Best Exercise To Build Massive Chest

Monday could be called because the ‘International chest day’ in gyms all over the world. A giant muscular chest, made famous by the bodybuilders of the golden era like Arnold, franco columbo, serge nubret etc.; might be probably the most attractive muscle within the upper body musculature.

Your chest muscle is split into the next muscle groups:

• Pectoralis Major
• Pectoralis Minor

The pectoralis major is split into 3 heads, clavicular (upper chest), sternocostal (middle chest) and abdominal head (lower chest).

However, there are exercises, which activate particular muscles higher than the opposite. That is the explanation, a workout needs to be a mixture of various movements, targeting the whole musculature.

There are number of various exercises which you’ll be able to perform within the gym to accumulate your chest, but research has identified certain movements, which activate each muscle of the chest, higher than the others. Knowing these movements, will aid you save time, and design a greater strength & hypertrophy program for yourself or your clients.

These studies have tested, the EMG, MVC (Maximum Voluntary Contraction), and Mean & Peak Activation, of the muscle.

A studyassessed 20+ chest exercise, including body weight exercise. Based on this experiment, listed here are the highest three exercises when it comes to mean and peak activity for every muscle part:

Upper Pec

Mean: Mid Pulley Crossover, Band Push Up, JC Band Press
Peak: Dumbbell Incline Press, Guillotine Press, JC Band Press

Mid Pec

Mean: Dumbbell Bench Press, Floor Press, Fly
Peak: Guillotine Press, Dumbbell Bench Press, Fly

Lower Pec

Mean: Weighted Dip, Blast Strap Push Up, Guillotine Press
Peak: Guillotine Press, Fly, Weighted Dip

The form used for the guillotine press was straight from late Iron Guru Vince Gironda: feet on the bench, no arch, elbows flared out, wider grip, bar lowered to the . It’s no surprise the guillotine press works far more pec than the bench press.

Another studyused electromyography (EMG) to find out which chest exercise(s) elicited probably the most muscle activation of the pectoralis major muscle. Subjects for this study were 14 males, 19-30 years of age. The first day of testing a 1RM was determined for the exercises: barbell bench press, bent-forward cable crossovers, seated chest press, incline dumbbell flyes, and peck deck machine. Subjects performed five repetitions of every exercise, using 80% of their 1 RM.

This study found the pectoralis major to be activated the best through the barbell bench press. There was not a big difference between the barbell bench press compared to the peck deck machine or the bent-forward cable crossovers. It was subsequently concluded that these chest exercises may very well be used interchangeably to coach the pectoralis major.

The study, also tested body weight exercises like parallel bar dips, standard pushups, suspended pushups & swiss ball pushups. Of course the muscle activation for these exercises was lower, as in comparison with the weighted exercises, because they used only body weight, but separate studies have shown a distinct story.

For e.g. A 2015 studyevaluated the muscle activation during 6 repetition maximum (6RM) bench press and push-up, where subjects were divided into 3 groups (i.e., 6RM bench press group, 6RM elastic band push-up group, or control group) to judge muscle strength gains. Thirty university students with advanced resistance training experience participated within the study.

(push-ups testing using elastic bands within the study)

The researchers found that, elastic-resisted push-ups induced similar muscle activations levels and strength gains because the bench press when these exercises are performed under the identical conditions (i.e., intensity, volume, rest, exercise technique, and speed of movement).

Hence, when the identical conditions are reproduced and the aforementioned exercises reach the required intensity, comparable EMG values end in comparable muscle strength gains.

Another studyassessed 16 different chest exercises:

• Push-ups
• Banded push-ups
• Standing cable fly
• High to low cable fly
• Seated cable fly
• Chest dips
• Barbell bench press
• Incline barbell bench press
• Flat dumbbell press
• Incline machine press
• 15-degree incline dumbbell press
• 30-degree incline dumbbell press
• 45-degree incline dumbbell press
• Decline dumbbell press
• Pinch press
• Pec deck machine

The subjects performed one exercise, 1 set of 5 reps, then took a 5 min rest, and repeat the identical with next exercise. Here is what the study found:

Now if we take a conclusive review of one of the best exercises, there appear to be a spread of movements which could be a fantastic addition in your workouts, for optimal chest development, i.e. development of all three heads. And, when closely observed, all of those movements are the very basic ones, which have been used since many years for enormous chest development.

Here are the chosen few:

Upper Chest: incline dumbbell press (15-45deg), barbell bench press, incline machine press, mid pulley crossover/seated cable flye; weighted pushups.

Middle Chest: dumbbell bench press, dumbbell flye, seated cable flye, incline dumbbell press (15-45deg), pec dec flye

Lower Chest: weighted bar dips, flat dumbbell press, pec dec flye, seated cable flye, decline dumbbell press, barbell bench press

Overall Chest development: dumbbell bench press (all 3 angles), barbell bench press (incline & flat), pec dec flye, cable crossover (mid-range & high to low), parallel bar dips, pushups, suspension pushups.