How do you think who is ethanol of the best chest in the fitness and bodybuilding world? Yes, you think correct – 7 times Mr. Olympia Arnold Schwarzenegger. His chest and biceps were kind of his business card and make jealous most part of his competitors. Athletes with big, thick chest look manly and it helps you to make your waist look thinner. Also, if your chest is big and waist looks smaller, it gives you a nice V-shaped body (of course we need to have the big back muscle for this too). So, what chest workout do you need to get chest muscles of your dreams? We will discuss this in detail here, so be patient, as aways our articles will be not only about the workout. It will include all necessary details, like nutrition, technique, workout, supplements and much more.
Articles includes next points:
Diet
You possibly will say, again… Yes we know that we talk about diet a lot, but you need to realize that, this is the only one correct way to do grow your muscles and increase your strength. So, if you know food is more important than a gym, and it is much more challenging to stick to the diet than to stick to the gym regime. Also, you need to have at least a basic understanding of how to eat and how to organize your diet.
So, what you need to know is that your body needs fuel and building material to work properly and build new muscles faster. The main 3 things you need are Protein, Carbohydrates, and Fats, and also eat a proper amount of it.
Proteins: This is your building material and the proper amount for gaining muscle will be about 1.5 g of protein per 1 kg of your body weight, or 0.7 g for 1 lb.
Carbohydrates: So this is fuel for your body and will give you energy. For muscle growth, you need about 5g of carbohydrates per 1 kg or about 2.3 g per 1 lb of your body weight.
Fats: Don’t avoid the fats, they are responsible for a lot of valuable processes in your body (1), just limit the intake of fats per day. Also, fats are quite high in calories so, be careful. We recommend you to try to stay in the range of 1 g for 1 kg, or 0.5 g for 1 lb of your body weight when you are trying to gain muscle. Here you can find more details about the diet for muscle gain here.
Chest Workout Exercises and Technique
We want to orient to the golden era in chest exercises. As you possibly know, their mass was smaller, but their hands and chest were massive! And as we told above, Arnold Schwarzenneger had a huge chest and amazing arms and even now when he is above 70 he has a good physique for his age! When we are talking about bodybuilders of the golden era, then remember the image of the athletes of those years. They had broad shoulders, a narrow waist, a flat, and even slightly sunken stomach, and of course also a huge chest muscles. At that time, great attention was paid to the chest workout.
Currently, many athletes are obsessed with the development of chest muscles. But still, sometimes, when we observe some competing bodybuilders, we see piles of shapeless meat instead of aesthetics. In the golden era, bodybuilders trained the chest with simpler methods and they were very effective. That’s why we will include mostly classic exercises.
Bench press:
This exercise was popular in Golden Era and also now. Athletes were doing this exercise with fairly decent weights and was using many of Vader’s principles. Usually it was performed in 14-4 reps and 4-5 sets.
Technique:
Here’s how to do Bench Press properly:
- Lie on the bench with your eyes under the bar and grab the bar with a medium grip-width
- Unrack the bar by straightening your arms
- Lower the bar to middle part of your chest
- Press the bar back up until your arms are almost straight
- Perform until you are not able to do more, and better with someone who can help you in last reps.
Inclined bench press:
With time nothing changed, and athletes are pumping their chest the same way now. The bench angle was usually 45 degrees, and Franco Colombo, who was famous for a very powerful top of his chest, used the bar at an angle of 60 degrees.
Technique:
- Set a bench so that the incline is roughly 45% degrees vertical within a power rack.
- Now set the back and hips on the bench, with the feet standing on the floor.
- Take the grip slightly wider than shoulder-width.
- Unrack the barbell stabilizing it above the upper chest.
Pull the barbell to the chest, also holding your back to the bench. And press the bar upwards and extend the elbows. Repeat as many times as you need.
Dumbbells fly lying on a horizontal bench:
Dumbbell fly was used to shape the chest muscles. When bodybuilders of the golden era, were doing this exercise in their chest workout, usually they lowered the dumbbells as low as possible to feel the chest muscles tensed as much as possible. Legs were often placed on a bench, or kept on the floor.
Technique:
- Lie on the bench with your feet on the bench or floor to stabilize your body.
- Holding a dumbbells in your hands, push them upward and together directly above the chest.
- Bent elbows slightly and the palms should face each other.
- Lower the dumbbells to the sides of the chest, keeping the elbows in the same position, until the weights are at the level of the shoulders or lower.
- Return the dumbbells back up to the starting position.
Dips:
This is one of the oldest chest muscles exercises, it can develop big part of your upper body muscles. So, it develops your chest, triceps and front deltoids. Usually if you are beginner you can start to do this exercise with your own weight, but in future you can use belt with extra weight.
Technique:
- Use the parallel bars and jump up and also straighten your arms
- Lower your body by bending your arms, to concentrate on your chest muscle move your head a little forward
- Dip down as you much as you can until your shoulders will be below your elbows
- Lift up by straightening your arms
- Lock your elbows and repeat as many times as you have palnned
Pullover:
Using a pullover, athletes increased their chest muscles mass. This exercise, in addition to the chest muscles, involves intercostal, dentate, and latissimus dorsi (back muscles). So, basically, you are involving another part of your upper body. Also, this exercise makes your chest look not so flat.
Technique:
- Us a dumbbell, lay with your back on a bench or maybe a stability ball if you don’t have a free bench.
- With your feet planted on the ground, just extend your arms above your chest, holding it with both hands.
- Keeping your back pressed to the bench, slowly lower your arms overhead.
- Move your arms back to the starting position (above your chest) and repeat as much as you can.
Supplements:
We always are telling that supplements will not change your nutrition, but supplements can be a good support and help you to be faster. As you know, you have to eat a proper amount of amount of food to make your body grow. Also, you know that it is a little difficult to eat so much and supplements are one of the ways to help you do that.
Check our article about Diet, where you will know all details about how to eat to grow muscle. So, the supplements will support you on the way to gain muscles and make it easier for you. Whey protein is a really good supporter if you can eat enough amount of carbohydrates, but if you can’t, mass gainer will be a perfect supplement for you.
If you want to increase your strength and stamina faster, creatine monohydrate is a nice supplement for you. It’s the the most effective supplement for increasing your strength and stamina.
Bottom Line:
As you possibly see, the athletes of the Golden Era didn’t use ay fancy exercises and machines, and they had a good and big chest. Try to exclude new fancy machines from your workout program and focus on old, proven exercises. So, you’ll build excellent chest muscles just using proven exercises.
We hope we told you enough about chest workout, including diet and the best supplements for your growth and strength increase. We always wait for your comments and let us know if you still have some more questions.
