Building a bigger chest can boost your self confidence and make you a better athlete in such sports as football and ice hockey. A common way to bulk up the chest muscles is to lie on a weight bench and move a weighted barbell up and down. This is called a bench press exercise. If you do not have access to such equipment, pushups can be used as a substitute.
Function of Pushups
When you do pushups, your upper arms move toward the center of your body. This action causes you to contract your chest muscles, which in turn will make them bigger. The anatomical name for chest muscles is pectorals. They consist of the pectoralis major and minor. In addition to making your chest bigger, pushups also work the deltoids and triceps. The delts are on the shoulders and the triceps are found on the back part of the upper arms. Being that pushups work multiple muscles, they are known as compound exercises.
Quality Pushups
The way you do pushups has an impact on muscle gain. Sloppy form will not only compromise your size gains, but it will also raise your chances for injury. To do a quality pushup, start out lying on your stomach with your hands spaced slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Keeping your feet together, push yourself off the ground until your arms are fully extended. Raise your hips in the air, contract your abs and form a straight line from your heels to the back of your head. Slowly lower yourself while maintaining this posture and stop when your chest grazes the floor. Push yourself back up in a steady motion and repeat. If you feel stress on your wrists, place your hands on dumbbell handles.
Various Angles
The standard pushup on the floor mostly works the middle portion of the chest. To gain the full muscle-building benefits of pushups, incorporate multiple variations. The easiest way to do this is by changing the angle of your body. Decline pushups for example, with your feet elevated on a bench or stool, work your upper chest. Incline pushups with your hands elevated on a bench work the lower part of the chest. If you were to move your hands closer together, you will place more emphasis on your inner chest.
External Resistance
The weight of your body is satisfactory for gaining size in your chest, but this will only take you so far. To continually make progress, wear a weight vest or backpack with weight in it. A weight vest has tiny compartments to slip small weights into. You also have the option of using a workout partner. Have him kneel next to you and hold a weight plate on your back while you do pushups. Weight plates start out as light as 2-1/2 lbs. and go up to 45.
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