Ask any aspiring gym rat on any given day what they’re working that day and more often than not, you’ll get the response “Chest”.

The chest can often be the most impressive part of a physique and the bench press is the bread and butter.

Today I’m gonna give you a quick anatomy lesson and use that to tell you exactly how to train to get a big and impressive chest.

Your chest muscles (or pectoral muscles) are essentially made up of two major muscles.

• The upper or pectoralis major muscle
• the lower or pectoralis minor muscle

In addition, your deltoids (shoulders) also figure into your chest development due to the fact that large deltoids accentuate big pectorals and the deltoids actually insert into the pectorals.

Further, since your chest muscles sit on top of your rib cage, an expanded rib cage and developed serratus muscles (through the performance of other exercises) will lead to large gains.

Finally, since most chest exercises are pushing exercises, your triceps will also figure heavily into chest development because they lend stability during those exercises.

So without further ado, 5 tips to building a big chest:

1. Form, Form, FORM!

The Bench Press and Incline Bench Press, whether done with barbells or dumbbells or on the Smith machine, is one of the exercises that I see done wrong the MOST OFTEN.

This isn’t because it’s a hard motion to grasp (compare it to the clean and press or snatch!) but rather because people would much rather work their egos than their bodies.

Don’t let this be you. Lift correctly and lift the right amount of weight for your body. Remember that we are trying to build our bodies and that it’s better to look like you lift a lot rather than pretend to lift a lot.

2. Switch It Up

My chest routine most often consists of flat and incline bench press, cable flys, and dumbbell flys as my bread and butter exercises.

However, my “supporting cast” changes from week to week.

Keep it fresh and switch up not only the exercises you’re doing, but also the order in which you’re doing them. That way, you force you muscles to continue to adapt and grow.

3. Perform Pullovers!

Building a big chest is NOT all about the bench press.

Pullovers help to expand your rib cage for those of us who weren’t born with freakish proportions… and since your chest muscles sit on your rib cage, your chest development will benefit as a result.

4. Don’t Neglect Your Other Body Parts

Everything helps your bench press and in turn your bench press, while not the sole determinant of a big chest, is probably the biggest player in chest development.

So do back, shoulders, triceps, and even legs and you’ll see that as these parts of your physique grow, so too will your bench strength and your chest.

5. Give It a Rest!

Time for a short story.

There’s these two guys that I see at the gym almost every day that I’ve dubbed the bench press twins. Every day, I see them and every day, they’re doing the same 2 exercises. Barbell bench press and dumbbell bench press.

Now I don’t care if you aspire to be a strength athlete, a power-lifter, or a body builder, there’s absolutely no benefit to doing chest EVERY DAY.

There’s absolutely no benefit to doing chest 3 TIMES A WEEK. Be patient and give your chest a rest and I promise you’ll see the gains.

Until Next Time,

Jim