Building the chest muscles or pectorals quickly requires creating a growth stimulus through targeted weight-training. In addition, you must provide adequate nutrition and rest for your body to rebuild the pectorals bigger and stronger. Many make the mistake of over-training, which can lead to stagnant muscle growth, or even muscle loss. Simplify your workout and focus on lower volume, at a higher intensity. Warming up properly and training with the optimal rep-range, as well as a few targeted mass techniques, can lead to a quick surge of pectoral growth. Follow these guidelines to quickly build the chest muscles.
Step 1
Begin with occlusion warm-ups. According to "Ironman Magazine" contributors and fitness experts Jonathan Lawson and Steve Holman, this specific way of warming up the chest muscles helps to pump more blood into the muscle fibers to fuel intense working sets. Occlusion warm-ups are done with a light weight, slowly lowering with a three- to four-second cadence for eight to 12 repetitions. Two warm-up sets with 50 percent and 75 percent of your working weight should do the trick.
Step 2
Use a compound movement as your first exercise. Examples of compound movements for the chest are bench press, incline dumbbell press or decline bench press. After two occlusion warm-up sets, do one or two working sets to failure. Training to failure means stopping the set when you can no longer do another controlled repetition, aiming for nine to 12 reps, the hypertrophy or muscle-growth repetition range. Have a partner spot you to avoid injury. Jonathan Lawson and Steve Holman, X-rep authors, recommend decline bench press as the "ultimate exercise" for training the chest muscles.
Step 3
Grab a pair of dumbbells, the heaviest weight you can control for nine to 12 reps, and do a set or two of flat bench dumbbell flyes to failure. Following your compound movement with this stretch overload exercise, will hit other muscle fibers, which may have been missed in the first exercise. According to Jonathan Lawson and Steve Holman, muscle fiber recruitment happens in a very specific order. Stretch overload, for example, was shown to have a very anabolic effect in animal studies, increasing lean mass 300 percent in one month.
Step 4
Finish with one or two sets of cable crossovers. This contraction movement targets stubborn muscle fibers that may have been missed with the compound and stretch overload exercises. To put more tension on the pectorals, try using a negative (downward stroke) with a three-second count. The positive range of the exercise should be performed with a controlled explosive movement.
Step 5
Add "x-reps" to the last set of each of the above exercises. For the compound move, bench press for example, finish your set with as many 6- to 8-inch pulsing mini-reps as you can at the mid-point of the range of motion. Once you have reached the point of failure your partner will stabilize the weight, allowing you to do these x-reps. For the stretch movement or flat bench flyes, you will do the same 6- to 8-inch pulsing mini-reps in the lowest stretch position your individual flexibility allows. On cable crossovers, you will do x-reps at the top or fully contracted position, where your hands touch or cross over. X-reps allow you to extend the tension of the final set of each exercise, to stimulate growth factors in more muscle fibers.
Step 6
Consume adequate nutrients for recovery. One good strategy, recommended by "Muscle Nerd" Jeff Anderson, is to take a post-workout protein shake containing: 50g of whey protein, 100g of carbohydrates (from dextrose or fruit juice) and 30g healthy fats, such as flaxseed oil or medium-chain triglycerides. This nutrient-timing strategy gives your muscles the much-needed nutrition to begin the process of rebuilding and recovery.
Things You'll Need
- Whey protein
- Dextrose
- Fruit juice
- Flaxseed oil
- Medium-chain triglycerides
References
- Optimum Anabolics; Jeff Anderson; CQC LLC, 2004
- 3-D Muscle-Building; Jonathan Lawson and Steve Holman; Homebody Productions, 2007
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