A lot of men go to the gym with the aim of building a bigger chest, but don’t really have a proper training plan in place. Indeed they may well assume that all they have to do is perform plenty of bench presses two or three times a week with a heavy barbell.
However whilst this is undoubtedly one of the most effective chest exercises that you can do, there are additional exercises that you should do if you want to target all areas of your chest, and achieve your goal a lot quicker.
Here are 5 of the most effective chest exercises, according to professional fitness model Rob Riches:
Unsurprisingly, you will see that he lists the bench press as one of the key exercises, adding that you should aim to perform this exercise with forearms and elbows aligned and with a strong overhand grip. In addition, you should look to do 3-4 sets of 12, 10 or 6 reps as you increase the weight.
The second chest exercise that he recommends is the incline bench press because this will target different areas of the chest that the standard bench press won’t hit. For this move you simply need to adjust the bench upwards and lower the weight slightly, aiming to do around 3 sets of 12, 10 or 8 reps as you reach your limit.
Another good exercise that will help develop your inner chest muscles in particular is the flat bench dumbbell fly. As the name suggests, this is performed with dumbbells instead of a barbell, and involves bringing the dumbbells together in one smooth movement with your elbows bent ever so slightly.
The fourth move that will help build a bigger wider chest is the cable chest fly. This is performed in a standing position using a cable machine at the gym and involves bringing your hands together using your chest muscles. As Rob points out, this is an ideal exercise to perform at the end of your workout once you have done the big compound moves, and you should aim to do 2-3 sets of 12-15 reps.
The final exercise that you should include in your chest routine is of course the push-up. It is recommended that you do 2-3 sets, and basically do as many as you can using whatever energy you have left, flexing and squeezing your chest muscles together as you complete each rep.
If you can incorporate each of these moves (or as many as possible) into your chest workouts, then you should start to see noticeable results in no time at all because I myself have always found them to be very effective.
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