Building Big Chest Muscles

When people think of building their pecs the first exercise that comes
to mind is the bench press. Now, I love the bench press as much as the
next guy, but the bottom-line is that the bench press is not really the
best choice for your chest muscle building program. At least not the
way most people perform it.

If you are serious about building your chest, here are some tips to turn the bench press into a pec-building beast:

1. Use a wide grip

For shorter guys, put your pinkies on the rings, or thereabouts. For
taller guys you may go as wide as index fingers on the rings. Widening
of the grip increases the stretch on the pecs which increases their
involvement in the lift. If you typically use a fairly close grip then
you will be probably be weaker with a wide grip. Because of this, make
sure to warm-up and work-up in weight slowly. Don't just jump to your
usual weight or you'll be asking for an injury.

2. Squeeze the bar together

By pushing your hands together throughout the movement you increase the
recruitment of the pectoral muscle fibers. Please note that your hands
don't actually move during the movement because you are gripping the
bar tightly. But by isometrically pushing your hands toward each other
you will get a similar effect to doing flyes.

3. Bring to nipple line or higher

Make sure to touch the bar on your chest at the nipple line or even
higher. This increases the activation of the chest muscles and limits
triceps involvement to a degree. You can even go as high as the
collarbone, but the weight you use will have to be much lighter than
usual.

Summary

All of these tips run counter to what most people do with the bench
press. This is because people get caught-up in how much weight they can
move. These tips will definitely decrease your strength in the bench
press, but they will also increase the stress on your pecs so that they
can grow. This turns the bench press into a great exercise for your
chest muscle building program.

Please note that all of these tips put the shoulder in a slightly more
compromised position than a traditional bench press. If you have any
shoulder problems at all you should not use these variations. Even if
your shoulders are healthy make sure to perform these variations with
lighter weight and higher reps than you would for a normal bench press.
This will allow you to get the most benefit from the exercise without
fear of injury.

Keep in mind that while changing one exercise may moderately improve
your progress over the short-term, long-term success and huge increases
in muscle and strength require you to follow a synergistic training and
nutrition program.

Building Big Chest Muscles