To use the pre exhaustion weight training technique you do a superset of an isolation exercise for a large muscle group followed immediately by a compound exercise for that same muscle. To pre exhaust your pecs during a chest workout you should try a few supersets of dumbbell or machine flyes followed by bench or incline presses. You’ll directly target the chest with the flyes, which will put you in a position where the chest is already somewhat spent while you bench press and is forced to work harder. This will give you that pump that you haven’t been able to get and will help you build up your chest. If you just can’t seem to get your pecs pumped up from doing normal chest exercises you should give pre-exhaustion a try. It may be just what you need.

  To perform dips to target the pectoral muscles you need to do then on a dip bar rather than between 2 benches. It’s even better if the dip bar is a bit wider so you’re not hitting the triceps as much as the chest. When you do dips for the chest muscles you don’t want your body to be straight becuase this will also target the triceps more. Try to get your lower body behind you so you are dipping at an angle like you would be if you were doing decline presses. Since you are likely strong enough to do a lot of dips this way you should wear a belt that allows you to add weights to it. As you do the exercise try to focus on getting the chest to do most of the work rather than the triceps.

  Doing dips in the style that targets the chest muscles is an old school weight training exercise that isn’t utilized enough by todays lifters. It’s the perfect exercise to do in any chest routine after flat and incline bench presses. Try them out to build more muscular, chiseled pectorals.

  The first step to increasing bench press strength is to make sure you’re using proper lifting form when you perform it. If you do sloppy bench reps you won’t be building as much strength in your chest as you wouild if you used good lifting form. It’s okay to have your back arched, but you need to keep your behind on the bench when you beench press. You should also contract your upper back muscles and pull your shoulder blades inward to pop your pecs out. Always lower the weight under control, do not drop it on your chest. When the weight touches your chest try to explode it upward.

  One great technique to increase your bench press strength is to identify where you are at your weakest during a rep and doing some sets that focus only on that part of the movement. Do this by setting up a squat rack so you are forced to only do the part of the bench press rep that you are weak on.

  You also need to make sure you don’t get overzealous and end up overtraining your chest from too many bench sets. If you’re still sore from your last bench press workout ou need to take another day or 2 off before you do them again.

  After you warm-up the first chest weight training exercise you should do is the barbell bench press. Lie on the bench and pull your shoulder blades inward to pop your pecs out so the resistance hits them harder. Don’t lift your butt off of the bench to get the weight up - if you have to you should use lighter weight.

  Do some incline barbell bench press sets after you do flat benches to hit the upper pectoral muscles. If you have overdeveloped lower pecs you may even want to start your chest workouts with inclines.

  After you do some bench and incline bench sets you can do a few sets of decline bench presses or weighted dips to build that bottom section of the pectoral muscles. Weighted dips are a great, and underused, exercise for this. If you are trying to hit your chest with dips you should try to get your hips behind the rest of your body instead of dipping with your body straight so you aren’t working your triceps more than your pecs.

  Try some sets of dumbbell flat and incline bench presses to get a nice stretch at the bottom of the movement and work the stabilizing muscles that balance the weights. For added variety you can do some dumbbell bench work on a strong workout ball. Bench pressing on a ball will really force you to stabilize and balance the weight.

  Finish of your chest workouts with dumbbell or machine flyes, or cable crossovers. Regularly switch which exercise you use as a finisher to a chest workout to keep your body guessing.

  Try doing 10-12 sets total for your pectoral muscles during your chest weight training workouts with varied rep ranges. This may not sound like much, but if you are training with the proper intensity it should be more than enough. you may want to do more or less total sets depending on how many days you have between chest workouts.

  To avoid overdeveloping the lower pecs, you must do at least as many sets of incline bench presses with barbells and dumbbells as you do of flat bench presses. While flat benches will hit the upper chest muscles some, incline bench presses will directly target them better.

  If you’ve been lifting for a while and have overdeveloped your lower pectoral muscles you may even want to do away with flat bench presses altogether and only do inclines, or start your chest weight training workouts with inclines and do flat bench presses later. You can also do flyes while lying on an incline bench to hit the upper pecs. Building the upper pectorals with incline bench presses and flyes is a good idea even if you haven’t overdone it with the lower pecs since it’ll enhance your physique.

  Incline bench presses are basically done the same way as flat bench presses. Lie on an inclined bench, contract your upper back muscles to pop your chest out, arch your back, lower the weight to your chest and lift it back to the beginning position. If you have shoulder problems you may not want to lower the weight all the way to your chest when you incline press.

  To bench press properly you need to keep your butt on the bench while performing the exercise. Keep your feet on the floor and you’ll get a small natural arch in your back. Pull your shoulders blades inward and downward and contract your upper back muscles to “pop” your chest out so most of the resistence is targeting more directly on your chest muscles. Lower the bar under control until it touches your chest and try to explode the weight upward. Use a spotter on your heavy bench press sets if you can. If you don’t use a spotter you need to be absolutely sure you can get 1 more rep before you try it. Better safe than sorry.