Best Chest Exercises For Men

The important chest exercises which help in strengthening the pecs, deltoids and triceps, are the flies, bench press and push ups. The following article describes these exercises in detail.

Significance of Chest Exercises

Chest workouts are important for the development of the different muscles of the chest region, especially the pectorial muscles. The different chest exercises help in strengthening both the upper and lower chest muscles. Read more on strength training.

Chest Exercises for Men

Bench Press: The bench press is performed while lying back on a bench with the help of a barbell. In the bench press exercise, the barbell is lowered till the chest and again pushed back upwards. The elbows are locked while the arms straighten up. The exercise primarily focuses on strengthening the pectoralis major muscle however, the adjoining muscles such as serratus anterior, anterior deltoids, triceps and the coracobrachialis are also exercised. In the bench press exercise, the shoulder blades are pinched together so that the anterior deltoid muscles do not come into play. While performing the exercise, the legs are either placed on the ground or at the end of the bench, however, the buttocks maintain contact with the bench, and thus, the spine remains straight and parallel to the horizontal plane. Both the hands are placed at an equal distance from the center of the barbell. The angle at the elbows is maintained at 90 degrees and they are placed below the wrists. One should be careful while lowering and then pushing the bar upwards. A brief pause between these two actions helps in avoiding any injury to the chest.

Chest Fly: The chest fly workout mainly exercises the pectoral muscles, while the deltoid muscles and biceps are worked out to some extent. In the chest fly exercise, one starts with lying on the back. This exercise is performed with the help of weights in both the hands. The arms are extended and held above the body along the midsagittal plane. One can either keep the arms straight or slightly bent at the elbows. Lowering the arms slowly through an arc and along the transverse plane finally brings them parallel to the ground. The original position is attained by raising the arms through the same arc upwards. As far as possible, the elbow joint should not be locked while the arms are in an extended position; a slight bend at the joint should be maintained throughout this dumbbell exercise.

The chest flies are also performed with the help of cables. Three cable chest flies are even more effective than the dumbbell chest flies due to the resistance provided by them constantly, throughout the entire movement of arms.

Plyometric Push Ups: The plyometric push ups help in increasing the power of chest muscles. Unlike the regular push ups, the plyometric push ups involve speedy movement of the muscles. Thus, not only are the muscles strengthened, but they also becomes more powerful. The position to be attained for doing plyometric push ups is the same as that of the regular ones. The arms should be placed widely; it helps in lowering the body easily. An angle of 90 degrees should be formed at the elbows. The first step is to lower the body while keeping the head, hips and toes in a straight line. In the next step, which is an important part of the exercise, the body is pushed upwards explosively as high as possible while clapping simultaneously. The landing should be soft and one should try to land in exactly the same position where the hands were placed. The exercise is performed in the later stages when a person has already mastered the regular push up exercise. Read more on how to plan the chest workout routine.

The workout exercises described above are the best chest exercises for men. One should practice them on a regular basis to strengthen the pectoral and adjoining muscles.