There is no muscle group I love to workout more than chest. If chest workouts were a woman, I'd put a ring on her finger and, unlike said gender, chest workouts are always there for me, are always fun to work with, always make me happy, and never leave me regretting the immense amount of hard work I've just put in.
Chest workouts make you feel powerful from all the weight you can lift, and the burn and pump that you get when all the blood starts flowing to them is one of the greatest feelings in the world. Once you receive your chest pump in the gym, your aesthetic is instantly amazing and overbearing and, if you work out your chest as frequently as you should, gets a lot of attention from everyone in the gym.
The chest is the region of the human body that is situated in between the abdomen and neck. The major muscle groups as they pertain to muscular development include the major and minor pectoral muscles (source: wikipedia).
Source: projectswole.com
When working out chest there are some things that you need to keep in mind. First, I believe that it is important to attack chest from ALL angles, and to perform all types of driving motions (fly motion / push motion) with an emphasis on generating fly motions. For those of you who are unfamiliar with what a fly is, it's simply the motion you make when you hold your arms out straight and move them in and out, feeling a pump in your chest when doing so.
It's also important to note that when doing chest exercises with push motions that, when you go up and down, it's not in a straight line. Rather, to activate your chest when doing push exercises, you need to flare out your elbows to open out your chest slightly to get a proper stretch and flex when doing such exercises. Furthermore, when doing classic fly motions, do not use your arms to move the weight as it pertains to moving the elbows. Fly exercises should have your arms frozen in place, and the only joints moving should be in the shoulders, with the movement activated by the flexing of the pecs.
SO ARE YOU READY FOR SOME CHEST EXERCISES? If you're anything like me, the answer is most definitely, positively, absolutely YES PLEASE!
DUMBBELL CHEST PRESS
EVERYONE seems to think that barbell bench press is the KING of all chest exercises. I say you rethink that, as the dumbbell press in my opinion is a better means to hit each pectoral muscle on either side of your body more effectively.
You see, when performing exercises that require you to move both arms / legs / whatever muscle group(s) at the same time, one side tends to dominate. Your body won't necessarily devote an equal amount of effort from each side, and so you don't always exhaust each side of the same muscle group effectively. When placing individual dumbbells on each side however, you force each side to work at the same amount of intensity and therefore exhaust them more effectively and equally. I've found that those who concentrate on barbell bench press suck at dumbbell chest press, and those who concentrate on dumbbell chest press suck at barbell bench press. That would indicate to me that perhaps each of these exercises work out the chest differently, so maybe incorporating both variations may prove beneficial. However, I'm still an advocate of focusing mainly on dumbbell chest press as it isolates each side into working to its maximum potential without relying on the more dominant side to do all the work. This of course, is more important to bodybuilders who are concerned with optimal hypertrophy and may not be the focus of people with other fitness goals.
To do a dumbbell chest press, find two dumbbells that you think you could lift for 6-12 repetitions easily in each hand. If you've never done dumbbell chest press, I recommend using a lighter weight starting out to see how you do. This does NOT mean lifting light. You still want the weight that makes you fail at the rep range I just advocated, but in the exploratory phase of what that weight is, start low.
Lay down flat on the bench and make 90 degree angles upware with your arm and forearm, sticking the weight up the air. Drop the weights down until they touch your chest, get a slight arch in your back for stability, take a deep breath in, flex your chest hard, and drive the weight upward on an invisible line of drive that is UNDER your pec. If the weight is overtop the top of your pectoral muscles, you will not feel the pump as well. As stated above, when coming down, flair out the elbows a bit so that you don't go up and down in a straight line. You want to follow somewhat of a downard curve to get an adequate stretch and flex in the pecs. Continue until failure.
Source: legendspoon.com
For those of you who experience shoulder pain when doing these, I advise turing the weight in a little bit so that they are slightly angled, i.e. bringing your elbows in closer to your sides a bit. This relieves the stress on your shoulders while still allowing you to get a proper pump. Do NOT put the elbows all the way at the sides though as you will not get the pump that you're looking for.
To make these really fun, try incorporating drop sets (where after failure your drop the weight to a lower weight and then lift until failure at that weight) and even supersetting (a different related exercise you do after hitting failure on one exercise) with push-ups.
MACHINE FLYS
In my opinion, flys are the best possible motion you can do when working out a chest. It's super important to be safe when doing these though, as the weight you want to use for a proper chest workout is heavy, yet the fly motion puts a LOT of strain and torque on the shoulders (and if you mess up your shoulders, say goodbye to working out and bodybuidling for MONTHS). That is why I recommend using the machine fly machine. It allows you to push a lot of weight while taking out a lot of the unnecessary and dangerous torque one would experience doing flys on a bench.
Using a fly machine (pictured below), choose a starting position that stretches your shoulders, but does NOT strain them. Sit up high enough to where when you pull the pegs inward, you are using a line of drive that is again under the pecs. I prefer keeping my arms out as straight as possible, but having a slight bend int he elbows is fine so long as they are frozen in place when going in and out. Go slowly in and out, and when your hands come together, flex your pecs are hard as you can and hold that for half a second to a second. Repeat this until failure.
Source: furqanfitness.com
I like to not only drop set these, but also drop set them into doing single-armed machine flys (the same thing, but with less weight and using one arm), and supersetting them with push-ups.
DOWNWARD CABLE FLYS
This may not be the official name for these, so I'll see if I can find a picture / video and post it below.
Using a cable-cross machine, place the arms so that they are facing down and also facing outward enough for your arms to be adequately stretched back and out, requiring you to come in and up.
With your hands down and semi-out to the sides, one foot forward so that there is tension in your arms, and back slightly arched, flex your chest and bring the handles of the cables from under your chest until they meet. Once they meet, further flex your chest and bring your arms straight upward. Slowly let them back down. Repeat until failure and drop set and superset with push-ups if you feel it necessary.
Source: Scott Herman Fitness (Youtube: Scott Herman Fitness)
This again may not be the official name for the exercise, but it uses the same apparatus as the downward cable flys I just discussed. However, this time the arms are sticking straight up, and you will be bent over. To try to accurately depict how to do these, place one heel on the front of the machine and have the other foot step forward to where you can bend over and face the ground. Think machine fly, but facing down towards the ground. That's the motion your'e trying to accomplish. Make sure to get a good stretch in the arms when the cables pull them back, and to again drive under your pecs while flexing your chest hard and keeping your arms out straight and frozen. Go slowly and go until failure. Drop set and superset push-ups if necessary.
Starting Position
Source: workoutroutinewarehouse.com
Ending Position
Source: workoutroutinewarehouse.com
PUSH-UPS
Like I've said before, if I were locked in a dungeon, and were told that I can only do two exercises for the rest of my life, one would be pull-ups, and the other would be push-ups. It's such a simple all-around good exercise that stimulates many different muscle groups in many different ways depending on how you do them. And you can do them ANYWHERE. You don't need a gym. They're super cost-effective!
I'm sure you know how to do these, or have seen these done. But there is something to keep in mind when trying to stimulate the chest in performing these.
Lay face down on the floor, with your arms at your sides, and palms close together....about a little less than a foot or so. Here's where I put my spin on it....
Flare out your elbows, and flare them back in and push from under your chest, driving from the palms and flexing your pec. If you do it right, you should immediately feel a pump in your chest. Push your body all the way up using this motion, and continue until failure. Perform slowly.
And those are my favorite exercises of my favorite muscle group to work out. Seriously, is there anything better than a good chest workout? Feel free to offer your opinions / critiques on anything I just posted. I hope this helped, and that you enjoy working out chest as much as I do!
Have a fantastic day! If you're doing chest, kill it!
-Jtrain
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