How to build chest muscles - exercises and techniques

Author: Timko Ilya - master of the whole project and fitness trainer.
2011-12-24

We continue the series of articles "Secrets of Training," and today we would like to talk about training the chest muscles. And as always, we'll start with the basics.

So, the basic exercises for the chest are presses (with dumbbells, barbells, horizontally, at an angle, and so on) and push-ups. Let’s start with everyone’s favorite exercise:

When performing the barbell bench press, to maximally engage the chest, it is necessary to grip wide, spread the elbows to the sides, and lower the bar not to the middle of the chest, but closer to the neck. This technique for pressing maximally loads the chest muscles but is VERY DANGEROUS! It is dangerous for both the chest muscles and the shoulder joints. Therefore, the weight should be such that you can do a MINIMUM of 8 repetitions, and ideally 10-12. Never try to find out how much you can press in one repetition using this technique!

Now, regarding:

The optimal angle for developing the upper part of the chest muscles is 30-40 degrees. If it's more than that, the shoulders will take on too much load. Now let’s look at the exercise:

In this exercise, it seems that more of the lower part of the chest is working. You can certainly experiment, but my personal observations show that this exercise does not provide any significant effect.

Moving on, what is the main difference

between barbell presses (whether horizontal or at an angle)? The advantage of dumbbell presses is that they allow you to turn your wrists with your palms facing each other and bring your hands together at the end of the press. This technique causes the chest to contract more, and thus, the efficiency of the exercise also increases. However, from a technical standpoint, the dumbbell press is more challenging (see video below).

This is an excellent supplement for increasing the strength and volume of your chest muscles, and you shouldn't neglect it. It's better to do push-ups with weight on your back for no more than 10-15 repetitions per set. One variation of push-ups is when your hands and feet are on platforms (blocks, stools, etc.). This allows for deeper push-ups, thereby stretching the chest more. You can also vary the height of the platforms for your hands or feet relative to each other.

This is a good example of an isolated exercise. That is, with the correct technique, only the chest will work. This exercise is quite dangerous, and there’s no need to chase after heavy weights here. If you are pressing 100 kg, you should use NO MORE than 15 kg for the flyes. Believe me, if you perform them correctly, that weight will be more than enough.

Many specialists believe this is an excellent exercise for the chest. But I do not think so. In my opinion, dips should not be regarded as an exercise capable of building your chest. Firstly, the chest takes on a maximum of about 40-50% of the load (or even a third), and secondly, there is a significant risk of injuring the shoulders with wide dips.

The same can be said for this exercise. It stretches your chest well, but it weakly trains the chest muscles. More precisely, it does train, but at the same 40-50% load. The rest of the load is taken on by the latissimus dorsi.

How should these exercises be combined? If you train three times a week, one option could be as follows: On Monday, you first do the flat bench press, then incline dumbbell press at 30 degrees, followed by dumbbell flyes lying down. On Friday, do only wide grip push-ups. This way, Monday becomes an intense chest workout, and Friday serves as a lighter one.

You can also try supersets (but this is for more advanced trainers). For example, after a set of the flat bench press, do push-ups right away. Or after a set of dumbbell presses, do a set of dumbbell flyes right after. Such supersets will instantly pump your chest to the limit. But remember, after such a workout, you need to allow for plenty of recovery time.

Of course, this topic could be discussed endlessly, but I try not to write overly long articles. Feel free to ask your questions in the comments or on the forum.