Pec Workout

Much has been written about muscle building and the different techniques that can be used to effectively build chest size and strength. Most beginners and novices have a tendency to get stuck in a rut and only do certain exercises over and over again. While this may work in the short term and you may see an increase in size and strength, you will very quickly peak and hit a plateau. At this point some people will double up on their workouts to try and break through and many times end up doing nothing but either injuring themselves or burning themselves out.

By varying your training routine consistently you will see incremental growth in strength and size which is what we all want. Along with your training of course, diet and rest are very important. All three should be focused on if you want to make quick effective gains. You should be getting 7-8 hours of sleep every night. Meals should also be cut into 5 or 6 smaller meals throughout the day instead of 2 or 3 larger ones. It will be much easier to get the necessary protein in your diet if you eat 5 or 6 times every day. You should aim for a minimum of 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight every day. If you are working out very heavily you can increase that to maybe 1 1/2 grams per pound of body weight.

One of the most important exercises you can do for your pec region is the bench press. We prefer flat but of course mix it up with semi inclines and full inclines over time. We try to shoot for 10-12 total sets for the maximum effect during our pec workout. Our preferred chest workout will be bench presses, dumbbell flies, and cable crossovers. The way we mix these up is by mixing in flat to inclines on the bench, flat to inclines with the dumbbell flies and lower and upper cable crossovers hitting the pecs form basically three different angles. We also do a few sets of weighted dips maybe once a week.

As far as what type of pec workout routine, we are big fans of the 5 x 5 workout. A 5 x 5 would consist of two warm up sets of 5 with increasing weight and then 3 sets of 5 with about 90% of the maximum weight that you could do 5 reps with. For example if you can bench press 200 lbs 5 times than you would want to work your 3 sets at about 180 lbs. We will do a 5 x 5 for a few months and then throw in a 5-4-3-2-1 training day for a week or two and then move to single sets for maybe a week. Single sets will really pack on the size if done correctly, but it is something you definitely want to work up to and not abuse. You need to get your body in very good shape before going down that road.

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