If you are a man and trying to pump up your pecs with the best chest workouts and it isn’t happening in any way, what can we say except that we feel you! If you are seriously considering body-building, then perhaps now is the time for some introspection, why don’t you have that massive chest yet like those hunky heroes you so admire on celluloid? All this after lifting weights and eating reasonably clean.
If your pecs aren’t showing up big time, it may be because you are not establishing the mind-body connect that is ever so important, or you may not be feeling the after burning feeling you get when you workout, like say when you are working your calves, don’t you feel they are on fire?
But do you have the same feeling when you work on your chest? No? The perhaps you are lifting too light with many repetitions or just too heavy with low repetitions. The bottom line is that you are just not able to stimulate those muscles that help develop a massive chest.
Poof! There goes your dream of giving Dwayne Johnson, aka the Rock, some serious competition!
You are chortling away, right? Don’t… because it is possible to build a chest you can be proud of! And we have got just the exercises to get you there. So stay tuned!
The Top Eight Exercises- The Best Eight for your Chest Day
Your chest day isn’t going to be the same again, yes you read that right, and we are revamping your entire schedule so that you hit just the right notes with the pecs.
So, you are bored with your current workout schedule?
FEAR NO MORE!
Because these exercises can be added to your current routine to make your very own “chest day workout,” Or you can scrap your old workout and incorporate these with ease. Yes, it is flexible like that!
Before we list out some of the must-do exercises for your chest, here’s a tale straight out of my life.
My next-door neighbor is a fitness freak. Well,so I thought, going byhis physique, but I never saw him visiting a gym so I asked him straight up one day, which gym does he go to and he replied with a smirk “Home Gym!”
My incredulity knew no bounds, so I asked him again, don’t you lift weights? “Yes I do my own body weight.” What?! I mean what?
Then I remembered an old interview of a tinsel town actor, who swore by body-weight exercises and had ahate-hate relationship with dumbbells, yet he had a physique not many could boast of at his age, he was pushing fifty. Slow claps!
Well if he can, why can’t you? That’s the question you should invariably ask yourself!
So, now let’s go through the drill, and here’s the deal, a few weight-free workouts and more than a few workouts with weights! We believe in pleasing all you see!
1. Wide Push-ups
You can’t really do without it, can you? Employing a wide stance while doing a push up will certainly put more pressure on your chest. This exercise puts on more weight to your pectoral (chest) muscles, especially when your hands are placed in a wide position. To make this more challenging you need to space your hands wider still.
Wide push-ups help use your pectoral muscles more than normal push-ups and these uplifts help you lift your body, which will improve the strength in your upper body.
To do it right:
- Place your hands wide apart; distribute the weight of your body on your toes and hands into a plank position. Keep your elbows extended and your body ramrod straight. Plus remember you cannot let your hips to sag. This is the position you start with.
- Flex your elbows and lower your chest to the floor as you breathe in
- Use your pectoral muscles to press your torso back to the starting position and while you are at it, extend the elbows. Remember to breathe out as you perform the step.
- After you stay at the contracted position, keep repeating the movement for the prescribed amount of repetitions. Try to fit in 100 pushups in 30 minutes, if that sounds impossible to break it into 5 sets.
To keep your muscles growing and building strength, you have to obviously switch to more advanced variations like trying the ring push-ups or add some extra resistance like weights or bands to your normal pushups.
If you believe in the adage “Go big or go home,” then the following exercise will help you to help you go closer to your goal.
2. Incline Dumbbell Bench Press
When you press from an incline you get to work the clavicular head of your chest. If you need to give your pecs the extra pop, you need to hit that muscle which sits high on your chest.
To do it right
- Lie downon a bench and incline your backrest set at a 45-degree.
- Grab a pair of dumbbells right above your chest with your arms straight and your palms turned toward your feet.
- Lower the dumbbells to chest level, and then raise them back to the position you started
3. Traditional Pull-ups
The chest is a receptacle of muscles, so for many people who wish to look better or stronger, you can use a pull-up bar with your own weight.
No local gym anywhere around you and still harboring thoughts to look strong and big? Doing five to 10 repetitions of each exercise and then increasing this to 15 reps once you start nailing it, is your first step to progress.
Thankfully, it is as easy as it sounds complicated.Simple? Check Effective? Check.So, a traditional pull-up is a must include in your chest workouts regime.
It requires little skill or little experience in bodybuilding and yet your upper body cannot thank you enough for this workout. Traditional pull-ups aren’t too difficult to follow considering they do not have a great many steps.
To do it right
- To start, grasp the pull-up bar with your palmsfacing away from you and shoulder-width
- Grabthem tightly, and while you exhale, bring up your elbows towards your chest and lift your entire body off the ground and bring your head above the bar.
- Hold the pose for just about three seconds and then lower your body towards the ground again. This exercise is not only great for the middle chest area but also your biceps and shoulders.
4. Weighted Pushup
Add weight to the good old push-up as it steers your muscles to work that much harder; so even if you keep your rep range low you will be able to add some serious muscle power.
To make it that much harder, add weights in the form of a plate sandbag or even a weight vest to increase the resistance.
To do it right
- Get on all fours into a pushup Of course, you have to include a weight vest or even a sandbag over your upper back or a weight plate placed on your upper back.
- Your arms should be straight and hands should be placed in a way that they are slightly wider than your shoulders.
- Bend your elbows and bring your body as low as possible so that it almost touches the ground. Wait for a few seconds and then push your body right back.
5. Close Grip Bench Press
Lifting more weights with a barbell is more effective as it is stable than with dumbbells. That is why you build more strength with barbell presses than dumbbell presses.
Wondering how to get more out of your workouts and protect your shoulders as well? Most fitness trainers recommends using a close grip, that is your hands should keep a width just out of your shoulders.
Do you have a shoulder issue? No sweat! This barbell bench press is kinder to your joints and one of the best chest exercises.
To do it right
- Use a narrow (narrower than your shoulders) overhand grip.
- Get hold of a barbell and place it above your sternum, remember to keep your arms straight.
- Now slowly, bring the bar towards your chest. Hold it for at least 1 second. Press and bring up the bar again.
6. Cable Fly
One way most guys get it wrong is they just press; they do not incorporate the fly routine which activates the front deltoids like no other.
A cable fly movement can consistently provide tension throughout the entire length of the workout. In your workout: Include this chest routine for sets of 10-12. You can do drop sets and partial reps, work hard till failure.
To do it right
- Get a cablecrossover station and attach the two stirrup handles with the help of two high-pulley
- Now get a handle with each hand, and stand right in the middle of the station. Your arms should be outstretched but not totally, they should be bent at the elbows ever so slightly.
- You should stand in a staggered stance and lean forward slightly from your hips; remember, you cannot round up your back, keep your stance straight.
- Now, with the slight bent position at your elbows, try to bring your hands together. Now do the reverse movement.
7. Machine Decline Press
The transverse abduction muscle is one of the primary muscle actions of the pecs major. The cable flys or pec-deck flys enhance this action.
You can sit in a sideways position and maximize the movement with the help of a horizontal adduction.
Always do free-weight exercises first in your best chest workout regime because they utilize the stabilizer muscles more than machines and they also require more effort to complete a workout. Keep this as the last multi-joint exercise on your chest day.
To do it right
- Prepare a decline bench in the rack in a way that the bar will best ationed above your chest. The next step will be to load an appropriate weight and position yourself on the bench.
- Unhook it from the rack by rotating the rack and fully extending your arms. Arch your back slightly and keep your shoulder blades retracted. This is how you should start.
- Begin the movement with your arms flexed and lowering the bar closer to your chest.
- Stop briefly, and then extend your arms in a way to push the weight back right to the starting position.
- When you complete the required number of repetitions, rotate the bar and keep it back on the rack.
8. Decline Dumbbell Bench Press
The exercise helps build your lower chest, so even if it languishes in the furthest corner of your gym, change your attitude towards it and use it to get a bigger chest.
It also puts less stress on your shoulders and back, it is all in all a multi-purpose movement which makes it a must add to your best chest exercises.
To do it right
- Lie down on a decline bench with your shins kept beneath the leg support. Ensureyou have the bench at about a 30-degree angle, which will help hit the lower region of your pecs.
- Grab a pair of dumbbells above your chest and keep your arms straight.
- Keep your palms in a way that they faceyour feet and keep your weights just outside your shoulders.
- Bring the dumbbells closer to your chest hit the pause button and then press them in a way that they go back to the starting position.
Also, we know you think lifting heavy is the only way to go but how you lift also matters. Repeat after us, form is more important than repetitions. So never ignore the form and posture.
All said and done you cannot just build your chest with exercises alone, nutrition is the key. Not only the abs but the entire body is made in the kitchen.
So, if your chest day is the hump day for you, these chest exercises for men would make it easy for you. Okay, not really easy. It IS going to be difficult, but who’s ever said that building a body is a cake walk?
It isn’t, but a little sweat and toil and you may soon be able to flaunt the torso you always dreamed of. What can we say but, happy chest day!