Is it easier to gain chest than other body parts?

Question

so I have this problem - I haven't been exercising chest for 1.5 year now because I think it's way too big and bulky compared to the rest of my body ( read legs )

I've been doing legs(squats,deadlifts,stiff-legs, leg-press,extensions,curls), back(deadlifts/rows of all kinds) and core(plank/different exercises from boxing) for about 1.5 years now while neglecting chest completely.

As I started to get up in numbers for my weightclass (72kg, 178cm tall btw) in squats / deadlifts, a guy came up to me and told me to join the "powerlifting specific team practice".. so I did because it's what I've been working for anyway but I didn't have the balls to show up.

Anyway, to the point: I beat the "club record" in bench on my first attempt, and I'm way WAY behind the record in deadlift/squats eventhough that's the only things I've really been focusing on in life for the past 1.5 years.

I did a lot of benching when I was 17 and kind of neglected the other lifts, am I gonna be cursed forever because of this? or is it just generally easier to gain strength and mass on chest for everyone?

I'm having real trouble gaining mass on legs, they're only 58cm and stuck, my torso is 119cm and I swear to god I'll get bigger in 2 days if i do 50 pushups..?

please help

//mr boob(serious)

Answer 1

Short answer: No

Long answer

Muscle memory is a thing and so is nuclei overload, muscular cells can have many nuclei. You gain more nuclei in specific muscles by overdoing specific motions and continuous strength training.

Your chest is growing faster than the rest of your body because it has more nuclei than other muscle groups. Even if you don't train your chest for 50 years and then come back and do a bunch of bench pressing your chest will explode again to it's past size.

You can apply the same overload principle to the rest of your body and make it catch up.

Some people tend to always blame genetics but in reality is all about muscle memory and the nuclei in your muscles. Your body always remembers what you did in your past.

Answer 2

The answer is yes and no but mostly no. For a while you will have a significant imbalance between your upper body and lower body because in your younger days you concentrated on one group. Now that you are working out legs as well they will start to catch up. What is likely to happen is that for a while as you lift you will see gains in both arms and legs but legs will probably have a greater rate of improvement in your lower body because they are underdeveloped. Your improvements in bench press will come more slowly. So at some point if you keep working long enough they will start to even out.

That being said some people have genetically stronger upper bodies than lower bodies (probably not what's going on in your case)

In general a balanced upper and lower body workout plan is a good way to go in that you will be able to alternate muscle groups and work out more often.

In general it is good even in specialized sports to train the whole body. Even high end runners have some upper body development in order to improve running form and and better process oxygen. If you check out velodrome cyclists they still tend to have pretty beefy upper bodies.

This isn't a curse is the short version.