Robust, defined pectoral muscles span the chest and give you an upper body to showcase. Women also benefit from pectoral growth because it can give the breasts a lift. The key for building these muscles lies in your approach to training. A good workout has specific details that can maximize your progress.
Dynamic Stretching
Exercising your chest with cold muscles and connective tissue puts you at risk of suffering an injury. You also will have a more limited range of motion. To prevent this, spend a few minutes doing dynamic stretches which are performed in motion. These get your body primed for exercising movements. Include stretches like arm crossovers, arm circles, shoulder shrugs, spinal twists and bear crawls.
Anatomy of the Pecs
The pectoralis major and minor function to move the upper arm toward the center of the body and to move the shoulders forward. Your goal with training is to do exercises that involve these motions. You also have to realize that the pecs are large muscles -- to fully target them, perform exercises from multiple angles, such as incline bench presses, flat bench presses, decline presses and dumbbell flys.
Free Weights
A lot of debate lives on about the difference between machines and free weights. From a strength standpoint, both offer equivalent benefits. However, free weights, like dumbbells and barbells, promote more overall muscle fiber recruitment. This makes them a better option for pectoral growth.
Proper Exercise Form
Moving through a full range of motion is important when trying to build your pecs. If you don't, your muscles will not get fully worked and you will compromise your progress. You also want to avoid using momentum to move the weights. For incline bench presses, lie face-up on an incline bench and place your hands wider than shoulder-width apart on the barbell. Steadily push the bar off the supports and hold it directly above your body with your arms fully extended. Keeping your abs tight, slowly lower the bar down until it lightly touches your upper chest. Push the bar back up in a steady motion and repeat.
Heavy Resistance
Using light weights will not spark up a lot of pectoral muscle growth. If size is what you want, go heavy with your lifts. Aim for a resistance that you can only lift eight to 12 times with proper form. If you need assistance, have a spotter on hand during your workouts. Perform four of five sets and work out every three days. Training on consecutive days will not allow your muscles time to heal and you also risk getting injured.
Tips with Dieting
Muscles need proper nutrients to recover and grow. Your body in general needs to be fed well for energy during workouts. Make sure to follow a balanced diet that contains quality sources of protein, carbs and fat. Include foods like lean beef, poultry, eggs, beans, whole grains, fruits, vegetables, seeds and nuts.
Member Comments