Exercise scientist Dr. Mike Israetel implements research-based strategies to help individuals master their workouts. In his latest endeavor, shared via YouTube on February 3, 2025, he walked through several tips for effectively growing the chest.
With over 3.26 million YouTube subscribers, Dr. Israetel has become a trusted resource in the fitness and bodybuilding community. He breaks down complex movements and training strategies in easy-to-understand demonstrations.
Chest training can oftentimes present unique challenges to individuals. From mastering mind-muscle connection to the proper execution of movements, building monstrous pecs can be a daunting task, which has led Dr. Israetel to provide a wealth of tips on how to thrive during chest training.
Exercise Scientist Dr. Mike Israetel Gives Tips to Help You Build Your Chest
Here is a quick breakdown of his tips below:
- Consider fly movements for warmup
- Incorporate the flye into your routine
- Retract your shoulders while pressing
- Arch your back during presses
- Slower eccentrics
- Lengthened partials
To begin the YouTube video, Dr. Israetel recommended a few warmup sets of dumbbell flyes, advocating for a slow and deep stretch.
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“The first tip for maximizing chest activation in pressing exercises is to consider warming up with a few sets of dumbbell flyes. Super light weight, five, ten, maybe 15 pounds, a couple of sets of five or six reps. Nice and slow, get that deep stretch.”
He believes flyes are important to any chest routine if growth is the goal.
“Tip number two for getting the most out of presses for your chest is to consider doing some flyes.”
Another tip Dr. Israetel offered was retracting the shoulder during pressing movements. He says this, alongside raising your chest up, can allow for a deeper mind-muscle connection.
“Retract your shoulders, what this does is it takes the front delts out of the movement a little bit. It also makes sure that as you’re pulling your scapulae back, your chest is rising up. That really allows you to connect with the mind muscle.”
While he doesn’t believe in overdoing it, Dr. Israetel swore by arching your back during presses. He argued that the arch can make the movement feel ‘really secure and stable.’
“Arch your back. You don’t have to do crazy cat back antics but when you do a shoulder retraction, it really helps to also take your tummy and your chest and push them up and take your hips and walk them back towards your shoulder blades. You get that little bit of an arch and all of a sudden it makes you feel really tight, really solid, really secure and stable.”
Slower eccentrics or slowing down the tempo as the dumbbell reaches the chest is ideal for growth.
“The next tip is a two-for-one tip. Yes, you can go slow all the way but this tip isn’t go slow all the way, it’s you can start normal but as you get closer to the chest, slow down extra.”
Lastly, he explained that lengthened partials can help grow your chest.
“If you really need some extra growth juice to come out of your chest…then what you might want to try is lengthened partials, especially after a full work set has been completed and you have a spotter or you’re using dumbbells and machines,” he shared.
This isn’t the first time Dr. Israetel has revealed tried-and-true tips for bringing up the chest. He recently broke down his five most effective chest-building movements as well as simple form cues that you can follow to take the body part to a new level.
Dr. Israetel continues to offer his fanbase insightful methods for building their ideal physiques. The next time you’re attacking chest day training, give some of his tips a try for newfound gains!
Watch the full video from the Renaissance Periodization YouTube channel below:
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