Want a bigger chest??????

Chest training is probably one of people's favorite body parts to train, however most people struggle to build a great chest due to reason's they are not even aware of and would not even cross their mind!!!

Why is this???

Well first of all in today's world most people sit at a desk in front of a computer all day long and they drive for long periods of time which means they are in a constant protracted forward posture, this means the chest muscles will be very short (tight) due to the amount of time they spend there! This also causes the traps, rhomboids to be weak because they not used very often!

The issue we have here is that when most people train chest they are not able to keep the scapula stable so they not able to lock in the shoulder during any chest movement, this is where things like rotator cuff injuries start appearing!

A lot of people think Bench press is the king of exercises but if you are locked through thoracic or have mobility issues through the shoulder at this moment in time this may not be the best exercise for you!

As mentioned above the first thing you have to start with is looking at your posture, if you feel you are forward protracted, your first job is to start working on mobility so that we can start to get good stability to extend the thoracic as well as depression and retraction.

What is scapular retraction and how do we perform this?

Scapular retraction involves pinching your shoulder blades together. You want to make sure that your scapular is properly retracted during most upper body movements, especially when training chest. What you want to do is learn to suck your scapulae into your body (through a combination of flexing the back muscles and the serratus anterior muscles) while making sure that you have adequate scapular retraction whilst trying to keep in extended position through the thoracic.

If you struggle to vision this please get in touch and I will be happy to produce a video showing you how to do this.

Once you managed to learn how to retract and depress the scapular, its all about repetition and get the muscles as strong as possible, I would suggest doing this for 15 minutes prior to every session in the gym but in particular when training chest.

When you have this sorted you now need to look at the chest anatomy and really understand how the muscle fibers align.

Lets take a look

We can see here the direction of the muscle fibers so now we need to look at exercises that work alongside the muscle fibers so that they can be recruited optimally.

Every muscle is the body has three parts, which need to be worked when the muscle is being trained, the lengthened, mid and short.

Most people are weak in the short and lengthened range but very strong in the mid range so for that reason they stay in that mid range which is another reason why they are not improving the chest muscularity.

If you want to have a chest that is full and round then you must train at all the extremes.

Another reason why most people struggle to build a great chest is because they are actually not using the chest fibers 100%, instead they are using the triceps and shoulders to help them lift the weight, I see this day in day out in gym’s across the world!

So number 1 rule here is to leave your ego at the door, drop the weight and learn proper muscle contraction and keep that muscle under tension the whole time! YES you will NOT be able to lift a lot of weight at the beginning but you will get a lot more bang for your buck TRUST ME.

So now that we know the reasons why you not been able to grow your chest, lets put a plan together to help you grow a chest to be proud of. YOU READY????

Ok first thing is first, you need to be prepared to learn again and it might get a little frustrating at the beginning but I promise you once you get passed this part you will love seeing your chest grow.

Lets put a plan together.

Day 1: 15 minutes of scapular retraction and depression

Exercise 1: Lets start with chest activation, this will count a warm up.

Standing cable fly’s: 3 x Sets of 10 to 12 reps – Here you want to make sure you

contract the chest before you move the weight from a lengthened position, keep the muscle under tension through the full range of motion and contract in the shortened position for 2 seconds.

Exercise 2: Now we are going to move to a more compound movement, mostly working the mid range.

Incline Bench Press: 4 x Sets of 8 to 10 reps – Here you want to make sure your elbow’s are aligned with the bar which is where the line of force is, this will put a lot more emphasis on the upper chest, make sure you DO NOT bend your arms and start using the triceps to push the weight. Make sure you move the bar by contracting the chest and bring you biceps towards your chest, on the eccentric (negative) keep the tension on your chest by gripping the bar inwards, stop two inches short of touching your chest and repeat.

Exercise 3: Here we going to move on to dumbbell work, here we are working the mid and short range of the muscle

Flat Dumbbell Press: 3 x sets of 10 to 12 reps – Here once again you need to make sure your elbows are in the same line of force as the dumbbells to put more emphasis on the chest and not any other muscle! As per the incline barbell press, make sure you move the dumbbells by contracting the chest and bring you biceps towards your chest, really emphasize the contraction to get the muscle as short as possible, hold there for a least 2 seconds.

Exercise 4: Here we are going to be concentrating more on the lengthened range of the chest.

Machine Pec Dec: 3 x sets 10 to 15 reps – Here we going to start with the chest as stretched as possible but still making sure we can contract from that position, once again moving the load by contracting the chest and trying to complete a full rep by contracting as hard as possible in the short range, when we start to fatigue stay in the lengthened range and keep working the muscle there until you no longer able to move the load.

Repeat this workout twice per week with at least 3 days in between and watch your chest grow J

Thank me in a few months when you have the biggest chest in your gym!

PS: This is a very generic workout, anybody I work with one to one will be fully assessed so that we can individualize the program as much as possible, as part of my assessment I look at the below:

. Sternum angle

. Clavicle Length

. Length of the arm

. How much muscle is or isn’t already there.

. Thoracic and scapula mobility

. Active range

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