[Gary]

My gym as a pectorial fly machine and a chest press machine, im around 65kg and i was wondering how heavy i should go on them when im looking to tone my body and how many reps? thanks

[Classical Liberal]

Don't use the machine.

Use free weights. And I really like using cables for flys as the tension is always there.

Also, don't make the mistakes of doing loads of chest exercises and not doing enough upper back exercises, particularly delt.

Make sure you do reverse flys and other such exercises the develop the muscles that work in the opposite direction to chest press and chest flys.

If you are training for looks. Unbalanced muscles do not look good. If you are training for sports. Again, unbalanced muscles are not practical.

[Gary]

(Original post by Classical Liberal)
Don't use the machine.

Use free weights. And I really like using cables for flys as the tension is always there.

Also, don't make the mistakes of doing loads of chest exercises and not doing enough upper back exercises, particularly delt.

Make sure you do reverse flys and other such exercises the develop the muscles that work in the opposite direction to chest press and chest flys.

If you are training for looks. Unbalanced muscles do not look good. If you are training for sports. Again, unbalanced muscles are not practical.

Why not use machines? its like all i have

and how heavy?

[Mark85]

(Original post by Gary)
and how heavy?

Pointless question. There are 65kg guys who struggle to bench 40kg and others who can bench over 100kg. Who know where you lie on the continuum.

[sil3nt_cha0s]

(Original post by Gary)
Why not use machines? its like all i have

and how heavy?

you lift as much as you can, for the rep range that you want to lift in.

[jmlkey]

Obviously it depends on how strong you are. Personally, i'd advocate just bb benching over a machine.

Decide how many reps you wanna do. Personally, i don't think it matters a great deal as long as it's 12 or less.
Start with just the bar and do your chosen number of reps. Easy? Add 10kg. If you can finish the set again, go up in 5kg jumps until you can't.

[Classical Liberal]

(Original post by Gary)
Why not use machines? its like all i have

and how heavy?

Using a machine does not allow to balance the weight and use all the stability muscles. If machines are all you have, then just use those.

How heavy is the wrong question. What you should do in my opinion is 4 sets of 6 reps and get to failure on the last rep.( There are all sorts of combinations you can use though). If this is 10kg, then 10 kg is the right mass. If it is 150kg, then 150kg is right.

[The Blind Monk]

Everyone wants a straight answer to these questions but unfortunately, there are no crib sheets/mark schemes to real life.

The most useful answer I can give you is this: learn to flex your pecs normally, then learn to replicate this feeling while doing presses/pec deck/whatever. Generally for hypertrophy purposes, you want to be doing sets of 6-12 reps for a few sets. The weight you should use is the weight you feel your pecs working for that set/rep combination.

For purely aesthetic concerns, I wouldn't worry about using machines which feel ergonomic. Your muscles only knows resistance, not whether it comes from a barbell, dumbell or a machine. On the other hand, classical liberal's advice not to ignore upper back/rear delt work is very, very important if you want to preserve your shoulder health.

[Jakeeyy]

(Original post by The Blind Monk)
Everyone wants a straight answer to these questions but unfortunately, there are no crib sheets/mark schemes to real life.

The most useful answer I can give you is this: learn to flex your pecs normally, then learn to replicate this feeling while doing presses/pec deck/whatever. Generally for hypertrophy purposes, you want to be doing sets of 6-12 reps for a few sets. The weight you should use is the weight you feel your pecs working for that set/rep combination.

For purely aesthetic concerns, I wouldn't worry about using machines which feel ergonomic. Your muscles only knows resistance, not whether it comes from a barbell, dumbell or a machine. On the other hand, classical liberal's advice not to ignore upper back/rear delt work is very, very important if you want to preserve your shoulder health.

6-12 to me sounds silly, thats double the reps. Personally i go 6-8 keep the weight heavy!

But in all seriousness, experiment, what works for me may not work for you. I actually got some chest growth from benching 3 reps, when i was powerlifting, i did plenty of assistance work on the side though.

[Left Hand Drive]

80% of your one rep max

[Libertinedreamer]

Hey, google jim stoppani's - shortcut to size. Its a progressive 12 week program. It gives you good tips and good allround progression.

[The Blind Monk]

(Original post by Jakeeyy)
6-12 to me sounds silly, thats double the reps. Personally i go 6-8 keep the weight heavy!

But in all seriousness, experiment, what works for me may not work for you. I actually got some chest growth from benching 3 reps, when i was powerlifting, i did plenty of assistance work on the side though.

Plenty of people bench heavy and have meh pec development. There's nothing wrong with higher reps and plenty of bodybuilders use them. If you did more assistance work, I assume that was in the higher rep ranges, which would be supporting what I've just said. Bodybuilding training isn't just about moving weight from A-B.

[Jakeeyy]

(Original post by The Blind Monk)
Plenty of people bench heavy and have meh pec development. There's nothing wrong with higher reps and plenty of bodybuilders use them. If you did more assistance work, I assume that was in the higher rep ranges, which would be supporting what I've just said. Bodybuilding training isn't just about moving weight from A-B.

I know and i am sure i said 6-8 is better. And of course i do assistance work normally at 8 reps max (incline and weighted chest dips, swapped sometimes for decline). Also hit triceps and shoulders hard not to forget the upper back too.

[The Black Chuck Norris]

6-8 with slow negatives for pec development.

[catjaum]

(Original post by Classical Liberal)
Using a machine does not allow to balance the weight and use all the stability muscles. If machines are all you have, then just use those.

How heavy is the wrong question. What you should do in my opinion is 4 sets of 6 reps and get to failure on the last rep.( There are all sorts of combinations you can use though). If this is 10kg, then 10 kg is the right mass. If it is 150kg, then 150kg is right.

so isolating your chest and not using other muscles for stability is a bad thing.... .....

erm....u got that the wrong way round......isolating the muscle your working is a good thing!!!