The "pecs" are made up of the pectoralis major and minor, a group of muscles that fan across the front of your chest from your sternum up to your shoulders. They bring your arms together across your chest. To tone them, you should perform each exercise below for two to three sets of 12 to 15 repetitions. Use a weight that makes the final three repetitions difficult and allow at least one day of rest in between workouts.
Bench Press
The bench press is the most popular chest exercise. To execute, lie on your back on a bench. Grip the barbell slightly outside shoulder-width. Lift the barbell off the rack and hold it momentarily over your eyes before lowering it toward your nipple line. Allow it to gently touch your chest and then push the bar up until your arms are fully extended and the barbell returns to above your eyes.
Push-ups
Push-ups are a very similar movement to bench press, but also require your core musculature to contract as they hold your body in position. To execute, lie face down on the floor with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width. Raise your body up off the floor so that you're up on your hands and toes with arms fully extended. Lower yourself to the floor by bending your arms. Continue down until your elbows bend just slightly further than 90 degrees. Extend your arms and push your body back up to starting position.
Chest Flies
Lie on your back on a bench with a dumbbell in each hand. Fully extend your arms and hold the dumbbells up over your chest with your palms facing each other. Allow just a slight bend in the elbows and open both arms as if you're moving to give someone a hug. Continue until your upper arms are parallel with the floor, and then bring the dumbbells back up to meet each other over your chest again.
Incline Chest Press
The incline chest press develops the upper chest. To execute, sit down and lie back on an incline bench and hold a dumbbell in each hand. Raise the weights to shoulder level. Press the dumbbells directly upwards until your arms are fully extended, then control them back down to the shoulders. To isolate the chest more, concentrate on allowing your elbows to fan out instead of staying close to your torso.
Dumbbell Pullover
Dumbbell pullovers focus more of the work onto the pectoralis minor. To execute, lie on your back on a bench. Hold one single dumbbell with both hands on its handle. Hold the dumbbell out and up towards the ceiling with your arms fully extended. Lower the dumbbell over and beyond your head until your arms get to parallel with the floor. Control the dumbbell back up to starting position. When performing this exercise, be sure to not allow your lower back from coming up off the bench. Contract your abdominals and press the lower back down into the bench.
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