I consider chest to be my weakest body part and it's the one I focus on the most so every couple of weeks I search for new ways to shock my muscles into growth.
In this article, I'm going to show you five chest building exercises that you probably never tried them.
There's a big part of the fitness/bodybuilding community that will say “All you need to build a big chest is the bench press”, that statement is probably true for some people but I'm in this game for over 3 years now, and after testing this for over a year on myself I can definitely say the solution isn't going with heavier weights on 1 exercise.
From my experience, 3 things made a huge impact on my chest muscle growth. Those three things were changing frequency, volume and new exercises.
Exercise 1: Vince Gironda Wide-grip Dips
This is how Vince himself explained this exercise:
“Use a parallel bar set up which permits you to have a spacing of 33″ wide. Remember that the elbows must be wide and straight out from the shoulders. The head is down chin on chest, and the back rounded forward. The feet are under the face or slightly in front. Dip as far down as possible and return as high as you can.
Never change this position as this isolates the pectoral muscle and does not bring the triceps into play as in the elbows back style.”
Source: IronMan Magazine Jan 1977 Vol. 36 No. 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVXagkyfGTg
My Experience with Gironda dips
I love this exercise; it hits the wide low area of the chest which is very hard to focus on.
This is the exercise that I do the most out of these 5. The only downside is that some gyms down have a sufficiently broad parallel dip bar that's required to make this work, the narrow one isn't good as it involves your triceps too much.
The key where most people fail to execute this exercise correctly is in the elbow positioning; it's crucial to keep the elbows flared out and not let them go back, also for balance don't let your body swing.
To accomplish proper balance experiment by tightening your abs, gluts and leg muscles.
Exercise 2: Gironda Bench Press to Neck
Vince was a great innovator; it's too bad people don't know more about him however here's an exercise you can apply immediately to get some new mass on the upper chest.
I've noticed that a lot of people have trouble with the incline bench press and you've also probably noticed that the upper portion of the chest is what most people lack.
How to perform the Gironda Neck Press safely?
The video below shows the most important things to keep in mind when doing this exercise. I recommend doing this exercise on a Smith machine if you don't have a dedicated spotter who knows what he's doing.
Also make sure your shoulders can handle it, for some people this exercise just puts the shoulders in a dangerous position so if it hurts while performing I say skip the exercise and replace it with something else rather than risk injury.
The main issue is that you have to flare the elbows out almost entirely which puts the rotator cuff in a very bad position and the shoulder joint is one of the most common injured places.
Tip when performing: As you lower the bar go slower and try to stretch the chest as much as possible really and then tense the pecs hard at the top, trying for a hard contraction that lasts 2 seconds then lower again
For this exercise form is very important both for safety and to make it effective.
Exercise 3: Reverse-Grip Bench Press
To be honest with you I've never seen anyone do this exercise! The main muscles it targets is the upper chest and triceps.
This exercise is often used by people who have to work around shoulder injuries and by power lifters looking to increase strength.
My experience with Reverse Bench Press
I like this exercise because you don't feel the shoulders doing any work, the downside though is that triceps will be under a lot of tension.
For me, it's fine because I do chest on Monday usually and the triceps is rested, however, if you don't have at least 72h of rest between direct triceps training and your chest day it might be a problem.
Also, make sure that your thumb is ALWAYS wrapped around the bar, I know some of you use all thumbs on one side. You can do that on regular barbell press, but for this one, it's critical to wrap the thumb around the bar and squeeze it.
I don't have to mention that you need a spotter for this exercise especially in the early stages while you are still mastering the proper form.
Exercise 4: Dumbbell Squeeze Press
This is a fantastic isolation exercise for the mid chest, I always feel a great pump after doing it, and it targets an area that's hard to focus on with the usually barbell press/fly movements.
The thing to keep in mind when doing this exercise is no to let triceps take over and make sure you don't use too heavy dumbbells which you can't control. For the last set on squeeze press, I use the same dumbbells as for the first set of the fly so you can use that to figure out your weight.
Exercise 5: Lying Cable flies
You've probably done a lot of dumbbell flies but what I haven't seen many people do are cable flies. The basics are the same as dumbbells, but the movement feels different and can be a shocker to your chest.
What I do for this exercise is not use the grip handles and just grab the cables by the end and perform a slight twist, in the end, this hits the chest on the top portion of the movement where you feel it the most.
Overall it's a great finisher workout to get a nice pump or go with high repetitions.
If you have never done these movements, start light.
The most important thing with new movements is to master the form as soon as possible, without the right form you can't utilize the movement to its maximum potential.
Enjoy!
-Mario
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