If you’re trying to achieve a muscular, chiseled and symmetrical physique, building up your chest muscles should be one of your primary goals. After all, nothing says strength and power quite like some pumped, muscular pecs.
If you’re one who’s having problems putting on weight, building a notorious chest will be harder for you, but not impossible. All everybody needs to know is that there’s a right way and a wrong way…and there are no shortcuts! Regardless of your body type, using a well-designed chest workout protocol and an optimized diet for building muscles, you can develop a killer chest everyone’s going to talk about.
CHEST WORKOUTS
The purpose of training to build a big chest is to perform exercises that make your body adapt and grow your chest muscles. You can accomplish this by doing exercises that target your chest muscles – all the muscles in your chest area.
Here are the best 5 exercises that will help you grow your pecs in no time:
PUSHUP
Push-ups target your chest, arms, and core, and it’s one of the most efficient bodyweight movements you can do. You can do them anywhere, anytime, and easily increase the intensity by changing your angle, adding equipment, moving your hand and feet positioning, or even adding instability.
The benefits of pushups are plentiful:
- increase body muscle definition
- protect shoulders from injuries
- improve posture
- prevent lower back injuries
- cultivate a strong body
- increase functional strength
- enhance cardiovascular system
- increase bone mass
When doing pushups, focus more weight on the chest muscles and make sure you add some variation to the exercise. For added challenge, use a plate or a weighted backpack to have more resistance.
BENCH PRESS
The bench press builds the pec major, pec minor and the serratus anterior. The pec major is the one that gives the larger, strong appearance to the pecs; that’s the reason why they’re also called the glamor muscles of the chest. The pec minor is deep under the pec major and it’s trained indirectly through horizontal pressing movements. The serratus anterior is the muscle that wraps around the rib cage under the upper arm. This muscle promotes a strong bench press.
The bench press also has undeniable benefits on your entire body:
- increased upper-body push strength
- improved bone health
- maximize the entire workout session
- improve running efficiency
- pec dance J so your pecs can move to the rhythm
DUMBBELL / BARBELL BENCH PRESS
If you’re looking to maximize chest development, bench pressing is obviously high on the list. The bench press works the shoulders, the triceps, and the pectorals, or chest muscles.
The bench press works a variety of upper-body muscles, but its focus is big on the pectoralis major muscles of the chest. When performed regularly, this exercise results in thickness, muscle definition, and strength to the chest area.
While this exercise works to build upper-body strength and muscles, some other benefits of bench pressing are:
- improved cardiovascular health
- reduced chance of developing common diseases, such as diabetes
- muscle, joint and bone health
- increase overall endurance
- reduction of bad cholesterol and increase in good cholesterol levels
FLAT DUMBBELL FLY
Dumbbell flyes are an important part of any workout designed to improve the pecs. This exercise uses a lot of muscle fibers across your chest and improves the condition of the chest muscles, such as the large, fanlike pectoral muscle of your chest. This muscle allows you to move your arm across your chest, such as in a pressing motion.
Some major benefits of this exercise include:
- improve the body’s ability to do daily activities
- strengthen the chest
- excel at sports that involve throwing, shoulder movement and swinging, such as swimming, tennis, and football
- help build greater definition in the chest area
BAR DIP
The bar dip is a highly effective isolation exercise that helps develop powerful and defined pecs and triceps. In addition to developing an appealing physique, this exercise also makes your upper body significantly stronger, increasing strength in your arms and chest through and leading to an overall strength training potential.
The bar dips hold tremendous benefits for the entire body, not only for the chest muscles:
- simultaneously work opposing muscle groups while lifting and lowering your body into the dip
- add unlimited weight in no time
- improve your lockout strength
Make sure that after a hard hitting chest workout you feed your muscles with the nutrients they need to facilitate their growth as well as the repair process. The best way to ensure this is by sending your body into an anabolic state, consuming protein and quality carbs just shortly after you’re done with your workout session.
This is important because if you don’t feed your muscles with the right nutrients shortly after your workout, will take your body into a catabolic and breaking down state and the potential to gain muscles from that workout is down to zero.
The best meal timing is within an hour after your workout ends to give your muscles the nutrition that’s critical to their growth. If you don’t have time for a meal, a protein shake will also deliver the much-needed protein for your muscles.
Stop thinking that genetics have the last word on this matter! It may be harder for some, but just about everyone can build their chest muscles in relatively a short time if following these 5 best exercises.
Target the chest muscles twice a week using these exercises and different variations and angles to make sure you stimulate growth to the chest area. For every exercise and lift use maximum intensity and after each workout session give your muscles the time they need to recover, fueling your body the way you need to.