Chest Routine

[bigjumper21]

What is a good, effective chest routine? Not something vague. # of reps, # of sets, even # of days to do it per week. I haven't been able to work out my chest for about 3 months due to my broken wrist, but its better now and i want to get rid of that flab and shit. its driving me crazy every time i look in the mirror. thanks a lot.

 

[supersizeme]

fix your diet to get rid of flab. otherwise you're just going to build more muscle beneath fat.

that said, to build up the muscle try

Workout 1
Incline DBs - 3 sets 10,8,6
Flat BB Bench - 3 sets 10,8,6
Cable Crossovers - 3 sets 10,8,6

Workout 2
Incline BB Bench - 3 sets 10,8,6
Flat DB Bench - 3 sets 10,8,6
Incline DB Flyes - 3 sets 10,8,6

alternate workout 1 and 2 each week. do this until you stop making progress, then find a new routine with a different rep/set schema

 

[bigjumper21]

also, what is a good way to build up the lower chest? thats where i seem to have the most problems.

 

[SoSadBtTrue]

I've been following HST for the past 4 weeks, and this has really helped my chest.

1 set of incline presses 3x per week.
1 set of decline presses 3x per week.

Start light so you can add weight every workout.

 

[bigjumper21]

what is HST?

 

[SoSadBtTrue]

Hypertrophy Specific Training

It's in the sticky up top. Great routine, in my opinion.

 

[majutsu]

Don't forget dips for the lower chest, or decline bench or dumbbells if you can't dip your body weight. I like flat bench 3 sets of 8, incline db 2 of 8, and weighted dips 2 of 10. for example. As to frequency, I do an hst kind of thing too, see the training methods sticky and the website link in the hst part.

 

[Buddy_Christ]

so decline bench and dips will work the lower chest? i've been wondering that, cause i really don't want my nipples to be pointing at the ground lol (yeah, even though i'm a guy, i still care about the placement of my nipples lol)

 

[Yarg!]

dips work wonders on your lowest chest man. also decline - everything that these guys have already said.

 

[majutsu]

What's funny is that bodybuilders talk about the upper, middle, and lower chest. So they do inclines for upper, flat for middle, and declines/dips for lower. However, anatomically, there are only two parts to the chest, upper and lower (sort of separated at the level of the coracoid process). Good bodybuilders (like Franco Columbo especially had this) have a nice crevice between the upper and lower pec. The pectoralis consists of the pectoralis major and pec. minor. However, the pec minor can't really be seen. The pec major has 2 parts visible, the upper part going from arm to clavicle, and a lower part, going from arm to sternum. See http://mywebpages.comcast.net/wnor/lesson2musofpectregion.htm for pictures. So when people talk about 3 areas of the chest, they are not real, just 3 "angles of fulness". So "upper" bulges up/lifts your chest, "middle" develops thickness, and "lower" boobs you up a little and enhances the anatomical split between upper and lower pec major. From what you said, you want to lift your chest, so inclines are good. It's best to do all 3 angles, say 1) bench or flat db, 2) incline db or barbells, and 3) dips/or decline dbs or barbells. I tend to emphasize inclines, because I like a really high, round chest. Also, I like Arnold, and he was said to do inclines until he could stand a beer glass on his pec! Good luck

 

[bigjumper21]

I'm more interested in the surfer-style flat chested look. So does this mean I should focus more on decline bench presses? What i want is for my outer and lower chest to look muscular, just to give me that "look." I suppose I should do incline, decline, flat, and flyes, but should I focus on any particular one? I'm not interested in being able to stand beer cans on my chest. Two more questions, what are dips? and is doing push-ups with your feet high up the same as doing decline bench presses and vice versa?

 

[Arnold'sApprentice]

this is dumb ass stuff.....fitness guys dont do different exercise to build a different type chest...they do the same exercises bb'ers they just don't lift as much weight and maintain once thet reach the desired size

 

[Tom Treutlein]

You don't need to do flies. I myself do them, but you don't need them. If you're hitting flat bench and inclined flies one day, then decline and incline bench another day you'll be fine. I workout my chest twice weekly. Monday, and Friday. Monday is flat bench press and inclined dumbbell flies. Friday is inclined and declined bench press.

Dips are when you have two parallel bars, just outside the width of your waist. You grip the bars, palms facing down, and dip down until your upper arm is parallel with the floor, then push your body back upward. Fun exercise.

Push-ups won't do a thing for you in terms of size. Don't bother with them. But, doing them like that will be more like an inclined press, I would think.

As for flies though, what does everyone here think about inclined over flat? Any reason? Or would flat be more efficient in terms of those?

 

[bigjumper21]

why don't i need flies? don't they work out your outer pecs? if they don't, whats an exercise that does?

 

[Tom Treutlein]

It's a psychological thing with people, I think. They feel they have to use the exercise because of the misconception that it will stimulate the non-existant "outer pecs". You can go ahead and do them, but they're not necessary for pectoral growth. Inclined and flat presses are all you need. Declined and flies are icing on the cake. I don't use dips (yet, no dip station) so I'm not mentioning them.

 

[bigjumper21]

if declined and flies are "icing on the cake" and are "not necesary for pectoral growth," then what do they do when you perform them?

 

[Tom Treutlein]

What do they do? They build muscle, but they're not necessary! Most people have inclined and/or flat bench presses as staples in their routine for their chest, and not flies or declines. You'll get the mass and strength from incline and flat presses.

 

[HodgeMN]

Flys just never did it for me. It seems the other muscles involved got tired long before my chest ever would. Why do them when you have flat/inclines/declines/dips and pullovers. Just an opinion from personal experience.