The PERFECT Chest Workout

THE PROBLEM WITH TYPICAL CHEST WORKOUTS

The classic theory of “Upper, Middle, and Lower” chest exercises is a good start when putting together a chest workout.

But it’s not enough!!

Take a look at the four main exercises that people do in their chest workouts: incline bench press, barbell bench press, dips and pushups, you’ll see that they have one issue in common.

Each of these exercises is lacking a full adduction of the shoulder.

This is a problem when it comes to developing a complete chest!

Just because you are going through a full range of motion on the exercises that you are doing it does not mean that you are taking a muscle through its full range of motion. Let me explain what I mean.

With the hands being fixed on a barbell, dip station or the floor through most common chest exercises, you are not able to take your shoulder through the full horizontal adduction over the midline of the chest that it is capable of.

The solution to this problem is to not throw out the popular mass building chest exercises, but to pair them as drop sets with exercises that do emphasize adduction across midline of the chest. Before I show you how to do this, I’d like to begin with some anatomy as we always do in our Perfect Workouts.

THE 3 PARTS OF THE PECTORAL MUSCLE

You can see when we activate the chest that different parts of the chest fibers run in different directions.

This is because they originate from different places on the clavicle and sternum.

UPPER CHEST FIBERS

MID CHEST FIBERS

LOWER CHEST FIBERS

how to train the chest

In order to fully hit the chest, we’ll need to choose exercises that follow the different orientations of the fibers.

This means we’ll need to take the arm through different ranges of motion to better hit and align it with the fibers. Let’s take a look more in depth at the specific ways in which the Perfect Chest Workout needs to challenge your pecs in order to be considered ‘perfect’.

OVERLOAD FOR MID PECS

Our workout needs to include exercises that allow us to overload the pecs.

The classic Bench Press is the best option for hitting the mid chest with heavy weight.

As I move my arm out in the bench press, the alignment of the arm is moving almost parallel to the mid chest fibers coming off of the middle portion of the sternum.

OVERLOAD FOR UPPER PECS

Just as the flat Bench Press is great for hitting the mid chest, the Incline Bench Press is ideal for targeting the upper chest fibers.

The Incline Bench Press hits the upper portion of the chest originating at the clavicle and running down toward the humerus.

You can see the upper fibers of the chest being activated from low to high in the Incline Bench Press.

OVERLOAD FOR LOWER PECS

Now we need to hit the lower portion of the chest, and it is best hit with a classic Weighted Dip.

It’s not by accident, it’s by anatomy!  When you take arm through this position of being extended behind your body, as it travels down you go from a high to low position which allows you to preferentially hit the lower fibers of the chest.

You can see that the lower fibers of the chest are being activated from high to low in the dip movement.

WORKING ACROSS MIDLINE

As you can see, we’ve tried to take the muscle through its entire range of motion from upper to mid to lower chest, but a key function of the chest is missing. 

An important part of the chest’s range of motion is also toward and across the midline. The Bench Press, Incline Bench Press and Dip are all limited in their ability to cross the midline of the chest.

The action of the pec at the shoulder can take the arm not just through adduction but across midline.

For this reason we’ll be pairing each of our classic chest overload exercises with a drop set of an exercise that takes chest activation to and through midline.

THE best CHEST WORKOUT: step by step

The Perfect Chest Workout should consist of exercises for your upper chest, middle chest and lower chest. Since the classic exercises for overload don’t even take us to midline, let alone across midline, we’ll be adding dropsets to each that will fill this function.

1A. AND 1B. MID CHEST

We’ll kick off the Perfect Chest Workout with a flat Barbell Bench Press.

This is the ideal exercise to hit the middle chest and it allow us to truly overload it.

BARBELL BENCH PRESS

We’ll proceed immediately from our flat Barbell Bench Press to a Horizontal Cable Crossover which will give us the opportunity to work the middle chest fibers across midline.

HORIZONTAL CABLE CROSSOVER

There are some fans of the cable crossover that say it’s an even better chest activator based on EMG studies than a flat bench press.  But it’s important not to throw out the baby with the bathwater!

Even though the cable crossover may have a better percentage of activation it’s still not capable of being loaded to the extent that a barbell bench press is.

If the cable crossover was the only exercise you do, you’ll be limited in your chest development.  However if you do it in addition to the bench press, you get the unique benefits of both exercises.

When you do the Horizontal Cable Crossover you can see that we’re taking our arm all the way to and across midline and getting complete activation of the chest in that plane of motion.

This exercise can be done with bands as well, if you don’t have access to the cable machine.

2A. AND 2B. UPPER CHEST

We’re not stopping there.  The shoulder is a three-dimensional joint and we can hit any angle we like, moving in different planes of motion.

So now we’re going to focus on the Upper Chest with the Incline Bench Press.

INCLINE BENCH PRESS

When we’re done with that we’ll immediately move to the cable crossover changing orientation into the Low to High Cable Crossover.

LOW TO HIGH CABLE CROSSOVER

Our arms will go through a low to high arc, and we’re not going to stop where we would on an Incline Bench Press.  Instead we’ll take the arm to midline and through midline.  You can see the degree of complete contraction we’re getting in the upper chest.

3A. AND 3B. LOWER CHEST

The Weighted Dip will be our overload exercise for the lower chest.

Our hands are actually fixed on a Weighted Dip, so it’s impossible to get them to come toward midline because the dip station only allows them to stay in one position.  However, the Weighted Dip does allow us to go heavy and overload the low chest.

WEIGHTED DIP

As soon as we’re done, we’ll change the orientation of the cables once again from high to low for the High To Low Cable Crossover.

HIGH TO LOW CABLE CROSSOVER

This exercise can also be done with resistance bands if you don’t have access to the cables.

4A. AND 4B. BODY COMMAND

I’m going to add one more common chest exercise into this Perfect Chest Routine.

It’s the Weighted Pushup and it’s going to help us work body command and allow us to overload as well.

WEIGHTED PUSHUP

However, we’re limited once again by the fact that our hands are in contact with the ground and can’t get across our body into adduction.  So we’re going to drop set the pushup into a Banded Pushup where we come up and drive one hand across midline to create adduction. You’ll want to switch sides so that you work both sides of the chest.

BANDED PUSHUP

THE WORKOUT

So, here is the entire Perfect Chest Workout, step by step, all sets, all reps for you to follow.

This is how you complete the development of your chest: by including exercises for upper, mid and lower chest that can be loaded, by including exercises that take the muscle through its full range of motion, and by ensuring that you include drop sets of movements that take the upper, mid and lower chest through midline.

This is just one example of how to apply science to your chest workouts.  If you want to look like an athlete, move like an athlete and function like an athlete, start training like one by putting science back into every workout you do.  You can do that with the ATHLEAN-X Training Programs and get started right away on building a ripped, muscular, athletic body.