According to sports doctors, before the age of 16, training with barbells and weights is out of the question. And after reaching this age, you can only engage in athletics under the guidance of a coach. But what to do if the boy is determined to pump up his muscles?
13-year-old Dima came home with a torn jacket after a clash with high school students. This is not the first time - the guys from 11th "B" become attached to him every day. I don’t like the fact that he’s a “nerd” - he studies well, he understands computers better than anyone else in school, but at the same time he’s overweight and can’t stand up for himself. The doctor explained that many boys at the beginning of puberty accumulate fat under the skin, which the body then burns and uses as biological fuel during accelerated growth and accumulation of muscle mass. But Dima did not calm down, he decided: “I will pump up my muscles, I will become an athlete!” “Is it possible for him to exercise at this age, isn’t it harmful?” - Mom was worried.
It is believed that exercises with dumbbells (weighing no more than 1.5 kg) are allowed for adolescents from 14–15 years old, and only on the condition that they are performed in the “lying on your back” position, but in no case standing or sitting. The only acceptable way to pump up muscles for a 12-13 year old boy is to use his own body weight as a training device, doing push-ups, pull-ups, and all kinds of hanging on the bar. However, even at the age of 16–18, it is they, and not training with a load, that should form the basis of training.
“Before the start of endocrine changes in the body, that is, until about 12 years of age, the muscles in boys are significantly different in structure and composition from the muscles of an adult man,” says Olga Golovinskaya, a sports doctor and teacher at the Moscow Center for Advanced Training of Healthcare Specialists. “There is not enough myoglobin protein in the muscles of a teenager, and there is too much water, so they get tired quickly and cannot cope with high loads. And the bone base to which the muscles are attached is still fragile: the rapidly growing skeleton does not have time to accumulate enough calcium to strengthen the bone tissue, so under intense loads, fractures and deformations of the bones and spine are possible.
In addition, a teenager’s intervertebral discs, as well as his muscles, contain a lot of moisture. In a sense, this is good: the more water in the disc, the better it absorbs shocks and shocks when walking and playing sports. But under vertical loads, the increased hydrophilicity of the discs can literally backfire on your boy, causing an intervertebral hernia, which in some cases requires surgery. To prevent this from happening, don’t force things - increase the load gradually, and forget about barbells and weights!
A little about anatomy
Inflated male breasts evoke the admiration of surrounding ladies and visually increase the relief of the body. Knowledge of the anatomical features of this muscle group is necessary to increase the efficiency and quality of chest training at home.
The pectorals are one of the largest muscle groups in humans. They occupy 3rd place in size and volume. They play a huge role in moving the arms, as well as in raising them up and down.
There are several bundles of pectoral muscles:
- The pectoralis major muscle is fan-shaped and occupies the largest area. Its function includes raising, lowering and turning the arm inward.
- The small muscle is located under the large muscle, has a triangular shape and performs the function of traction forward, down and back. Partially involved in dumbbell or barbell rows (exercises for back development).
- The serratus anterior muscle is located on the side, attached to the shoulder blades. Performs external thrusts and is involved in bringing the arm to a vertical position.
The anatomical structure suggests starting work with the large muscle, since its response to loads is immediate. However, by adjusting the angle at which the exercises are performed, using a set of effective exercises for the chest muscles at home, you can change the degree of load, as well as connect additional muscle groups.
Abs workout
Many green athletes believe that by performing 100 or more crunches per workout, more beautiful abdominal muscles are formed. However, this is a misconception, the correct creation of at least a flat, toned stomach and then a beautiful sculpted abs begins with the feeling of the muscles being trained.
It is necessary to learn to breathe correctly; in any exercise, and not just when training the abs, you always take a deep breath in the relaxation phase through the nose and a powerful exhale in the tension phase through the mouth. In this case, the diaphragm is first filled with air and only at the end the pectoral muscles rise; all this will allow for good breathing development and a better supply of oxygen to the body.
What you need to grow your pectoral muscles
Effective muscle growth depends on several factors:
- A well-designed set of exercises that takes into account the initial physical data.
- Balanced fractional nutrition, which contains all the nutrients the body needs.
- Quality rest, because muscles grow during the recovery period after training.
But the most important factor, without which a qualitative increase in muscle mass is impossible, is the athlete’s brain. Only a competent approach to training and exercise technique will give an acceptable result and protect you from injury.
For example, a chest push-up training program has many advantages. But a technically unprepared athlete will negate all the advantages of the program, since the load, instead of the chest, will be distributed to the triceps and back with the abdominal muscles. The same principle works in nutrition and the use of sports supplements.
Training schedule
The main misconception of many men who want to get visible results in a short time is frequent and intense exercise and strength training. This is far from true.
Under no circumstances should you practice every day, especially if you are a beginner. Forceful exercise on the chest can also cause muscle damage if done every day.
The training process can be accompanied by the fact that muscles are injured, stretched and torn.
After any load, the body simply needs a time period to restore muscle fibers and form a new correct muscle mass.
Thus, frequent training without rest will not give good results, and may cause damage to muscle fiber tissue.
If your muscles hurt after training (and they should and will hurt with the right loads, especially at first), then you need to reschedule your next sports activities until the pain goes away.
It is unacceptable to train with acute muscle pain.
Main rules
Before you start talking about how to properly pump up your pectoral muscles at home, you need to learn some rules that you need to follow during the training process.
Systematic training
There is a system in absolutely all areas of life. This is what happens with sports. You can't exercise once a month and expect any results.
Proper and balanced nutrition
Once a beginner decides to take up exercise, he needs to take one simple step to get started - look in his refrigerator and understand what he eats.
Without the required amount of proteins, fats and carbohydrates, muscle growth is doomed to failure. Without a balanced diet, the pectoral muscles will not grow.
Progression of loads
You can achieve muscle hypertrophy by constantly increasing the load. The fact is that the human body has the ability to adapt. Once this happens, muscle growth stops.
When can I expect results?
How quickly can you pump up your pectoral muscles at home by following all the recommendations given, and when will the results be?
Result is a very vague concept. If you want to have a chest that bullets will bounce off, although now your powerful torso is only adorned with ribs, then you will wait for such a result for a very long time, most likely even more than one year.
If you want to gain at least some muscle, then such a result is possible in just a couple of months, provided that you train hard and, most importantly, eat well.
Nutrition is one of the most important aspects of gaining muscle mass, without which it is impossible to pump up a guy’s chest at home, or in the gym too. Therefore, I advise you to read the article on nutrition for weight gain.
In general, be patient and wait for it to be more comfortable to sleep on your chest than on a pillow. The main thing is don't stop.
Sport equipment
Unfortunately, without certain sports equipment it will be difficult to achieve impressive results in working out the chest. Of course, you can start training with push-ups, but over time you will have to increase the load, and without additional weights this is impossible.
For example, parallel bars are an effective exercise that can significantly speed up the process of developing the volume of the pectoral muscles.
It is clear that the size of modern apartments does not allow a full-fledged gym with all the necessary equipment to be located at home. But with a few simple devices, you can significantly improve the quality of your training.
For this you will need:
- dumbbells;
- bars;
- horizontal bar;
- a rubber band that can be used as an expander;
- belt - in order to hang additional weight on it;
- bench that can be adjusted in height.
Setting goals
Bodybuilding is an activity that requires special patience and systematization. If a beginner decides to pump up a massive torso in the shortest possible time, after a month he will be disappointed. After all, it happens quickly and easily only in fairy tales. There are no secret schemes like “the best chest exercises at home - get pumped up in three days.” Since they all work well in their own way, but will not bring visible results in an unrealistically short time.
Also, a lot depends on your body type, genetic predisposition, metabolic rate and the production of your own hormones. Lifestyle also affects the rate of muscle development. But by following simple rules of progression, you can achieve good results.
Push-ups on stools
Beginning athletes are often interested in what exercises to pump up the pectoral muscles. Push-ups on stools are great for strengthening the sternum. Before performing the exercises, you should place your arms straight on a stool, your back should be straightened, and your buttocks should be lowered slightly. If you don’t have stools at home, you can use chairs or even an armchair, but it is important to remember that the upholstery on these furnishings must be hard. The soft surface makes it difficult to evenly distribute the load on the hands; in addition, the body will sway during push-ups, which can lead to serious injuries.
After performing bench presses on stools, you should rest your hands on the floor and place your feet on a high sofa or chair. The back should be straight, hands shoulder-width apart.
When you start training, it is enough to do 10 to 20 push-ups in 4 sets. Over time, the number of approaches and presses can be gradually increased. At the same time, you should not load the muscles to the maximum, otherwise time will be wasted and the expected result will not be achieved.
Men who, for various reasons, do not go to the gym, are interested in how to pump up their chest muscles at home. After the muscles of the sternum are sufficiently strong, you can do push-ups with a load. After each approach, do not forget to take a break for 2-3 minutes. During rest, you should not sit on the sofa; it is better to walk in circles around the room, doing breathing exercises.
How to make progress
Here are simple rules that will help you achieve good results in an acceptable time frame:
- Beginners should pay more attention to the technical aspects of exercises and complexes.
- In order for muscles to grow continuously, you need to increase the load in accordance with the established progression threshold.
- Avoid overtraining - muscles need time to recover. You can train your chest no more than 2 times a week.
- Systematization is required not only in training, but also in nutrition and rest. You should spend at least 8 hours a day sleeping. It is highly advisable to adhere to the regime.
- There is no need to neglect your breathing technique. Oxygenated blood allows muscles to grow faster.
In addition to these points, you should follow a training regimen - both during the week and during each lesson.
Training mode
An important aspect in bodybuilding is adherence to the regime. It concerns not only the number of classes per week, but also the training of certain muscle groups during one local workout. Regarding the total number of training days per week, there are many opinions.
Professionals recommend not to get hung up on fixed patterns (Monday - Wednesday - Friday). This way the body will quickly get used to the stress, and a “plateau” effect will occur.
To avoid these moments, you need to alternate training days by month. For example, 12 training sessions according to the classical scheme for a month. Then move on to 16 classes per month. That is, not 3, but 4 workouts (Monday - Tuesday - Thursday - Friday). This will increase the number of training days, and, consequently, the intensity of the load. When finished, return to the original diagram.
If we talk about local training, then you shouldn’t pump your chest at every lesson. Muscles should be allowed to recover.
Accordingly, a beginner’s training looks something like this:
- Monday – chest, triceps, legs;
- Wednesday – back, biceps, crunches;
- Friday – chest, legs, deltoids.
As you can see from the example above, the chest is worked out 2 times a week. This amount of exercise is enough for a man to pump up his sternum muscles.
Is it possible to pump up your chest with push-ups?
You don't have to go to the gym to pump up massive breasts. To do this, you can use an exercise such as push-ups. The beauty of it is that the man’s own weight is used, and if you select the correct push-up pattern for chest muscle growth, progress will not be long in coming.
Push-ups are a great way to remove fat from the chest muscles of a man, as performing this exercise at high intensity leads to an increase in lean muscle mass. Under the load of his own weight, the athlete receives the most optimal weight, due to which fat burns vigorously and quickly.
Push-ups are quite versatile: by adjusting the angle and height of the leg lift, you can work on different parts of the muscle bundles. If you want to pump up the upper and middle of the pectoral muscles, the exercise is also suitable. The higher the legs and the narrower the position of the arms, the greater the load on the upper bundle and the middle section of the pectoral muscle.
Exercises for pumping up the lower part of the pectoral muscles are distinguished by the fact that the angle of inclination shifts and the body rises upward. As a rule, push-ups for this part of the muscle are performed from an elevation or additional support.
For those who seriously want to pump up the middle of the pectoral muscles, like Iron Arnie, push-ups with extremely narrow hand placement will be useful. The main thing in this exercise is not to press your elbows to your torso, since the load from the middle of your chest will shift to the triceps.
Since push-ups are a compound compound exercise, they involve many different muscle groups. But to complete the main task, namely working out the chest, you need to take into account the technical aspects of the training.
The starting position in classic push-ups does not require detailed analysis. The process of doing the exercises is familiar to everyone. But many do not know that the elbows should not be pressed to the body, but placed as wide as possible to the sides. Otherwise, the load will be distributed between the back muscles and triceps. The chest will account for about 15% of the total load.
If we take into account all the technical features of the training, then push-ups can easily be called the best exercises for the pectoral muscles for men at home.
An important fact is that push-ups will not provide the opportunity to build up huge layers of pectoral muscles, since the human body gets used to absolutely any type of load. To progress, you need to constantly increase the load, which is almost impossible to do with push-ups. But they can prepare a beginner for higher levels of weight, and the result will be, although not as pronounced as with training with iron.
How to move the pectoral muscles for men: play with muscles
Beautiful and sculpted male breasts attract attention. But she can impress others even more if a man knows how to effectively move his pectoral muscles.
How to pump up your breasts
Only a person whose pectoral muscles are well trained and pumped up can play beautifully with their pectoral muscles. An untrained man cannot feel or control them, so the first thing to focus on is creating sculpted muscle mass.
It is necessary to develop the whole body evenly, but in this case exercises will be described that are aimed primarily at the pectoral muscles.
Best exercises
To get quick results, you need to focus on the problem area. There are several of the most effective exercises that will help you quickly create the desired volume in your chest. And while doing them, you will be able to feel the necessary muscles in action.
Listen carefully to your sensations - to move any muscles you need to create a load on them. Just understand how to move to contract a particular part of the chest, and you will quickly master this skill.
The best exercises for chest development:
- Pushups.
- Bench press.
- Lying dumbbell fly.
- Information on blocks.
Start working with light weights and gradually increase them. First of all, focus on the execution technique and accustom your muscles to the load. Working with a lot of weight at once can cause you to strain yourself or get injured.
The most effective thing is the bench press with a barbell.
If you are new to the gym, be sure to contact an instructor. He will help you choose the right load and teach you how to perform the exercises correctly. After all, if you do them with errors, you will not achieve the desired result. And in the worst case, you can even get injured.
Load on different parts of the chest
The pectoral muscles are located on the front wall of the chest and extend to the tubercle of the humerus. Conventionally, the breast can be divided into 4 areas:
- top;
- lower;
- external;
- internal.
For beautiful breasts, you need to apply the load evenly to all parts. For some areas you need to perform the exercises with slight modifications. Keep this in mind if you are not satisfied with the appearance of your breasts.
The famous fitness instructor Denis Semenikhin in the video below will tell you how to properly pump up this or that area of the chest.
The outer and inner chest areas develop well when performing the most popular exercise - the bench press with a barbell. But you need to take into account the position of your hands:
- The wider the grip, the greater the load on the outside.
- The narrower the grip, the greater the load on the internal one.
When performing this exercise, the lower edge of the chest is also perfectly worked out; the main thing is to work on a flat horizontal surface.
The inner chest works well during blocking at the point where the hands are as close to each other as possible. In the maximum diluted state, the outer part works. Stay at these extreme points for a while to give additional stress to the desired areas.
The upper extrinsic muscles are worked during lying dumbbell flyes. By changing the inclination of the bench, you can give additional stress to the area with which you have problems:
- an inclination of 20-30 degrees helps to pump up the middle of the chest;
- when tilted at 40-50 degrees, the upper chest works.
Try to use different exercises during your workouts so that your pectoral muscles develop evenly.
Optimal training frequency
Wanting to quickly learn how to move their pectoral muscles, men make a common mistake - they exercise every day. But you will get the results of your training not during classes, but between them.
The optimal frequency of strength training is no more than once every 72 hours or 2 times a week. Otherwise, the muscles simply will not have time for recovery and subsequent growth.
During training, listen carefully to the sensations and watch the body's reaction, then later you will be able to contract your muscles at will.
Reduce the amount of subcutaneous fat
No matter how pumped and developed your pectoral muscles are, no one will be able to see their movements under a layer of fat. Even with a normal weight, the chest will look round and too voluminous.
The optimal level of subcutaneous fat is 7-10%. With this indicator, you will have a sculpted body, where every muscle and every movement is visible.
It is not recommended to go below 5% - it is harmful to health.
How to dry your body
Perform the exercises described at the beginning of the article, and at the same time change your diet. You cannot starve or go on strict diets, because in this case muscle mass will suffer. And you worked so long to develop it. To get rid of fat, you need to follow the following rules:
- Avoid fast carbohydrates. To achieve a beautiful figure, you will have to give up sweets, baked goods, fast food, carbonated drinks, chips and other junk food.
- Complex carbohydrates before 2 pm . You cannot completely give up carbohydrates, because they are necessary for the normal functioning of the body. The main thing is to consume them in the first half of the day and in small volumes - 1 g per 1 kg of weight.
- Limit fats - don't give them up completely, but reduce them to a minimum.
- Eat more protein – To develop muscle mass and gain strength, you need to eat more protein foods. These products include eggs, lean meat, fish, legumes, and low-fat dairy products.
After consulting with your doctor, you can take fat-burning medications. The main thing is to follow the instructions and do not violate the specified dosage.
Soon your pectoral muscles will become more visible.
How to move your pectoral muscles
During training, you will feel your muscles working and contracting. The more they are developed, the better you will be able to feel and control them. To do this, the main thing is to follow two rules:
- Perform the exercises technically correctly. Be sure to work with an individual trainer at the beginning of your training until you learn how to correctly perform this or that action.
- Mimic the movements of exercises outside the gym. In between workouts, repeat the exercises at home, without additional load or effort. Just focus on the muscles that are working during your workout. Remember how they move during certain actions, what you feel, how they react.
With these mindful home exercises, you can eventually learn to move your pectoral muscles at will. Just tense them the same way you did during the exercises and they will respond accordingly.
Practical exercise
In addition, you can learn to tense your chest muscles using the following method:
- Raise your arms to chest level, bend and tense them so that your chest muscles contract.
- As you become more experienced, raise your hands not so high - place them a little lower. Experiment to see how low you can hold your arms so that when you tighten them, your pectoral muscles contract.
- Practice to learn how to move the necessary muscles without raising your arms. This is the highest level of mastery of your body.
To summarize the above, the key to success lies in exercise and self-control. During training, listen to your feelings, remember the reactions of your muscles to movements, and then simply repeat them on purpose outside of training.
The best chest exercises for home
When it comes to training at home, the thought immediately comes to mind that there are not so many exercises for a certain muscle group. Don’t despair, if you have a few simple devices you can significantly diversify your home workout, and even a beginner will have no problems pumping up his chest at home.
Pushups
Push-ups are one of the most popular exercises for pumping up the pectoral muscle.
Starting position – lying down, the body from head to heels should form a straight line. As you inhale, you need to lower your body to the floor, bending your arms at the elbow joints, and as you exhale, return to the starting position. There is no need to press your elbows to your body.
Dips
Pumping up your chest at home on the uneven bars is quite possible.
The athlete's body should be suspended, with the arms acting as a support. For maximum load on the pectoral muscles, you need to move your body forward.
On inhalation - descent, on exhalation - return to the starting position. Elbows bend to the sides. It is important to prevent swinging, as in a pendulum mechanism.
Pull-up on the horizontal bar
Exercises on the horizontal bar are also good for pumping up your torso and pectoral muscles. The horizontal bar engages the lower part of the chest, giving it relief.
The technique is quite simple. The athlete is hanging, the grip of the hands is slightly wider than shoulder width. As you exhale, you need to pull your body towards the bar so that your chest touches it. While inhaling, return to the starting position.
Dumbbell Bench Press
How to pump up your chest with dumbbells at home? Very simple - you will need a bench for this. Starting position – lying on a bench. The arms, bent at the elbow joints, form a right angle and are placed to the side. As you exhale, you need to squeeze the dumbbells up, and as you inhale, return to the starting position.
It is better to take dumbbells to the starting position from a sitting position. The dumbbells are placed with their ends on the top of the thigh, then, without leaving the sitting position, you should lean back with your whole body. The lying position should resemble the position in which the person is sitting. This is done in order to remove the arch in the back and give maximum load to the chest.
Dumbbell flyes in a lying position
When reaching the starting position, it resembles a dumbbell bench press. Except that you don’t need to press them, but spread your arms to the sides. Slightly bent elbow joints are lowered to the line of the body, then the arms are brought together.
Women who are looking for an answer to the question of how to quickly pump up their pectoral muscles at home should know that exercises with dumbbells will help tone their breasts. Of course, the weight of the shells will differ significantly from the loads for men.
The most effective exercises you can do at home
The best exercise with which both a man and a girl can increase the volume of their chest muscles is considered to be push-ups. This is the simplest exercise, the technique of which everyone knows. To perform it, you do not need special sports equipment, so it can easily be done at home. Push-ups can be used as the main exercise and you can also add other types of presses as additional exercises:
- Push-ups with a wide grip, when performing this type of press, the girth of the lower and middle part of the chest increases. When doing push-ups with a narrow hand grip, the girth of the upper chest increases.
- A deep press where the body touches the floor. This exercise helps increase the overall chest girth. However, not everyone can immediately start doing this exercise. Before doing deep presses, it is advisable to practice classic push-ups.
- And many other types of push-ups (with fists, with one hand, with clap).
For men who have good physical training, at first 20-22 repetitions in several approaches will be enough; for girls, it is advisable to perform no more than 15-17 repetitions. However, if the load seems heavy and it is difficult to perform a sufficient number of presses, then the load should be reduced. If the load is not enough, then for men you can increase the number of repetitions to 30, for girls up to 22.
Also, the best exercise for increasing chest muscle mass is pull-ups. Pull-ups with a wide grip are more effective. It is advisable to do at least 12 repetitions in one approach. Even if a person does not have a horizontal bar, he can make one from scrap materials.
These two exercises are considered the most effective for building chest muscle mass. The results of the training will be noticeable after just a few weeks of training, of course, if they are performed correctly.
The load must be constantly increased, only in this case will it be possible to significantly increase the girth.
Chest training program for home
Such training requires a lot of strength and discipline. For example, there is a task - to pump up the inner part of the pectoral muscles at home - not all exercises are suitable for this. First of all, you will need push-ups from the floor with a narrow position of your hands.
It is very important to understand which tasks to apply this or that exercise to.
Reheating options
An important part of any workout is warming up. Prepared muscles respond better to stress and reduce the risk of injury.
- Squat jumps. You need to squat down and jump up from this position. As soon as the return to the starting position occurs, change the position to a lying position and perform a push-up. The repetition ends with a return to a squat.
- Plank. An indispensable exercise for toning muscles, and also as a warm-up before training. To perform it, take a lying position and stand there for 30 seconds to 2-3 minutes.
Set of exercises
To fully work out the chest muscles, you will need several workouts per week.
The first workout looks something like this:
- Push-ups – 3 sets of 10 repetitions.
- Wide grip pull-ups – 10 reps in 3 sets.
- Push-ups on parallel bars – 3-4 sets to failure.
For the maximum pumping effect, you can perform a superset of effective exercises on the top of the pectoral muscles and, accordingly, on the bottom.
Complex No. 2 includes working with weights, and it is this that will help pump up the lower pectoral muscles with dumbbells:
- Dumbbell bench press – 3 x 10.
- Dips with additional weight – 3-4 x 10 reps.
- Pullover with a barbell or dumbbells – 3 sets of 10 reps.
- Lying arm raises with dumbbells – 10 times in 3 sets.
Chest muscles are the envy of everyone
Summer is a time for vacations, the sea, the beach, scantily clad men and women. The first thing a woman's gaze stops at when she sees a man on the beach is his chest, if he has one, of course. What about men? The first thing they notice in a woman is, of course, her breasts again. If again there is something to notice there. And only then the gaze takes in the entire figure, male or female. Beautiful pumped up breasts for a man or elastic, raised, beautifully shaped breasts for a woman are a source of pride and, if you may, a calling card for anyone who takes care of their body and health. But here the question arises: how to achieve perfection?
How to develop chest muscles?
Strength exercises with your own body weight and on machines will help you develop muscles, increase their volume, and at the same time lose excess fat, revealing beautiful, sculpted muscles. But before we harmoniously develop the chest muscles, let's first understand a little about the anatomy.
Let's start with the male chest. Everything is more or less clear there. Above is the pectoralis major muscle and below it is the pectoralis minor muscle. Hypertrophy of the pectoralis major muscle mainly determines beautiful, pumped up breasts in men. These muscles serve to bring the arms together and pull them towards the body. Therefore, in fact, all exercises in which the arms make pulling or pushing movements toward the chest use the chest muscles in one way or another. With regular use of these muscles, they will increase in volume and form beautiful, athletic breasts in men.
Now beautiful female breasts. Some people generally believe that there are no muscles in the female breast. But this is not an entirely correct statement, because... Anatomically, the pectoral muscles are present in both men and women. It’s just that in men, the pectoral muscles respond faster to training, develop better, and trained muscles are visually better visible. A woman's pectoral muscles are hidden under fatty tissue. Therefore, it is impossible to radically enlarge a woman’s breasts through training; this is possible either by increasing the amount of fat (but we must remember that fat is a harmful thing, it is deposited not only in the places you need), or surgically. Neither one nor the other is particularly interesting to a girl-woman-grandmother who seriously monitors her health. And yes, even during pregnancy and breastfeeding, the breasts greatly increase in size and become very attractive. But this is a slightly different topic. But! Nevertheless, a woman’s trained pectoral muscles can improve the shape of her breasts, lift them, and make them more elastic. Properly selected exercises will improve blood circulation in the muscles, the muscles of the whole body and in particular, improve the condition of the mammary glands, which are responsible for the shape of the breasts, improve the condition of the skin, and prevent sagging. But, let us repeat once again, girls will not be able to achieve any radical breast enlargement by 2-3 sizes with the help of training.
Why do you need to train your pectoral muscles?
In other words, since you can’t enlarge your breasts, why train? The fact is that girls, in general, also need the functions that the chest muscles perform. That is, strong hands capable of holding a baby for several hours at a time.
Secondly, training the pectoral muscles improves blood circulation and stimulates the production of substances that slow down aging. Women who regularly exercise, even in old age, look very charming.
Thirdly, as already mentioned, developed chest muscles will, as it were, support the mammary glands from the inside, pushing them forward and upward, which is why they will generally appear more prominent and voluminous.
And finally, fourthly, if you neglect the development of the pectoral muscles, an imbalance in development will arise, especially when you train your back. The back will be developed and beautiful, and the posture will be stooped, which will make the chest appear sunken, saggy and smaller than in reality. Exercising your pectoral muscles will improve your posture.
How to train?
One of the best exercises is push-ups. Other good exercises are dips, dumbbell presses on an incline bench, and hand presses with dumbbells (or in a machine).
In addition to strength exercises, regular exercise in sports such as swimming, tennis, and volleyball has a very good effect.
If you can’t go to the gym, you can pump up your chest at home. To do this, you will need a minimum of equipment: just dumbbells and an expander. If you have a horizontal bar or parallel bars, you can’t even dream of anything better.
You can do push-ups from the floor (and if it’s hard at first, from the sofa), and do dumbbell presses on the floor too.
How not to worsen the appearance of your breasts?
For men with well-developed muscles, the general rule is true - the less fat, the better the relief will be drawn, and the more interesting the appearance will be. For women, the opposite is likely to be true. The “rounded” shapes that are attractive to the male eye are created largely by adipose tissue. Therefore, for a well-physically developed girl (without hanging fat folds), drying will lead to the opposite result, not improving, but worsening her appearance. The more prominent the muscles are, the thinner and more sinewy the breasts and butt will be; as a result, the girl can turn into a “skinny roach”, which will not attract the attention of fans to her. Instead of wild delight, acquaintances will rather sympathetically ask: “You’ve lost so much weight... Are you sick?”
Therefore, girls need to follow moderation when burning and drying fat. If you notice less and less envy and more and more sympathy in the looks of others, know that it’s time to stop. Get back a couple of kilograms and they will harmoniously round out your advantages, reviving the extinguished envy of your friends.
The main thing is not to succumb to common myths, which we will consider in the next article, and regularly perform exercises, which we will also devote a separate article to (or maybe several). Don't forget about proper nutrition, which is important when training your pectoral muscles, and stay cheerful and optimistic!
Uplifting the upper chest
Of course, pumping up the upper pectoral muscles using a machine in the gym is easier and more convenient. But there are also other exercises to develop this area, and they can be used at home. Using different weights and the angle of the bench or leg elevation in push-ups, you can increase the effectiveness of training at home.
Exercises for pumping the upper pectoral muscles at home are simple and effective. For example, in a dumbbell bench press, it is enough to change the position of the body by raising the bench 30-46 degrees upward.
To pump up the upper muscles of the sternum for a man, you can perform various exercises, focusing purely on your sensations. It is important to try to get a feel for the group being worked on and a certain part of it. Only in this case will any exercise give quick results.
Working on the lower pectoral muscles
The training program on the horizontal bar to properly pump up the chest muscles of a man is quite simple, but at the same time effective. It is enough to do pull-ups 2-3 times a week in different positions.
There are “Australian pull-ups” that perfectly develop not only the back, but also the lower chest. To perform this exercise, you need a horizontal bar no more than 1 meter high. Pull-ups are performed reclining. The body forms one straight line with the legs; grips can be different.
The “pullover” exercise will help pump up the lower pectoral muscles with dumbbells. It is mainly done on a lying bench, with dumbbells or a barbell. Starting position – hands with dumbbells in front of your head in a vertical position. As you inhale, you need to bring your arms to a horizontal position behind your head, without bending them at the elbows. Then bring them to their starting position.
Many people ask the question of how to pump up the lower chest in a week with a barbell. In practice, it is impossible to achieve any results in a week. Bodybuilding is an activity for patient and persistent people. He is in no hurry.
How to move the pectoral muscles for men: play with muscles
Home workouts
The modern life rhythm of many people nowadays is such that it is often very difficult to find time to regularly visit the gym. The training process at home can be considered as an adequate replacement for the gym. The desire of the student to achieve his goal should come first.
First of all, you need to decide on the number of classes per week. Many beginners mistakenly believe that daily exercise can lead to the desired result in a minimum amount of time. But the characteristics of the pectoral muscles are such that during active work, the muscles receive multiple microtraumas and after each exercise time is needed for their complete recovery. Therefore, at the initial stage, the number of training sessions should not exceed two sessions per week.
You should also adhere to a certain dosage in the number of approaches for exercises to develop the chest muscles. Depending on individual physical fitness, their number should be from four to eight approaches per workout. For those who are just starting to exercise, the best option would be one or two exercises of two or three approaches.
Pectoral muscles - anatomy, training recommendations
The pectoral muscle consists of the minor and major muscles. The pectoralis major muscle is located in front of the chest and one of its bases connects to the muscles of the shoulder. This muscle, in turn, consists of two bundles - the clavicular and pectoral. The pectoralis minor muscle is located under the major muscle and performs a stabilizing function.
To work on each of them, different approaches to training and different exercises are required. The chest muscles do not work locally, so when performing various exercises, the biceps, triceps, delta, back and upper abdominal muscles are involved.
That is why a separate training day is allocated for the muscles of the upper body.
For uniform growth of the pectoral muscle, it is important to perform a set of exercises, and not concentrate your efforts on performing one or two exercises. Now it’s time to figure out what exercises for men will help you pump up your chest.
To ensure that your training is as effective as possible, it is important to follow these recommendations:
- You should train 2-3 times a week. But at the same time, do not forget that muscles need rest. Therefore, you should not exercise more often than once every 2-3 days.
- To see the coveted relief on the chest, you should pay a lot of attention to your diet. Minimize your intake of high carbohydrate foods. It will increase the fat layer under the skin and hide even well-pumped muscles. Increase your protein and vegetable intake.
- Repeat each exercise from the complex 15-20 times up to 4 approaches. If you cannot do the specified number of repetitions, do as many as you can, gradually increasing the number of repetitions with each workout.
- Don't take the weight limit. Use one that allows you to perform the given number of repetitions efficiently. Over time, gradually increase it when you feel that the load is no longer enough.
Exercises for the pectoral muscles are necessary for everyone! For women to strengthen and lift the breasts, and also as preventive measures against age-related changes. Read more about exercises for girls in the article “Exercises for the pectoral muscles for girls.”
Having studied the recommendations, it’s time to move directly to the training itself.
Basic exercises to increase pectoral muscles for men
The classic and most accessible exercise for pumping up the chest remains push-ups in different variations.
Take a position in support lying on outstretched arms. This way, your body will create one line from head to toe. Keep your body tense, do not sink your pelvis. Place your hands wider than your shoulders. We lower the body down, bending our elbows, while inhaling. The elbows are turned to the side. As you exhale, lift your body to the starting position.
Common mistakes:
- Incorrect body position - the pelvis is either too low or, conversely, rises up. It is important to keep your entire body in one line.
- Placing your hands above or below shoulder level. Your arms should be strictly in the same plane as your shoulders.
- Shoulders pressed to head.
Handstand on the uneven bars. At the top point, the elbow should not be fully straightened. As you inhale, lower your body down. Try to keep the body vertical. As you inhale, lift your body up to the starting position. When performing the exercise, your legs can be bent at the knees and crossed at the ankle.
- Execution too fast. Each rise and fall of the body should be done slowly and concentrated.
- Too much weight. Add additional weight to your bodyweight only when you can easily complete the set number of reps and sets.
Lie down on the bench. Hold your arms with dumbbells bent at a right angle at the elbow so that your shoulder is parallel to the floor. Raise the dumbbells up as you exhale and bring them towards each other. As you inhale, lower down to the starting position.
- The pace of the exercises is too fast. Perform the exercise slowly to better work the muscles in full amplitude.
- Place the bench at an angle of 45 degrees. The angle of the bench should be no more than 30 degrees.
- At the top point, arms are fully straightened. They should remain slightly bent at the elbow joint.
Lie down on a bench, grab a barbell and lower it almost to your chest. In the future, when performing the exercise, hold the barbell in the same plane. The barbell should be taken with a wide grip.
It is in this position that the main load falls on the chest muscles. Raise the barbell up as you exhale, strictly vertically. As you inhale, lower the barbell to the starting position. For safety, ask your trainer to back you up during the exercise.
- Press the barbell to the end with arms fully extended. At the top point, your elbows should be slightly bent.
- Open rod grip. It is better to use a closed grip technique. That is, without bending the hand in the hand, the fingers should touch the base of the palm.
- Moving the barbell to the hips or, conversely, to the head. Maintain a vertical position while performing the exercise.
To better understand the technique of performing exercises aimed at working the pectoral muscles, we suggest you watch the following video.
From this video you will learn which muscles are involved in a particular exercise, and the trainer will also give recommendations on options for performing basic exercises to achieve the effect of relief of the chest muscles.
To summarize, it is worth noting once again that only regular training, correct technique and good motivation will help you quickly achieve your goal of achieving the body of your dreams. And to get pumped up pectoral muscles, you need a comprehensive approach to training.
Have you already felt the effect of chest exercises for men? What difficulties did you encounter? What exercises do you prefer and why? Share your impressions and results in the comments.
The simplest and most universal exercise available to anyone starting to develop their body is simple push-ups. If we take a closer look at the mechanism of the push-up process, we will see that this is a kind of variation of the bench press. In addition, push-ups are an optimal general developmental exercise.
When doing push-ups, the muscles of the arms are also involved, which ensures uniform development of the muscles of the upper body. In addition, there is an active effect on the abdominal muscles, which has a beneficial effect on the entire body as a whole. The leg muscles are used to a lesser extent, but they also receive a small share of the load.
Like many physical exercises, push-ups have different variations, using which you will load different groups of pectoral muscles.
Only a person whose pectoral muscles are well trained and pumped up can play beautifully with their pectoral muscles. An untrained man cannot feel or control them, so the first thing to focus on is creating sculpted muscle mass.
It is necessary to develop the whole body evenly, but in this case exercises will be described that are aimed primarily at the pectoral muscles.
Best exercises
To get quick results, you need to focus on the problem area. There are several of the most effective exercises that will help you quickly create the desired volume in your chest. And while doing them, you will be able to feel the necessary muscles in action.
Listen carefully to your sensations - to move any muscles you need to create a load on them. Just understand how to move to contract a particular part of the chest, and you will quickly master this skill.
The best exercises for chest development:
- Pushups.
- Bench press.
- Lying dumbbell fly.
- Information on blocks.
Start working with light weights and gradually increase them. First of all, focus on the execution technique and accustom your muscles to the load. Working with a lot of weight at once can cause you to strain yourself or get injured.
The most effective thing is the bench press with a barbell.
If you are new to the gym, be sure to contact an instructor. He will help you choose the right load and teach you how to perform the exercises correctly. After all, if you do them with errors, you will not achieve the desired result. And in the worst case, you can even get injured.
The pectoral muscles are located on the front wall of the chest and extend to the tubercle of the humerus. Conventionally, the breast can be divided into 4 areas:
- top;
- lower;
- external;
- internal.
For beautiful breasts, you need to apply the load evenly to all parts. For some areas you need to perform the exercises with slight modifications. Keep this in mind if you are not satisfied with the appearance of your breasts.
The famous fitness instructor Denis Semenikhin in the video below will tell you how to properly pump up this or that area of the chest.
The outer and inner chest areas develop well when performing the most popular exercise - the bench press with a barbell. But you need to take into account the position of your hands:
- The wider the grip, the greater the load on the outside.
- The narrower the grip, the greater the load on the internal one.
When performing this exercise, the lower edge of the chest is also perfectly worked out; the main thing is to work on a flat horizontal surface.
The inner chest works well during blocking at the point where the hands are as close to each other as possible. In the maximum diluted state, the outer part works. Stay at these extreme points for a while to give additional stress to the desired areas.
The upper extrinsic muscles are worked during lying dumbbell flyes. By changing the inclination of the bench, you can give additional stress to the area with which you have problems:
- an inclination of 20-30 degrees helps to pump up the middle of the chest;
- when tilted at 40-50 degrees, the upper chest works.
Try to use different exercises during your workouts so that your pectoral muscles develop evenly.
Wanting to quickly learn how to move their pectoral muscles, men make a common mistake - they exercise every day. But you will get the results of your training not during classes, but between them.
During training, listen carefully to the sensations and watch the body's reaction, then later you will be able to contract your muscles at will.
Narrow push-ups
One such option is narrow push-ups. The difference between narrow push-ups and regular push-ups is the width of your arms. In the case of narrow push-ups, the hands are placed so that the fingers of both hands are facing inward and touching each other. When lowering, you need to touch your chest with your hands and maintain a second pause in this position.
Bend push-up
The point of this exercise is to keep your legs higher than your head. You need to put your feet on some kind of elevation and do regular push-ups. This exercise will involve the upper chest, as well as the main muscle groups of the arms. When performing this exercise, you should pay attention to the correct placement of your elbows. If possible, try to move them apart to provide maximum load to the chest muscles.
Dumbbell floor press
Having regular dumbbells will allow you to significantly diversify your training program. The most universal exercise is the following: take the starting position lying on your back, bend your legs at the knees, and stretch your arms with dumbbells up. Then, as you inhale, slowly lower your arms until your elbows touch the floor.
Remember that nothing is impossible. With a certain amount of desire, even at home you can achieve excellent results. Find for yourself an additional incentive for regular exercise, allocate free time, and the results you will receive will pleasantly please you.
Advice from professionals
Do not grab large weights of dumbbells or barbells at the very beginning. Also, you don't need to tear your muscles with a huge number of repetitions. During the first month of training, a beginner only begins to learn the basics of working out various muscle groups. The neuromuscular connection is not yet properly adjusted, which means there is a high risk of injury.
Instead, it is better to try to pay maximum attention to the technical aspects of the exercises, since technique plays a vital role in bodybuilding. And then the result will not be long in coming.
Another point is nutrition. Only a balanced diet will allow you to saturate your body with the necessary nutrients that promote muscle growth.