Men and women work their chest muscles for different reasons. For women, the motives are often to help prevent sagging and to make the breasts more perky. For men, the motives are generally to prevent man boobs or to round out a beach-body physique. Regardless of your motives, you can build your breast muscles with the right weight-training exercises.
Upper Chest
When performing breast exercises, all sections of your chest should be worked independently. Upper chest exercises include incline bench presses, incline dumbbell presses, incline hammer grip dumbbell presses and exercise ball inclined push-ups. The common denominator with these exercises is that your body is at an angle, which places the emphasis on your upper chest. To perform ball inclined push-ups, place your toes or lower shins hip width apart on an exercise ball with your hands slightly wider than shoulder width on the floor and push your body up and down.
Middle Chest
There are many exercises that work the middle part of your chest, including flat bench presses, dumbbell chest presses, seated machine chest presses, traditional push-ups and barbell pullovers. To perform pullovers, you should be in a face-up position with your shoulders on a bench, feet flat on the floor and head hanging over the bench. While holding the barbell straight above your chest with a slight bend in your elbows, lower it behind your head and toward the floor in an arcing motion. Raise it back up by contracting your chest and back muscles.
Lower Chest
Lower chest exercises should be performed at a declined angle. Exercises such as decline bench presses, decline dumbbell chest presses, decline cable chest presses and exercise ball push-ups are good for your lower chest. For ball push-ups, place your hands shoulder width apart on the exercise ball and your toes hip width apart behind you. Bend your elbows to lower and raise your chest to and from the ball.
Inner Chest
The inner chest is often neglected when it comes to breast exercises, but it is this region that gives your muscles the separated, defined look. Exercises to target this area include cable flyes, close grip barbell bench presses, close grip push-ups and dumbbell flyes. Dumbbell flyes can be performed from the incline, flat and decline positions to ensure you target your entire inner chest area. Lie on the bench while holding the weights an inch apart above your chest with your palms facing each other and elbows slightly bent. Slowly lower the weights to your sides and raise them back to the starting point in a steady motion. When lowering the dumbbells, stop when your upper arms parallel the floor. When pushing back up, focus on squeezing your chest muscles, known as the pectorals.
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