Tips Guaranteed To Give You A Stronger Chest

The Classic: Push-ups

Pushups commonly get overlooked. This often happens because they're not the latest and greatest exercise trend to come around. It can also occur if someone thinks pushups aren't that challenging.

The truth is pushups are the best way to build a stronger chest. Whether you're a guy who wants a chest that pops when you take off your shirt or a woman who just wants more upper body strength, pushups are the way to get there.

Doing pushups is as simple as getting down on the floor and starting. You can do pushups anywhere from your house to the gym to a hotel. The key to getting the most from pushups is going to absolute failure. Many people think pushups are easy because they don't push themselves to this point. You would want to go until your arms and chest give up and can no longer support you.

Being able to push yourself from being too low is one of the reasons why push ups is really so effective. While you're working with the same amount of weight, you can always do more without the risk of dropping a bar on yourself.

If you're just getting started and feel like you can't do any pushups, don't be afraid to start with knee pushups. The key is to focus on building your strength from one session to the next. You can do pushups 2 to 3 times a week. Try to squeeze in at least one more knee or standard pushup during each session. Striving for a little more each time can quickly add up over the course of a month.

Anyone who feels pushups aren't challenging enough can add a variation to increase their difficulty. After performing anywhere from 10 to 30 pushups, lower yourself down like you're doing another. But instead of coming right back up, hold yourself right above the floor for 5 to 15 seconds. Then resume doing another group of pushups. After doing as little as 2 or 3 cycles, you can feel the effects on your chest. Squeeze the most out of your pushups by holding the down position at the end of a set until you're completely fatigued.

Lying Dumbbell Flys

You can feel this exercise working your chest. It's great for bringing out the definition in your chest. Start by grabbing a pair of dumbbells. This exercise is tough, so don't be afraid to start light. Sit on a bench and then lie on your back.

Fully extend your arms with the dumbbells. Slowly put your arms backward towards the floor. Go all the way until your arms are even with your upper body and you feel your chest pulling. Avoid going any farther, as doing so can hurt your shoulders.

Bring your arms back up until the dumbbells meet in the middle, and then perform your next rep. Get the most from this exercise by using controlled movements as you go up and down.

Bench Press

While gym rats may swear by this exercise, you'll actually get more from focusing on pushups. However, you can benefit from bench pressing by doing a superset with the lying dumbbell flys.

Do the bench press before performing the flys. This superset is a challenge, so use less weight than normal. Perform the flys on the bench press station. As soon as you finish your set of flys, put the dumbbells down and do a bench press set. You'll immediately feel how much more engaged your chest feels than normal!


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Zach Hunt is an Spokane Boot Camp expert and the owner of Physzique, a personal fitness coaching company in Spokane, WA helping people to look and feel great. Go here: Personal Trainer Spokane for more info on these services and more great fitness tips.