How to develop your chest – beginners guide

Chest is the most noticeable muscle part on our body, so it is normal that all professional and amateur body builders as well as “hobby” lifters wants to build big, defined chest.

I myself have never had problems with chest muscles and this is mainly because I have played sport my whole life, starting with 7 years old with soccer. And of course, I started working out when I got into puberty and girls started interesting me. What a cliché. Normally my beginnings were done with homemade dumbbells and with body weight exercises, mainly pushups and crunches, but it was enough at that young age to develop my chest.

Anatomy

The chest is made from two muscles, pectoralis minor which is located directly under the pectoralis major which is what you see when you look yourself in the mirror. Even though chest is basically one big lump of clay, you should treat and train it like it is from three parts. The upper, middle and lower section, and all can be hit just by changing the angle in which you perform the exercise.

To make it visual, lets take the best and the most basic exercise that all should do, bench press. With bench press you can hit all three parts of your chest just by adjusting angle of your bench. To hit upper chest your bench must be at 30 to 45% incline angle. For hitting middle part, you need flat bench and to hit lower part put bench on 30 to 45% decline angle.

Now how to train chest

As a beginner you should aim to develop flexibility and strength of your muscles and joints, with lower weight, proper form and slightly higher rep range.

Now if you are at the beginning of your body transformation/development, then I would suggest, that you include some chest exercises in your full body program/training which is done 3 to 4 times per week, and don’t dedicate your whole training to chest.

The best way is to start with your body weight, that way you have lower risk of injuries as your muscles will tell you when to stop. Push-ups are the way to go here, and again you can hit all three parts of chest here. You can do wide pushups, narrow pushups, incline pushups, decline pushups, diamond pushups,…

When you feel comfortable enough to escalate your training then include free weights with lower weight and build up from there. Don’t rush and risk an injury as you can lose all your hard-earned progress. It is not how much you can lift contest so don’t get caught in numbers game.

For me, the best way to develop and shape pecs is with bench press. It is one of the best strength-building compound exercise as multiple muscle groups are working here.

When doing bench press do controlled movement with 5 second drop and 2 second trust, 1 second pause and squeeze at the top, then repeat. Don’t lock your elbows when at the top as you will develop unnecessary and unpleasant elbow pain which will part you from your training and development.

Here are chest workouts to be included in your full body program for 3/4 times per week

Training 1 Upper Chest Day

• Incline Barbell Bench Press 3 sets of 8-12 reps
• Incline Dumbbell Bench Press 3 sets of 8-12 reps
• Pushups 3 sets of 12-15 reps

Training 2 Middle Chest Day

• Flat Barbell Bench Press 3 sets of 8-12 reps
• Flat Dumbbell Bench Press 3 sets of 8-12 reps
• Pushups 3 sets of 12-15 reps

Training 3 Lower Chest Day

• Decline Barbell Bench Press 3 sets of 8-12 reps
• Decline Dumbbell Bench Press 3 sets of 8-12 reps
• Pushups 3 sets of 12-15 reps

Training 4 Mix Chest Day

• Incline Barbell Bench Press 3 sets of 8-12 reps
• Pushups 3 sets of 12-15 reps
• Decline Dumbbell Bench Press 3 sets of 8-12 reps
• Dips 3 sets of 6-10 reps

This is beginner chest workout program which can be also done at home or vacation with minimum equipment (you can do all movements with resistance band) or without if doing with your own body weight (different styles and angles of pushups). It is quite straight forward program which will give you results really quick. But don’t forget on proper form, regeneration and proper eating program (3-5 healthy meals per day with balanced ration of proteins, fats and carbs).  

And remember, it will not get easier, you will get stronger and fit!