WHETHER YOU’RE AIMING to set a new bench press PR or focused on filling out the top of your favorite tee shirt, you’ll need to be dedicated to training your chest muscles. Contrary to popular belief, you’ll need to move beyond just the International Chest Day staples of the straight barbell bench press and dumbbell flys for the best possible results—so it helps to understand what exactly you’re working with when you hit the gym.
Your chest is composed of the pectoral muscles, which have two main functions: adduction of the arms (moving your arms in toward your body’s midline, characterized by the fly movement) and rotating your arms forward (working along with your shoulders to press). You can build up your chest using different routines and variations—but it helps to know what you’re doing, especially if you want to get stronger safely.
Go beyond the bench using advice from the best minds in fitness with videos from Men’s Health experts to show you the ropes. You can use these videos to learn the basics of chest training, watching everything for standalone chest day workouts to clips that explain what types of common exercises you should avoid. Best of all, you can trust Men’s Health experts to give you the best insights and fitness knowledge anywhere.
Brett Williams, a fitness editor at Men’s Health, is a NASM-CPT certified trainer and former pro football player and tech reporter who splits his workout time between strength and conditioning training, martial arts, and running. You can find his work elsewhere at Mashable, Thrillist, and other outlets.
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