Jeff Cavaliere of AthleanX put together this home killer chest workout video. It goes to show that you don’t need expensive equipment or gym memberships to build muscle. Most of these exercises are body weight exercises, or they require a few dumbbells, elastic straps, and tubing. You can probably get all of this on eBay or Craigslist for no more than $50.
The bench press is a staple of any weighted chest workout (and for good reason). Here’s a good video from Smitty over at DieselCrew. This video is great because it shows you how to do a bench press properly without tearing up your shoulders. Here’s a run down:
Proper Grip: Hold the bar with your hands shoulder width apart and just
Full Body Exercise: The bench press is a full body exercise. If your entire body isn’t sore at the end of it, you’re doing something wrong
Watch Your Shoulders: Stick your shoulders right on the bench
Arch Your Back: Your quads and gluts should be contracted and pushing into the floor. Your upper back should be tight. In fact, the arch should be enough for someone to put their hand under your back. The back is the foundation of this exercise, so it needs to be tight. By focusing on “pulling the bar apart”, you recruit your lats, helping you get stronger AND prevent injury.
Elbows Down: Amateurs and untrained weight lifters tend to flare their elbows out. This causes the bench to come down around your collar bone… a recipe for shoulder pain. The proper way to do it is to slightly turn your elbows in so the barbell comes down across your chest and not your collar bone. Not only does this build muscle, but it engages your triceps more
Over/Under Spotting: Your spotter should use an alternating grip (one hand facing you and the other facing him) so he can guide the barbell just in case you lose control
There you have it. A few simple tips to getting the most out of your bench press.
We like isometrics and plyometrics a lot here at IronChestWorkouts.com and feel that they’re a great addition to any workout routine. Here’s a short video by Lee Hayward of Blast Your Bench doing plyometric pushups on a Bosu ball. Typical plyometric pushups provide an incredible chest workout because of their explosive nature. They develop a ton of power in your chest because of the quick burst of energy required to lift yourself off the ground. The only problem is that it can be tough on your joints. Years of weight lifting or other high impact activities could make these pushups a real no-go for you… until now. Lee’s variation of this pushup is really smart. Of course, this exercise is great for your shoulders and triceps and will lead to more muscle mass. Try it out and see how you feel afterwards.
If you’re looking for a good chest workout, but can’t invest hundreds (or thousands) of dollars in fitness equipment and don’t have the time to run to the gym 4 days a week (especially if you’re married with young children), read on.
A secret weapon in the fitness arsenal of many super athletes (like Bruce Lee) is isometric exercises. Isometric exercises involve muscle contractions against an immovable object like a wall, or even another body part. Isometrics were made popular in the early 20th century by Charles Atlas, a former weakling who allegedly built muscle by simply performing “dynamic tension” exercises. While some in the body building community doubt this claim (he supposedly lifted weights also), the value of isometrics can’t be underestimated, especially with regards to chest exercises.
They’re ideal because they can be performed anytime, anywhere. For example, a very common isometric chest exercise is a palm press. This is where you press your palms together (as if you’re praying), exerting as much force as possible. It is an incredibly effective way to build your chest and shoulder muscles. Once you get the hang of it, another variation of this workout is to simply extend your hands in front of you while still pushing together as hard as you can. This will further isolate your chest. These exercises should be done with as much force as you can muster for as long as you can.
If you’ve never tried isometrics before, you should seriously add it to your chest workout routine. Because if you do it right, it’ll be the cheapest chest exercise you’ve ever done… and trust me, you’ll notice results.
You’re looking to get the most from your chest workout routine; this probably means a larger, more well-defined chest AND a noticable increase in strength. Here are a few quick tips to stop spinning your wheels and actually build muscle fast. Since lots of skinny guys are looking for shortcuts to build muscle mass fast, these tips will help you plan your workouts efficiently so you can get the best results by working out intelligently. The adage of working smarter not harder certainly rings true here.
1. Perform Less Reps
High repetition lifts emphasize the slow-twitch muscle fibers, which have the least opportunity for growth. Since you want to recruit as much muscle fiber as you can, it’s critical to lift with heavy weights and low repetitions. “Muscle fiber recruitment” means that you want to call as many muscle fibers into action as you can. Heavier weights will force your body to draw upon as much muscle as possible. Typically, an exercise that workouts out multiple muscle groups is what you want to do, like bench presses, dips, dead lifts, etc. Avoid high repetition exercises like isolated bicep curls that focus on just one muscle. Get in the frame of mind that every single rep of every single set is a battle in the war to build muscle. Having a workout partner or trainer will help ensure that you keep proper form and don’t injure yourself. Take this seriously if you want to actually build muscle.
2. Reduce Your Workout Time
In addition to doing less reps, make sure you perform the exercises in less time. Think about it, who’s more fit, a guy who can bench 4 sets of 185 pounds with 2 minutes or rest or the guy that can do the exact same amount of weight and reps with only 30 seconds of rest in between? This is why the Navy Seal conditioning workout, which calls for continuous sets of pushups, situps, and pullups calls for a very short rest in between. It won’t be easy, and you’ll probably feel exhausted. But if you want to build muscle, you have to act with purpose and push through the pain.
3. Do Only One Exercise Per Muscle Group
Your body builds muscle after you stimulate them… or dare I say, provoke them into growing. Working out breaks down your muscles and forces them to come back stronger and tougher. So to get the most out of it, some will say that you should just focus on one muscle group. For example, one day you could simply focus on chest exercises. Depending on the workout plan you’re following, you can just work on your bench press. To get the most out of your workout, and to ensure that you’ve recruited as much muscle fiber as possible, you can gradually build up the amount of weight and the in each of your sets by about 20 pounds. So if you start with a set of 8 reps doing 185 pounds, by your third set you should be benching 225 pounds. This will literally provoke your body to build muscle super fast.
4. Set Muscle Building Goals
Setting goals is the key to success in most any endeavor in life. One of the biggest mistakes people make is not creating muscle building goals. They hit the gym week in and week out with no real plan for the kind of results they expect. How do they expect to gain muscle mass without a clear plan and a way to track their progress? Think about it, your body is created to progressively handle whatever is thrown at it. But if you choose to add just 5% more weight to your workout every few weeks, you constantly trigger your body to deal with the incremental increase in weight. Having a plan and sticking to it is not only good for building muscle, it’s motivating! Tracking your progress just makes you feel better about yourself. If you add just 5% of weight to your workout every few weeks, in about 6 months, you’ll double the amount of weight you can lift.
5. Rest
Remember, the whole point of working out is to trigger, or as we mentioned earlier, provoke your muscles to regrow after being torn and broken down. But the real action happens after you put down the bar and head home. The rest after your workout is when your body begins the recovery process. After your workout is when your muscle fibers start to rebuild, and you guessed it, increase in size. Proper rest and nutrition are just what your body needs to do its thing.
The pullover is an exercise you seldom see done in the gym anymore. Yet back in the “Pumping Iron” days of bodybuilding it was a staple in almost everyone’s routine.In fact, way back in the old days before the invention of bench presses with upright racks for holding the bar, guys would do a barbell pullover, lifting the bar from the floor to their chest, and then do their bench presses. But gradually over the years this exercise got pushed to the wayside and is hardly ever done by the average gym goer.
The main benefit from pullovers is that they help expand the rib cage and work all the supporting muscle groups along the torso, chest, lats, arms, and shoulders through a full range of motion. This can really help add thickness and depth to your torso, which is one area that a lot of people lack these days.
I know from the majority of people that I see at the gym that very few of them have a well developed torso. It’s actually quite common to see a guy with muscular arms and shoulders stacked on a slim chest and torso. But by adding pullovers to your routine you can help fill out and expand your rib cage and correct this problem. Your rib cage is the frame work that supports all your upper body muscles. So if you have a well built frame underneath, the muscles of your chest, shoulders, lats, and arms will look much more impressive. I was fortunate enough to have included pullovers as a regular exercise in my workouts from the start and I think this has certainly helped me to develop a large rib cage and good chest expansion.
The main reason I even did this exercise was the fact I started training in a simple home gym and didn’t have access to a lot of the fancy machines that are so common in most gyms today. So from having limited equipment I tried to include as much training variety as I could using basic free weight barbell and dumbbell exercises. For this reason I sometimes feel that training with limited gym equipment can be a blessing in disguise.
There are two basic variations to the pullover, the barbell version and the cross bench dumbbell version. One is not necessarily better then the other, both work well. I personally feel that the dumbbell pullover stretches the chest a bit more and the barbell pullover places a little more emphasis on the lats. But you can pick the one that feels the best for you, or if you have no preference you can alternate back and forth between both variations. The main thing is that you just do them.
Dumbbell Pullover
Barbell Pullover
The pullover is a stretching exercise, so you’ll make better gains from using a moderate weight, higher reps, and really working through a full range of motion. Add weight to the exercise in a gradual progressive fashion, but never at the expense of sacrificing your exercise form.
Depending on your body structure and how you do the exercise you may feel it working the chest, or you may feel it working the lats, or a combination of the two. So you could include pullovers with your chest or back workouts. The main thing is that you do them consistently so you reap the results that they have to offer.
The first time you do the exercise start off with a light weight and just get used to the movement and the range of motion required. Then go up by 5 – 10 pound jumps in weight each set. By going through this process you’ll naturally find the sweet spot where you have enough weight that allows you to stimulate the muscles hard, yet still be able to perform the exercise through a deep range of motion and fully stretch out your entire rib cage, chest, and lats.
Start off with 1 – 2 warm up sets and then take a working weight that allows for 15 reps with good form. Do 2 – 3 working sets and really focus on feeling the muscles stretch and contract with each rep. Another little tip that will help add to the effectiveness is to take a deep breath before each rep and hold your air in as you lower the weight. This will give you an even deeper stretch throughout the rib cage.
You’ll get more benefit from doing pullovers at the end of your workout when your muscles are already pumped. Doing stretching exercises when you are pumped up and the muscles feel tight will aid in muscle growth because the connective tissues are already being stretched from the blood volume in the muscles, and then by doing stretching exercises at this time as well you get a double whammy effect. This really stretches the connective tissue and increases your muscle growth potential.
By doing pullovers as a staple exercise in your workout routine you are going to experience a good upper body growth spurt and also notice an improvement in your flexibility and mobility for a lot of your other exercises as well. Give it a try and don’t be surprised if you add an inch or two to your chest measurement in as little as 6 weeks.
If you would like some more advanced workout tips on how you can build muscle mass and increase your strength than download a copy of my BlastYourBench.com program. This is a complete power bodybuilding training system that will show you how to cycle your workouts for rapid muscle gains.
About The Author:
Lee Hayward is a competitive bodybuilder, powerlifter, and muscle
building coach who is committed to helping aspiring bodybuilders and
fitness enthusiasts gain muscle, burn body fat, and develop a strong
muscular body.Lee is also the author of the Blast Your Bench program, which teaches you how to increase your max bench press by as
much as 50 pounds in as little as 3 weeks, regardless of your previous
weight training experience. To learn more about how you can quickly
increase your strength and gain lean muscular bodyweight, just visit
Lee’s website at BlastYourBench.com
I’m no big fan of Matthew McConaughey (except for maybe “A Time to Kill”) and I really wish someone would tell him to keep his bloody shirt on, but apparently lots of people want to know what kind of chest workout he does. It’s hard to deny that he does work hard to stay fit. As a martial artist, and proponent of isometrics and body weight exercises, I was surprised to read that McConaughey’s chest exercise routine consists of pushups and isometric exercises. Granted, this workout probably isn’t going to make you massively stronger, or help you increase too much muscle. But if you’re slim or moderately muscular, it probably will help you get a bit more defined. Here’s a quick overview of his workout. In most cases he performs each of the exercises to failure, meaning he just does them until he can’t do them anymore.
1). Pushups: Regular pushups are a good exercise to condition your chest, triceps, and shoulders. Variations of course will isolate these muscle groups and help make them stronger. Simply adjust how far your hands are from each other to target different muscles. Close grip works out your triceps wherease wider grip works out your chest more.
2). Incline Pushups: These pushups workout the upper chest more than regular pushups. You want to place your hands on a stair step or a chair and continue like doing a regular pushup.
3). Isometric Pushups: Isometric pushups are an excellent way to improve endurance and focus on your stabilizer muscles. Martial artists like Bruce Lee were known to perform these to develop quite a bit of strength.
Again, simply doing these chest exercises won’t really bulk you up or help you lose massive amounts of weight. But if you stick to your routine, you’ll notice more definition and strength over time.
Looking to blast your chest workout? Check out how this millionaire entrepreneur/author/cultural sensation got huge in less than a month. Check out these measurements:
Chest Size: From 37.5″ To 43″
Shoulders – From 43″ To 52″
So, you’ve probably heard of the mega successful author, Tim Ferriss. He wrote the mega-bestseller, The Four Hour Workweek, the ultimate guide to life-hacking. If you’re a fan, you probably have read his incredibly popular blog. In it, he shares neat tricks and things that most any guy would love to know how to do. From running a successful online business, to having lucid dreams, to learning how to swim better, to holding your breath like David Blaine, to optimizing your sleeping patterns, to building the world’s most efficient fire, his blog is a resource for young guys looking to make money, athletes looking to improve performance, and entrepreneurs looking for inspiration. One of his most popular blog posts (740 comments and counting) is about how he gained 34 pounds of muscle in 4 weeks. In this amazing blog post he goes over how he gained a massive amount of muscle very methodically and in a step by step manner. It has lots of before and after pictures. Trust me, seeing is believing…
Though clearly helpful for men, he says that the principles he describes can also be followed by women. After being a runt for most of his life, he did an exhaustive analysis on the science of muscle growth. If you know anything about him, you’ll know that when he says exhaustive, he means EXHAUSTIVE. He learned everything there is to know about optimal muscle growth and made it super-efficient. So not only did he gain an incredible amount of muscle, he lowered his cholesterol from 222 to 147. But the real kicker comes when he mentions:
Oh, and I forgot to mention, all of this was done with two 30-minute workouts per week, for a total of 4 HOURS of gym time
Here are the 6 principles that he followed:
1. He followed Arthur Jones’ recommendations for one-set-to-failure from the little-known Colorado Experiment, but did it only twice a week
2. Perform every repetition 5 seconds up and 5 seconds down to ensure constant load and avoid “cheating” by using momentum
3. Induce maximal hormonal response by working out the entire body, focusing on no more than 7 multi-joint exercises each session
4. Eat lots and lots of protein with low glycemic index carbs
5. Exercise with less frequency as you progress. Ideally, you want to exercise less and less the bigger and stronger you become. The reason is that the stronger you get, the longer it will take to recover, so you don’t want your workouts to be counter productive.
6. Take accurate notes including date, time of day, order of exercise, repetitions, and weight.
Just imagine gaining this much muscle in a month… and only putting in an hour per week to boot. This is probably one of the best chest workout routines you can ever follow. The key to it is to treat it as an experiment. Follow the instructions carefully and document your progress. You should see tons of progress.
Looking to vary your chest workout? Our last blog post discussed adding isometrics to your chest workout routine and in this post we’ll discuss why you need to add plyometrics to your exercise routine. If you’re looking for killer a chest workout, plyometric pushups are deceptively simple, and just as effective.
Plyometrics are used by top athletes to develop explosive power. Power is defined as speed and strength, so by simply condensing the amount of time it take to perform a specific muscle contraction, you are building power. Plyometric exercises are geared towards developing incredible power by enhancing “explosive” reactions via quick and powerful muscular contractions, usually done by some sort of jumping movement. Watch these plyometric exercise videos… better yet, do 15 plyometric push ups right NOW and see how you feel! The following video demonstrates how plyometric pushups are done and why they are so effective. They are especially effective for martial artists, sprinters, football players, and fighters who need to generate power dynamically and quickly. Now of course plyometric pushups workout your triceps and deltoids, they can be done by spreading your hands wide as well. “Clap push-ups” where you spread your hands wide and clap your hands after pushing up are essentially a plyometric exercise and help build explosive chest strength.
If you’re looking for a greatchest workout, this video is all you really need. It requires no workout equipment and is simply a variation of the common push-up. It’s a variation of isometric exercises. The premise is to flex your muscles as hard as you can while performing the given exercise. It’s a great addition to any exercise, not just chest exercises. If you try just 10 of these push-ups, it’ll be one of the best chest workouts you’ve had in a while. Now to be honest, it’s very easy to cheat when doing any isometric type of exercise because there’s no objective way to measure how much force you’re exerting, so you have to be honest with yourself and flex as much as you can. But if you do, it just might double the effectiveness of your workout. This concept is so simple but extremely effective… no fancy equipment and no expensive gym memberships needed.
Add it to your chest workout routine and leave a comment here about how it worked for you.
Chest workouts are probably the most popular type of exercise around. Whenever guys go to the gym, they almost immediately focus on their bench press. How much you can bench is the most common gauge of how strong you are…
The problem is that guy focus all of their energy trying to build a larger and more powerful chest to the detriment of the rest of their body. Furthermore, they may be only working on a very small amount of their chest muscles and completely ignoring others. This just might be why after spending countless hours in the gym, people still don’t see the results they were looking for. Experts will tell you that rather than focusing on having a great looking chest, you should focus instead on working all of the muscles in your chest, including the sides and lower part. Exercising the entire muscle group (in tandem with other muscle groups) will eventually lead to greater overall strength, and a solid physique as a by-product.
Another problem is that most people don’t all of the muscles that make up their chest, let alone know how to effectively exercise all of them. Obviously, everyone knows about the pectoralis muscles (or pecs) which are connected to your shoulders and stretch across the upper half of your rib cage. They are responsible for most lifting and pushing activities. But the lesser know chest muscles are the subclavius and serratus muscles, which are below the pecs. These give your arms and shoulders more maneuverability and help you to push and punch. Working these muscles is critically important to fighters and military personnel who are concerned less with looking huge and more with being able to fight. These muscles are why exercises like incline and decline bench presses are so important. These help give you greater overall strength to your upper body and have got to be a part of your chest exercise routine. And since the arms and chest work so closely with each other, it’s critical to maintain proper form so that each muscle group is exercised optimally. Otherwise your chest workout is a shadow of what it really could be.
Other than that, common sense tips like varying the angles of your grip, slow reps (particularly when lowering the weight), proper breathing, good form, and having a spotter are critical to getting the most out of your chest workout.
The pullover is an exercise you seldom see done in the gym anymore. Yet back in the “Pumping Iron” days of bodybuilding it was a staple in almost everyone’s routine.In fact, way back in the old days before the invention of bench presses with upright racks for holding the bar, guys would do a barbell pullover, lifting the bar from the floor to their chest, and then do their bench presses. But gradually over the years this exercise got pushed to the wayside and is hardly ever done by the average gym goer.
