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I personally don't believe that the muscle can be shaped but why do i keep on hearing that incline bench builds upper chest and decline builds lower chest? that flies widen and add striations to the chest.

The pec is one large muscle that is not separated. So doing incline or decline does not shape it differently. Just adds variety to the bench press.

I also hear about preacher curls increasing your bicep peak. Bicep cant be shaped either. That's all genetics. Some people have peaks and some don't. I wish people would stop saying nonsense about shaping the muscle. A muscle can only get bigger, smaller, or stay the same size.

Yes, you are correct.Someone who has read anatomy just a bit knows that muscles can either grow bigger(hypertrophy, both myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic),smaller (atrophy) or stay the same (homeostasis).You cannot change the shape of a muscle,unless hyperplasia occurs.Hyperplasia means the increase in the number of fibers(hypertrophy means just the increase in the size of already existing fibers).Muscle hyperplasia has not be proven to happen in humans with normal weight training, unless some one takes GH or IGF-1. As for striations and definition the only way to see them is to cutt off the fat,both under the skin and intramuscular fat.

The pectoral muscle though is made of two parts.The pectoralis major(sternal and clavicular head) and pectoralis minor(which is made of three smaller heads too).
http://www.exrx.net/Muscles/PectoralisClavicular.html
http://www.exrx.net/Muscles/PectoralisClavicular.html
http://www.exrx.net/Muscles/PectoralisMinor.html

For this reason it is possible that different parts of the whole musclegroup can grow individually and therefore targetted. But since particular movements target all of them (the bench press or dips) they usually and normally grow all together.
It's the same as the 3 heads of the delts.Delts are a musclegroup but there are exercises to target each one of its 3 heads.

I am not of the belief that you can significantly alter the shape of your muscles. Yes different workouts might hit the muscles differently, but unless you seriously exercise yourself out of balance for a long time then I can not imagine there being any significant variation with any balanced workout. It's like your face, your body is programmed to grow and develop a certain way, and that is the way it will grow. The way to alter that programming would through hormone assistance such as steroids, and that is when I can imagine these exercise variations actually making a difference in how your muscles grow and shape.

mykim0 wrote:I personally don't believe that the muscle can be shaped but why do i keep on hearing that incline bench builds upper chest and decline builds lower chest? that flies widen and add striations to the chest.

The pec is one large muscle that is not separated. So doing incline or decline does not shape it differently. Just adds variety to the bench press.

I also hear about preacher curls increasing your bicep peak. Bicep cant be shaped either. That's all genetics. Some people have peaks and some don't. I wish people would stop saying nonsense about shaping the muscle. A muscle can only get bigger, smaller, or stay the same size.

I think a lot of it has to do with the other muscles pulling on the ones around them, making it look as if they're changing shape.

For example, in highschool I didn't do much for back, just biceps and chest, and my muscles got a rather interesting shape. Then in college I started working on my back and shoulders, and my chest has changed shape completely (for the better), probably due to my back and shoulders pulling my posture in different directions.

Keep in mind, like undertaker said, that what we call 'biceps' aren't really just biceps, there's a few muscles at work there; same with chest, shoulders, legs, etc. Working all the various muscles will change the shape a bit.