With all that said, different body types respond differently to these types of stresses.
My body has always been most reactive to deadlifts and squats. I can see gains with the benchpress, but I have broad shoulders (humble brag) and my shoulders always tend to respond more to the benchpress then my pecs. I've never really figured out how to shut the shoulder off and let the pecs do what it's should be doing.
I imagine you've tried everything, but for me I try to retract my scapula when doing chest press to make sure the pecs get the most engagement. But body mechanics are all different as you say! Maybe just build up go a monstrous fly instead! 😅
Your suggestion re: scapula is familiar to me. I suspect as you probably already know my issue was probably 90% psychological.
Muscle memory, path of least resistance, etc. I got into power lifting in my 20's. At that point I had already become too dependent on using my deltoids. Given the right circumstances and in enough time, dumbbell flies could do the trick a little bit. Water under the bridge at this point.
My goal these days is good bone density. No point in living to the ripe old age of 150 years if I have brittle bones and can't hike in the woods on a sunny day .
But yeah..I would put a few days between squats and dead lifts days if your goal is muscle mass.
Strength exercises are not always the same for gaining mass. I suspect you already know this.
Man, loving this great chat! You evidently really know your stuff 😁 I'm firmly middle aged at this point and am also just trying to keep bone density and general fitness up to be able to keep up with life! Not trying to win any competitions, just trying to be less sedentary!
I could never really get on with running unfortunately, I know lots of people who love the process but it's not for me. Which is a shame as it would obviously massively benefit me! Luckily I don't hate the gym so I've built it into my general routine. Still hard to get going some days though!
