Building a strong chest muscle group is important because it will improve the way that your body move during daily activities, as well as with your shoulders providing stability. Building strength within the chest will also help you to generate power with your upper body movements. Furthermore, using a training chart will help you build strength in your chest because it will show you the different muscle group that you are targeting within your upper body, as well as provide you with information regarding the best exercise tools for each portion of your chest muscle group.
Using a training chart will eliminate the guesswork in relation to which upper body exercise to perform. The pectoralis major is the main chest muscle group, and consist of three different portions. The upper fibers of the muscle originate near the collarbone, the middle portion of the muscle group is located along the breastbone, and the lower portion of the muscle group originate near the lower ribs.
How to Train Your Chest Muscles
The pectoralis minor is a smaller muscle group that is located beneath the pectoralis major muscle. The pectoralis minor muscles has the job of providing stability to the shoulder blade. Understanding the different regions of the pectoralis major muscle will allow you to effectively train each portion of your chest.
Most chest training programs perform flat pressing exercises as a component because flat pressing exercises will load the largest portion of the chest muscle group. Examples of exercises that can be utilized include the barbell bench press exercise, which allows heavy loads to be placed onto the chest muscle; dumbbell bench presses, which allow for a deeper range of motion for the chest at the bottom of the movement, as well as forcing each side of the body to work independently; and close-grip bench exercises that target the triceps and the inner portion of the chest; and finally, exercise machines, which can be beneficial if you are performing an exercise for the first time, or if you are performing sets close to failure without the spotter from another individual. Because the upper portion of the chest is often underdeveloped relative to the lower and middle portions of the chest muscle groups, most training programs incorporate incline exercises to allow for the development of the upper portion of the chest muscle group.
By inclining the bench exercise to an angle of thirty to forty-five degrees, the upper clavicular portion of the pec minor muscle groups is activated. Exercises that use incline benches with either barbells or dumb bells are performed to target the upper portion of the chest; low-to-high cable exercises are performed to target the upper portion of the chest even when the arms are fully extended. These incline exercises will provide the chest with full muscular development along the upper portion of the chest near the collarbones.
Most individuals target the lower portion of the chest in relation to both its functional and aesthetic roles in the body, but it receives less attention during their strength training programs. Decline exercises and dips target the costal portion of the pec muscle. By performing bench exercises where the body is positioned head down inclines to an incline bench will reduce the activation of the front deltoid muscles; reducing the activation of these muscles allows for more focus on developing the lower portion of the chest muscle group.
Chest dips with a forward lean have a similar effect but utilize only your bodys weight. Alternativly, you can wear a weight belt to dip exercises to turn dip exercises into a strength builder. Isolation exercises will complete your chest training routine because isolation exercises emphasize the stretch and squeeze phases of the movement.
While compound exercises may often neglect these phases, isolation exercises such as cable crossovers, pec deck exercises, and dumbbell fly exercises work to maintain muscle tension over a longer range of motion. Because isolation exercises remove the momentum created by the bodys movement and eliminate the need for stabilizers, these exercises are best used as the finisher of your workout routine or as part of supersets. For supersets, you could perform a heavy bench press exercise followed by a set of dumbbell flies to work the pec major muscle groups.
Proper form is critical when performing bench press exercises because good form will protect your joints and ensure your muscles is the primary focus of the exercise. Your base should be stable, meaning your feet should be planted to the floor and your shoulder blades pulled back and down to the bench. This position will protect your shoulder joint and reduce the distance that your bar must travel to complete the exercise.
Your elbow should be at between a forty-five and seventy-five degree angle from your torso. Flaring your elbows out to the side will place additional strain on your shoulder. A slight arch in your lower back is natural, but your chest must be arch in order for your bar to rest on your lower sternum before you push the bar upward and slightly backward.
Recovery and progression are essential to seeing long-term results from your bench press exercises. You should train your chest twice a week with at least forty-eight hours between sessions to allow your chest muscle to recover and grow. One session can use heavier weights and a rep range of five to eight reps while the other session can use more moderate weights with more repetitions.
Tracking your performance will allow you to add small amounts of weight or increase the number of repetitions performed. Increasing the weight or number of repetitions is more important than the muscle soreness you feel after performing a workout. Many mistakes are common in performing bench press exercises due to the rush to complete the routine.
Bouncing the bar off your chest when completing the exercise will eliminate the tension of the stretch phase of the exercise. Using a partial range of motion will leave the deep chest fibers undertrained. Placing the bar with an uneven grip on the bench will cause the bar to tilt and place additional strain on one side of your body.
Correcting these mistakes will produce faster results than adding exercises to your current routine. Using a chart to track your exercise routine has its benefits because it will remove the decision fatigue of whether or not you have covered all the muscle regions of your chest. By viewing the chart of the angles and exercises you will perform, you can be certain that you have a complete routine that will yield visible results in your strength and chest muscle shape in many months.
