Chest happens to be the most muscular group of muscles that define a man’s power and physical prowess. Whether it is the idolization of Hindu Mythological godmen like Lord Shiva or the epitome of strength and power, Hanuman, the sculptors try to carve out spectacular pumped-up-chest in their final touch to their statues. Well, talking about gods, we can’t ignore Greek Gods who were known for their aesthetic body with the warrior’s chest. The size of the chest scales your manhood as well as the strength and power you have. Besides, at a time when social media is providing a universal platform to share their bare-chested photographs, men love to what they love to do, i.e. flaunt their workout snaps. An obsession to get pumped up chest has led millions of go crazy for developing deep, broad chest! As men love to work on their chest muscles and this is the sole reason why chest day (the most often Monday) happens to the busiest day in a gym.
In general gym-goers get themselves stuck to limited variations of chest workouts not for just days but for weeks, months, and subsequently end up nowhere. Busting this monotonous set of a chest workout, we have illustrated the top 5 great Chest Exercises to develop a deep and broad chest.
But before that, Know your chest
The chest is a large group of “Pushing Muscles” found in your upper body. The group of muscles present in the chest, helps you to perform all pushing actions including barbell bench press or moving something horizontally to the ground.
Pectoralis Major:
Pectoralis Major constitutes the dominant part of the upper chest. Pectoralis Major is a fan-shaped muscle that stretches from the armpit up to the collarbone and down across the lower chest region on both sides of the chest. The two sides connect at the sternum or breastbone.
Pectoralis Minor:
Pectoralis Minor is found underneath the pectoralis major. The thin triangular shaped chest muscle stretches up and down along the upper ribs.
Top 5 Best Chest Workouts That You Should Try
Barbell Bench Press
Probably, Barbell Bench Press is the most quintessential chest workout. If you want to strengthen your upper body muscle or develop a powerful looking pec on your chest, the bench press is the answer. The bench press is such a masculine workout that has also been included as the second discipline in powerlifting.
How to do it:
- Lie on your back on a flat bench press station. You should fix your eyes to the middle of the barbell coming under the barbell rod. Now, grip the barbell slightly wide of your shoulder width.
- Now, pressing your uppers back make an arch moving inside your lower back, lift your chest towards the ceiling, and push your feet firmly into the ground. Squeeze your shoulders down and back.
- Unload the barbell road and hold it over your chest
- Weighing the barbell, start lowering it by bending your arms until you touch your centre of chest. While doing this, make sure that your forearms remain perpendicular to the floor, if not you need to readjust it again in the next set.
- Push back the barbell again at arms’ length and repeat.
- You need to do 3 sets of 12 reps to get impressive results.
Incline bench press
By switching to the incline bench press, you can increase upper chest muscles. As per the studies, the best angle of targeting upper pecs is 44 degrees. Usually, you can’t find a bench with precise adjustment in that case you can go around 30-45 degrees. If you increase the angle more than this measure, you will just end up working your deltoids (shoulders) more than your pecs. You can do incline bench presses using a barbell or dumbbell.
How to do it:
- Lie on an Incline bench by setting it around 45-degrees.
- Hold the bar with a slightly wider than shoulder-width grip. Lift your chest by pulling your shoulders down and back.
- To make it a safe bench press, plant your feet firmly into the ground and arch your lower back slightly.
- Lift the bar, bend your arms and lower the bar down to your upper chest.
- Press the weight back up and repeat
Decline Bench Press
Your lower pecs are involved in all chest exercises, however, doing a decline bench press allows you to work on your lower chest muscles. The most exciting thing about decline bench press is that most the people find it relatively easy for their shoulders than flat and incline versions. So, if you are not able to bench press on a flat bench, this exercise is a better alternative. It should be noted, the best exercise for targeting lower pecs is around 15 degrees below parallel ground.
How to do:
- Lie on your decline bench by setting it at 15 degrees to the ground.
- Anchor your leg behind the ped of the bench so that you don’t slide down while doing workout
- Now, grip the bench bar slightly wider than your shoulder-width and lift your chest and subsequently pull down your back and shoulders
- Now, lift the bar by and bending your arms and then lower it to your sternum. Push back the weight again up by stretching your perpendicular to the ground and repeat
- Try to do 3 sets of 12 reps
Push-ups
And the last but not least, Push-ups are the most underestimated chest workout that most of the young gymgoers generally miss doing. Being quite primary, push up is a bodyweight workout that anybody can do anywhere anytime as it does not require any kind of fitness equipment.
How to do it:
- To start with kneel down on the floor, placing your hands on the floor slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
- Rotate your shoulder slightly outward to stabilise your shoulders and maximize your chest activation
- Place your fingers firmly on the ground with fingers pointing forward
- Now, bend your arms and lower your chest up to one inch of the floor
- While doing so, don’t sag your hips
- Now extend your arm again and return to the initial position and repeat • Important thing to note, keep your whole body across the push-ups
- Try to do of 3 sets of 10-12 reps
Dumbbell flys
An isolation exercise, Dumbell Flys involve a lot of movement concentrating at just one joint. Unlike other compound exercises that involve your triceps, biceps and shoulders, Dumbell Flys are dedicated exercises for the chest muscle. Usually, you can’t lift much weight while doing dumbbell flys, however, minimal weight can also bring remarkable results to your chest. It should be noted, don’t try to lower the weights too low touching the ground as it can cause ‘click’ kind of sound to your shoulders which is bad, trust me.
How to do it:
- Lie on a bench with a lightweight dumbbell to start with, if you are a beginner 2.5 kg or 5 kg will do here
- Now, press the weighted dumbbell up to arm’s length
- Proceed with rotating your wrists so they can face inward
- Bend your elbows slightly keeping everything rigid and firm
- Open your arms and take down your dumbbells down and out to your sides
- Make sure to keep your arms perpendicular to your body
- Bring a good stretch, but don’t extend your arms too much as again it can dislocate your shoulders which is really not good
- Now, while going up, squeeze the weights using your pecs and repeat
So, these are the top 5 best chest workouts that you don’t wanna miss if you are looking to develop Greek God-like pec.
Disclaimer:
The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as a health advice. We would ask you to consult a qualified professional or medical expert to gain additional knowledge before you choose to consume any product or perform any exercise.
