| Hey Friend,
Walk into any gym on a Monday and you'll a common theme...
Everyone is Training Chest !
The first day of the work week has been given the title of "International
Chest Day" simply because it is the body part that separates the Alphas
from the rest of the pack.
The chest has always been
regarded as one of the most powerful muscle groups in the body, and there are many different chest workouts and exercises you can perform to
develop your pecs.
Heavy benching isn't the only way to build a
chiseled chest. While the standard barbell bench press is a fantastic
exercise and is one of the most popular gym lifts. It often times gets
over used as a lot of guys judge their progress based on how much they
can bench. Egos sometimes get in the way of proper training, and
oftentimes guys end up lifting too heavy and using poor technique in
effort to move more weight.
1) Start With A Mass Building Compound Exercise...
My personal favorite chest mass building compound exercise is the
dumbbell bench press. This exercise has all the muscle building benefits
of the regular barbell bench press, but it has some other unique muscle
building advantages as well...
Dumbbells allow you to work through a more natural range of motion. You
are not locked into a fixed position as you are when holding a barbell.
This generally places less strain on the wrists, elbows, and shoulder
joints.
Dumbbells also force both the left and right sides of the body to handle
an equal workload and thus develop both sides of the chest equally.
When you use a barbell or machines your stronger side can actually
compensate for your weaker side and perform more of the lifting.
And because you have to stabilize and balance 2 dumbbells, instead of
just 1 barbell, there is a higher level of nero-muscular activation.
You'll recruit more of the small stabilizer muscles to help balance and
support the weights. Most people will feel a deeper level of muscular
fatigue after doing an all out set of dumbbell bench presses compared to
doing an all out set of barbell bench presses.
Dumbbell Bench Press
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| | To get in position for the dumbbell bench press set the dumbbells down in front of the bench about a foot apart.
Bend your legs and squat down as if you were doing a dumbbell deadlift,
stand up and then hold the ends of the dumbbells against the front of
your thighs.
Sit back onto the end of the bench with the dumbbells resting on your thighs.
Keeping your body in this position, let yourself slowly fall back onto
the bench so that the dumbbells are resting against your chest. And then
securely position your feet flat on the floor.
This may seem simple and easy to do when using light-weights. But when
you get to the point of using dumbbells where the combined weight is
equal to or greater then your bodyweight, then getting in position to do
the exercise is a lot more difficult and proper set up technique is
critical.
2) Fully Stretched Exercise...
Doing exercises where you work the muscles through a full range of
motion and experience a good stretch in the bottom of the lift are
incredibly effective for maximizing your muscle growth. In the case of
chest training nothing works better here then the dumbbell fly.
When I do dumbbell flys I purposely use light to moderate weights,
higher reps, and really emphasize the stretch at the bottom. Rather then
trying to lift heavy, I simply focus my attention on doing dynamic
stretching with weights. Stretching exercises, like dumbbell flys, help
to stretch the connective tissue which surrounds the muscles, and there
by expand the fascia and enable the muscles to grow bigger and
stronger.
The ideal time to perform fully stretched exercises is right after
you've trained a particular body part with a big basic compound movement
and the muscles are "pumped up" and feeling tight. At this stage the
connective tissues are already being stretched from the blood volume in
the muscles, and then by doing full range of motion stretching with
weights you will really stretch the fascia and increase the muscle
growth potential.
My personal favorite variation is the incline dumbbell flys performed
on a 45 degree angle bench. This really stretches out the upper chest
and I find the angle doesn't place as much stress on my shoulder joints.
Incline Dumbbell Fly
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When doing dumbbell flys, start off really light. The weight is not important here. The main
thing is feeling the deep stretch and working the muscles through a full
range of motion. If you go too heavy you'll not be able to stretch as
deep and you'll risk pulling or tearing a muscle.
Hold the bottom position for a second or two to really emphasis the
stretch, and then only bring your arms half way up before lowering them
down to the bottom position again. DO NOT lift your arms all the way to
the top where the dumbbells touch, as this just takes the tension off
the chest muscles.
3) Peak Contraction Exercise...
Peak contraction exercises are basically the opposite of fully stretched
exercises. The majority of the tension is in the muscles is at the top
of the movement when muscles are fully contracted. And there is less
tension at the beginning and mid-range of the exercise.
In the case of chest training, exercises like pec-deck flys and cable
crossovers work the chest hardest in the full contracted position. You
have to strain to keep the handles together at the completion of the
movement, you can't lock out the weight at the top and get a little
break like you can with bench presses.
Cable Cross Overs
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After completing a heavy mass building compound mid-range exercise like
the bench press, then doing a fully stretched exercise like the dumbbell
fly, finishing up with a peaked contraction exercise like the cable
cross over will really work the entire chest through a full range of
motion.
Again heavy weights are not critical here. The main thing is squeezing
and flexing the chest muscles. Hold the peak contracted position for 1-2
seconds at the top of each rep. Don't worry about the stretch with this
exercise, just focus your attention on the top half of the lift and
pumping as much blood as possible into your chest muscles.
4) The Final Pump Up...
If you have anything left in the tank after completing the previous 3
exercises then you can finish off your chest workout with high rep push
ups.
Push ups are one of my favorite chest exercises of all time. Before I
got involved with bodybuilding I was training in martial arts and got
quite good at doing high rep push ups. At my peak I could pump out 100
push ups in a single set. I honestly feel that all the push ups that I
did while training in martial arts really helped give my chest
development a head start and is part of the reason why my chest is one
of my best body parts today.
Push ups are quite simple, just hit the floor and pump them out. I shoot
for 100 total reps at the completion of my chest workouts. Basically,
I'll do a set for as many reps as I can, rest a minute, do another set,
rest a minute, etc. until I’ve completed 100 total reps.
Push Ups
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| | After you've done 100 push ups at the completion of your chest workout
your pecs will feel so pumped and tight that you'll think they are going
to burst.
Re-Cap Of The Chest Workout...
Here is just a final re-cap of the entire mass building chest workout:
Start with a mass building mid-range compound exercise:
Do a variation of the bench press, such as dumbbell bench press, barbell
bench press, incline bench press, decline bench press, etc.
Warm up with light-weights and pyramid up in weight each set until you
get to your top work set weight. Use a top weight that allows you to
complete between 5-10 reps per set. This is your compound power movement
so do 3 heavy sets.
Perform a fully stretched exercise:
Use a variation of the dumbbell fly (i.e. incline, flat, or decline).
Warm up with really light-weights and stretch out the muscles. Gradually
increase the weights, but don't go too heavy. Focus on stretching the
muscles, not moving big weights. Work up to 2-3 sets of 12-15 reps.
Finish off with a peak contraction exercise:
Do either pec-deck flys or cable cross overs.
Do 1-2 warm up sets and then jump to a working weight that allows you to
complete 2-3 sets of 12-15 reps. Focus on squeezing and flexing the
muscles with each rep rather then moving big weights.
Optional Exercise:
High rep push ups, strive to complete 100 total reps if you can.
Well, there you have it... a complete muscle pumping chest workout that
will help pack on slabs of new muscle growth to your pecs.
If you enjoyed this chest workout break down and would like to get more muscle building workout routines like this, then you should check out the Total Fitness Bodybuilding "Inner Circle" Coaching Club... Just click here to get more info...
all the best,
Lee Hayward
(Your Muscle Building Coach)
http://www.TotalFitnessBodybuilding.com
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