Chest exercises that will impress your friends

October 09, 2017
By Chris Everingham

Achieving a chiseled chest requires more than just doing endless sets of push-ups. It takes a targeted and strategic approach to build the muscles in this area.

It’s international chest day (Monday) and it’s your turn to run the gym session. With 10minutes until you arrive at the gym you start to feel the pressure. Your buddies look to you for guidance and expect a great chest session. You run through your usual routines and notice that it’s all old material, nothing special. What do you do to keep your friends impressed on chest day? I’m glad you’re here. But first, let’s discuss the chest muscles where focusing on.

 

Chest muscles 101

The chest is basically made up of two main areas: the pec area – pec major and pec minor. Further to that, the chest is supported by the front deltoids as well as the triceps in the push motion. The pec major is basically the big part of the chest, while the pec minor is the smaller part of the muscle group under the pec major and near the shoulder blade (it’s a deeper layer muscle) Enough theory, let’s get into it!

 

Chest exercises that will impress your friends!

  1. Single arm dumbbell bench press. While a bit of an intermediate or advanced exercise, the single arm dumbbell bench press is a great exercise to concentrate your efforts on one arm at a time for symmetrical growth and development – this is where the beauty of this exercise kicks in. To begin, simply setup for the usual bench press except you’ll only focus on the one arm. Lie down on the bench, bring the dumbbell overhead and then slowly lower the dumbbell. As you bring it closer to your body brace your core and abs to ensure stability in the movement – you don’t want to fall off! If you’re spotting make sure you’re ready to help out!
  2. BOSU 1.5 rep push ups. First off, anytime you perform a 1.5 rep exercise, it’s going to be great! Then to make it even better by combining it with an unstable surface such as a BOSU allows this chest exercise to take over! During this exercise you’ll recruit those hidden or unused muscles and even shock the chest to new levels of effort in the coming weeks. BOSU 1.5 rep push ups are simply push ups on a BOSU. Find a BOSU, get in a push up position and then go into a push up motion. But don’t stop there, once you hit the bottom come up halfway then return to the bottom before heading back to the starting position. Feel the burn!

 

Train that chest!

It’s time to make it happen! Training your chest muscles is super stress-free once you have the foundations in place. Try out these two chest exercises to impress your friends and more importantly drive your results in the right direction.

Incorporate these exercises into your program today!

Chris Everingham

Chris Everingham

Chris Everingham is an International Athlete, National Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Philippine Volcanoes rugby team, qualified Dietitian, Nutritionist and educator. Chris combines over 11 years of health and fitness experience to deliver the best strategies to grow your mindset, rewire your habits and transform your life. Watch The #AskEvro Show where he talks about health, nutrition, exercise, mindset and peak performance strategies at chriseveringham.com .

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