Building a Chest That Bulges With Pectoral Plates
The chest muscle is huge. It is a strong muscle group. Yet I am guessing that if you looked through the ages, you are not going to find a lot of guys with great looking Pecs. Notwithstanding all the guys that came out in movies like "300," "Troy," or any other movies like that, I just do not think too many warriors of old had huge or great looking Pectoral muscles.
That is because I just do not think a lot of them went around bench pressing cows. They wore heavy armor; swung big swords (or little ones like Brad Pitt did in "Troy"); and carried shields. So, they probably had good-looking shoulders and traps. They probably had decent forearms and solid torsos. But split Pecs like Franco Colombu - No.
But thank God (or goodness, if you are an atheist), we live in 2010. Bulging Pecs are within our grasp.
Let us talk briefly about what comprises the chest muscle group - from a layman's point of view (me). For my purposes, the main chest muscle group is comprised of the upper Pecs that tie in with the frontal shoulders; the big band of muscle that stretches across your front; and the lower Pecs supported by the ribcage. This is not really scientific, but what do I look like, a certified biology teacher?
When you put together a program to train your chest, you really need to target all three sections of your chest muscle group. When I was young, there was a school of thought that advocated only working the upper portion of the chest. They reasoned that any upper chest movement also hit the lower Pecs. And any direct lower chest movements, like decline bench press, created droopy Pecs. And who wants droopy Pecs - so uncouth.
Well...I think you should still hit all three areas. And here is a suggested program:
Incline Dumbbell Presses
• Done on a low incline of 30 degrees
• Start with inside plate of dumbbells resting right where chest and shoulder meets
• Elbows are back with outside plate higher than inside plates
• Press straight up and in, so that the inside plates touch over your face in the full extended position.
• Start with inside plate of dumbbells resting right where chest and shoulder meets
• Elbows are back with outside plate higher than inside plates
• Press straight up and in, so that the inside plates touch over your face in the full extended position.
Dumbbell Pullovers
• Lying cross on bench, hold one dumbbell over chest with arms extended and hands on inside plate.
• As you lower dumbbell behind your head, drop your hips and get a double stretch.
• Pull dumbbell back over until it is directly over your chest.
• As you lower dumbbell behind your head, drop your hips and get a double stretch.
• Pull dumbbell back over until it is directly over your chest.
Dips on V-Bar
• Up on V-Bar, stick chin down and bow your back. Your legs should hang a little in front of you.
• Dip down and up.
• Dip down and up.
These three exercises will hit your entire chest muscle group in addition to all the little supporting muscles in and under your major Pectoral plates. And that is what you want, big Pectoral plates.
So, forget swinging a sword or carrying a big, you know what, shield; just do these three movements.
Oh yeah, for first one, do 4 sets of 12, 10, 8, and 15. For pullovers, do 3 sets of 12, 10, and 8. For the dips, do 3 sets of max repetitions. If you can do 20 repetitions, use a dipping strap and add 10 or 20 lbs.
That is all.
