“How do I get a big chest?” It’s the number one question we all ask ourselves when we first begin our journey in the IRON GAME. It’s the first body part we concern ourselves with building (along with arms) when we initially start off in the gym. We usually start the same way… starting our Monday off by immediately going to the flat bench doing 3 or 4 sets 10 to 12 reps each of bench press, thinking this is the best way to go. In many instances, people continue this “routine” for years and then wonder why they have not seen any gains. Well, you’re in luck because today I’m here tell you exactly what you need to know in order to start building your chest.
First, let me tell you about my own experiences building my chest and how I can relate to you if this is a problem area. When I first started bodybuilding in 2006, my chest was definitely a weak point for me. Pretty much all my other parts grew like weeds with any amount of resistance. This was not the case for my chest. It lagged far behind because I was (and remained this way until about 2011) very delt dominant. This means that on any type of press, my shoulders would take over the majority of the work. It’s simply how my body is structured.
Here is the typical routine I was using to build chest in my early years:
Flat Bench Press: 3*10-12
Incline Machine Press: 3*10-12
Decline Machine Press: 3*10-12
Cable Flies: 3*10-12
Pec Deck Machine: 3*10-12
It wasn’t necessarily a bad routine. The problem with this though was that it was “routine” and generic too (anybody could think that up). Most importantly, it wasn’t specialized for what I needed and lacked creativity. I pretty much did this same routine on days I worked chest and nothing new happened. The gains came by at a very slow rate because I wasn’t working the muscle in best way possible.
I’ll tell you this right now. You don’t want to start off your chest routine with a compound pressing movement. In my experience, you simply are not warmed up enough to start benching right away. You are far better off pre-exhausting the muscle with an isolation movement first such as the pec deck… We’ll get to that later.
Let’s focus on the ideas of creativity and specialization. When I mention these terms I’m talking about DOING THE EXERCISE THAT WORKS FOR YOU. I used to mindlessly do bench press because it’s the most talked about exercise and I saw that all the big guys at my gym did it. There’s only one problem… IT WASN’T ME!! Flat bench just wasn’t (and still isn’t) the best exercise to work my chest. Eventually I stopped relying upon this exercise as my main way of building the chest. My biggest thing I needed was thickness in the upper area of the chest, so I focused on using HEAVY WEIGHT on numerous incline movements. I also recognized the IMPOTRANCE OF VOLUME. Simply doing the generic 3 sets per exercise would not cut it anymore. Chest was a weakness for me. As with any weakness, I needed to spend more time on it and work even harder.
Through trial and error, I learned that the chest is indeed a large muscle that needs to be treated like back and legs…. I NEEDED TO HAMMER IT WITH HIGH VOLUME.
Here is the routine I was using to build chest during Summer 2008 (when I really brought my chest up):
Inc. DB Fly: 4*15-20
Inc. Barbell Press: 5*12-15
Decline Barbell Press: 5*10-12
Inc. Hammer Strength Press: 5*15-20
Pec Deck superset with push ups: 4 supersets to failure each (total 8 sets)
*** Just to let you know a superset is basically doing 2 exercises back to back as part of one set… So at the end of my 2008 chest workouts I would do Pec Deck to failure and immediately do a set of pushups to failure.
Notice the difference between my 2008 chest workout vs. 2006 chest workout
By this time (about 2 years working out), I knew my body. I knew that upper chest was my weakness. That is why you see that the majority of the 2008 workout was devoted to incline movements. There is also significantly greater volume. I can’t emphasize the importance of volume enough. This sample 2008 chest workout has a lot of volume. I remember those ending supersets being absolutely brutal.
I mention more volume… notice that I did not mention more time. Actually, the 2006 chest workouts usually lasted 2 hours, while the 2008 workouts lasted at most 1.5 hours. That’s hard to believe when you see how much more work I did in the 2008 workout. Exactly… I was able to make impressive chest gains during that one summer because of the fact that I hammered my chest with so much volume in a relatively short amount of time. That’s INTENSITY. In 2006, I simply wasn’t training my chest intense enough. There was not enough volume and there was too much rest in between sets.
If you do not know why your chest refuses to grow, you probably are not training it with enough intensity. I am guessing a lot of people just need to increase their volume by a lot. Furthermore, from what I have seen, most people spend too much time resting between sets.
Also keep in mind that the 2008 workout was a “sample” chest workout, meaning that it was one of many different workouts that I did during that summer. That 2006 workout was my only workout. Again, recognize the importance of changing up your workouts.
No one ever gets stronger by doing the same thing over and over again… aka STAYING IN THEIR COMFORT ZONE.
That’s right. You must push yourself. Pushing yourself requires that you take on new challenges in the gym. Increase the intensity. Increase the volume. Increase the number of reps. Increase the number of sets. Use supersets. Use giant sets. Use super strict form. Do different exercises in different orders… There are so many different ways to increase the intensity of your chest workouts (any workouts in general). That’s why I laugh when I hear people say “I give up. I’ve tried everything.”
Since 2011, I have really embraced the idea of trying everything and being creative in the gym. For the most part all of my exercises are supersetted and I use very high volume… heavy weight/high reps. The routines are too complicated to explain for right now but here is a sample first supersetted exercise I might do:
Incline DB Press superset with Incline DB Fly: 5*20-25 each
Pyramid Up on the Incline DB Press to using 120 lb. DB’s/Pyramid Up on Incline DB Fly to 70 lb. DB’s
Recognize that these are not light pumping exercises that you would expect for such high reps… it’s all out 100% training.
Hitting 20 reps with the 120s on Inc. DB Press and then immediately hitting another 20 reps with the 70s on incline fly requires a lot of strength… when you get to the point where you can do this, your chest will definitely be growing.
In general, heavy presses are what will build the most mass because they enable you to use the most weight.
More weight=more resistance the muscle must work against=the more a muscle works=the bigger it gets
Chest can be a frustrating body part to build. I get it. I once struggled with it. I’ve felt this frustration myself. It’s the main body part people look at to determine if you work out hard. A big chest displays power… it’s a showoff muscle. It’s ironic that it’s often not the easiest part to build.
But stick with it. Follow what I said above and these proven rules (in my experience) to stop wasting time and start crafting the best chest workouts for yourself:
1) Don’t necessarily follow generic advice. Really take your time to learn your body and determine which exercises work best for you.
2) Increase the intensity of your workouts.
3) Increase the volume of your workouts… Absolutely hammer it in a condensed time period. Chest is a large muscle… you need to hammer it.
4) In general, focus your efforts on incline movements. You can never have enough upper chest. But there are plenty of regulars at the gym that have a lot of middle/lower chest mass and no upper chest, creating a droopy look. You don’t want that.
5) Don’t start off your workouts with a heavy barbell press. You have a greater chance of injury. Furthermore, your chest isn’t fully warmed up at that point so you wouldn’t even fully benefit from the exercise.
6) Leave your ego at the door… Don’t try to lift weight that is too heavy. You risk injury and most of the time when the weight is too heavy, your joints and front delts tend to take over.
** Any questions or comments let me know. Just as a heads up, I will be writing a training article like this covering each body part so stay tuned!