What Are The Best Exercises For The Chest Muscles?

What are the chest muscles?

The chest muscles are the pectoralis major and pectoralis minor, hence the popular slang, ‘pecs’ in reference to the chest. The bigger of the two, the pectoralis major covers the sternum, the clavicle and joins the shoulders to the upper arms.  The pectoralis minor is below the pectoralis major.

What do these muscles do?

The chest muscles are responsible for moving the arms in and out, that is close to the body and away the body, as well as rotation of the shoulders and shrugging. Chest muscles are also important for good posture.

Chest workouts are an important part of the exercise routine for certain groups of sports people: tennis players, swimmers, rugby players and any other sport where you have to lift or throw an object.

Example chest workout

Exercises for chest workouts include push ups/press ups, bench presses, cable pulls, and dumbbell flyes.

Below is an example of a bench press exercise for chest workouts. You will not need to do this for more than thirty or so minutes.

• Lie flat on the bench with the barbell above and at eye level
• Hold the bars shoulder length apart, if you can hold it a little more than shoulder length that is even better
• Slowly move the barbell up and down until you are tired. Inhale and hold your breath when you lower the bar and exhale when you raise it.
• If you are just beginning start with twelve sets of ten repetitions, as you get more comfortable you can increase the sets and number of repetitions.

Bench press exercises not only work and develop the chest, they also work the chest and arms as well. The bench press tends to be the most common chest workouts exercises.

Press up’s are great for the chest muscles

Press ups, also called push ups are a great form of strength training chest workouts. Press ups not only work the pectoral muscles, but also the arms, shoulders and triceps. These chest workouts are easy to do since they do not require any equipment and can be done anywhere.

Press ups are done by lying horizontal and face down, and using the arms and toes for support push your body upwards, repeat until you are exhausted. There are also variations of push ups, and push up bars can be used for added resistance.

Always warm up before training your chest muscles

Whichever chest workouts you perform remember to warm up before and to stretch afterwards. Muscles need to prepare for a strenuous workout and to relax afterwards as well. Warming up and cooling down help to prevent against injuries to muscles.

For great chest muscles, experiment with as many chest workouts as you can until you find the ones that work for you and stick with them; you should begun to see results in as little as two months. Chest exercises, apart from building muscles and strengthening the chest area are also great for females as they can give a lift to sagging breasts.