Jason Feruggia author of Muscle Gaining Secrets joins us again today with an Q&A about building an impressive chest. Enjoy!

How to Build an Impressive Chest

By Jason Ferruggia

Question: I have heard that the bench press is a crappy chest exercise. Is this true? If it sucks, what’s better?

Answer: The bench press is a great exercise. If you bench properly, there will be minimal pectoral involvement, however. The triceps and front delts will do most of the work. This is individual and is based on your strengths and weaknesses, but for the most part, your chest will not be doing the majority of the work when you bench press.

Trying to make the bench press target the pecs more by bringing your elbows out wide and lowering the bar up higher on your chest (the way that bodybuilding magazines typically show you how to do it) is a shoulder injury waiting to happen, so that’s not an option to even consider. I did these many years ago for a few months before I knew any better and my shoulder has never been the same since. Don’t make the same mistakes that I did.

Even though the pecs do not do the majority of work during the bench press I still think it’s is a tremendous, if somewhat overused, mass builder for the whole upper body. If you have shoulder issues, however, it should be avoided at all costs, but for everyone else it is one of the great upper-body exercises.

Equally as effective, if not more so, is the dumbbell bench press. The dumbbells allow a more natural range of motion and are much safer. These can be done on a flat bench or an incline bench. The dumbbells also give you the option of pressing with your palms facing down toward your feet (pronated) as they do when you press with a bar or with your palms facing each other, in toward your body. The latter variety places less stress on your shoulders but if you are healthy you could probably use both varieties.

Finally, pushups of all varieties will always remain among my top chest builders. My favorites are weighted blast-strap (blast straps are available at www.EliteFTS.com pushups with the straps set about five feet apart from each other. The function of the pecs is to draw the arms across the midline of the body. By setting the straps far apart from each other, you make the pecs function in this way as you press/pull yourself back up from the bottom position. You have to do it and feel it to appreciate what I’m talking about, but I don’t think you will find a better chest exercise than this. If, like Frank Rizzo of the Jerky Boys, you have a chest like a wet blanket, then I highly recommend you give this exercise a try.

Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for his ability to help people build muscle as fast as humanly possible. He has trained thousands of clients during his 14 years as a professional fitness coach, including more than 500 athletes from over 20 different sports. Jason has written hundreds of articles for numerous top rated training magazines and websites and has authored four fitness books. He is also the head training adviser for Men’s Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For more great muscle building information, please visit http://www.musclegainingsecrets.com

Remember to sign up for my 5 part Building Muscle and Strength e-course.
If you are interested in me personally designing your programs and helping you achieve your size and strength goals go to busy-fitness.com/online-personal-training/
Wayne

Lee Haney is truly a bodybuilding great. With 8 Mr Olympia titles to his credit, what more do I need to say. Here is Lee’s posing routine from the 1984 Mr Olympia.

Remember to sign up for my 5 part Building Muscle and Strength e-course.
If you are interested in me personally designing your programs and helping you achieve your size and strength goals go to busy-fitness.com/online-personal-training/
Wayne

Negative Reps or eccentrics are a training method in which the primary focus is on the eccentric or lowering phase of the exercise, generally with a weight in excess of what you can lift concentrically.

Although you can focus on the lowering phase of any rep of your workout, there are two primary types of negatives. The first is performed at the end of a set when you can no longer complete a concentric rep, you get your training partner to do the lifting or aid you in the lifting or concentric phase and you lower the weight under control. The second option is to pick a weight above what you can manage in a concentric contraction (e.g. 10% above your max) and have one or two training partners perform the concentric phase for you and you focus totally on the negative phase for the set.

Negatives help you to prepare your body to handle heavier weights and build strength but it is not considered wise to use them too often (1-2 sets every 1-2 weeks) and it pays to have good spotters to keep an eye on you.

Negatives generally cause more muscle damage and result in more soreness than concentric contractions, so do not overuse them and ensure that you recuperate fully between sessions.

Remember to sign up for my 5 part Building Muscle and Strength e-course.
If you are interested in me personally designing your programs and helping you achieve your size and strength goals go to busy-fitness.com/online-personal-training/
Wayne