Weight Training Tips and Articles

Pre Exhaustion Weight Training For The Chest

  While the chest is one of the most popular muscle groups to weight train, there are many lifters, particularly those who are tall and have longer arms, who can’t seem to get a good pump from bench pressing. If you have long arms you’ll likely be using the triceps a lot while you bench and consequently won’t get the pump you need for more muscle growth in the pectorals. One great weight training tip to remedy this situation is to use pre exhaustion for the chest.

  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.

Try Dips For The Chest

  While dips are primarily known as a weight training exercise that targets the triceps, you can modify them a bit to target the chest. Doing dips for the chest is a great alternative to decline bench presses and will help build the bottom of the pectoral muscles for that chiseled chest look. Because dips for the chest requires you to move your body through space they are a harder, and consequently more intense, exercise for the pecs than decline bench presses.

  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.

Increasing Bench Press Strength

  The bench press is likely the most popular exercise for weight trainers to perform. If you look like you weight train you’ll likely hear the “how much can ya bench?” question every now and then. A big bench press shows that you have the strength and not just the size. Because of this, most weight trainers want to be able to bench press as much weight as possible.

  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.