5 Tips For the Best Chest Workout

I think it would be fair to say that a well developed, muscular chest is longed for by a large majority of guys wanting to improve their technique.

How do you design the best chest workout? A great chest workout is the one which focuses on developiong good chest size and shape.

What are the fundamental Chest Exercises?

For overall chest development you need to do two kinds of movements - Presses and Flyes. Although these 2 movements are enough on their own for overall chest development, they have to be performed at various angles as the chest is a big muscle with many insertion points.

Below you will find a sample workout for beginners (for more advanced, see link to website at bottom of article)

Beginner Chest Workouts

Beginners should in the first place be trying to bulk up their chest size before trying to add definition etc later. So fairly heavy weights with the Bench Press, Incline Bench Press and Dumbbell Flyes should be the first priority.

 Sample Beginner Chest Workout

Workout # 1

1. Bench Press  -  Warm up with 2 sets of 15 reps each, 4 heavy sets of not more than 10,8,6 and 4 reps. Use the heaviest weight possible and someone to assist you (spotter)

2. Incline Bench Press - 3 Heavy sets of 8,6 and 4 reps

3. Dumbbells Flyes - 4 sets of 10,8,6 and 4 reps.

Workout # 2

Bench Press - 2 warm up sets, 5 heavy sets with 10,8,6,4 and 2 reps

Dumbbell Flyes  - 4 sets of 10,8,6 and 4 reps.

Pullovers - 3 sets of 10,8,6 reps.

Workout # 3

Bench Press - 2 warm up sets, 4 Heavy sets of 10,8,6 and 4 reps

Incline Bench Press - 4 heavy sets of10,8,6 and 4 reps

Machine Flyes - 4 sets of 10,8,6 and 4 reps

5 Tips For Every Chest Workout

1. Always warm up well

A good warm up with at least 2 light weight warm up sets will get you ready and pumped for the challenging workout ahead, sending blood to the chest area and preparing it for the oncoming assault.

2. Focus on increasing size first

In bodybuilding Size comes first. You can then worry about defining them later. The exercises for beginners above will help achieve this

3. Wide movement range

The greater the range of motion, the better the results. Dumbbell presses and Flyes are absolutely crucial for maximum growth.

4. Stretching the Chest Muscles between heavy training sets will help enormously. Never neglect the importance of this

5. Never perform triceps exercises before working your chest. Tired triceps will give up before chest muscles, therefore chest muscles will be not optimally trained.

By following this advice you will be well on your way to gaining an impressive chest. For more details and help with advanced workouts, see below.