Pectoral Weightlifting Exercises

The pectoral muscles are located within your chest and include the pectoralis major and minor. The pectoralis major consists of clavicular and sternal heads, which respectively flex and extend your shoulder and pull your arms together in front of your chest and inwardly rotate the humerus bone within your shoulder socket. The pectoralis minor works to pull the scapula bones, which lie within your upper back, forward and downward. A variety of exercises target the pectoral muscles, to increase their mass and strength, as part of a progressive resistance-training program.

Bench-Press Exercises

The bench press is a classic chest exercise that targets the sternal head of the pectoralis major, with the clavicular head, the anterior deltoid and the triceps assisting. The traditional exercise involves lying on a flat bench, grasping a barbell with your hands wider than your shoulders and your arms fully extended, and repeatedly lowering the bar to your chest and pressing it back to the starting position.

However, you can also perform the bench press using dumbbells or a weight machine instead of a barbell and on a declined or inclined bench instead of a flat bench. The last of these variations -- the incline bench press -- emphasizes the clavicular head of the pectoralis major, not the sternal head.

Chest-Fly Exercises

The chest fly is another exercise that, like the bench press, targets the sternal head of the pectoralis major. You can use dumbbells, cable machines or a pec-deck machine to perform exercise. The dumbbell variation entails lying on your back on a flat bench, holding dumbbells above your chest with your palms facing each other, and repeatedly arcing them away from each other until your arms are parallel to the floor and reversing to the starting position. The cable-machine and pec-deck versions require a similar motion, but from a seated or standing position, which also works the pectoralis minor muscle.

Chest Press

The chest press is similar to the bench press but you perform the exercise from an seated, upright position instead of lying on a bench. The exercise requires a chest-press machine, which you can find at many fitness facilities, that has a chair positioned behind two levers attached to a stack of weights. Adjust the levers so they're even with the front of your shoulders to start, repeatedly push them forward and return to the starting position slowly. You can also perform the chest press with one arm at a time on a cable machine if you don't have access to a weight machine.

Pullover

The pullover targets the sternal head of the pectoralis major, which contracts to extend your shoulders during the concentric, or muscle-shortening, phase of the exercise and to control the speed of movement during the eccentric, or muscle-lengthening, phase. Lie on your back on a flat bench with your knees bent and feet on the floor. Hold one end of a dumbbell with both hands and reach your arms behind your head, parallel to the floor. Pull the weight forward and upward, keeping your arms extended, until it's over your face, and then return to the starting position slowly and repeat. Keep your torso and legs stable throughout the movement.