Chest muscles is one of the most important muscle groups in our body, and it is not surprising that many people are interested in how to pump up pectoral muscles.

The purpose of this article is to put together basic recommendations regarding chest training. And, in my opinion, it is important not only to describe the exercises, but also to understand how everything happens. What I mean: understand how the chest muscles grow and how long they need to recover, understand what their structure is and protect yourself from injury, understand how to change the load across the width of the chest in order to pump up the lagging parts.

Chest muscle recovery

It is no secret that the human body has excellent ability to adapt to stress. If it encounters impacts that exceed its capabilities, the process of adaptation is activated, the body improves its physiological capabilities to be ready for repeated impacts.

Our body has a very smart mechanism for reacting to external influences. If it is repeated, then it continues to “adapt” to the influence, but if the influence was one-time in nature and the expediency is not great, then the system returns to the previous state.

The magnitude of the force impact has great importance. Small impacts do not include the process of adaptation, since the body’s resources are completely sufficient to react to them. Too much exposure destroys our body, and when it cannot cope with a large volume of destructive factors, we get sick. In a painful state, we are no longer talking about improving the characteristics of the body; the body tries to preserve itself in all possible ways.

What's all this for? And besides, in any sport, one of the most important tasks– choose the right amount of load and recovery time.

Approximate time for complete recovery of the pectoral muscles, about 8-10 days. Also add a few days for extra adaptation. So, if you are training drug-free, there is no point in doing heavy chest training more often than once every 10-14 days. You will have to choose your own recovery interval yourself. The main criterion is this: if you choose the right recovery time, then in the next workout you will be able to do more repetitions or increase the weight in your exercise - increase your load. This principle is called principle of load progression. This is one of the most important principles in strength training.

If you increase your performance (weight per exercise or number of repetitions) at every hard workout, it means you have chosen the recovery period well for yourself. If you cannot increase your performance from workout to workout, then your body is not recovering.

Fashionable programs for pumping up the chest with chest workouts 1-2 times a week are designed for serious pharmaceutical support.

Approximate recovery time is 10-14 days. You will have to choose your personal recovery time individually.

The structure of the chest muscles

Why is it important to understand anatomy first? This is necessary in order to understand how the muscle works and what needs to be done to load it. This will also help you see weak spots and prevent injuries.

The pectoralis major muscle (what we basically mean by chest muscles) is attached to the humerus on one side, and at three different angles on the other: from above to the collarbone - a green stripe, further to the sternum - a pink stripe and from below to the cartilage of the upper ribs - yellow stripe.

This is very important to understand, because it means that to fully train the chest, you need to use several angles of force application in order to pump up all three parts.

Sometimes the part of the pectoralis major muscle that is attached to the collarbone is called the upper chest, and the part attached to the sternum is the lower chest. The chest can also be divided into 3 parts - lower, middle and upper.

The attachment of the anterior deltoid muscle to the clavicle is marked in blue.

The main function of the pectoralis major muscle is to bring the arm to the body, the additional function is to rotate it inward.

As we can see, the contraction of the pectoral muscle is ensured by the mobility of the shoulder joint and it is on it that most of the load falls. Therefore, you should treat it very carefully and stop the exercise at the slightest pain in the shoulder joint. Pain indicates overload of the joint and possibly incorrect biomechanics of movement. If you feel pain, you should definitely think about what you are doing wrong, take a break from the exercises until the joint is completely restored and in the future correct the technique with lighter weights, choose the optimal angles in the position of the elbows, etc.

What conclusions can be drawn?

  1. The upper and lower pectoral muscles require different angles of force application.
  2. The upper part cannot be engaged in isolation from the anterior deltoid. Both of these muscles attach to the collarbone, and in either case the anterior deltoid will be involved.
  3. You can also divide the chest into three parts - lower, middle and upper according to the type of attachment to the body.

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How to pump up your pectoral muscles. Exercises for the chest muscles.

There are various exercises for chest training, here are the main ones. Exercises can be divided into two groups: basic and formative. Basic - increase volume, formative - give shape.

Basic exercises:

  1. Bench press lying on a horizontal bench. This is a basic free weight exercise that develops strength and increases the mass of the pectoral muscles. The main load falls on the pectoralis major muscle, less load on the triceps and the front of the deltoids. Recommended.
  2. Incline Barbell Press . The angle of inclination shifts the load onto the front deltoid; the greater the angle, the more it turns on. The angle of inclination can vary from 20 to 50 degrees, while the emphasis of the load will shift. This exercise uses fairly large weights, although they are smaller than in the previous exercise, they are quite sufficient for high-quality chest work. This exercise develops the less developed upper chest. Recommended.
  3. Bench press with a negative incline. Focuses attention on the lower chest. In most people, the lower region itself is more developed. It’s worth doing if your triceps work great in the power bench press, but your chest lags behind and you have problems in the lower part of the amplitude. Recommended only to those who know why they need it.
  4. The same exercises, but with dumbbells . Good exercise for volume and good breast shape. The main difference in exercises with dumbbells is that the weight is looser. Movements with dumbbells force more stabilizer muscles to engage. Also, the main nuance in the dumbbell press is stretching in the final phase. The increased range of motion and the need to include stabilizers does not allow you to take the same weight as with a barbell bench press. The weights in this exercise will always be lower. But this does not mean that the effect will be less. It is recommended to alternate barbell and dumbbell presses.
  5. Dumbbell flyes . Applies to both isolation and basic exercises. The basic ones include flyes with heavy dumbbells. The exercise gives the breasts a convex shape and promotes separation between the right and left breasts. Recommended.
  6. Dips . A basic exercise that focuses on the lower chest. An important note is to spread your elbows to the sides and tilt your body forward - to maximize the inclusion of your pecs, or press your elbows into your torso and keep your body straight - emphasis on the triceps. If you do only this exercise to train your chest, you can get an imbalance between the upper and lower pectoral muscles, in which you will have a good bottom and a very lagging top.

The key to successful training is a healthy heart, and take care of it.

Formative exercises:

  1. Crossover . In the first years of training, you do not need this exercise, in principle, like all the other exercises on this list. At the initial stage, you should concentrate on basic exercises. No isolation.
  2. Smith machine press . The same barbell press, but excluding the work of stabilizer muscles.
  3. Reduction of arms in the simulator . An isolation exercise similar to dumbbell flyes, but without the inclusion of stabilizer muscles.

Now, understanding the anatomy of the pectoral muscles and knowing the basic exercises for developing the chest, we can consider some of the nuances in the biomechanics of movements during the development of the pectoral muscles. The most obvious and simple way to look at this is to look at the bench press technique.

Pump up the pectoral muscles: nuances in pumping up the chest

When performing basic exercises to train the chest, the triceps will be included in any case. As mentioned earlier, heavy chest training should not be performed more than once every 10-14 days. But you can and simply must maintain your muscles with light workouts. Therefore, you can do the following: do one heavy workout for the chest (it will also be light for the triceps), the next time - a heavy workout for the triceps (it will also be light for the chest). This way, you will maintain muscle tone during light workouts and achieve over-adaptation during hard workouts. Make sure to increase the load on heavy workouts - this sure sign progress. Progression of loads will force the body to turn on hypertrophy in any case.

The number of working approaches to the chest is from 3 to 5. The number of warm-up exercises is any that brings you to full performance. You need to be very careful when increasing the number of working approaches. If you have less than one year of training experience, you should not do more than 3 working approaches. The higher your training experience, the more working approaches you can afford. Why? This can lead to overtraining and slower progress.

The number of repetitions is from 6 to 12. A smaller amount develops strength, a larger amount develops muscle endurance.

Pump up the pectoral muscles: nuances in exercises for the chest muscles

To summarize, anatomically, everything basic exercises for the chest - these are presses. Either you push the weight away from you, or you push yourself (bars or push-ups).

Therefore, to simplify the task, we will analyze the bench press, but the basic principles can be applied to any other presses.

Why is it important to understand these nuances?

Firstly, it avoids injury. And this is generally your main task! Over time, you will be able to develop muscles to the volume you need, and it doesn’t matter so much whether it’s fast or not. The main thing is that you do not stumble upon an injury that can throw you away from your hopes and ambitions once and for all.

Secondly, it allows you to load what you need. You can pump your chest for a long time and instead get good triceps and anterior deltoids.

It doesn’t matter whether you are progressing quickly or not, the main thing is what you do to achieve your goal.

The influence of body tilt on the displacement of load along the length of muscles

Allows you to shift the load along the length of the chest - lower, middle and upper. The bench press and dips on the uneven bars practically do not develop top part chest exercises, so you should also include barbell or dumbbell presses in a positive incline in your program.

Example: positive incline press - top of the chest, bench press - middle of the chest, negative incline press - bottom of the chest.

The influence of the position of the elbows on the displacement of the load along the width of the muscles

The position of the elbows shifts the load from the triceps to the chest. If you press your elbows to your body, the load on the triceps is maximum. If you spread your elbows to the sides to an angle close to 90 degrees, then the load on the chest is maximum. An angle of 45 degrees is used to apply maximum force.

To summarize:

  • elbows spread to the sides - emphasis on the chest
  • elbows at 45 degrees - maximum strength
  • elbows pressed to the body - emphasis on triceps

Poor elbow and torso angle- may cause too much stress on the joint. Your personal anatomy may differ slightly from the standards. Therefore, when selecting the angle between the elbows and the torso, these differences must also be taken into account. Some angles can cause joint pain. Any pain in the joint is a signal that this variation of the exercise is not suitable for you and something needs to be changed.

Grip width

Allows you to shift the load across the width of the chest - external, middle and internal. The narrower the grip, the more the triceps are activated, so the width needs to be selected so that the load does not leave the chest, but a grip that is too wide can be too uncomfortable. They generally use a grip slightly wider than shoulder width.

Example: narrow grip for triceps and wide grip for chest.

Other nuances in exercises for the chest muscles

Bar grip

  • asymmetrical about the center— leads to skew, in which the bar is squeezed out unevenly ;
  • without a lock - can lead to the fact that the barbell can simply fall on your chest at one moment, very dangerous

Straightening the elbows in the final phase.

If you are preparing for a competition, then without straightening your elbows at the end point, the exercise will simply not be counted for you, but if you have other goals, then it is better not to straighten your elbows to the end. Why? Straightening your elbows at the end of a repetition is traumatic for your joints.

On the other hand, when you straighten your elbows, you partially relax your chest and allow blood to circulate, which takes pressure off your heart. You just need to know this. On one side of the scale is pumping – on the other is the health of your heart.

Bench press bridge

Allows you to squeeze out more weight in the exercise and removes the load from your chest.

Separation of heels and pelvis.

Like a bridge, allows you to squeeze more weight, but removes the load from the chest.

Relaxing the back muscles- may cause injury. Keep your back muscles engaged to protect yourself.

Forearms are parallel to the floor at the end point of the press.

Leg position

By leaning on your legs you can maintain balance, which is important when bench pressing a heavy barbell. Also, if the position is incorrect, you can lose your balance when pressing dumbbells, you may simply be thrown back. When doing flyes with dumbbells, you can place your legs on a bench, this will allow you to place more emphasis on your chest.

The important thing to know is that by using your legs, you will be able to press more weight, but will take the pressure off your pecs. Leg work is one of the tools in your arsenal that allows you to engage more muscles, but the more muscles we engage, the smaller percentage of the work falls on the chest.

By raising your feet on the bench, you make the work more difficult for the chest.

How the same exercise can be harder and easier

The “tricks” described above are your tools in working with the pectoral muscles. Knowing them, you can make the same weight work easier or harder.

And then - do what you want. If you want to bench more, reduce the load on your chest, bridge, use elbow position for maximum strength, work your legs and use all the tricks to achieve maximum strength.

If you want more chest volume, increase the load on the target muscle. Do everything the same, but vice versa - don’t bridge, don’t use your legs and use your chest as much as possible, minimize the work of your triceps and deltoids.

Beautifully sculpted muscles of the shoulder girdle make the figure slim and athletic. Many girls strive for this. What exercises are needed to achieve the goal and how quickly can you expect results?

In order to pump up your breasts at home, you need to use, first of all, strength training for girls and women.

To get the desired proportions, you need to train regularly, while following the necessary recommendations.

It is a combination of muscle and glandular tissue. The pectoralis major and minor, serratus anterior, and subclavian muscles are the target group that will need to be worked with. The major and minor muscles consist of muscle fibers located in different directions. By working them, you can ensure that the muscles become prominent, and the mammary glands rise and become more elastic. find out here.

The anatomical structure is clearly visible in this atlas:

We perform twelve repetitions in several approaches for an advanced level. For beginners, we start with seven exercises. Don’t forget to relax your muscles between approaches – up to one minute. Is it possible to build muscle with just your own weight? Definitely yes, unless you are able to perform 4 sets of 12 reps with perfect technique. In this case, weights will be needed.

2. Bench press on a horizontal bench

The dumbbell press allows you to use more muscles than the bar press, since you have to control the position of your arms relative to each other. This is one of the best of its kind. A horizontal gymnastic bench, which allows you to change the angle of inclination, helps to work out different parts of the pectoral muscles - upper, middle and lower. In a horizontal position, the middle part receives the greatest load.

4 myths about the influence of the Bench Press on female breast find it here.

  1. We sit on a bench, holding dumbbells in the chest area.
  2. We squeeze the dumbbell or barbell up; you don’t need to fully straighten your elbows.
  3. Hands at maximum point parallel to each other.

We perform twelve repetitions in several approaches.

3. Positive Angle Press

An excellent exercise for pumping up and enlarging the upper pectoral muscles.

  1. We lie on a bench, dumbbells are in the chest area.
  2. We place our feet on the floor, as in the previous version. Squeeze the weights up
  3. The dumbbells are not brought together at their maximum point - there should be such a distance between them that the arms are parallel.

We perform as many repetitions as possible.

4. Head down press

We perform the reverse incline press by lowering the corner of the bench. We pump the lower part of the target muscles.

  1. We lie down on a bench, dumbbells above our chests.
  2. We place our legs, bent at the knee, with the entire area of ​​the foot firmly on the edge of the bench or on a stand.
  3. Press the dumbbell or barbell up. Controlling the position of the hands: parallel to the floor.

We perform ten to twelve repetitions in several approaches.

5. Dumbbell flyes lying on an incline bench

Experienced trainers advise choosing the angle of inclination individually for each person - about thirty-five degrees. Dumbbell flyes while lying down help pump up different areas of the pectoral muscles. By changing the angle of inclination, you can work out the lower, middle and upper parts of the body. This movement is great.

  1. Lying on a horizontal bench, place dumbbells in the middle part of the chest.
  2. The entire area of ​​the foot rests on the floor.
  3. Raise the dumbbells up and spread your arms to the sides. Slightly bent Elbows should be pointing down. This is important for comfortable performance of the exercise.
  4. We pay attention to how the pectoral muscles stretch

We start by using the minimum weight. Remember that weight can be adjusted not only towards increase, but also towards reduction. Muscle relaxation time between approaches is up to one minute. We add the number of approaches gradually, focusing on your condition.

Carefully! If you overdo it, you can “rip off” your shoulder. Add load gradually.

6. Pullover

We pump up the pectoralis major, serratus anterior muscles, and triceps.

The exercise is popular because it can help you effectively work out the target muscles.

  1. It is performed lying down with the upper back across the bench. We put our feet on the floor, there should be a right angle at the knees.
  2. We hold the dumbbell bar in the lower chest area with both hands.
  3. We lower our hands with the dumbbell behind our heads and slowly raise them.

For beginners, we start with seven repetitions.

7. Downward Facing Dog

from eastern practice. Excellent for stretching muscles and developing joints.

  1. We become a “bridge”, resting on the palms of our feet.
  2. Fully straighten your knees, press your feet to the floor with their entire area: You can’t stand on your toes.
  3. We stretch our tailbone up and our palms forward. Hold the resulting triangle for one minute.

We repeat three times.

8. “Upward Facing Dog”

We stretch the muscles, develop joints, and train the flexibility of the spine.

  1. We lie on our stomachs, arms bent at the elbows, palms resting on the floor.
  2. Bringing your shoulder blades together, gradually straighten your shoulders, straighten your arms, and smoothly bend your back.

We repeat too three times.

When performing strength exercises, you need to remember the following recommendations:

  • The importance of warming up. Start off power training you need a quality warm-up to warm up the muscles of the shoulder girdle. Starting to use weights without warming up can result in serious injury.
  • How to warm up. Some trainers recommend training with minimal weights as a warm-up. You can use push-ups when doing this - the main thing is not only to warm up the muscles, but also to save strength for the main loads.
  • Relaxation between sets. Between approaches, you need to give the muscles time to relax for about one minute. At this time, you can change your body position or walk around.
  • We always do effort (presses, push-ups, flyes) while exhaling, and relaxation while inhaling. At first you need to constantly focus on this, and in subsequent stages it should be done automatically.
  • You can perform the entire complex, and also choose from it the exercises that are most suitable for you. Alternate and change loads if necessary. The main thing is that the target muscles are worked.
  • Temporary training regimen. In order to allow muscles to increase in volume and recover, they need to be given rest. Therefore, the optimal training regimen is considered to be every other day.
  • The importance of proper nutrition. Training requires a lot of energy and strength. To replenish them, do not forget about the correct and good nutrition. The menu should be balanced in terms of protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals.
Important! Drink enough water. The body should not feel thirsty. A bottle of water should always be on hand.

11 more methods for tightening the décolleté area

Only systems approach will give a lasting result in the form of a beautiful bust. Check out the following proven ways to combat sagging breasts:

  1. And . Proper nutrition– the key to healthy and beautiful skin. The thoughtless use of various diets can worsen appearance and skin condition. Flabbiness, age spots, dryness, redness may be a sign that we are not getting the necessary nutrients from food.
  2. Supports the bust in the correct position, prevents it from sagging and the skin from stretching. A properly selected bra creates a beautiful, slender and attractive female silhouette.
  3. And . Saturate the skin with beneficial substances. Creams that contain various natural ingredients will help moisturize the skin, increase its elasticity, and cope with sagging and uneven pigmentation. It is better to use various pharmaceutical products, as well as products prepared at home, in courses, and then take a break.
  4. The basis of masks can be a wide variety of substances that tighten the skin, fight its sagging, tone and moisturize. For their components, fermented milk products, fruit and berry purees are used, vegetable oils. Course use of masks is much more useful than constant use
  5. The skin of the bust is delicate and needs constant care. For wraps, various compositions are used to exfoliate, nourish and moisturize the skin. Due to the thermal effect, their effect increases. They are carried out in courses of an average of ten procedures.
  6. Minimum gymnastic exercises It is recommended to do this constantly. This will help keep the muscle corset in good shape, form ideal posture and self-confidence. Gymnastics can also be used as a method of preventing bust sagging.
  7. Cold and hot shower. The procedure is easy to perform and pleasant, rejuvenates, tightens the skin, and removes sagging. Perform douches, alternating hot and cold water. You need to get used to the procedure gradually, starting with a small temperature difference. It is advisable to first apply just cool water to the chest area, alternating it with warm water. After a few days of such procedures, cool water can be gradually replaced with colder water. Exposure to cold should last half as long as exposure to heat. Contrast dousing must be completed with cold.

A man’s powerful pectoral muscles are a real sight for sore eyes for a woman; they look impressive regardless of whether they are covered with clothes or not. Of course, you need to work on beautiful, powerful breasts, then women will truly appreciate your work and you will feel more confident.


Modern men often do not have enough time to visit the gym, but this is not a reason to sit idly by. Pump up your pectoral muscles at home perhaps the main thing is the right approach. What should it be like? Let's take a closer look.

The pectoral muscles are involved in many movements of a man. This is the so-called muscular support of the arms, so the strength of the arms lies, among other things, in the effectiveness of the pectoral muscles. When extending your arms directly in front of you (in fact, when hitting straight), the pectoral muscles do exactly half the work, the triceps add 30 percent, 20 percent deltoids. The pectoral muscles are also used during other strength exercises: pull-ups and flips on the bar, push-ups, push-ups. Those. The chest muscles are one of the most important muscles in a man. Therefore, you need to approach their development correctly.

First, a little theory about the pectoral muscles

The pectoral muscle in a man is quite wide, it is distributed across large area, and, accordingly, we need to work on strengthening it different ways. There are several types of exercises for each area of ​​the pectoral muscles. Very often, a man who is just starting to exercise has unevenly developed chest muscles.

Many people have a “dip” in the center of the sternum, where the muscles are least developed, while on the sides, in the shoulder area, they are well developed. This can be explained by the fact that in Everyday life men do not load the internal areas of the chest muscles, and to develop them you need to do strength exercises with a special grip.

Let's take a closer look at a set of exercises to strengthen the pectoral muscles at home. By following these rules, you can significantly improve the beauty of your chest.

There are several basic rules for pumping up the pectoral muscles, which you should familiarize yourself with before starting the exercises.

How to pump up pectoral muscles at home - rules

Regarding the number of approaches and repetitions, in practice it has been found that for maximum results you need to do 4 sets of 7-12 repetitions with regular training.

As they say, half the work is done. Some gym goers have trouble pump up your chest precisely because this muscle segment is chronically lagging behind. But to find breasts muscle mass, has become truly powerful, beautiful and balanced, it still needs to be given width and worked out in the middle. It is these aspects of building the pectoral muscles that I will talk about in this part of my article.

How to make your chest wider

And in this case I was unlucky again. By nature I am tall, skinny, but quite broad-shouldered, and my chest is also wide. On the one hand, this is certainly not bad, but on the other...

All my attempts pump up your chest were struck by the problem of insufficient development of the contours of this muscle group. Apart from the top of the chest, I found it very difficult to delineate the outer outline of the chest. I for a long time I couldn’t give it a finished look and pack the naturally wide chest I inherited into the armor of perfectly shaped muscles. I suffered especially hard with the bottom of the chest; I could not stretch it across its entire width and close its outer borders, make a clear cut, resting, as it should, on the serratus muscles.

But, since I have always been theoretically savvy, the answer to the question is: in width, I knew perfectly well. Of course, a pullover. Thanks to this exercise, as all the books of grandfather Joe Weider claimed, the great Arnold Schwarzenegger pumped his chest to unimaginable sizes. And I included this exercise in my training program.

Years have passed since then, but I still see people in the gym trying to do something with their pectoral muscles using a pullover.

Exactly, something, because expanding, let alone pumping up, your chest with a pullover on a horizontal bench will not work. And there are three reasons for this:

REASON 1 | The width of the chest, just like the width of the shoulders, is a matter of genetic potential, and nothing more. If the chest is naturally narrow, it will not be possible to expand it. The most striking example of this is Phil Heath, seven-time Mr. Olympia. The insufficient width of his chest is especially noticeable against the backdrop of his gigantic arms. But, as we know, this unfortunate miscalculation of nature did not prevent him from gaining muscle mass and becoming the best bodybuilder on the planet six times. A natural question arises: “Why then bother with the width of the chest?”

REASON 2 | The impression of simplicity and ease of making a pullover is very deceptive. This is a rather difficult and traumatic exercise. At least some stretching effect from its use can be obtained only by working with a heavy dumbbell. But the more weight a gym goer uses, the more discomfort he feels from the pullover. The shoulder and elbow joints receive an unusual and very noticeable load. If you replace a heavy dumbbell with a lighter one, then the theoretically possible effect of doing a pullover will simply disappear.

REASON 3 | But, if you still believe that with the help of a pullover you can expand your chest, then this exercise must be done by combining it into a superset with deep squats. Moreover, in this duet of exercises, first 10–15 slow squats are performed, and then the pullover itself. The idea behind this combination is this: the first, heavy exercise with a barbell fills the lungs with oxygen and momentarily increases the volume of the chest. The pullover, performed second, stretches the air-filled chest in width.

Unfortunately, I was not able to get any tangible dividends from doing a pullover on a horizontal bench. Pump up your chest, or at least improve its shape, I couldn’t use it. But when I started doing the pullover exercise on a bench with a reverse incline, I felt its charm in all its glory.

When I stopped fooling myself with the old advice of Joe Weider and approached building a wide chest from a practical side, it turned out that the solution to this problem had been in front of my eyes all along. It’s just that the mind, clouded by the training programs of bodybuilding stars, refused to accept it.

But one day I realized that I feel the maximum stretch in my pectoral muscles during dumbbell bench presses. Moreover, the lower I lower my arms, the more they stretch. How simple it is, right?

So I adjusted my dumbbell press technique and ended up with a great exercise that works my chest at the same time. gain muscle mass and stretch it across the width. I have already described the technique of performing the dumbbell press in more detail; I will not repeat it. I advise you to read it.

But one little secret trick that I spied on one of the famous bodybuilders helped me make my chest really wide. And it consists of using a super-innovative device called a gymnastic mat when doing dumbbell presses. It was a joke, but seriously, it all looks extremely simple, but extremely effective:

I take a rubber exercise mat and roll it up repeatedly until it becomes a flat but tall bundle that fits between my shoulder blades. And during the bench press with dumbbells, I place it on the bench, and then lie on top.

Thus, already at the start of the exercise, my chest is in a more stretched position than usual, since the body, lying on a rolled up rubber mat, is raised upward. Humanly speaking, I artificially lengthen the trajectory of movement to the height of the convolution.

This may seem like absolute bullshit until you try it yourself. An additional 5–6 cm of height from a rolled-up mat causes the pectoral muscles to involuntarily stretch across the width and reluctantly acquire an ideal shape.

In addition to horizontal pressing, I periodically use this secret mat in all dumbbell and machine pressing movements to lengthen the trajectory of the movement and force the chest muscles to stretch further. Thus, the only exercise that I use to specifically gain muscle mass and expand the chest was and remains the dumbbell press on a horizontal bench.

How to outline the bottom of the chest

I also managed to solve the problem of giving the correct shape to the lower segment of the pectoral muscles, although it took a lot of time. Three great chest exercises helped me with this:

Dumbbell upside down press

In my opinion, this exercise will give a head start to any others, since it allows you to direct the load exactly to the target and at the same time not so much increases the muscle mass of the lower pectoral muscles as stretches it in width.

The conclusion suggests itself, if you want gain muscle mass and pump up your chest - forget about the barbell, press dumbbells!

Dips

It's as old as time, but still effective exercise, unfortunately, I don’t use it as often as I would like. Having suffered an elbow injury many years ago, I have to be extremely careful in exercises that put a lot of stress on my elbows. But if you don’t have such a problem, you should definitely include dips in your pectoral muscle training program.

Thanks to technological progress, this movement in many gyms can be performed not on ordinary “old-school” parallel bars, but in a more comfortable and modern gravitron simulator. But execution efficiency chest exercises for mass this does not reduce it. On the contrary, thanks to the fixation of the body, when performing push-ups in the gravitron, you can focus on working exclusively in the lower phase of the movement, which stretches the pectoral muscles the most.

Bringing your arms together under your chest in a standing crossover

But in this exercise, I come off 100%. I love this machine and consider it the best for targeted work on individual parts of the pectoral muscles. In a crossover, you can work equally well on the top, middle, and bottom of the pectoral muscles. The main thing is to understand how to direct the load exactly to the right place.

When I try pump up your chest and I’m working specifically on the formation of the lower section, I do the information in the crossover exactly as shown in the picture: I stand exactly in the plane of the simulator, without bending over, and bring my arms exclusively under my chest.

My chest training program for mass, with an emphasis on the lower segment:

Exercises Approaches Repetitions
Dumbbell Recline Press 5-6 10-12
dips 3-4 12-14
bringing together the upper blocks while standing crossover under the chest 3-4 10-12

Conclusion: in order to give the pectoral muscles an ideal shape, you need to include exercises aimed at developing the lower segment in your chest training complex.

How to pump up the middle of the chest

In my opinion, this muscle section is the easiest and fastest to build. The muscles in the middle of the chest are small in size and quickly respond to load, since in ordinary life they practically do not work. And besides, the developed middle of the chest adds width and power to it. All professional bodybuilders know this, so they work this part of the pectoral muscles almost as actively as the upper segment.

There are few exercises for pumping up the middle of the chest; they are all similar and use the same principle - bringing the arms together in front of the chest. The most effective in this case will be bringing your arms together in a butterfly simulator or in a crossover. At the initial stage of working on the middle of the chest, these two exercises will be quite enough.

But after a while this was not enough for me, and I found two more excellent exercises for developing the muscles in the middle of the chest. They not only help gain weight, but also force the muscles to work in an unusual, stressful way, giving the breasts a more refined outline.

Reduction of arms in a lying crossover

I haven’t done classic dumbbell flyes for the chest for a long time, because this exercise, in my opinion, is much more effective. Due to the fact that the force vector in this movement is not directed downward, as in the case of dumbbells, but along an arc, the load on the chest muscles is maintained throughout the entire trajectory of movement. Pump up your chest and adding muscle mass to her with this exercise becomes much easier.

But that's not the point. I'm in Once again modified habitual exercise, added a little zest and increased its effectiveness specifically for the middle of the chest. And the whole trick is that in the upper part of the trajectory, when the handles of the lower cables are already touching in front of the chest, I turn my hands from a parallel position into one line and bring them behind each other. The load on the middle of the chest increases many times and becomes peak.

Dumbbell press with a narrow parallel grip

Unfortunately, I just recently started doing this exercise, having once again picked it up from the inventor Charles Glass. A very unusual, slightly difficult, but quite effective exercise. In addition to the fact that this modification of the press allows gain muscle mass middle of the chest, it also actively affects the upper segment of the pectoral muscles if performed on an inclined bench.

And in order not to waste your attention on a description of the technique for performing it, I suggest watching the video. This is Shawn Rhoden training 4 days before his performance at the 2016 Mr. Olympia competition:

My chest training program with emphasis on the middle segment:

Sometimes I get bored of training my pecs the old fashioned way, doing one exercise after another. That's why I do a chest shock workout, breaking the usual set of exercises into several supersets, combining two exercises into them.

But I select them with meaning, so that the first movement is stretching, the second, on the contrary, contracting. For example, I combine a dumbbell press on an incline bench with a crossover while lying down, and a bench press on a free-weight machine with a butterfly. I combine dips on the uneven bars again with a crossover, but I’m working exclusively on the lower pecs. There can be many similar options, the main thing is to follow correct technique execution in each of them.

I hope that after reading my long story, you will find the answer to the question of how to pump up your breasts and become one step closer to creating an ideal body. May the force be with you. And mass.

You can pump up your chest muscles without leaving the TV. If you follow the recommended number of repetitions, accurately perform the techniques, and exercise regimen, it is not difficult to achieve excellent results.

4 versions of chest push-ups

Exercises work the thoracic region, triceps muscles of the arms, abdominal Press, back, help build strength. Do them at home so that the pectoral muscle workout for men is the most complete and brings positive results in the form of enlarged pectoral muscles.

Below is how you can pump up your breasts using different types.

No. 1. Basic option:

  1. We perform a stand with emphasis on straight arms and toes.
  2. The head, pelvis, and spine form a straight line. The stomach is tense.
  3. Bend your elbows and slowly lower yourself down.
  4. Using our hands, we raise the body to the starting position, at “1, 2, 3” we strain the chest muscles, and lower ourselves again.

Exercise No. 2. The load depends on the position of the hands. If in the classic pose the hands are shoulder-width apart, in the variant with a narrow push-up fingers touch.

  1. As we lower our body while exhaling, we touch them with our chest.
  2. We stay static for 2 seconds and rise.

Exercise No. 3. Incline push-ups pump up the anterior muscle. The goal is to raise your legs higher than your body.

  1. Hands are placed on the floor, legs are placed on a support.
  2. From the starting position we lower ourselves down, hold in the position for 3 seconds, and return back.

Exercise No. 4. From a stand on straight legs, we drop to our knees. We perform classic push-ups.

  1. Lying down, as in a classic push-up
  2. Instead of toes, we kneel
  3. We lower ourselves by bending our elbows and rise to the starting position


Number of repetitions the same for all options - from 12 times for 4 sets.

Read also, training other muscles:

How pump up your shoulders to a man at home, written
Exercises at home for legs, article available
Complete full body workout
How to do press your dreams, fulfilling simple exercises,
Training program for a week for men, available

Exercises with available equipment

To thoroughly pump up the serratus and minor muscles, place 2 stacks of 8 medium-thick books under both hands and perform push ups How on stops.

  1. Slowly lower the body, hover above the floor for a few seconds, and return to the starting position.
  2. During the process we feel a deep stretch thoracic(10 times in 4 sets).


We train the deltoid and pectoral muscles.

  1. We place 2 chairs with their backs at a distance of about 50 cm.
  2. Leaning on our backs, we stand upright while lying down. If your biceps are strong, the task can be made more difficult. Instead of lower support, we place our legs on the sofa.
  3. With bent elbows, we try to go as low as possible to the floor.
  4. At the bottom point, pause for 3 seconds and return to the starting position (7 repetitions of 3 sets).

Sliding hands strengthens the thoracic region.

  1. We throw 2 towels on the floor.
  2. We stand in a basic stance, placing our palms on the canvas.
  3. We move and move them apart (12 times, 3 approaches).

We take dumbbells

We perform exercises with dumbbells for the pectoral muscles

  1. We lie down on our backs.
  2. As you exhale, raise your arms with weights above your head, palms forward.
  3. As you inhale, gently place your elbows on the floor.
  4. To maximally work the serratus, anterior, and minor muscles, when lowering your arms, spread your elbows wider (13 times, 2 sets).


We change tactics.

  1. We spread our arms to the sides, connecting the dumbbells in the center of the chest.
  2. We don’t touch the floor with our elbows. Repeat 15 times in 4 approaches.

Weight depends on preparation. First, we take a load of 2 kg. We increase the load as we get used to it - after about 10 days. Strength exercises are always performed after warming up. If there is discomfort or insufficient tension, the number of repetitions and weight are adjusted according to sensations.


At the end we perform isometric training.
  1. We sit down on the sofa.
  2. With straight elbows, we connect the hands into a pyramid at the level of the heart.
  3. Squeeze your palms with all your might for about 1 minute.
  4. Rest for 30 seconds, repeat 3 more times.