Underdeveloped muscle groups

Question:

How to treat WAY underdeveloped muscle groups without causing others to lag?

1. I'm 17 and I've been working out seriously for about 2 and a half years now.

2. I'm decently muscular, I weigh about 165 pounds and I have really big arms, shoulders, and lats/upper back, and decently developed legs, but i have a REALLY small, underdeveloped chest and abdominal area.

3. I usually work out about 4-5 days a week. i split muscle groups into a chest/abs day, rest day, shoulders/legs/abs day, arms/back day, and another rest day then i start over the routine. Once a week, on one of my rest days, i swim laps or run for cardio for about 30 minutes. I'm usually in the gym for about an hour on my workout days.

4. Chest/abs:
Flat barbell bench press - 4 sets (drop sets) reps for each set- 3-5-7-9

Incline barbell bench press - 4 sets (drop sets) same reps for each set- 4-6-8-8

Ab clocks (using ab straps and moving legs in circular motion instead of straight up and down) - 2 sets - 5 reps each direction per set

Flat bench dumbell press - 3 sets - 6-8 reps

Ab crunch machine - 3 sets - 10-15 reps

Smith machine decline bench press - 3 sets - 6-8 reps

Incline dumbell press - 3 sets - 8-10 reps

Oblique twist machine - 1 set each side - 20 reps

Smith machine flat bench press Negatives - 2 sets - 3-5 reps

Flat dumbell flyes - 3 sets - 8-10 reps

Captain's chair ab raises with weight between legs - 2 sets - 8-10 reps

Incline dumbell flyes - 2 sets - 8-10 reps

Flat thumbs up dumbell flyes - 2 sets - 8-10 reps

Crunches w/ weight plate - 1 set - 10-15 reps

Bosu ball pushups - 1 set - 15-20 reps

Shoulders/legs/abs:

Seated Military press (in front of face) - 4 sets (drop sets) reps for each set - 3-5-7-9

Plate weight lateral raises - 3 sets - 8-10 reps

Barbell squats - 4 sets - 4-6 reps

Rear delt barbell raise - 3 sets - 8-10 reps

Ab crunch machine - 3 sets - 15-20 reps

Arnold press - 3 sets 6-8 reps

Machine leg extentions - 4 sets - 8-10 reps

Dumbell or cable lateral raises - 3 sets - 8-10 reps

Oblique twist machine - 1 set per side - 20 reps

Dumbell front raises/Dumbell rear delt flye (superset) - 3 supersets - 8-10 reps

Dumbell laying lateral raises - 2 sets - 10-12 reps

Machine hamstring curls - 3 sets - 8-10 reps

Captains chair ab raises with weight between legs - 2 sets - 8-10 reps

Weight plate front raises all the way above head - 2 sets - 8-10 reps

Calf raises - 3 sets - 8-10 reps

Crunches w/ weight plate - 2 sets - 8-10 reps

Shoulder burnout - light weight dumbells - 10 front raises, 10 lateral raises, 10 rear delt raises, 10 overhead presses - hold dumbells out to side until failure

Back/Arms:

Wide grip pullups - 3 sets - 10 reps

EZ bar barbell curls - 3 sets - 8-10 reps

EZ bar skull crushers - 3 sets - 8-10 reps

Barbell bent over rows - 3 sets - 3 sets - 6-8 reps

Hammer curls - 3 sets - 8-10 reps

Rope pressdowns - 3 sets - 8-10 reps

Lat pulldowns - 3 sets - 6-8 reps

Concentration curls - 2 sets - 10-12 reps

D-handle cable kickbacks - 3 sets - 8-10 reps

Machine row - 3 sets - 8-10 reps

Reverse EZ bar curls - 2 sets - 8-10 reps

Tricep overhead dumbell extention (one dumbell with both hands) - 2 sets - 6-8 reps

21's - 1 set

Laying dumbell tricep extentions - 1 set each arm - 20 reps

Forearm dumbell curls - 1 set each direction - 8-10 reps

Forarm barbell rolls - each direction to failure, switch grip, same thing.


5. To pack on chest, ab, legs, and shoulder muscle while maintaining everything else.


6. Multivitamin - Mega Men Sport
Pre workout - Superpump MAX and MusclePharm Nitric Oxide tablets(for extra N.O.)
Protein - Amplified Wheybolic Extreme


7. I usually eat 3 or 4 big meals a day with 2 or 3 snacks throughout.
Breakfast - usually something like a bowl of oatmeal, a banana, and some chocolate milk. I add a few egg whites whenever i have them.

Morning snack - something with protein, usually an Atkins Advantage protein bar and 16 oz Gatorade

Lunch - Meat and cheese sandwich with an apple or orange, cup of lowfat yogurt and a bottle of water.

Afternoon snack - Usually just leftovers from dinner...usually stuff like pastas, tuna, lowfat burgers, pizza, etc. and a large carrot

Dinner - Most of the time consists of a lowfat meat like grilled chicken, salmon, tilapia, steak, or pork tenderloin with sweet or baked potatos, a salad, 2 slices of a whole grain baked loaf of bread with olive oil, and green tea.

Night snack - Either a large glass of milk with a banana, a cup of cottage cheese and pineapples, or a cup of lowfat yogurt with blueberries. something containing dairy and a fruit.

I try to consume a total of one gallon of water a day.

8. This is going to sound complicated but I feel very unporportional and I could really use a complete workout plan constructed by a professional that will help me pack on muscle in my lagging areas, and not build too much muscle in my strong areas but maintain what I have there. My lagging areas are mainly chest and abs, my shoulders and legs aren't lagging but I'd like to pack on more muscle to them. I want to maintain what I have on my arms and back but I don't want to stimulate a ton of growth here because it feels like these parts of my body are way too big compared to everything else. Basically, I want to make my body porportional. Like keep my arms and back where they are and pack muscle onto everything else.

9. What's a good exercise to hit the lower inner portion of the abs?


10. I do high volume workouts because that's what ive always been comfortable with. I'm not sure if that's what I should be doing but it's what I've always done. It gained me a ton of muscle in my arms and back and quite a bit on my shoulders and legs, but I've never really been able to develop my chest and abs very well. I cut down a lot on my volume for my back and arms workouts because I've been trying to just maintain them. I find it extremely strange that I don't gain hardly any chest or ab muscle because I ALWAYS feel the burn in the muscle AND get a great pump. And I'm ALWAYS sore the next day right where I should be.


I have not seen any questions or pages covering lagging muscle groups or unporportial bodies, and with this question, I'm looking for an actual complete workout routine that can help me accomplish my goal, which isn't really the same as most people's goals. I've googled this and searched bodybuilding websites everywhere and I can't seem to find a helpful answer to this and there isn't any workout plans posted around the internet that will really help me out. None are custom made for somebody with my goal. I feel like this isn't a very common problem.

Answer: Since you are comfortable with your routine, and since it has gotten you good results (with the exception of a lagging chest and abs), I'll recommend slight changes to the lagging areas, and keep everything else the same, so that you can maintain what you've already built, but increase the size of the lagging areas...

For abs, do bicycle crunches. Slow and steady. Don't worry so much about how many you can do at first, just focus on how well you perform them. Do 2 sets. Every week, increase the reps on this exercise.

For chest, do parallel bar dips: 4 seconds down, 4 seconds up, hold for 2 seconds at the top, then repeat.

Second exercise, incline dumbbell press. Use the same strategy as above.

For both chest exercises, do only one set a piece.

It doesn't seem like a lot, but after a few weeks of increasing the intensity by increasing the reps, you'll force growth without over working the muscles, and without putting too much on your nervous system.


Infrequent workouts allow for more healing time. Each time you come back to your workouts, you'll be fully recovered, enough to be able to increase the weight and/or reps for each exercise.