Chest Exercises

Your chest muscles are huge and strong; requiring chest exercises that can tap deep into all that power. It is a strong muscle group.

Beyond that, a muscular, square and defined set of pectoral muscles that sit like armor plating on your upper toros looks great. And this is all about how to build a great looking chest.

Yet I am guessing that if you looked through the ages, you are not going to find a lot of guys with great looking Pecs. Notwithstanding all the guys that came out in movies like “300,” “Troy,” or any other movies like that, I just do not think too many warriors of old had huge or great looking Pectoral muscles.

That is because I just do not think a lot of them went around bench pressing cows. They wore heavy armor; swung big swords (or little ones like Brad Pitt did in “Troy”); and carried shields. So, they probably had good-looking shoulders and traps. They probably had decent forearms and solid torsos. But split Pecs like Franco Colombu – No.

But thank God (or goodness, if you are an atheist), we live in 2010. Bulging Pecs are within our grasp.

Let us talk briefly about what comprises the chest muscle group – from a layman’s point of view (me). For my purposes, the main chest muscle group is a huge slab of muscle that extends from the collar bone to the arm pits to the right about your abs, called the Pectoralis major.

Again, for the uninformed like me, you could just as easily separate and call it the upper chest, inner chest, and lower Pecs. The upper chest that tie in with the frontal shoulders gives it the armored look; the big band of muscle that stretches across your front which end in a pronounce vertical line in the middle of your chest would be the inner chest; and the lower Pecs supported by the ribcage. This is not really scientific, but what do I look like, a certified biology teacher?

And there is also a the pectoralis minor that supports the major from underneath. Again, this is lot more than you really need to know. It’s also a lot more than I really need to know. My brain hurts just thinking about. No doubt somebody will correct me as I probably got something wrong.

Anyhoo…

No mystery here – the pecs’ passive function is to protect your internal organs (ie your heart and lungs). Your pecs’ muscular functions are to bring your arms in, as in hugging a tree or your gal/guy, and push out our arms in any different degree of angles. It needs to be strong. It needs to be solid.

The challenge is – of course – is getting there or getting that solid sheath of muscle to front your chest.

When you put together a program to train your chest, you really need to target all three sections of your chest muscle group.

Obviously, the big exercise to do is the almighty Bench Press. Along with the squat and deadlift, it forms the Big Three. I’m not sure why other than that those are the 3 powerlifting lifts. But who ever said that those 3 powerlifting lifts would be to the core of your workout routines – that is unless you want to be a competitive powerlifter.

Don’t get wrong – I love the squat and deadlift. Both are great for functional strength and overall body development – but they do have their drawbacks. Same with the bench press.

For most guys, getting that square, sculpted set of pecs will not be easy.

That said, for some; getting that droppy pec look will be all too easy.

To get the first and avoid the second, you really need to work your upper pecs and minimize the lower pecs. To do that, I would advise dropping the bench press and focusing on the incline press – either barbell or dumbbell.

So, here are the routines that I think can help you build a great looking chest.

Suggested Routines

Workout A

Incline Dumbbell Presses – 4 sets of 15, 10, 8, 6

Done on a low incline of 30 degrees
Start with inside plate of dumbbells resting right where chest and shoulder meets
Elbows are back with outside plate higher than inside plates
Press straight up and in, so that the inside plates touch over your face in the full extended position.

Dumbbell Pullovers – 3 sets of 12, 10, 8

Lying cross on bench, hold one dumbbell over chest with arms extended and hands on inside plate.
As you lower dumbbell behind your head, drop your hips and get a double stretch.
Pull dumbbell back over until it is directly over your chest.

Dips on V-Bar – 3 sets of max reps (if you can do more than 20 – use a belt to add a 10lb dumbbell)

Up on V-Bar, stick chin down and bow your back.
Your legs should hang a little in front of you.
Dip down slowly and get a good stretch at bottom – but be careful
Push up forcefully.

Workout B

This is a good giant set that will work your entire chest cavity. The critical points are to do your reps while maintaining good form, which means lightening the load as necessary.

Incline Dumbbell Press

See above

Flat Bench Fly

Use the Arnold version.
Throughout the entire movement – imagine that you are hugging a big tree.
Your arms are slightly bent and kept in that bent but rigid position throughout the movement.
Do not use heavy weights that force you to cheat and turn it into a half fly – half press movement.

Elevated Push-ups

On the same bench you did flyes, just put your feet up and still doing push-ups
Your hands should be a little wider than shoulder width.
Form is important – don’t let your butt sag down.

Dumbbell Pullovers

See above

Key Points

For the first couple of workouts – do 2 or 3 sets of 12 reps to get feel and tempo of the giant set.
Progress to 4 sets of 8 to 15 reps.
For pushups – max reps.
Move from exercise to exercise quickly – no rest
Rest a minute, no more than 2, between giant sets
Do this variation for no more than 4 to 5 weeks.
This is not a beginner’s routine. Giant sets are a good change of pace for those with a year or 2 under their belt. But it is intense and can easily lead to overtraining and overtaxing your recuperative system.

Workout C

For some reason, many think that you can only get a good, or great, workout at the gym or with tons of expensive systems at home. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Two of the best exercises for your chest require nothing – pushups and dips.

Pushups

Elevated pushups

Regular pushups

Pushups with knee on floor
Start by elevating your feet on a chair and pushing out as many pushups as you can. When the last rep is a struggle, drop your feet to the floor and continue. When the last rep is a struggle, drop to your knees and keep pushing. When done – you will be done.
Repeat this 2 or 3 more times.
When you can do more than 25 elevated pushups – grab a backpack and fill with it books or anything to give it about 15lbs of weight to it.

Dips

You can do this either at a park or at home. You can use 2 chairs, just make sure your test the strength of the chair’s back and be careful
Form is as above.
After dips – finish with pushups or not. A good set of dips are hard and will leave your pecs pumped. 3 sets of max will do you.

Last Thoughts

If you never do a regular, flat bench press; you would be okay. This isn’t about bad mouthing the bench. Some people swear by the bench. Franco Columbu used to say that he got his unbelievable upper chest split by benching heavy (I think his genetics had something to do with it).

But don’t be dogmatic about it or do with because everyone else is doing it. It’s got to work for you. And it’s got to have a purpose.

I personally think that inclines on a low bench (30%) is superior but you need to make that assessment yourself.

By the way; let me also mention that lifting - is about the form and going to muscular failure. For advanced lifters, there may be value to some cheating – BUT – for those lifting less than a year or two; cheating generally means sloppy form used to lift for ego than muscular failure. Don’t lift for ego. Benching for ego will do nothing for you except possibly set you up for a bad shoulder injury or pec tear.

You don’t need to.

No one is going to wonder if you had to bench press 300 plus lbs to get those pecs – as you stroll along the boardwalk.

They, however, think you have a great looking chest and admire you for it.

So lift for a purpose. Inclines for that square, armored look. Pullovers for the underlying muscles that give dimension to your pecs. Dips for that final pump and line under your lower pecs.

But if you get a great feel and pump from benching; then by alls, bench til your pecs pop. If not – don’t sweat it, and just leave it to the other muscle heads while you do what works for you.

Because in the end, what you want is to build a great looking chest – not necessarily set the the new bench press record (although that would kinda cool too!)

So, to fully and correctly strengthen and develop your chest muscles; use the chest exercises I’ve listed along with the workout recommendations to formulate a workout routine that works for you.

Chest