Hammer Strength incline press instead of incline dumbbell press, cable fly or pec deck instead of dumbbell fly, etc. Once again, to see the full version of this program and all of the details that go along with it, go here: The Muscle Building Workout Routine. Now for a little peek into my Bodybuilding 2.

Again, the full details of this Bodybuilding 2. Feel free to check it out. There you have it. All you need to do now is put it into action. For more on muscle growth, read this next: How To Build Muscle Fast: The 15 Step Guide. Don't waste another minute of your time searching for what to do.

I've already done the research for you and created step-by-step plans that work. Select your goal below I Want To Build Muscle If you want to build lean muscle without gaining excess body fat, spending all of your time in the gym, using a diet or workout that isn't customized to you, or doing myth-based nonsense that only works for people with amazing genetics, check out: Superior Muscle Growth I Want To Lose Fat If you want to lose body fat without losing muscle, feeling hungry all the time, using stupid restrictive diets, doing hours of cardio, or struggling with plateaus, metabolic slowdown, and everything else that sucks about getting lean, check out: Superior Fat Loss Facebook X 27 Pinterest SHARES Get Your Perfect Workout It takes less than 60 seconds Take The Quiz ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jay is the science-based writer and researcher behind everything you've seen here.

Thanks for all this good stuff! what about doing reverse pyramid style using a wider rep range to hit heavy and light in one exercise? say, for example. or ? or 2 exercises using on the first, or something on the second.

and i know doing reverse p on both may be too intense, but again, low volume plus me being used to doing it and loving it…. You could also do an exercise for a few sets of lower reps, and then end with one higher rep back-off set.

Personally, though, I like to to use separate exercises for this purpose rather than using the same one to train in multiple rep ranges. But it can all work. This WOMAN can attest to what Jay presents here with regards to intelligent chest workout design. Simply incredible! At 55 years old, my breasts have excellent muscle mass underneath them which gives them added support.

Something must woman would gladly welcome at my age! Hey Jay, great article again. I plan on writing a similar article for every muscle group. Another good one Jay! I love your writing and advice.

I look forward to them. Awesome article as usual. When I feel the broscience sneaking in, your bring me back to down to earth. It can be easy to get lost in some of the stuff you read or hear. Awesome article! It was a really good read while on the train to work. Just wondering if you will ever consider doing an article like this but for training legs?

Would cluster set training work with your upper lower system and do you recommend this type of training.. Hey Jay, First off I must say, fabulous work on your programming and website!

Now, I have heard fitness experts say that we must periodize our workout programs. For example, focusing on hypertrophy stages, then strength periods central nervous system adaptations and so forth. Still, some exercisers approach chest training with a very narrow approach.

The International Chest Day model, which consists of barbell bench press and little else, doesn't give you a chance for a fully diversified chest workout. There should be much more to your chest muscle workouts than stacking plates onto a barbell and pressing into infinity—that can be a recipe for major problems down the line.

But anyone who wants to train for a balanced, healthy physique will understand that you need to train smart, not like a meathead at least not all the time. There are more exercises that you should do to target your chest muscles.

Variety is a major key for for muscle adaptation, so you'll want to use different types of equipment and techniques to challenge your chest to help it grow. You can build out a new plan using some of these exercises, which will spur muscle growth and help you to build strength.

First, though, it helps to understand the muscle group before you pick up a weight. The chest is a muscle group you might have heard referred to by one catchall name: the pectorals, a. the pecs. There are actually two muscles that make up your pecs, the pectoralis major and pectoralis minor.

The pectoralis major is larger, as the name implies, and is superior or located above to the pectoralis minor, is smaller and located below the pec major.

The pec major is tasked with adduction of the arm movement in toward the body and rotation of the arm forward, along with assisting other muscles in pulling the trunk up when your arms are above your head. The pec minor helps to move your ribs and shoulders. The serratus anterior and subclavius are also chest muscles, which rotate the scapula and anchors and depresses the clavicle, respectively.

Your chest is a fairly large muscle group, so you'd be hard-pressed to ignore it. Still, the benefits of chest training are important to keep in mind: Not only will a well-developed chest have aesthetic benefits in terms of how your shirts fit and how you'll look without one, you'll also see postural benefits just make sure to balance out your chest day with back training , too.

You'll also be stronger anytime you need to push or swing using your arms. Make sure you don't just focus on bench press. You should also aim to use exercises that hit the other functions of your chest, like arm adduction, and allow you to emphasize the squeeze.

When you do bench, however, listen to MH fitness director Ebenezer Samuel and make sure that you don't flare your elbows. When you take on another common exercise, the incline press, keep your forearms perpendicular to the floor so that you can keep the focus on your upper chest muscles and avoid shoulder issues.

Finally, make sure that as much as you target your chest muscles, you also train opposing muscle groups. Your back needs attention too, both for better function and a balanced physique. You can train your chest at home or in a pinch with bodyweight moves like pushup variations, feature chest-centric movements in broader full-body workouts to spread the workload, and if you feel like you're lagging, even ramp up the volume beyond the Monday standard with multiple sessions dedicated to chest in a week.

There's a whole treasure trove full of workouts and exercises to be uncovered to blast the chest that can sculpt your pecs and push your upper body training days to the next level. Just remember, if your goal is to build chest muscle, you should aim to work using the right protocols for hypertrophy , with the most efficient rep schemes and rest periods.

Likewise, you'll need to be eating right to gain muscle. Here are some of the best chest exercises to do just that. Choose two or three to work into your routine, and for best results, rotate in new movements every 3 or 4 weeks.

Just remember, there's nothing wrong with a big bench for your chest—as long as your workout doesn't start and end there. Sure, we just talked about branching out beyond the bench press.

But you can't avoid the exercise if you're serious about training—or even if you just step foot into any typical strength facility in the world. The move is standard for a reason: it works. Let's break it down with dumbbells for some variety. How to Do It:. One of the absolute go-to chest exercises, the chest fly is all about creating tension through the movement.

Your goal is not to flap your arms like a bird to take flight, like the name suggests—squeezing is the name of the game here. That means you'll probably use less weight than you might expect.

Olympia winners Phil Heath and Jay Cutler. Here, we use his FST-7 method to pack new meat on your pecs. SEE ALSO: The Big Chest Workout. Fascial refers to the fascia, the web-like connective tissue that envelopes each muscle.

By stretching the fascia, you create more room for the muscles to grow. SEE ALSO: 4-Week Chest Workout for Bigger Pecs. Every set should be taken to near failure. For the cable crossover, alternate stretching and then flexing your pecs between sets. For the stretch, rest your forearms against a doorframe, or use the beams of a power rack, and lean forward.

To flex, tense your pecs isometrically. SEE ALSO : 6 Ways to Row Right. These three routines will help you burn off the Holiday junk and get you back up to speed.

This is the perfect workout to build muscle, improve form, and increase mobility. Close Ad ×. I want content for: Both Men Women.

Hey Jay, great article again. I plan on writing a similar article for every muscle group. Another good one Jay! I love your writing and advice. I look forward to them. Awesome article as usual. When I feel the broscience sneaking in, your bring me back to down to earth. It can be easy to get lost in some of the stuff you read or hear.

Awesome article! It was a really good read while on the train to work. Just wondering if you will ever consider doing an article like this but for training legs?

Would cluster set training work with your upper lower system and do you recommend this type of training.. Hey Jay, First off I must say, fabulous work on your programming and website! Now, I have heard fitness experts say that we must periodize our workout programs. For example, focusing on hypertrophy stages, then strength periods central nervous system adaptations and so forth.

Is this really necessary? Thank you so much. With all else being equal, both of the approaches you described work. This has reminded me that I need to go back to them again — your stuff is great — thanks! Thanks for your information once again.

I read both SFL and SMG and love both. I understand reason why you suggest rep range for and reps. No need to explain.

My question is what if I prefer to do heavy and low reps for both? for example I will do for bench press and for incline dumbbell press. I asked because since I followed you years ago, I changed from bodybuilding style pump to lift heavy and I love it.

The central nervous system, joints, tendons, etc. Thanks a lot for a great article once again, covering a very challenging issue these days! There are some articles out there on the web that point towards ENDURANCE style of training instead of strenght oriented workouts.

Wanted to know your opinion in this regard. Thank you again. Endurance style training is ideal based on goals e. someone who wants to improve endurance, someone who wants to burn a few extra calories, etc.

Hi Jay, thanks for this. I have been weight training for just over a year — age I have been jumping from plan to plan for a while I admit — mainly to chase more weight but this has resulted in me injuring my left shoulder 8 months ago.

My progress has been great in squats, deadlifts and pulling things growth and strength but my press and bench press are poor. My barbell press has to be a supinated close grip to avoid pain.

Just wondered if you had any pearls of wisdom for to help me find a safe way to progress pushing movements and chest development.

There are tons of chest pressing exercises barbell, dumbbell, machine, bodyweight, etc. and tons of variations of each. Find the ones you can do without problem, and do them exclusively.

First thank you very much for your effort and we are waiting for the remaing muscles, second i wanna ask about the decline exercises flyes or bench press is this include in this workout? In that case, go with a decline exercise. The only other exception I can think of would be if a person just happened to really prefer decline exercises for whatever reason.

In that case, they can work them in somewhere. I currently follow the guidelines in your muscle building routine and was wondering if adding 1 or 2 sets to certain exercises may be too much volume in your opinion.

For example, if I was to do the flat barbell bench press for 4 sets of 8 and the incline dumbbell press for 4 sets of 10 would you say this is too much volume? Thank you. Great work done here as always Jay! Looking forward for your next articles.

Keep grinding.. If you have a question or comment about this article, or just want to give me your feedback on it, feel free to contact me directly by using the contact form here.

Get Your Perfect Workout It takes less than 60 seconds… Take The Quiz. Monday Bench Press 3 sets of reps. Incline Dumbbell Press 3 sets of reps.

Thursday Dumbbell Bench Press 3 sets of reps. Dumbbell Flyes 2 sets of reps. Version 1 Bench Press 4 sets of reps. Version 2 Bench Press 4 sets of reps.

Incline Dumbbell Fly 3 sets of reps. Version 3 Bench Press 3 sets of reps. The pec major is tasked with adduction of the arm movement in toward the body and rotation of the arm forward, along with assisting other muscles in pulling the trunk up when your arms are above your head.

The pec minor helps to move your ribs and shoulders. The serratus anterior and subclavius are also chest muscles, which rotate the scapula and anchors and depresses the clavicle, respectively.

Your chest is a fairly large muscle group, so you'd be hard-pressed to ignore it. Still, the benefits of chest training are important to keep in mind: Not only will a well-developed chest have aesthetic benefits in terms of how your shirts fit and how you'll look without one, you'll also see postural benefits just make sure to balance out your chest day with back training , too.

You'll also be stronger anytime you need to push or swing using your arms. Make sure you don't just focus on bench press. You should also aim to use exercises that hit the other functions of your chest, like arm adduction, and allow you to emphasize the squeeze.

When you do bench, however, listen to MH fitness director Ebenezer Samuel and make sure that you don't flare your elbows. When you take on another common exercise, the incline press, keep your forearms perpendicular to the floor so that you can keep the focus on your upper chest muscles and avoid shoulder issues.

Finally, make sure that as much as you target your chest muscles, you also train opposing muscle groups. Your back needs attention too, both for better function and a balanced physique.

You can train your chest at home or in a pinch with bodyweight moves like pushup variations, feature chest-centric movements in broader full-body workouts to spread the workload, and if you feel like you're lagging, even ramp up the volume beyond the Monday standard with multiple sessions dedicated to chest in a week.

There's a whole treasure trove full of workouts and exercises to be uncovered to blast the chest that can sculpt your pecs and push your upper body training days to the next level. Just remember, if your goal is to build chest muscle, you should aim to work using the right protocols for hypertrophy , with the most efficient rep schemes and rest periods.

Likewise, you'll need to be eating right to gain muscle. Here are some of the best chest exercises to do just that. Choose two or three to work into your routine, and for best results, rotate in new movements every 3 or 4 weeks.

Just remember, there's nothing wrong with a big bench for your chest—as long as your workout doesn't start and end there. Sure, we just talked about branching out beyond the bench press. But you can't avoid the exercise if you're serious about training—or even if you just step foot into any typical strength facility in the world.

The move is standard for a reason: it works. Let's break it down with dumbbells for some variety. How to Do It:. One of the absolute go-to chest exercises, the chest fly is all about creating tension through the movement. Your goal is not to flap your arms like a bird to take flight, like the name suggests—squeezing is the name of the game here.

That means you'll probably use less weight than you might expect. You've done pushups a million times before, and if you want a well-rounded workout, you'll keep at it until you've done them a million more times.

You can't do a more basic exercise to train your chest, so make sure you're doing them properly. No bench? No problem. Take your dumbbell press to the floor for a shoulder-safe chest pump.

This is another excellent option for building up your chest with home workouts, since all you'll need are some weights and some space to spread out.

For a great warmup before a chest workout or a killer burnout to finish one, try out the band chest fly. The move isn't much different than its big brother, the cable fly more on that below or the dumbbell fly, but the use of exercise bands makes it more accessible, and potentially another exercise you can do at home.

It can also be programmed with a global lower and upper body pull exercise, such as a deadlift or bent over row. Take the bench fly, then add an idea from the floor press to hit your chest muscles in a shoulder-safe manner.

You'll also challenge your glutes and abs too, since you'll be challenged to hold a difficult position. If you've ever stepped foot in a commercial gym, you've probably encountered this machine.

Contrary to what you might have heard, machines can be great for your gains—it allows you to push your limits and train to fatigue without needing a spot—so learning the proper form is well-worth your time. Level up your basic pushup by leveling up.

By adding a deficit, you'll ramp up the difficulty and increase your range of motion, which will lead to more strength and muscle gains than the standard version of the pushup. Take a knee for some chest gains. The half-kneeling chest press also gives you the opportunity to hone your core while you're off-balance, offering even more benefits and making the exercise more realistic.

We're kind of off balance a little bit," said Men's Health fitness director Ebenezer Samuel, C. This is an upper body push exercise that targets the pectoralis major upper chest , clavicular, costal and sternal head, along with the anterior deltoids, triceps, biceps and serratus anterior.

This will essentially allow you to get a greater adaptational response with less weight than with the flat benchpress. I personally feel more muscle in the chest and less stress in the shoulder joint when I perform this exercise, in comparison to the flat bench.

Shannon recommends programming this as either a primary or accessory lift. The prescription all depends on the load, intensity and volume. But this variation puts more focus on your triceps, so you'll get the added bonus of extra work for the biggest muscles in your arms, too.

When it comes to working their pecs, most guys just press. Adding the fly to your routine gives your pecs and front deltoids a new stimulus. Target your lower chest and get some extra oblique work with this exercise that you can take on even if you don't have access to a cable machine.

This fly variation is just as effective using a resistance band anchored to a rack or some other sturdy point as it is with a cable machine. Use this as a chest day finishing move.

This explosive pushup nails the fast-twitch muscles in your chest, priming them for growth, said English. The movement also gives you another, more powerful option for at-home chest development.

The archer pushup is a super-tough bodyweight exercise variation that gives you a unilateral challenge, but the most notable part of this move is the positioning.