Exercises for your Chest

One of the best exercises for your chest is the incline barbell press.

For one, it is a compound movement, which is key to building muscle mass during a chest work out.

It also targets the upper chest muscles and the shoulders.

Photo Courtesy of Usodesita

This chest exercise is similar to the regular bench press (lying flat) except with incline presses the bench is at an angle, around 30 degrees or so.

If your trying to build more muscle size then try sticking with compound movements. Flat bench press, decline bench press, incline bench press are all good compound exercises for your chest.

Here are some good videos on exercises for building chest muscles.


Forget Isolation Exercises, For Now...

Don't worry about doing cable flys, or other chest isolation exercises, until you have built your body building foundation to the point that it deserves to be "chiseled".

I see far too many weightlifters at the gym who are 160 lbs and are trying to "cut" there muscle into oblivion.

You just won't add size to your chest without some heavy compound lifts and a good diet for muscle building.


Tracking Your Training

Another important aspect of your training should include recording your workouts in a workout journal or log book to stay on top of your progress.

You can download a free printable workout log here.

Many workouts X many small increases in weight
=
a BIGGER you!

Keep the above statement in mind next time you think of performing exercises for your chest using the exact same weight as last time.

Have you been bench pressing 155 pounds every time it's chest day?

If you have ever wondered why you are not getting any bigger, there's your answer. Your weight training progress and your diet are directly related to how big you are going to get. Of course I am assuming that you DO want to get bigger. Some people don't and that's fine too. But this is a journal about building muscle, so preach on I shall ;)

So instead of lifting the same weight each workout day, try adding 5lbs here and there. You know those little 2-1/2 lb plates you see lying around the gym?

That's what they are there for. 2 x 2-1/2 lbs = 5lbs. If you can slowly increase your bench press by adding 5lbs a workout, where do you think you might be in a year's time?

Small weight increases, let's do the math:

Say January 1st you are able to bench press 155lbs. Also, let's assume you are going to exercise your chest once a week. So on January 7th (your next workout) you try to bench press 160lbs (155+5) within the same rep range as you did last week; let's assume 8-10 reps.

Now, if you were to consistently add 5 lbs to your bench press every week, for say 3 months... you would add 60 lbs to your bench press!

All from using those little 2-1/2 lb plates lying around the gym.

If you started at 155lbs, 3 months later you would be bench pressing 215lbs. That is quite a feat!


What to Do When Your Progress Stalls

Now there will probably come a point where you are going to stall on your progress. Don't worry about it, it happens to everyone.

Here's what I like to do:

1. If I'm feeling exhausted, I like to take 7 to 10 days off and do nothing. Usually this happens to me about 8 to 12 weeks into a training program, so at that point I like to enjoy some R&R and reset my body.

2. If I stall after only a month and a half or so, I'll just simply switch to a new exercise. This is part of the structure of my workout program Doggcrapp Training, aka DC Training. This technique can be applied to any workout program IMO. Just simply do another chest exercise instead. You can always come back to the exercise you witched out at a later point.

3. Look at my diet. If the weights are not going up and I'm feeling less than enthusiastic about hitting the gym, my body may be telling me that I'm not eating enough to continue progressing. You need to eat big to grow big. Check out my take on the best muscle building foods.

So that's my take on the exercises for your chest that build mass and how to go about progressing.


Here's my latest workout:

DC Workout - Week 4 - 1B

Notes:
LL=Last Time
TT=This Time
RP=Rest Pause
SS= Straight Set
WM=Widow Maker

Chest Exercise
Incline Barbell Presses
LT 205lbs x 14 RP
TT 205lbs x 9+4+4 = 17RP
That's the beauty of keeping track of your workouts in a log book; you get to see your increases (or decreases) each workout. There's no guess work on what you should be trying to achieve.

UNLESS, you actually read your log book wrong, lol. This is what happened to me above. I thought my log book said 205x16 last time (LT). But it was 205x14. So I put it in my mind that I need to beat 205x16, and wound up incline bench pressing 205x17, which is an increase of 4 reps! I guess it pays sometimes to make small boo boos.


Shoulders
Smith Machine Shoulder Press
LT 175x17RP
TT 190x16RP


Triceps
Skull Deads
LT 90lbs x 25 RP
TT 100lbs x 9+6+6 = 21 RP
I'm plus 10 lbs here, but the reps are getting a bit low. The bottom of the range I like to hit is min. 20 reps. I'll probably keep the weight the same next time and go for more reps.


Back Width
MTS Hammer Strength - Front Pulldowns
LT 190lbs x 20 RP
TT 210lbs x 10+6+4 = 20 RP
Can't complain with a 20 lb increase!

Back Thickness
Seated Row
LT 160x12SS, 190x6SS
TT --
Uh oh, ran out of time. Will have to pick up where I left of last time next week. Hate to miss it like this, but Elga the gym cop was standing over me at closing time. Can't blame her though, it was 2 minutes to closing and here I was pounding out reps.

The next day I did some HIIT cardio training to try a different cardio approach. What I like about this style of fat burning cardio is it's over and done with in 20 minutes. Sure is better than long boring walking cardio, but can also kick the hell out of you. I try to limit HIIT sessions to twice a week during the offseason.

I hope I was able to provide some helpful info on exercises for your chest, see you next time!