the hard fighting, chest and abs do the support. But don't worry, the auxiliaries get plenty exercise in the process. Doing "useful movements" means you don't have to worry about the precise details of which muscles get hit how hard. I'd caution against the temptation to do "central planning" and micromanage your efforts, pushing the auxiliaries to the front lines. It's less effective in terms of building useful strength, less interesting, and probably less safe. I also think we as a society, for whom exertion, when it's applied at all, is becoming increasingly abstract and divorced from practical purposes, tend to have a distorted idea as to what the relative strengths of our muscle groups should be. Much better to do useful movements and find out.

That being said, "churn butter" seems especially good for the pecs. The "fireman" I think also pretty directly involves them.

And of course there's "degraded beast." (aka pushups).

Reinhard

Shovelglove ain't bodybuilding.

--david