Are your lower pecs sad?

Do you or your clients have trouble connecting with your lower chest?

I used to associate lower pec training with shoulder discomfort.

Whenever I would load at "decline" angles, the front of my shoulder would never cooperate. 

That was...until I learned...

About the anatomy and function of the lower pecs.

The lower pecs attach from the upper arm to the ribcage. 

Which means that they not only rotate the arm, like this (they are the ones in yellow):

But that they also move the entire shoulder girdle (the shoulder blade + collar bone + upper arm), like this:

In other words, the lower pecs are great at moving all three bones of the shoulder complex (the clavicle, scapula, and upper arm), not just the upper arm.

So what does this mean in practice?

For lower-pec-specific motions, we shouldn't just focus on pushing with our hands but also engage the entire shoulder girdle by pressing through the armpits.

So, rather than pressing through the hands, you can imagine pressing through here:

Keep in mind that, when training the low pecs, we can't just think of a cue and hope for the best.

We have to load ourselves so that the lower pecs are required to contract, like this (below is a page from my new guide, Target Any Muscle):

So, in summary...for the lower pecs:

• Use a loading angle that pushes the arms upward + backward.
• Imagine that, on both the raising and lowering phases, you are moving through the armpits, not just the arms.
  • Make sure the armpits are moving forward and downward as you push and backward and upward as you lower.
• I recommend using an arm path tighter to the body to start out and see how it goes.