Chest Training

For a male the chest or “pecs” is probably the second most trained body part behind the biceps.  Building your chest can be tricky especially depending how you want them to look.   This time of year when the weather warms up you start to see a few more people coming into the gym getting their beach (BoatRace) workouts in.  Training the chest properly to look good when you have your shirt off or a tank top takes a lot of planning and work.  This area isn’t one where you just walk in do a few sets and reps and it will look good on boat race day. 

I am a big believer in getting rest in between similar muscle workouts and that includes chest, shoulders, and arms.  If I do my chest, for instance bench press on Monday, I will not the next day do arms or shoulders.  I will save them for Thursday.  Developing a good chest you need to push the weight continually adding resistance in order to get the deep muscle tissue.  Using a spotter or partner on the last heavy set can be extremely beneficial for strength and muscular development.  I like to perform 4-5 different exercises (below) for 2-3 sets of 6-12 reps trying to perform a full range of movement.   Always start with one very light set of 15-20 reps of slow full range thoroughly warming up the chest and stretching it. 

For those that are intermediate to advanced lifters will probably notice that I didn’t include any decline exercises on my list.  I have never been a big believer in developing a muscle that will make your chest look like it is sagging.  I have never understood the fascination with guys in the gym performing this lift.  I take the opposite approach and perform more lifts on the incline bench in order to build the upper chest, which I like to call the tank top muscle.  If properly developed your chest looks thick and pumped even wearing a tank top.  It looks as though the muscle is always pumped up with no sag at all.  Adding in flyes and pek dek can develop the outer chest depth from a deep stretch and close-grip presses will help with that stubborn inner chest muscle.     

Exercises:

Free Weight (Pick two-2-3 sets of 6-12)
Barbell/Dumbbell Flat Bench
Incline Barbell/Dumbbell Bench
Incline Dumbbell flyes

Machines (Pick two-2-3 sets of 6-12)
Seated Nautilus/Hammer Press/Cybex
Seated Pek Dek
Cable flyes

Bodyweight exercises
Push-ups
Incline bench/ball Push-ups
Diamond Push-ups

…For more information and tips, check my website, www.chadamartin.com. Thanks to BowFlex for supplying equipment for this show.