Daniel Cortés

Daniel Cortés

Working the Chest
There are many chest exercises to choose from but only a few are really good for building up and adding bulk to the chest area. The best exercises are the ones which require more effort such as bench presses and parallel dips. Flys are a great exercise for the chest but do NOT have much ability to produce intense stress. For this reason they will not add much muscle size to the chest, the same goes for chest exercises like cable crossovers and pullovers.

Now you know the exercises needed, next you need to make a workout plan such as the number of sets and repetitions required. Often beginners mistake the length of a workout with effort. In other words they may believe the longer the workout the harder they have trained. In fact it is impossible to train hard for long periods. The secret to adding mass to the chest muscle is NOT to do tons of exercises during one chest routine but to select one and workout very hard for only a few sets. Don't overdo it!

Also its best only to do a total of 3 sets. In fact its best to use 2 sets as warm ups where you use a lighter weight and gradually build up until your warm enough to perform a lest set. This is the one where you'll attempt to reach failure with the 6-12 repetition range. Its when we reach failure that muscle growth is best stimulated, so once this is done why do any more, leave that enthusiasm for the next chest workout, this way you'll keep stimulating muscular growth without overtraining.

A word of warning though!

Remember training to failure requires lots of effort so you must warm up thoroughly, also make sure you have a partner or someone around who can spot you on the exercises. You must also remember to make sure the chest muscles are fully recovered before attempting another workout, this will help avoid an over-trained state.

If we train very hard (after thoroughly warming up) for only a few sets its possible to place all effort into that set. Once done the muscle need rest to recover in order for growth to take place.

Later on you can attempt to hit the muscles from all angles by using a multi-joint chest exercise. Remember the muscles become used to exercises which are repeated over and over. The best way to gauge how long an exercise should be used is to change it when you cease to make any strength gains within three consistent workouts. Remember to do only a few sets and concentrate more on weight increases!

Best exercises for building chest muscles are 1)Bench Press 2) Incline Bench Press 3) Decline Bench Press 4) Parallel Dips 5) Push Ups 6) Dumbell Flyes.