Body Building Exercises For The Chest

As a personal trainer of over 15 years I often get asked what are the best exercises to train the main muscles of the chest

. The main chest muscle is called the pectoralis major and it is found on the upper front portion of the chest forming the front wall of the armpit. It is a very powerful muscle that can exert a great deal of force and responds to large loads when exercised.

The most famous chest exercise of the lot and the one commonly used in body building circles is the barbell chest press. The barbell used is usually an Olympic bar which is twenty kilograms in weight. The bar has equal weights added to it on either side. The client then lies down on a bench and holds the bar out above their chest at arms length. Their arms are placed just slightly wider than their own shoulder width apart. The client then begins to lower the bar towards the chest keeping the forearms vertical and their elbows underneath the bar. When the bar touches the chest the client presses the bar away to its start position. This movement is performed for the given number of repetitions in the set.

The next exercise Im going to describe is a dumb bell chest flye. This time the resistance comes in the form of two dumb bells . Dumb bells come in varying weights from just a couple of kilos to well over 100 kilos each. The client again lies down on a flat bench and holds the dumb bells out at arms length with their palms facing each other. The movement is initiated by bending the elbows and lowering the dumb bells in a wide arc until your hands are level with your chest. By this stage your pectoralis muscles should be on a stretch. The client is then instructed to return the dumb bells to the start position by engaging their chest muscles and bringing the arms together until the dumb bells meet above the chest.

Another great chest exercise is the tried and trusted push up. This can be used to bring about muscular endurance as many repetitions need to be performed. Although external weights can be added to a push up it is generally considered a body weight exercise. It can be performed from the toes or made slightly easier by being performed from the knees. Either way, the set up for the hands should be the same. Which is with the hands placed down wider than shoulder width apart with the fingers pointing forwards. The downward movement is initiated by bending the elbows but keeping the forearms in a vertical position throughout. Once the chest is lowered to a few inches from the floor the movement is reversed and the client pushes their own body away from the floor.

While there are hundreds of different chest exercises I find that these 3 make up a great amount of the chest exercises I prescribe for my clients. I encourage you to give these three exercises a go.

by: Chris Hines

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