When I first started weight training, there were three goals I was determined to accomplish. The first was to build a massive chest, the second was to have arms as big as Hulk Hogan's, and the third was to have tree trunks for legs. Unfortunately, not many new weight lifters share the love I have for building powerful legs, but hopefully by the end of this series you will. Putting my second and third goals aside for now, I would like to address some things I feel are extremely important in developing a large chest. Summer is approaching and no one wants to take their shirt off and have a small bird chest in front of the ladies. So here is a little background information on the wonder that is the "strongbox".
The chest muscles are a strange group of muscles to exercise. You all know 'that guy' in the gym--the one who benches 375 pounds and has little to show when he takes his shirt off. There is a lesson to learn from this man: Sometimes valuable gym hours are wasted due to lack of proper concentration and form in chest exercises. In general, when you are working your chest, there are a few ways to exaggerate your effort in the exercise: roll your shoulders completely back and tight against the back rest of the bench or seat, squeeze your shoulder blades together throughout the movement, keep your chest fully out (like you are standing at attention) at all times, and most importantly when doing the exercise, THINK that you are using your chest muscles. Weight lifting is 60% mental. If your head is not in tune with your body, you will never make significant gains. For convenience, I've broken the chest down into three problem areas and ways in which to develop them properly.
Upper pecs:
Contrary to popular belief, the flat bench press will not give you a big chest. It relies too much on power of the front delts and lats and will not lead to significant gains in chest size. On the other hand, flat bench press does lead to large gains in power.
There is a fine line between lifting for power and lifting for size, and I will be talking from a size point of view for the rest of this article. Instead of flat bench, try an incline press. Incline press does a better job stimulating the upper chest muscles (which many conventional bench pressers lack.) The incline of the bench should be at about 30 degrees to ensure maximum chest resistance. A steeper resistance will put more emphasis on the front delts. The movement should be slow, and full contraction should be reached at the end of the movement.
Inner pecs:
My exercise solution to weak inner pecs is the seated bench press machine. I love this thing! I have never felt such a pump in my inner pecs until I started using this machine. The unique angle at which your arms end the motion gives an excellent inner pec contraction. Press out to the extended position and focus on getting a burn as you contract your pecs; move slowly on the negative to increase the burn. Instead of wasting your time waiting for the flat benches in the recreation center, you could be getting twice the burn working on the always available seated flat bench machine.
Outer pecs:
No one seems to like doing dumbbell flys, and everyone seems to have some excuse on why flys are no good. It's all BULL! Dumbbell flys, both flat and on an incline, are the number one exercise for stressing and building the outer pecs.
Developing the outer pec adds width and density to the whole pectoral region. Plain and simple: it takes an average chest and makes it into a Schwarzenegger chest. Arnold had the best outer pec development in the history of body building, and anyone who has seen him hit a side chest pose would agree with me.
When doing flys, go to a complete stretch at the extended position. There's no need to bring the dumbbells together at the top, because no significant muscle resistance is achieved (you are just resting at that point). For safety, flys must be performed slowly and controlled. I recommend low weight and high reps for all with previous chest or shoulder injuries.
Now it's time to take action! Get to pumpin' that iron! Remember, weight lifting is 60% mental, so stay focused and think chest, chest, chest!
