Want a Bigger Chest? 3 Key Tips and a Workout
Your chest muscles are important for many things (other than filling out a t-shirt). They are responsible for flexing your upper arm when you swim, moving your arm inwards when you are riding a bike, rotating your arm bone toward your body while you walk or run, and also simply breathing deeply.
Brock Armstrong
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Want a Bigger Chest? 3 Key Tips and a Workout
Before I dig into the details of how to get a strong and defined chest, I want to address a common fear that exercising like this will make women look like men and men look like balloon animals. To allay this fear, I am going to turn to biology.
All of us have a gene called GDF-8, and that gene is in charge of a substance called myostatin. Myostatin is in charge of controlling the amount of muscle we have on our body and how big our muscles develop naturally. The base levels of myostatin and muscle in the majority of us make it impossible for us to naturally build bulky muscles no matter how heavy a weight we lift. The majority of us simply do not have the genes to build bulky muscles via any form of exercise.
Sure there are a few people out there who can become bulky because they have the “bulky genes.” But they are few and far between and no matter how much most of us engage in resistance training, we will never cross that threshold that gives “bulking up” a bad name.
OK, with that out of the way, let’s talk about the chest muscles.
What Are Chest Muscles?
The main area of our chest is made up of two muscles we refer to as the pecs. These muscles work together to do the activities I described earlier. The muscles are:
- Pectoralis major
- Pectoralis minor
The pectoralis minor is located directly underneath the pectoralis major. Both of these chest muscles start at the clavicle (collarbone) and insert at the sternum (breastbone) and the humerus (armpit).
The pectorals are mostly used to control arm movement. Contracting the pectoralis major results in pulling on the humerus to create lateral, vertical, and rotational motion of the arm. The pecs also play a role in breathing, specifically inhalation, by pulling the ribcage open to make room for the lungs to expand.
Even though the pec is divided into two parts, there are actually six separate sets of muscle fibers within the pectoralis muscle. This is important because these sets of fibers allow portions of the muscle to be moved independently by the nervous system.
Why Would You Want a Stronger Chest?
Getting a stronger and more defined chest goes beyond simply looking good at the swimming pool or in a tight shirt. Every day we use the pectoral muscles to do things like pushing a heavy door open, heaving a heavy load of laundry over your head, washing your hair, or simply getting up off the ground or the bed.
Even though they’re not exerting the primary force, your pecs are also active when you pick up a bag off the floor, throw a ball, or push a grocery cart or stroller.
Because of those actions (and more), getting a stronger chest is advantageous for both aesthetics and performance. It doesn’t matter whether you are a powerlifter, weightlifter, endurance athlete, mom, or fitness blogger.
Chest Building Pointers
Though the chest is made up of one single mass of muscle that is broken into major and minor, we are best off training it like it is actually three parts—the upper, middle, and lower portions of the chest. The reason for this is that each region is stimulated best by changing the angle from which you exercise the muscle.
- Upper Chest: To best stimulate the upper chest, perform the exercises on a 30-45 degree incline bench. Examples of this are incline bench press or incline flyes. Both of those exercises are great for developing the upper chest.
- Middle Chest: To really target the middle chest, use a flat bench. Examples of this are flat bench press or flat flyes.
- Lower Chest: The lower chest is best exercised by working out on a 30-45 degree decline bench. And yes, you guessed it, decline bench press or decline flyes are great ways to target the lower chest.
Moving beyond the angle of your body, the upper chest will be targeted by doing movements that involve shoulder flexion. The middle chest will be targeted by doing horizontal adduction movements—especially ones that don’t involve shoulder flexion or extension. The lower chest will be best targeted with movements that involve shoulder extension.
So what does that mean?
1. Perform press movements from all three angles.
Instead of always doing flat bench-press or regular push-ups, include exercises on a decline or incline bench, or even with your feet or hands elevated on a ball or platform.
On a weekly basis, include incline, decline, and flat chest exercises so that you maximize your chest muscles from all angles.
2. Perform flyes of all types.
The chest exercise known as flyes really help to develop the inner pec muscles. These inner muscles aren’t targeted by presses, and there are many fun and challenging variations of the fly that you can try. Machine chest flyes, decline dumbbell flyes, flat dumbbell flyes, seated cable flyes, and standing cable flyes are all great options.
When you do flyes, make sure to stay inside your comfortable range of motion. As the weights you are using increase, it can become quite easy to injure your shoulders if you lose control of the weight.
3. Don’t forget your postural (or pulling) muscles.
When you are working on your chest, you also need to include shoulder exercises like seated rows, single arm rows, pull-downs, and pull-ups. Weak and rounded shoulders can make your chest look concave and can really mess with your posture.
Which Weights Work Best?
Free weights are believed to give you a much bigger bang for your buck because they recruit more muscle fibers. Recruiting more muscle fibers results in a greater stress response, higher secretion of muscle building hormones, and greater adaptations.
At the Eighth International Conference on Strength Training in Norway, researchers presented evidence comparing six sets of eight to ten reps of the squat versus the leg press (squat being a type of free weight exercise and leg press being the opposite), and found 50 percent higher testosterone levels and three times the growth hormone in the (free weight) squatters.
This is not to mention that the more functional movement of lifting a single heavy object with one hand tends to develop a more well-rounded physique that is also less prone to injury. Think of it this way: if you lift a dumbbell instead of using an exercise machine, more stabilizer muscles are recruited to support the prime muscles. This means that the muscles learn to fire together (and work together) because the dumbbell permits you to move through a fuller range of motion.
The Get-Fit Guy Chest Builder Workout
After all that, you are probably wondering where to start. Well, here is a chest-strengthening workout to try. It addresses all the areas we talked about and more!
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Incline dumbbell bench press. The main benefit of performing incline presses is to develop the upper portion of the pectoral muscles.
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Flat dumbbell bench press. Flat bench press activates both heads of the pectorals evenly, which makes this exercise great for overall chest strengthening.
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Straight bar dips. Done properly, dips (any dips) will increase the strength and mobility in your chest, shoulders, arms, and core.
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Incline dumbbell flyes. This exercise targets the sternal heads of your pectoralis major muscles and also strengthens your deltoids, biceps, triceps, wrist flexors, and brachialis muscles.
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Any type of postural or pulling exercises. You can mix this one up each time, choose between seated rows, single arm rows, pull-downs, and pull-ups
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High to low cable crossovers. This is a great finishing exercise (to failure) that can help you burn out and break down your pectoralis major and minor. Pro Tip: Cross your hands in front of your body to get a more full range of motion.
This is the order that I do this workout in but you should order it based on weakest to strongest. Or, if muscle size is what you are after, start with the parts where you want to see the biggest gains.
How Many Reps and Sets?
I would suggest following the old rule: More Reps For Muscle, More Sets For Strength.
For strength, the key factor is less metabolic stress and more mechanical tension. Meaning that the total TUT (time under tension) to build strength is lower. Focus on faster tempos, lower rep ranges, or a combination of the two.
For muscle gain, more metabolic stress and less mechanical tension is key, meaning that the total TUT needs to be higher. Focus on slower tempos, higher rep ranges, or a combination of both.
Training the pectorals is just as important for women as it is for men. So if you have been neglecting those muscles, it’s time to give them some tough love and undivided attention. As you learned, these muscles are involved in many functions that you need throughout any ordinary day as well as the fancy moves required in a variety of sports and athletic pursuits. The stronger your chest muscles, the stronger your entire body.
For more chest info, pec tips, and to join the strong conversation, head over to Facebook GetFitGuy or twitter getfitguy or find me at BrockArmstrong.com. Also don’t forget to subscribe to the Get-Fit Guy podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play or via RSSopens XML file .
About the Author
Brock Armstrong was the host of the Get-Fit Guy podcast between 2017 and 2021. He is a certified AFLCA Group Fitness Leader with a designation in Portable Equipment, NCCP and CAC Triathlon Coach, and a TnT certified run coach. He is also on the board of advisors for the Primal Health Coach Institute and a guest faculty member of the Human Potential Institute.