Chest Exercises

Here it is, every dude’s second favourite muscle group (number one being the guns, of course) goes under the Expert PT microscope.

If you’re looking to achieve that coveted ‘V’ shape physique, training your chest appropriately is a must and this article is right up your street. Let’s dive right in and give you all the info you need to effectively train your chest.

Chest Muscles

The chest (or pecs, as the muscles are lovingly known) has just four main muscles for you to focus your training efforts on – the pectoralis major, pectoralis minor, serratus anterior and subclavius.

Pectoralis Major

The most superficial muscle in the pec region, the pectoralis major is a large, fan-shaped muscle that adducts and medially rotates the upper limb.

Pectoralis Minor

The pectoralis minor lies underneath the pectoralis major, its function being to stabilise the scapula.

Serratus Anterior

Located in the chest wall, the serratus anterior rotates the scapula, allowing the arm to be raised over 90 degrees and holds the scapula in place.

Subclavius

The subclavius is located underneath the clavicle, offering some minor protection to underlying neurovascular structures and acting as an anchor for the clavicle.

Why Train Chest?

Here are just a few of the vast benefits of resistance training your chest muscles:

1. Improved Posture - the chest muscles play a major role in maintaining good posture. Working alongside your back and shoulder muscles, your chest muscles help to stabilize the shoulder joint.

2. Improved Upper-Body Strength - Pectoral muscles are involved in so many different upper-body movements, so strong chest muscles contribute to overall upper-body strength.

3. Improved Mobility - movements like pushing off the ground are affected by chest strength – a simple push-up can be quite difficult if you have no strength in your chest.

4. Look Awesome! - Strong chest muscles mean that you can lift heavier and train harder and what does that equal? Progressive overload! And, progressive overload, alongside a high protein diet will result in muscle gain and pecs of your dreams.

Chest Workout

First and foremost, if you want to build a chest of steel, start by ditching the ‘Chest Day’ mentality.

Recent research has found that exercising one muscle per session, per week, isn’t the optimal way to build muscle, therefore, a chest workout should, ideally, form part of a full-body, high-frequency training session. My article on High Volume Training gives you more information on what the research tells us and how many times per week you should exercise a muscle group – absolutely essential reading.

These are a solid set of chest exercises for your training repertoire:

• Incline Chest Flies

• Barbell Bench Press

• Hammer Strength Single Arm Chest Press

• Flat Bench Dumbbell Fly Into Press

• Incline Dumbbell Bench Press

• Decline Close Grip Bench Press

If you want help and support to create the physique of your dreams or simply to improve your health, check out my fantastic client’s results and hire me as your Online Personal Trainer. I’ve helped many people, just like you, achieve amazing results.