Pump up your chest with the right Exercises

The chest area is one of the easiest muscle group for beginning bodybuilders to strengthen and develop. It consists of a large muscle (pectorals major) to either side of the breastbone and a smaller muscle (pectorals minor) underneath. The pecs are relatively easy to develop in the early stages simply because they can be trained intensively although care needs to be taken to work them from different angles to ensure full development. The three best exercises to exercise your chest are the bench-press, dumbbell flys and push ups. It is important that you do these exercises correctly and use correct form or you may injure yourself. So look below on instructions on how to do each exercise correctly.

Barbell Bench Press

Starting Position

Sit down and lean back.Grasp the handles with a closed, pronated grip.Push the handles away from the chest to a fully extended elbow position.This is the starting point for all repetitions.

Backward Movement

Allow the handles to slowly move backward until level with the chest.

Forward Movement

Push the handles away from the chest to the starting position.Do not arch back or lock elbows.

Dumbbell Fly's

Starting Position

Grasp two dumbbells using a closed, pronated grip.Assume a supine position on a bench.Press the dumbbells to an extended elbow, parallel arm position above the face.This is the starting point for all repetitions.

Downward Movement

Lower the dumbbells together towards the chest and aligned with the nipples.Keep the wrists rigid directly above the elbows.

Upward Movement

Push the dumbbells upward until the elbows are fully extended.Keep the wrists rigid directly above the elbows.

The Push Up

It is important to know the correct from for doing a push up so here it is:

1) Lie chest down with your hands at shoulder level, palms flat on the floor and a little more than shoulder width apart, feet together.

2) Have your chin touching the floor.

3) Straighten your arms as you push your body up off the floor. Keep the back straight.

4) Breath out as the arms begin to get straight.

5) Then lower the body to the floor. Bending the arms and keeping the body straight.

6) Lower the body till your chest touch the floor.

7) Pause and start again to do a second, third and so on.

Equipment Needed

To perform these exercises you need some equipment. Except of course for the push up. Bench Press

To complete a bench press you will need a barbell and a bench so you can complete the lift by yourself, but I recommend you have someone spot you as this is very dangerous to do by yourself, or an Incline Bench Press Machine which is probably a more safer way of working out if you want to workout on your own and it is also very reliable. But either piece of equipment will do the job.

Dumbbell Fly's

This exercise is very good as it puts a lot of strain on your forearms and arms as well because you are supporting the weight yourself. First you will need a weight bench. You simply ly down on the bench and and raise the dumbbells like discussed earlier.

Next you will need a set of dumbbells. Now I must say that I suggest you buy heavier weights that you will need in the future, because nothing frustrates me more than needed heavier weight and keep on forgetting to buy some.

Of course to avoid my problem I could of just bought a dumbbell set and worked my way up instead of getting dumbbell handles and adding free weight to it as I go. But it all depends on what you like, I quite like using my dumbbells. So it really depends on what you prefer but bottom line is that you are going to need some dumbbells to complete this exercise.

So good luck with developing your chest and please feel free to contact with me with any questions, comments or suggestions via the contact page.

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