Written by Ron Harris
28 March 2019

19giantpecs-tips

Tips for Building Giant Pecs

Exercises for a Monster Chest

 

 

Many of us were inspired to start weight training by pictures of men like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lee Haney, Dorian Yates and Ronnie Coleman. While each had entire bodies that were amazingly developed, the calling card that drew most of the attention was their chests. Arnold, in particular, had a set of pecs so thick and full that it looked like you could easily set a couple of mugs of beer on top of them when he hit a side chest pose. It’s a body part that demands attention and respect when fully developed— the mark of a truly big, strong man. When you’ve got a big chest, it’s obvious whether you’re wearing a tank top, a skintight nightclub shirt, a polo shirt or even a sweater. You can’t hide great pecs— not that you’d want to.

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For many bodybuilders and weight trainers seeking to build a better chest, it can often be a frustrating experience. On the surface, it would seem ridiculously easy. Doesn’t everyone from Mr. Olympia to the 13-year-old lifting in his basement know how? Sadly, it’s apparent from the thousands of would-be chest kings I have seen that it’s not quite as simple as most people think. After reading this article, everything that has been keeping you from building your chest to its fullest potential will be gone, and you will be on your way— even if you’ve been training chest for 10 years or more with little results.

 Training the Pecs Versus Lifting Weights

 Most people do not train their pectorals. Instead, they lift a weight from point A to point B any way they can. A lot of guys will arch their backs until their entire torso is lifted off the bench from the shoulder blades to the butt, use a wide grip that drastically reduces the range of motion, and drop the bar like a bomb to the chest so that it can bounce half of the truncated range of motion back up. So how far are they actually lifting the weight, first of all? No more than a couple of inches, in most cases. If all you care about is saying you can bench-press x amount, all well and good. Go make yourself up a shirt that says “365-pound Bench Press Max!” But pressing with such a limited range of motion will do very little to make the pectoralis muscle grow. For that, you need a full range of motion, the proper rep speed and an emphasis on the contraction. Let’s look at each in detail so we’re all on the same page.

 Rep Speed

 I first learned about proper rep speed from Ellington Darden, author of The Nautilus Bodybuilding Book. Darden was one of the very first people to point out that when you lift and lower a weight too fast, forces such as momentum rob the muscle of the work it needs. He codified what he believed proper rep speed as taking two seconds to lift the weight, and four seconds to lower it. Though I read this over 25 years ago and have learned quite a bit about training in that time, I still adhere very closely to this. Why? Because it ensures that the muscle is under tension at all times. At no time is the weight being lifted primarily by connective tissues and joints.

 The four-second lowering phase of the rep takes advantage of the powerful size- and strength-building properties of the negative. It is also a very safe way to train. I take this two/four rep count a step further, what I call I call two/one/four. This means you lift the weight over two seconds, squeeze the chest for a full second, and then lower it in four seconds. The only flexibility I allow in this is that the negative doesn’t always need to consist of a full four seconds. Two or three seconds will do just as well, though I tend to lean toward three. Try two/one/four. The first time you do, you will notice two things. First, you won’t be able to handle as much weight. Two, you will feel the chest working much more than ever before. The pump will be intense, and your chest should be quite sore for two to four days afterward. Some trainers go even stricter, pausing the weight at the very bottom for a full second. This style is even tougher, and the weights will go down even lower. But I guarantee you that your chest will grow when you force it to work this hard. Finding ways to make the exercise harder, not easier, is the key to growth.

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Doing the Work Yourself

 You should employ a spotter or training partner when working chest, especially when using barbells and dumbbells. However, this person should only be there to help you un-rack and re-rack the bar, or to stop a needless injury, such as when you lose your balance with a heavy dumbbell. What they should not be doing is helping you lift the weight.

 Forced reps are a valuable tool for boosting the intensity level of a set, but they have become the most abused intensity technique of them all. First, they are used too often, which will lead to overtraining for many lifters. Worse, forced reps are supposed to only come into play after several good reps have been done with no help at all. We all know how infrequently this is the case. Most of the time, lifters choose a weight that is far too heavy and rely on the spotter to take some of the resistance away, from the get-go.

 Since a very important part of growing new muscle is gradually increasing the resistance, it’s easy to see how excess help from a spotter could ruin your progress. You may go from benching 225 for 10 reps to 315 for 10, and not actually be any stronger— the spotter is just helping that much more! Make sure you always tell your spotter, unless he or she already knows, not to touch you or the bar until you get stuck. Then you’ll truly be doing all the work, and reaping all the rewards.

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Inclines— the Secret to a Complete Chest

 I have seen thousands of men with plenty of mass in their chests, but most of the time that bulk is centered in the mid and lower chest. That makes sense, because most of us were introduced to chest training through the flat barbell press, and many continue to make it the focal point of their chest training forevermore. In the long run, this leads to chests that look saggy or droopy. A complete chest is thick and full from the collarbone to the sternum, high and square. Every man you can think of who exemplified perfect chest development— Lee Haney, Arnold, Ferrigno, Bertil Fox, Ronnie Coleman, Serge Nubret— all had equal development in the upper chest. This is because they all recognized the value of incline pressing to balance out the shape of the pecs.

 The most important thing to know about incline movements is that you don’t want to set the bench at too high of an angle. Unfortunately, not all gyms have adjustable benches, and some of them put the angle too high. Really, once you pass 30 degrees, you start working more front delts than upper chest. The majority of your inclines should be done at 30 degrees.

 Lower the bar to your upper chest just below the collarbone. If you are facing a mirror, you will know your hands are spaced properly on the bar if your forearms are perfectly parallel to each other. Concentrate on pushing with the chest.

 Becoming a “Pec” Bencher Instead of a “Delt” Bencher

 Many bodybuilders, even some pros, are tremendously powerful in pressing movements for the chest, yet they don’t have very thick chests. Usually they have huge shoulders and triceps. This is because those are the muscles moving all that heavy weight, not their pecs. The solution is to change from being a “delt bencher” to a “pec bencher.” The main trick is to roll your shoulders back and down toward your waist, as they would be in the bottom position of a lat pulldown, and to “pop up” your sternum. This lifts the rib cage and puts the chest in the correct position to handle the majority of the work. Now you should easily be able to feel the pecs stretch as you lower the weight, and contract as you raise it.

 Hand placement is also important, and again you want your forearms to be parallel to each other and perpendicular to the floor as you perform your presses. The shoulders should stay retracted, or rolled back, at all times. If at any time you start to feel your front delts taking over, roll your shoulders down and back, and pop the sternum up again. It’s easy to start protracting the shoulders, or letting them roll forward, when your chest starts to fatigue. Old habits die hard, and it will take a while for the new style to become second nature.

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Flye Movements

 Now you might ask, if presses are the most important exercise for building pectoral mass, why do I need to do anything else? While presses fulfill one major function of the chest, which is to basically push things away from us horizontally, there is another function— arm adduction. This is bringing the arms toward the midline of the body, really the same motion as when hugging someone. To ignore this function in your training would mean that you are missing out on total development. Both types of movements work the entire mass of the chest muscle, but from completely different angles. Thus, flye movements should not be considered as merely “shaping” or “detailing” exercises. They are mass-builders, and should be treated as such in your workouts.

 A lot of trainers make the mistake of going light on exercises like the pec dec and cable crossovers for high reps, and completely lose out on the potential growth these exercises are capable of delivering. Don’t you make this mistake, too. Go as heavy as possible for six to 12 reps, and take your sets to failure. Feel the chest squeeze together. Keeping the pecs under tension, feel them stretch as you return to the starting position. Note: unless you have extremely flexible shoulder joints, never let your hands reach back any farther than your nipples in a flye motion.  

 Stretching

 Stretching the chest holds three major benefits. One, it increases your potential range of motion, particularly in flye movements. Two, by becoming more flexible and increasing your range of motion, you cut down the risk of injury. And three, many believe that vigorous stretching actually works to break up fascia tissue. Fascia is a tough connective tissue that encases our skeletal muscles— much like car tires are reinforced by steel belting.

 The best method I know of is to stretch immediately after you finish each set of presses by grabbing a fairly light pair of dumbbells and settling into the bottom position of a dumbbell flye. Try to lower the ‘bells an inch lower every couple of seconds, until you have been stretching for about 10 seconds. Then, put the dumbbells down and flex your chest in a crab most-muscular pose for five to 10 seconds. Talk about a pump! Flexing like this is also believed by many to enhance muscle density and striations in the pecs. You could also stand and put your palm out against a stationary object, such as the upright bar of a power rack, and lean forward until you feel that pec stretch. Then repeat for the other side. I like the dumbbells best of all for stretching the pecs.

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“Sandwiching” Flyes Between Presses

 If you find that your first pressing movement takes too much out of your triceps and front delts to get much out of the pressing exercises that follow, try doing your flye movement in between your two pressing exercises. This will give the tri’s and front delts a break for a few minutes, so that they should be able to recover somewhat by the time you resume pressing again.

 Training Frequency

 Contrary to what a lot of teenage boys and prison inmates may think, the chest should not be trained every day. When you think about how large the pecs are and the heavy weights they are capable of pressing, it makes sense that they need time to repair the tissue damage and rebuild new tissue. For most people, this process will take anywhere from four to six days. Being younger and/or being on gear will accelerate recovery. If you choose to specialize on your chest, you may train it twice a week (see sidebar).

 Routines

 I will give you a few excellent chest routines (see Monster Chest Routines later in this feature), but you can also use this simple chart as your guide to structure your chest workouts. By picking one from each column every time you train chest, you shouldn’t have to repeat an exact routine for at least a year.

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Column A – Presses for Middle and Lower Pecs

 Flat Barbell Bench Press

 Flat Dumbbell Bench Press

 Flat Smith Machine Bench Press

 Any seated or lying Bench Press Machine

 Weighted Dips, leaning forward

 Decline Press with dumbbells, barbell or Smith machine

 

Column B – Flye movements

 Machine Flyes

 Cable Crossovers:

 Standing, taking handles from top pulleys

 Standing, taking handles from bottom pulleys

 Incline Bench Cable Crossovers

 Flat or Incline Dumbbell Flyes

 Decline Bench Cable Crossovers

 

Column C – Presses for Upper Pecs

 Incline Dumbbell Press

 Incline Barbell Press

 Smith Machine Incline Press

 Hammer Strength or other Machine Incline Press

 Intensity

 The last ingredient to add to this mix is intensity. If you really want a bigger, thicker set of pecs, you’re going to have to train damn hard. Challenge yourself to use the heaviest weights possible in good form, and attempt each time you train to work every last muscle fiber in the chest down to the bone! Squeeze each contraction out like your chest is a sponge and you’re trying to wring one last drop of water out of it.  

 Staying Safe

 Finally, always make sure you warm up properly when training chest so you can avoid both acute injuries like a pec tear, as well as chronic issues like rotator cuff inflammation. Start out with some very light sets of your first pressing exercise. Here’s a sample. If your first work set of dumbbell presses will be 100s for 12 reps, your warm-ups should progress something like this:

 50 x 15

 70 x 10

 85 x 8

 You can see that the warm-up is designed to prepare the muscles and nervous system for the exercise, but should not overly drain your available strength reserves. That’s why the reps go down. Doing several sets of high reps will definitely start to negatively impact your performance. More warming up is needed for the first exercise you do, as you should be sufficiently warmed up after it to only require one or two for each subsequent movement.

 Summary

 Now you have all the information and techniques needed to build your pecs into their most spectacular incarnation possible. Always use your mind equally with your body when you train, and pour every ounce of effort and concentration into every single rep. It’s time to get a monster chest now!

 Standard Training split

 Day 1:    Chest and triceps

 Day 2:    Back

 Day 3:    OFF

 Day 4:    Shoulders and biceps

 Day 5:    Legs

 Day 6:    OFF, repeat

 

Chest Specialization Split*

 Day 1:    Chest and arms

 Day 2:    Back and hamstrings

 Day 3:    OFF

 Day 4:    Chest and arms

 Day 5:    OFF

 Day 6:    Shoulders and quads

 Day 7:    OFF, repeat

 *Note that chest is trained twice per week, always following a full day of rest.

 

Monster Chest Routines*

 Routine A

 Incline Dumbbell Press          4 x 8-12

 Flat Barbell Press                  4 x 8-12

 Machine Flyes                       4 x 12

 Dips (bodyweight only)          3 x 8-12

 

Routine B

 Flat Barbell Press                     4 x 8-12

 Machine Incline Press               4 x 8-12

 Cable Crossovers                     3 x 10-12

 Push-ups                                  3 to failure

 (as many reps as possible)

 

Routine C

 Incline Barbell Press               4 x 8-12

 Incline Dumbbell Flyes            3 x 12

 Flat Machine Press                 3 x 12, 8, 6

 (drop sets)

 

Routine D

 Machine Flyes                 4 x 12

 superset with

 Machine Incline Press     4 x 12

 Cable Crossovers           3 x 12

 superset with

 Dips (add weight)            3 x 8-10

 *Cycle between these four routines, so you only do each one every fourth chest workout.

Ron Harris got his start in the bodybuilding industry during the eight years he worked in Los Angeles as Associate Producer for ESPN’s “American Muscle Magazine” show in the 1990s. Since 1992 he has published nearly 3,000 articles in bodybuilding and fitness magazines, making him the most prolific bodybuilding writer ever. Ron has been training since the age of 14 and competing as a bodybuilder since 1989, and maintains the popular website www.ronharrismuscle.com, most notable for its blog “The Daily Pump.” He lives with his wife and two children in the Boston area.

 

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