Hitting Chest From All Angles

Building a powerful chest is on the agenda for nearly everyone who begins a weight training journey. Even with a lack of knowledge to start, everyone has that vision of putting up some serious weight on the bench press. In this article we’re going to dive into more than just how to increase your bench press, we want to focus on building a strong chest overall both physically and visually. While the bench press holds its place in this process, it is just a small piece of the puzzle. Sculpting a complete chest requires a knowledge of how to target the upper, middle, and lower chest. There are countless different training techniques of rep counts, slow eccentric/concentric movements, drop sets, etc. we will be focusing on the particular choice of exercises. 

Working from the top down, we’ll start off what is often believed to be the most important focus point. Packing on mass to your upper chest can be difficult, but extremely rewarding both in terms of strength and visual results. Most will notice that their incline bench press tends to be weaker than their flat bench right off the bat. This may not be the case for all, but the majority of individuals beginning out their life in the gym will notice this challenge when it comes to incline pressing. There are a number of factors that play into the reasoning for this. When your body is positioned for the incline press, the body is unable to recruit the entire muscle to complete the movement. The stress is placed on the upper portion of the pec along with the shoulders in order to manage the weight. When it comes to incline barbell/dumbbell pressing the range of motion heavily differs from flat bench movements. Stabilizing the weight to not only come down, but prevent it from falling forward is a new challenge your body must take on in order to complete the movement safely. Putting an emphasis on these exercises can greatly benefit your shoulder strength.

The mid-portion of our chests is often the focal point of most chest day workout routines. The majority of movements performed on a flat bench will be targeting this area. While you may be strongest with these exercises, it’s important to branch out away from them if you want to develop proportionate strength and mass to your chest. The lower portion is often the most neglected, as the choices of exercises are more limited. This part of the pectoralis will still be activated during movements such as the flat barbell bench press, but choosing to isolate it with a few select movements can be the difference in creating a strong lower pec line.

To build a balanced chest, we must be careful in our selection of exercises to not only divide the focus between the upper, middle, and lower best but also the inner, outer, and center portions of our chest. Evenly distributing strength throughout the chest will help increase the size and strength of The following chart offers a well rounded variety of exercises to ensure all portions of the pec are activated throughout your training session.