Weight Training Tips and Articles

Chest Weight Training Workouts

  The chest muscles, or pectorals, are among the most popular muscles to weight train. Most chest weight training exercises are easy to perform and building large pectorals will give that look of physical power. Becuase of this many weight trainers tend to overtrain their pecs, which can be detrimental to size and strength gains. You should keep your chest workouts simple, performing the basic exercises without doing so many sets that you won’t be fully recovered for your next chest workout.

  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.

Don’t Neglect The Upper Pectoral Muscles

  The bench press is easily the most popular weight training exercise to build the chest, or pectoral, muscles. However, if you bench press too much on a flat bench and not enough on an incline press you may overdevelop the lower pectorals as compared to the upper pectorals. This will give your chest a droopy look - not something you want if you are trying to build a great looking physique.

  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.

Proper Bench Press Form

  The main exercise of any chest weight training routine is the bench press. You simply lie on the bench with a grip on the bar a bit wider than your shoulders, lower the weight to your chest and lift the weight. Of course, that’s not all there is to it. Many weight trainers try to lift the weight off themselves by raising their entire body besides their upper back off the bench and practically dropping the weight on their chest to get a bounce at the beginning of the lift. This is poor lifting form and you won’t be hitting the pectoral muscles as good as when you use proper form on the bench press. You’re also more likely to hurt yourself.

  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.