How To Develop A Big Chest

Learn about the muscles that make up your chest and which movements stimulate the most muscle growth in your chest in this article.

I won't bore you with scientific jargon, but I believe the best way to build a strong and impressive chest is to know the anatomy of the chest muscles, which is the third largest body part next to back and legs.

Your chest is made up of two seperate muscles - the pectoralis major and the pectoralis minor.

The pectoralis major is a thick, fan shaped muscle that's located just above the pectoralis minor and is the visible chest muscle.

It is divided into two sections. The lower part is attached to the sternum (breast bone). The upper part, called the clavicular is attached to your clavicle (aka collar bone). The upper and lower portions both connect into a flat tendon that lies near the armpit area.

Pectoralis major fibers are multipennate fibers, meaning that they approach the tendon from many different directions. Therefore, the most effective way to develop your chest is to train it from different angles and various directions.

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The pectoralis minor, is a smaller muscle, located under the pectoralis major. It is a thin, triangular muscle, that makes up the lower part of your chest.

The pectoralis minor is often an overlooked muscle by many trainees. Increasing the size of this muscle will give your chest a fuller look. Thus it's important to train this muscle if you want to build a truly impressive set of pecs.

The chest chest muscles are used in pushing motions and it's basic function is to pull the arm and shoulder in front of the body.

Which Exercises Should You Do In Your Chest Workout?

A good workout that will build the chest should consist of two movements-presses and flys. In order to build big chest muscles you will need to perform movements that involve pressing weight away from the chest in a lying position and straightening the arms.

Compound movements also called multi-joint movements will build your chest muscles faster than a non-compound movement. Compound movements are the best and fastest way to build muscle in the gym.

Most people are familiar with the bench press, which has to be the most popular exercise in human existence. The bench press is a compound move because it involves both your shoulders and triceps as well as the chest muscles.

In order to get the most out of the bench press your grip should be slightly-beyond shoulder width apart. If your grip is too narrow or too wide you risk injuring the shoulder griddle.

Presses can be done in an incline or decline position and with both barbells and dumbbells. Incline movements will target the upper (clavicular) part and flat and decline presses will target mostly the lower(sternal) part of the chest.

Parallel bar dips can also be performed for the chest as they are good mass builders. Also, machine and smith-machine presses are helpful for developing the chest muscles if you who don't have a spotter when you are doing presses with barbells and dumbbells.

Build Muscle With Dumbbell Flys In Your Chest Workout

Dumbbell flys are considered an isolation exercise since they work or isolate the chest muscles. Flys are done by bringing your arms up and around in a circular or "hugging" motion as opposed to pressing the weights straight up. Flyes can be considered a mass building and shaping movement as well.

Although flyes tend to build less muscle than compound pressing movements, they are still a great way to build the pectoralis muscles (upper, middle and lower). Just like presses, flyes can be done from various angles as well as with cables and peck-deck machines.

Some Other Factors That You Should Consider In Your Chest Workout

The upper part of the chest is most of the time neglected by some trainees. This is because most people focus too much on the bench press and less on other movements that build chest muscle size.

While the flat bench press is a great chest builder it tends to target the middle and lower parts of the chest. Therefore, when you are designing a chest workout, you should focus on doing more incline chest movements and focus less on the bench press.

Dumbbells allow for a greater range of motion as you can lower the dumbbells further down past your chest on presses. Doing so will stimulate more muscle fibers in your chest.

When doing dumbbell flys you should concentrate on feeling a good stretch at the bottom portion of the rep and contracting or squeezing your chest at the top portion of each rep.

In order to build a huge chest that commands attention and stands out, keep your repetition range around 8 to 12 for all chest exercises as this rep range has been proven to stimulate more muscle growth.


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