Best Chest Workouts for Men Building Pecs

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Target Details for Chest Muscle Workout for Men

Body Part: Chest

Target Muscle:  Pecs

Equipment: Dumbbells

Category: Exercise for men

 

Are you planning to start some chest exercises and muscle building exercises for the pecs? No need to wonder and search anymore, we have done the work for you to bring you the 5 best chest exercises for men that can build your chest fast.

There are a number of exercises you can do to develop the chest. But in fact, you need to know the best and most effective exercises for building a muscular chest.

This list does not contain difficult exercises to do. It only focuses on the best mass building exercises. Each exercise will have a simple explanation and appropriate instructions for its exact performance.

You can include these exercises in your regular schedule. And start your chest exercises with the help of these. You can try one of these exercises if your workouts are outdated, less effective, or if you want to implement new routines.

Knowing certain movements is an integral part of chest-building exercises. You can add different movements to develop a specific exercise program in your muscle building workout plans.

Chest Muscle Anatomy

The chest circumference or the so-called pectoralis is located in the frontal area of the chest, and it is a large fan-like muscle. It consists of four muscles that play a major role in building strength in the upper body, namely: the Pectoralis Major and Minor, the Serratus Anterior and finally the Subclavian.

Its main role is in adduction, flexion and internal rotation of the forearm bone.

 

 

Benefits of Chest Workout

There are many benefits to chest-building exercises that target the upper body. Below I extract a list of the main benefits:

• Strong pectoral muscles can improve your posture.
• A strong chest improves the strength of your back muscles.
• Strong chest muscles contribute to the overall strength of the upper body.
• The chest muscles play a vital role in your ability to push and move a heavy object.
• Strengthening the Deltoid and Triceps muscles.
• You look better and great in shape and you will have an overall attractive body, while performing regular chest workouts for men.

 

Safety Equipment

Before starting, it is advisable to wear Crossfit hand Grips to avoid any kind of damage or tearing of calluses and blisters on your hands, as you will be carrying heavy weights during training which will give you the advantage of overcoming any injury.

Do you need to Warm up before Starting Chest Workouts?

Do the following routine before your chest-building workout. The movements will work the muscles in your shoulders, chest, arms, and back. Which helps increase your ability to lift more weight and prevents you from getting injured. The exercises will take no more than 10-12 minutes.

1. Close Grip Pushups: Lie on the floor on your stomach, raise your body by placing your palms on the floor and your arm straight, Put your hands close to each other. Your body is in a straight line starting from your head to your ankles, this will be the starting position.
   Begin the warm-up by lowering your body until your chest almost touches the floor, Make sure your elbow is at 45 degrees away from your trunk, then push yourself back up to the starting position. This is one reps, Repeat for 6-8 times.
2. Wide-Hands Pushups: Similar to push-ups, place your hands about twice the width of your shoulders. The close grip targets the mid-chest muscles, but the wider hands target the upper and lower layer chest muscles.
3. Dumbbell Bent Arm Lateral Raise: Grab a pair of lightweight dumbbells and hold them at shoulder ​length with your palms facing each other. Bend your elbows to 90 degrees so that your forearms are parallel to the floor. Keeping your arms bent, raise your upper arms out to the sides until they are parallel to the floor.
   Pause this position, then return the movement to the starting position, lowering your arms, but keeping the elbow 90 degree. Do a routine of 1-2 sets of 15 reps.

To help you even more, I’ve added an extra exciting warm-up for Stretching Chest Muscles without equipment to get the maximum benefits of your workout to reduce tight muscles.

 

5 Best Chest Workouts for Men

 

1: Barbell Bench Press Exercise

(Equipment: Barbell Bench Press)

You can produce tremendous power just by lifting iron. In fact, a regular barbell bench allows you to exercise with hefty weights, which is easier than lifting heavier dumbbells. It is an easy to learn and know the exercise as well. There are many bench press programs that you can rely on to improve your strength. Moreover, it is a great at-home chest muscle routine.

If you’re a beginner, start with lightweight bars, until to practice the movement in the right form and build the initial muscle strength.

How to Perform workout?

• Lie on a flat bench. Using a medium-width grip (slightly wider than shoulder-width), lift the bar off the rack and continue to hold it in a straight line above you with the arms locked. This will be your starting position.
• Now, start gradually lowering the bar until it touches your middle chest.
• Pause for a moment, then push the bar back to the starting position while inhaling. Focus on pushing the bar using your chest muscles. Bring your arms together and crush your chest into the contracted position while the barbell is on top, hold for a second and then slowly start lowering again.
• Repeat the routine for the specified 4-5 reps of two sets.
• When you complete with each set, put the bar back on the rack.

 

Note: Begin chest exercises with heavy sets of lower repetition ranges. Keep changing the grip width on the bar to hit all the layers of the chest muscles and get a full growth of the chest.

Safety Measurement

• If you are a beginner in this exercise, it is preferable to get help from a friend, if it is not accessible, it is better to start with a light weight to avoid any issue or injury.
• Be careful when giving the barbell a chance to excessively float forward. You need a bar to be relocate to the center of your chest and not anywhere else on your body.
• Try not to swing the load off your chest. You must be in complete control of your hand weight at all times.

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2: Flat Bench Dumbbell Press

(Equipment: Flat Bench,  Dumbbells)

Each side of your body should be carried out independently with dumbbells, and You will stabilize your muscles in a better way. While dumbbells are a bit more difficult to control than a barbell, However, Dumbbells allow you to perform a wide range of motion using the bench press than barbell.

Flat dumbbells allow you to lift heavy weights and allow your elbows to move behind your torso. And these bench presses will be your best alternative if you are fed up of barbell bench presses.

Do flat dumbbells at the beginning of your chest workout for heavy sets of the lower repetition ranges. We do not suggest that you do dumbbell presses along with the barbell bench press. In fact, both movements are somewhat similar.

Electromyography (EMG) analysis established this similarity between both types of exercises. It did demonstrate that there is no definite difference in barbell bench press and dumbbell press with respect to muscle development.

• Electromyography (EMG): An electro-diagnostic medical technique for evaluating and recording the electrical activity produced by skeletal muscles. It detects the electrical potential generated by your muscle cells.

How to Perform Workout?

• Lie on an Workout Bench with a dumbbell in each hand and place it on each of your thighs. Your palms should face each other.
• Then, with the help of your thighs, push your hands to raise the dumbbells and keep your fist on the shoulder width. Adjust the direction of the sides of the dumbbell heads to be vertical to your torso.
• While hands are shoulder width apart, start moving your wrists to the sides and away from your torso. The dumbbells should be pulled to the sides of the chest, so that the angle of the upper and lower arms is 90 degrees. Make sure to maintain complete control of the dumbbells reliably. This will be your initial position.
• At this point, when you breathe out, use your chest to lift the dumbbells up, by fully extending your arms.
• Repeat 6 to 8 times, in 3 sets. Take a 5 minute break between sets.

Safety Measurement

When you’re done, don’t drop the barbell by your side because this is unsafe for the rotator sleeve in your shoulders and anyone can be around you. Just lower the weights gradually and put them on the floor.

Varieties

Another type of activity involves palms facing each other.

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3: Low Incline Barbell Bench Press

(Equipment: Barbell, Flat Bench Press)

Several benches have been customized with multi inclines to perform different exercises. In order to get a significant contribution from the chest to lifting the weight, you need to go for a low incline bench if that is possible for you. So that it will hit the upper pecs area without putting too much pressure on delts.

You can do this on low incline benches on a Smith machine using an adjustable bench, if you want to build mass from the top of your chest. Also, the analysis of the electromyogram suggests that you bring your fist a little closer, as this will affect the muscles of your chest muscles significantly.

In your workout

First, most chest exercises start with the flat workout bench and then use the inclined bench. But it’s time to get rid of this bad habit, So, start with the inclines levels. You can lift more weight that puts a lot of weight and puts pressure on your upper chest muscles. Therefore, it will lead to greater development.

How to Perform workout?

• Load the bar at the appropriate weight for you.
• Adjust the bench back to be inclined at an angle of 35-45 degrees. Lie on the exercise bench, so your back on the inclined side, and keep your feet flat on the floor.
• Hold the bar at a grip distance slightly greater than shoulder width. Dismount the bar from the rack, keeping the load above your chest with your arms fully extended. This will be your starting position.
• Then lower the bar straight down slowly with the arms contracted to 90 degrees to the sides. Pause this position for a second.
• Now raise the bar by fully extending your arms. Keep control and don’t swing the bar. Your lats muscles should remain tight. Now Restore the bar to the starting position.
• Repeat 4 to 6 times, in 3 sets.

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4: Seated Machine Chest Press

(Equipment: Chest Press Machine Home Gym)

Free weight push-ups on a flat bench can be best, but a press machine will bring more benefits. In this, you can reduce and slow down the number of repetitions on the device. You can do this in both eccentric and concentric phases.

Stack-loaded devices are also best for quick drop. EMG research shows that the press machine will use fewer deltoid heads (anterior, middle, and posterior) than free weight movements. It occurs due to a reduced demand for humeral stabilization. That Helps you target pecs.

 

In Your Workout:

The machines give you a great opportunity to push and pump your chest muscles with minimal help from your shoulders. It suits all people who want to build mass.

How to Perform Workout?

• Select the appropriate weights for loading onto the machine.
• Sit on the Chest Press Machine, and adjust the seat height so that the handles are at mid-chest level.
• Hold the handles close to your chest, palms facing each others and raise your elbows so that the top of your arms are parallel to the floor. You will be in the starting position.
• Now press the handles while contract your chest while inhaling. Pause for 1-2 seconds before returning to the starting position.
• Repeat for 8-10 in two sets.

Varieties

You can take advantage of weights (dumbbells and barbells) to do this activity on a regular bench. On the other hand, you can use a cable pulley machine as well.

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5: Pec Deck Machine

(Equipment: Multi-Purpose Bench Machine )

Many exercisers believe that the chest flyes a little difficult with cables or dumbbells because the arms need to lock the position with a slight bend during the exercise. Fortunately, pec deck makes it simple because it allows you to workout in one pass.

Therefore, this exercise is a great movement teacher and you can do great pumps for the chest muscles while maintaining the balance of the body without being affected by any weight, even for heavy weights. EMG data show that the anterior Delt and the Pactoralis major are both statistically similar between the barbell bench press and the pecs deck.

This means that you will be working in different reps ranges for each exercise. So, you will get great chest activation by this machine.

How to use a Pec Deck Machine?

• Sit on the Chest Fly Machine, and adjust the seat if necessary, to the correct height, so the handles centered in front of your chest.
• Grasp the handles and begin to bend the arms at the sides of your body. This is the starting position.
• Now contract the chest muscles by bringing the two handles together so they are centered in front of your chest.
• Once the handles are almost touching each other, reverse the movement by returning to the starting position.
• Repeat the exercise session for 8 to 10 times, for 3 sets.

 

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Conclusion

Building chest muscles is a basic exercise routine among all men who seek to build body muscle, as it provides great strength to the torso, provides great body shape and the beautiful feeling of a solid chest.

It is also easy to build these muscles, by performing the exercises mentioned above, but most importantly you have to maintain a steady rhythm to work on them, to reach your goals of building such great muscles.

Challenge enough to Boost your Body to the Next Strength level!

There’s (lots) more! In the next article, you’ll tackle different Muscles workouts.

You will be pleased to see more muscle building results over time.