Before You Build Chest Muscles...
Everyone wants to build chest muscles. For a lot of guys the chest is a glory muscle. One of the most common things that you hear is how much can you bench press? It is one of those things that you are weighed on.
But there are many more important reasons to build chest muscles other than trying to show off. The pec's are a really important muscle group for basically all of your everyday occurrences.
Almost everything that requires a pushing motion involves your chest. This is why chest and triceps work great together. They both involve pushing motions.
At the bottom of this page I have a bunch of sample chest workouts, these are guaranteed to build chest muscles!
The Makeup
The pecs are made up of two separate muscle groups. They are the pectoralis major and minor. Check out the below picture for a little more detail on these.
Building Phase
Presses
To build chest muscles you need to focus on compound exercises and there is no better exercise for the chest than bench press.
The press is divided into three types, flat, incline and decline. They each focus on a different part of the actual chest muscle.
These compound exercises should generally make up the building portion of your workout. Now you don't have to do all three everytime.
In fact I would not recommend you do all three everytime. Many bodybuilders do not even do decline presses. They often really pump the blood to your head and make you feel flushed.
Dips
Dips are also a great way to really bulk up. I often use them for either a warmup/fatiguing portion or if you want to do supersets for your chest they work great for the second exercise as you don't have a weight over your head and chest while you are tired.
Check out the how to build chest muscles with the power exercises for more info on how to really get stronger.
Fly/Cable Crossover
The chest fly and cable crossover are usually done at the end of a workout. I often do them in a superset at the end of my chest day combined either with dips or pushups.
You can really work to failure this way. There are different ways do these, either with dumbbells, machines or the cable machines at the gym.
I personally use the cables or dumbbells because I don't really like using the machines often. I feel I get a better burn from using the others. This is because the stabilizing muscles kick in!
Sets and Tempo
Working straight heavy lifting isn't usually the best way to build chest muscles. If you focus on compound exercises and repping out at about 8-12 is the best way.
You don't have to do marathon workouts, usually doing three to four exercises with three or four reps each will be more than enough to tear that muscle tissue.
Working your muscles for between 30-60 seconds per set is usually recommended for the chest. It is a large muscle group and pure power lifting (like 4-6 reps) is often not getting the full blown results.
Sample Chest WorkoutsYour chest and triceps work great together, try this chest and tricep workout
I have 4 other great chest routines that you may be interested in. Check out these Chest Workout Routines for a great start to your chest day.
The best program that I have come across that combines a great chest workout along with your other muscle groups is called Meathead Turbulence Training Routine
Oh yeah, don't forget to have a shake with whey and creatine after... You gotta feed the your chest muscles after there a good workout like the ones above.