There once was a time when being concerned with one’s chest measurements was a single gendered issue. Fast forward to today, and men all around the world are taking out their measuring tapes to size up the circumference of their own chests hoping for the slightest of gains. Even though we may not be popping buttons to reveal a superhero emblem stamped on our pecs, we are popping buttons with chests that have reached superhuman proportions. And there is a very good reason for this. Our training is better than ever, the exercises we use have evolved, and our nutrition and supplementation far supersedes anything previously done in the past.
Big chests boast big egos, that’s why you see many people puffing up their chests any chance they get to establish dominance, and if you are one of those people who puff up to no avail, the following pec exercises may just help you reach your true potential.
Banded Bench Press
The bench press is highly revered as one of the best pec building exercises you can do for pure size and strength. Whether you perform bench presses on a flat bench, incline bench or the decline bench, you will see noticeable gains if you stick with it and go hard each time. To up the bench press ante a bit, try adding resistance bands to the exercise. All you need to do is wrap one end of the resistance band around the barbell and the other end either to the lower portion of the bench or around a couple of heavy dumbbells sitting below each end of the bar. The band will provide a variable resistance during the repetition and a constant pulling down of the bar throughout. It will cause you to not only use your pec power but also all the stabilizer muscles surrounding the primary muscle.
Pec Minor Dips
Dips for chest is one of those exercises that rarely gets any attention and often is rarely seen in the gym. Would you like to know why? They are hard to do. There are lots of people out there who cannot lift their own bodyweight for enough reps to create any significant results. However, those who can dip usually need more weight and another approach. Cue the pec minor dip.
To perform these, you position yourself in the parallel bars so that you are leaning over as far forward as you can. Then you lower your body until you are at a full pec stretch. From there your movement is half way up then back down again. The focus of this exercise is the pectoralis minor, which lies underneath the pec major, and to really get at this muscle you need extreme stretching with a significant amount of resistance. Your bodyweight is not enough, so that’s why you should hang a heavy chain around your neck or put on the belt that allows you to hang a weight from it.
Hex Press
This is a relatively new exercise in my own routine, and it is one that is fairing out to be extremely beneficial. The hex press can be performed on any bench at any angle. What you do is grab a pair of dumbbells and lie back on the bench resting them on your chest. While they are resting on your chest, flare your elbows up to the sides and start pushing the dumbbells together as if you were trying to mash them into each other. Keep doing that creating an isometric contraction. From there, and still pushing the dumbbells together, press them up to arms length. Allow them to descend back down to your chest then press again. Not only do you have an isometric contraction happening the whole time, but you are also lengthening and contracting the muscle during the rep for extra pec work.
No good chest routine would be complete without the guidelines and principles of Max-OT and the supplements available from AST Sports Science. Max-OT is a surefire method of training to gain pure size and strength, increase muscle volume and lean out all at the same time. Given the exercises above, coupled with Max-OT and it won’t be long before you too are popping buttons and stamping superhero emblems on your chest.
