Have you ever heard someone say that their pecs were too big? Of course not! I don’t think those words have ever been uttered aloud by anyone in the history of weight training. Everyone who is anyone desires a nicely developed chest, right?
If you tell anyone that you train, what is the first question that they typically ask you? You guessed it, “How much do you bench?” This is an age old question that will probably be asked for the rest of time. I have another question for you. What piece of equipment comes standard in most home gym systems? A bench, of course.
If you think about it, what is one of the first exercises that most people learn in the gym? Right again, the bench press. Most of us perform the standard bench press religiously until we injury a shoulder, give up or realize that bench pressing alone isn’t the answer to developing a nice chest. Sometimes this realization takes months, if not longer, but if you’re prepared to face this reality then there is hope. And, no, I’m not abdicating the bench press. I am simply suggesting that developing an amazing chest requires more than just the bench press.
Here are a couple of facts that you should be aware of:
Fact One: The chest is primary comprised of two muscles, the pectoralis major and the pectoralis minor. The pectoralis major, the larger of the two muscles, is a thick, fan-shaped muscle that sits atop the pectoralis minor. The pec minor as the name implies is a small, thin triangular muscle that sits on the upper part of the chest.
Fact Two: Your muscles will only grow and develop if they are properly stimulated and challenged, so variety is important with chest training. If you’re doing the same movement (e.g., the bench press) consistently, then your body will eventually adapt to this exercise. Once it adapts then it’s no longer being challenged and therefore isn’t growing. Certainly you can continue increasing the weight but again you’d only be training your chest in one fashion.
Fact Three: The chest should be trained as if it were three distinct parts (e.g., upper, middle and lower) and from as many angles as possible. This can be accomplished by changing the incline/decline of the bench, using dumbbells and/or machines, increasing/decreasing your tempo, and by modifying your rep count, just to name a few.
The takeaway here is that variety is important, so you can’t be afraid to mix up your workouts as this can have a dramatic impact on your growth and development.
I have been working to develop my own chest by focusing on my weak points, specifically my upper chest. As you’ll notice in the workout below, I have included several exercises which prioritize the upper chest while not neglecting the other parts. You will also notice that I’m leveraging cables, body weight movements, dumbbells and machines all in the same workout.
Sample chest workout:
Cable flyes: Warm up exercise – 5 sets of 20 reps
Incline Press: 5 sets of 15 reps, superset with…
Elevated Pushups: until failure
Peck deck: 5 sets of 20 reps, superset with…
Dips: until failure
Machine incline press: 5 sets of 20 reps
Flat bench dumbbell press: 5 sets of 15 reps, superset with…
Pushups: until failure
Note: All of the exercises above are performed with 60-90 seconds of rest between sets.
If you’re looking for additional exercises to keep things exciting, please check out my YouTube channel (see link below) and/or Bodybuilding.com’s “Find Exercises by Bodypart” feature. The feature, located in the Workouts section, allows you to identify numerous exercises targeting a specific body part. The site features more than 70 exercises for the chest alone. And, in addition to providing detailed information regarding each exercise, the site features demonstration videos to ensure that you are performing the movements accurately and safely.
Good luck with building those perfect pecs!
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Youtube: Rsimmons1911
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