Build A Massive Chest: Chest Training 101

The Best Chest Workout For Mass

One of the most standout and impressionable parts to any aesthetic body is the chest. If you want to see results and improve the thickness and shape of your chest than this article is for you. Anyone who reads this article and implements the advice and techniques, along with a good diet, will inevitably see great results.

Basics and Chest Anatomy

First, we’ll go over the basics and then we will go into more detail later on in the article.

The anatomy of the chest:

The first thing we’re going to do is learn the basic anatomy of the chest. Luckily it isn’t very complicated at all. One of the great things about understanding about how the chest works is the improved “mind to muscle” connection; this will help your visualization improve in regards to chest workouts.

The chest is made up of two muscles: the Pectorial Major and the Pectorial Minor. The chest muscle attachments can be found near the shoulder joint at the humerus of the arm, the muscle then goes along the breastbone. The Pectorial Major goes across the front and top half of the sternum. The Pectorial Minor is a thinner triangular muscle that is found underneath the Pectorial Major, at the upper part of the chest. It is attached to the coracoid process of the scapula and comes from the upper ribs; third, fourth and fifth.

The main purpose of the Pectorial Major is to bring the humerus across the body; the main purpose of the Pectorial Minor is to move the shoulders forward. With them, both combined you get the bench press movement.

At this point you may be thinking; “Why do I need to learn all this?”. Well, knowing basic knowledge on the anatomy of the chest and how it works, will help improve “mind to muscle” connection and aid with visualizing, the chest muscle fibers contracting during your workout. One of the most common mistakes you will find in the gym: people stacking up more weight than they can handle, which results in using poor form and technique, which causes you to use more unnecessary muscle groups, instead of isolating the chest on its own.

Different Parts of the Chest:

When you’re training your chest, it is important to know that there are three “parts” to your chest. They are: Upper Chest, Middle Chest and Lower Chest.

First, we’ll go over the Upper Chest:

The Upper Chest is something that can be overlooked sometimes but a well-developed Upper Chest greatly adds to the overall look of a good chest. The best and most common exercise for the Upper Chest is the incline barbell presses. This is typically done on a bench with an incline of around 45 degrees. The incline of 45 degrees isn’t set in stone and every person is different, so feel free to adjust the incline of the bench, the whole point of the exercise is to specifically feel it in the upper part of the chest, so feel free to try different angles. It is relatively easy to gauge the right angle of incline for the bench: If you can feel the exercise more in your shoulders than you have the incline too high and you will need to decrease angle, or if you can feel it more in the middle of your chest then you have the angle set too low and you will need to increase the incline.

The Middle of the Chest:

The most famous way to hit the middle of the chest, you have probably guessed already; the bench press. It has got to be the most popular strength resistance exercise in the gym. Unfortunately, too many people in the gym are too caught up showing off how much they can bench, yet most are doing the exercise wrong and using poor form and technique. The best advice I can give anyone is to leave your ego at the door. The fundamental part to building muscle is to get great muscle fiber contraction and to get the right feeling of the weight. It’s not how much you can lift; it’s using proper form and technique which will result in better muscle contraction which gets you better results. A great exercise to hit the middle chest without using weights is the simple press up; try a few to get an idea of the correct movement to hit mainly the middle of the chest.

The lower chest:

This is one of the most overlooked parts of the chest by beginners and novices, is the lower chest. If you look at any professional bodybuilder or top fitness model you will notice the chest is fully developed from top to bottom. Without the roundness at the bottom of the chest, you will never have a full looking aesthetically pleasing chest. The most effective ways to hit the lower chest are decline bench press and dips.

Different Chest exercises:

Click here for more chest exercises.

Chest Workout Examples:

Workout #1

Smith Machine Incline Bench Press: 5 x 8-12
Smith Machine Flat Bench Press: 5 x 8-12
Smith Machine Decline Bench Press: 5 x 8-12

Workout #2

Bodyweight Incline Pushup on Stability Ball 5 x 8-12
Bodyweight Pushup: 5 x 8-12
Bodyweight Dips: 5 x 8-12

Workout #3

Incline Dumbbell Press: 3 x 8-12
Flat Barbell Bench Press: 3 x 8-12
Dips: 3 x 8-12
Incline Dumbbell Fly: 3 x 15
Machine Fly: 3 x 15

Workout #4

Incline Dumbbell Press: 3 x 8-12
Flat Dumbbell Press: 3 x 8-12
Decline Dumbbell Press: 3 x 8-12
Incline Cable Fly: 3 x 15
Flat Cable Fly: 3 x15

Workout #5

Incline Barbell Bench Press: 3 x 8-12
Flat Barbell Bench Press: 3 x 8-12
Decline Barbell Bench Press: 3 x 8-12
Incline Bench Dumbbell Fly: 3 x 15
Flat Bench Dumbbell Fly: 3 x 15

Final Words:

I have briefly mentioned it earlier in the article but I can’t stress enough, proper form and technique along with great mind to muscle connection is what will give you great results in the gym. Really focus on feeling each and every rep you do to make sure the desired muscle is being worked. If you don’t feel the chest being worked whilst doing a chest exercise you are either doing it wrong or using more weight than you can handle, which means other muscles are being brought in to compensate for the additional weight.

It is essential you try to hit each part of the chest equally with your workouts unless you have an unbalanced chest and want to concentrate on one part more than the other. Try to put more focus on the big compound movements to build out your upper, middle and lower chest with more thickness, then use movements such as flies to put more emphasize on chest width.

Now go out to the gym and apply the advice I have given you and build out an amazing chest! Good luck and I know you will have great results!