In the suffocating sweat sock of Florida’s Pompano Beach, with its heavy hissing midday air, motorists taking to the freeway do so with a dread not unlike that of entering Erebus, that benighted pit stop on the way to Hades; Ahmad Haidar sees that heat-shimmering snake of macadam wiggling its way into the city and eagerly straps it on like a leash.

Five days a week, year in, year out, Haidar has been lapping up that highway like a puppy dog, loving every mile, and the farther he drives, the hungrier he gets. His trip from home to the gym takes 45 minutes, but he wouldn’t mind an even longer time to stew. This is his chance to become immersed in the prep for his chest workout, where he can plumb his passion and start the momentum for what’s to come, running through every exercise, set, rep and sensation he’ll face. “When I walk through that door,” he exclaims, “I’m at full boil, ready-pumped and ready to go.” His is a silent burning, but one as evident as Florida’s steam. At first glance, he’s laconic, almost shy; but a slight thing, like the timbre of his voice, reveals more of his character than battles where thousands fall. The more Haidar describes the pile-driving pump he’ll feel in his upper chest, the delicious pain that will tear at his outer pecs or the drum-tight fullness he’ll build with a forced rep, the more you share his excitement. Bodybuilders brag about willing certain means to achieve certain ends, but Haidar extols the converse: throughout his 20 years of gym life, he has allowed experience to have its way with him, pitting one random training style against another, until only the best was left standing. Now, at 38, Haidar has arrived at the truth and has discovered that, as with all truths, it is blindingly simple: the best chest routine is based upon the four most basic exercises, each one performed with four sets of 10 repetitions. Chaos has congealed into predictability. “That was not always so,” Haidar confesses. “When you’re inexperienced, it’s not so much a matter of discovering what works as it is of discovering what doesn’t work. For example, I used a barbell for just about all of my chest exercises in the same workout–flat-bench presses, incline barbell presses, decline barbell presses–but I wasn’t building enough peripheral pec fullness or lower and medial separation.” He pauses, then adds, “But you learn.” His most valuable lesson? “Have patience, no matter how long it takes. Listen to others and eventually you can look back and notice what worked best for you,” he says. BODY SLAM Ironically, Haidar’s introduction to the art of muscle was not through weight lifting. His uncle, Hassan Bchara, who earned a bronze medal as a wrestler in the 1980 Olympics, took Haidar and his brother to a gym to learn wrestling. Then came the fateful day when Haidar’s uncle suggested that he needed to work out with weights to gain muscle. To wrestle, he was told, he needed a strong body. “I started liking the weights better than I liked wrestling,” Haidar says. “What I liked better was feeling the muscle getting pumped and actually seeing it bulging bigger and harder. It was an immediate sensation. It was exciting, and the more I felt the muscle working and pumping, the more I wanted. Wrestling did not give me that feeling.” Haidar was hooked on bodybuilding, and when that happens, its siren companion is a twinge of vanity that masquerades as motivating pride. “When you’re young,” Haidar admits, “you want to show off a little bit–’Oh, look, I have muscles’–and I felt a little bit of that when I started competing. I wanted to compete in Mr. Lebanon, and when I won Mr. Lebanon, ‘Oh, I want to win the Arab Championship’; then this, then that. Step by step. I still feel that way. My goal, now, is Mr. Olympia.” Patiently, he pursues the idealist’s goal of perfect balance for every muscle group in his body, as well as his muscular infrastructure. He doesn’t want his upper pecs, for example, to cantilever over his center or lower pecs, nor his lower pecs to jut prognathously past the uppers. Likewise, he wants his outer-pec sweeps symmetrical with his inner pecs. To this end, he employs three different chest routines that rotate sequentially in a Monday-through-Friday, five-days-on, two-days-off training split, in which he covers his entire body in four days. Bodypart order is chest and triceps on one day, followed by legs the next, shoulders and triceps the day after that, with back and traps the following day. This means that his Friday workout returns to the same bodyparts he trained on Monday. It also means that the bodypart workout sequence is different the next week. Furthermore–and this is a big furthermore–Haidar uses three different chest routines that rotate sequentially with each workout, further complicating things. Here’s how: the exercise order for the first chest workout is flat-bench presses, incline dumbbell presses, flat dumbbell flyes and standing cable crossovers. For his next chest workout, the order is incline barbell presses, flat dumbbell presses, incline dumbbell flyes and finishes with standing cable crossovers or decline presses. The movement he selects for the last exercise is determined by whether he feels his chest needs more pump or more fatigue at that point. If the former, he’ll use the dumbbells or cables; if the latter, he’ll go with heavy decline barbell presses. The next time he trains chest, the exercise order is decline barbell presses, flat dumbbell presses and incline dumbbell flyes, finishing with decline barbell or dumbbell presses, pec-deck flyes or standing cable crossovers. Again, for the last exercise, he’ll choose dumbbell presses, pec-deck flyes or standing cable crossovers if he thinks his chest needs more pump; if he thinks it needs more fatigue, he’ll go with decline barbell presses. “In every workout,” Haidar says, “I try to focus on each chest muscle independently, with separate exercises for upper pecs, middle pecs and lower pecs.” PUMP PLAN To economize on energy, Haidar is parsimonious with warm-ups, allocating only one set of 10 reps at 135 pounds for his first exercise, the bench press. From there on, he pyramids through four more sets of 10, adding a pair of plates at a time–225, 315, 405–up to his max set at 455, which he usually takes to failure at six reps. “I don’t like to do fewer than 10, but for power, it has to be done,” he explains. “At all times, though, I have a spotter with me, not only to help me get two more forced reps, but to stay with my movements, so that I can perform every rep, even the heaviest, slowly and with perfect control. Unless I do that, I can’t feel the pump; the pump is what I want. For some other muscles, such as biceps and calves, I want a burn; for chest, I want a pump.” From here on, no more warm-ups. Haidar charges into the first set of his remaining exercises with full power; again, four sets each, targeting 10 reps per set, but hoping, on the fourth set, to reach failure at eight reps, with two more forced. Incline dumbbell presses, for example, begin with 120-pounders, then 130s and 140s, all for 10 reps. His final set, with 150s, is for, as he says, “as many reps as I can.” Dumbbell flyes, too, are four pyramided sets, again with 10 reps through the first three. The last set is eight reps, plus two forced. Haidar warns: “With flyes, I make sure I do not bring the dumbbells lower than chest level. That would invite injury.” The only exercise for which the angle does not change in successive workouts is his last: standing cable crossovers. That’s because Haidar performs them in the only style that’s worthwhile: one that activates the most muscles through a greater range of motion and with the most resistant contraction. “I mimic a most-muscular pose,” he says, “bringing my hands together at a low angle, to hit my lower pecs; I do not cross my hands. I use a lot of weight for four sets of eight to 10 reps, and I flex hard, with a peak contraction.” Surround and conquer is Haidar’s strategy for chest: build a foundation of mass by means of old-fashioned free-weight movements, then attack the pecs from all angles, to tweak their peripherals and give them the definition that has earned him the reputation as bodybuilding’s beau ideal of refinement.

Four to grow by

1

Find the routine that works best for you. Learn from the pros, but don’t copy them. I followed Arnold Schwarzenegger, Samir Bannout and others, but the time came when I had to modify those lessons to do what worked best for my body. Listen to your own body. You will find that some exercises your idol uses won’t necessarily work best for you.

2

Don’t overtrain. Yes, there is such a thing. It’s possible to burn a muscle to the point where it no longer fires. If you’re using heavy basic free-weight exercises and going to failure, 16 sets per muscle group are enough.

3

Ideal repetitions are eight to 10, but push the weight. Make sure the eighth or ninth rep is a failure rep; then, use a spotter for forced reps. If I can get 10 reps without a spot, it’s time to increase the weight.

4

Rest between sets only long enough for your training partner to do his set. Don’t let the pump subside; don’t lose your intensity. Your body and your mind need to retain the sensation of the previous difficult set.

Ahmad Haidar’s training split

Haidar trains Monday through Friday, with Saturday and Sunday off; however, he covers his entire body in four days, which means that his Monday workout is repeated on Friday. The workouts then continue, in rotational order, the following week.

1. Chest, biceps, calves and abs
2. Legs
3. Shoulders, triceps, calves and abs
4. Back and traps

What’s the difference between doing chest pullovers and lat pullovers? Should the exercise be modified depending on which bodypart you’re trying to work?

A:

You may have noticed that some bodybuilders do pullovers in their chest routines while some do them for their backs. What gives? Well, both the pecs and lats, not to mention the long heads of the triceps, are involved in pullovers. (One muscle that’s often thought to be involved but isn’t is the serratus anterior.)

Which muscle you’re stressing the most depends on the range of motion (ROM) you use. The chest and triceps’ long heads are maximally involved when you move from the overhead position (or beyond) to perpendicular to the body. The pecs span from the sternum and collarbone all the way to a tendon on the front of the humerus (upper arm bone). Because they’re located on the front of the body, they have the strongest line of pull from this position. Once the arms are perpendicular to the body, the pecs aren’t able to pull the arms farther.

The long head of the triceps is maximally involved because it’s stretched in this overhead position, allowing it to contract with the utmost force. The closer the arms come toward perpendicular to the body and beyond, the less the stretch in the triceps’ long heads and the less help they provide.

The lats are also involved to assist the pecs in bringing the arms from overhead to perpendicular, but they don’t get the most emphasis in this ROM. Because they’re attached to the spine, they’re at a biomechanical disadvantage here. The ROM in which the lats are maximally involved is moving the arms from perpendicular to the body to the sides. Since the chest can’t provide much pull in this ROM, the lats take over to complete the move.

Of course, if you’re performing pullovers on a flat bench, the ROM stops when your arms are perpendicular to your body. After that point, if you continue to extend your arms, the weight will just fall toward your hips. One way to overcome this and emphasize the lats is to use a decline bench, which allows you to increase the ROM. By declining your head, your hips are higher and the point at which your arms are perpendicular to the floor is no longer where they’re perpendicular to yourbody, as they’re now closer to your hips.

Final thought

The pullover does involve both the pecs and lats, as well as the triceps’ long heads. Yet you can place greater emphasis on the chest or back depending on which ROM you use.

For chest, perform pullovers lying crosswise on a flat bench and maintain a slight bend in your elbows, emphasizing the stretch as you drop the weight behind your head. We suggest using a dumbbell.

For lats, do your pullovers on as much of a decline as possible, maintaining a slight bend in the elbows to protect them from strain. We suggest using a barbell. Another way to increase the ROM at the bottom of the pullover is to use a decline bench and a low-pulley cable. This lets you bring the bar all the way to your hips for the greatest lat involvement. This version mimics the straight-arm pulldown, which is simply a pullover done standing up.

Done correctly, the pullover can seriously develop chest and lats

Defense
Bodybuilders have been doing incline bench presses for decades to bring up the upper chest.

Prosecution
Research on incline and reverse-grip bench presses suggests that reverse-grip bench presses my be a better upper-pec builder.

Evidence

• Australian researchers reported in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research that when weight-trained subjects performed incline bench presses, the muscle activity of their upper pecs was only about 5% more than the muscle activity of their upper pecs during the flat bench press.
• Canadian scientists found that when trained lifters did the reverse-grip bench press, the muscle activity of their upper pecs was 30% greater than when they did the bench press with a standard overhand grip.

Verdict

Reverse-grip bench presses
Since muscle activity is the measurement of how many muscle fibers are being used during an exercise, reverse-grip bench presses appear to be a better exercise for the upper chest than incline bench presses.

Sentencing
To target the upper pecs, start your chest workout with 3 or 4 sets of reverse-grip bench presses. Then, move on to incline bench exercises, such as incline presses and flyes.

Example of reverse grip benching

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCwrSFdeXyQ

Your chest is a paradox. Comprising only one major muscle pair, it would seem to be an easy area to train. Press and flye–end of story. But this story is a mystery with unpredictable twists. The pecs are deceptively complex–working them is fraught with pitfalls you’ll likely blunder into workout after workout, year after year. This month, we expose those pitfalls, highlighting the five most common chest-training errors and detailing strategies to avoid them. Take notes; you may be shocked at the number of pec peccadilloes you’ve been committing. Class is in session.

Mistake #1 – Overreliance on barbell bench presses

Explanation
“How much can you bench?” The question is asked so often of anyone with a modicum of muscle that it’s long been the ultimate gym cliche. Still, the fact that the bench press is the go-to strength barometer has had a decimating effect on chests. Bodybuilders bench too much too often for too many sets of too few reps. Used correctly, the bench press is an excellent exercise. Overused, it can potentially overdevelop the lower-pec region in relation to the upper region, giving you “droopy boobs” (think Art Atwood). Furthermore, consistently benching for maximum sets of low reps will boost your chances of injuries, ranging from shoulder, elbow and wrist strains to pec tears.

Solutions

• Think of barbell bench presses as just another chest exercise, one that can be done at any time during your routine, including last.
• Do sets of eight to 12 reps, only occasionally pyramiding to as low as six reps.
• If you’re curious about how much you can bench for a single rep, use an online calculator and your best 10-rep set to compute your one-rep max.
• If you always do barbell benches first, start with incline presses–with barbells one workout and dumbbells the next. Alternately, cycle eight-week periods during which you do no free-weight benches with eight weeks during which you do benches with barbells one workout and dumbbells the next.

Mistake #2 – under training upper chest

Explanation
Often occurring in concert with an overreliance on bench presses is an underreliance on exercises that target the upper-pec region. This is the area from your clavicles to approximately halfway down your chest. It gives your torso a higher appearance and visually ties your pecs in with your delts and traps (think Franco Columbu). Pecs are naturally thinner at the top than the bottom, so everyone can prioritize their upper pecs via incline work without fearing that this region will overpower their lower pecs.

Solutions

• Do incline presses with a barbell or dumbbells first in your routine.
• In each chest workout, include at least as many sets of upper-chest work (incline presses and flyes) as you do lower chest work (flat and decline presses and flyes, and dips).
• To focus cable crossovers on your upper chest, perform them with the cables set near the floor, so that you are pulling the handles up and together on each rep.
• Practice posing your upper pecs with hands-on-hips most-musculars or simply tensing. This will build a greater mind-muscle connection, so you can feel this area contracting on targeted chest exercises.

Mistake #3 – Overreliance on machines

Explanation
While too many bodybuilders do too many sets of benches, there is another group that goes to the other extreme–they rarely grab barbells or dumbbells on chest day. Most modern gyms have a plethora of press and flye machines, but resist the urge to form the bulk of your routine around mechanical movements. Despite modern advantages, the best chests of Arnold’s era still compare favorably with the pecs in recent Olympia pose-downs. Why? Then, pecs were worked almost exclusively with free weights.

Solutions

• Do mostly free-weight and body-weight basics.
• Do no more than half of your chest exercises with machines.
• If you do mechanical presses, try to choose a unilateral Hammer Strength, FreeMotion or similar machine that approximates the freedom of free weights.
• If you’re not strong enough to get eight bodyweight reps while dipping, use a dip assist machine to lighten your load. (This doesn’t count as a machine exercise.)

Mistake #4 – Failure to contract

Explanation
The downside of free weights is that they make it difficult to attain a maximum contraction in the pecs. When you do dumbbell flyes, there is less resistance on the chest at the top of the movement (when the dumbbells come together) than near the bottom. Likewise, during presses or dips, the triceps do much of the work near lockout.

Solutions

• Do one flye exercise each workout with either a machine or training bands. If you do cable crossovers, cross one hand over the other (hence the name) at contractions. Similarly, if you use an upright flye or pecdeck machine, or do flyes with bands, perform repetitions unilaterally in order to bring your hand past the center plane of your body to lengthen contractions.
• Lock out on presses. Although your triceps will do much of the work at the end, you can still maximally flex your chest at contractions.

Mistake #5 – Working the weight, not the muscles

Explanation
“Work the muscles, not the weight” is one of Jay Cutler’s favorite aphorisms. Working the weight is different than focusing too much on the number of pounds used, and thus going too heavy. Working the weight is using speed and momentum to pound out reps with little or no regard for the targeted area–and it’s a precise distillation of the way many bodybuilders press, flye and dip.

Solutions

• Feel where you want to focus each set before it begins. For example, tense your upper chest before a set of incline presses to keep your attention on that area.
• Always utilize strict form. This is not only safer, but also better for targeting your pecs, because the sloppier your execution on a chest exercise is, the more that secondary muscles take over.
• Carefully control the negative halves of reps. During presses, take approximately two seconds to lower the weight and one to two seconds to raise it.

Lessons learned

• Treat bench presses as just another chest exercise with reps in the eight to 12 range.
• Prioritize your upper chest.
• Do primarily free-weight presses and flyes.
• Concentrate on the contraction of each rep.
• Keep the focus on your pecs, not on the weight.

Having a full, striated chest seems something akin to being on the guest list at a top Hollywood hotspot. It’s an exclusive–and dare we say–elite bunch of trainees who have earned the right to part the velvet ropes and walk right past with thickly muscled pecs, leaving those on the outside filled with envy and curiosity. Leave it to FullyFlexed to unearth the dirt of the seedy underbelly of chest training–and to make it sound so dramatic–but we’re of the opinion that everyone should have access to the gems of training wisdom that build the industry’s top chests. So allow us to get you–and your friends–to the front of the proverbial line. It’s time for you to walk the red carpet of pectoral celebrity. I Throw a wrench into your pec training with some hardcore, intense, extreme techniques, all intended to spark new muscle growth and take your chest development beyond where it has ever been. The following 10 chest-shocking methods have been used many times by expert trainers, champion bodybuilders and muscle-hungry gym rats with smashing success. So give them all a try (just not in the same workout–that’s cruel). A few weeks of this radical changeup and the only thing that won’t be growing is your frustration over a lackluster chest.

• Why do it: Training a muscle two days in a row may sound extreme, but it works. We like to refer to this method as “priming the pump,” in which the first day of training employs high-rep sets to prompt the muscles to take in more nutrients for the next day’s session, which will be a heavier workout. Our only caution is to use this technique sparingly (do it for a month, then step away from it for at least a couple of months), so as to avoid overtraining.
• What to do: Pick two consecutive days on which to train chest. On the first day, perform only single-joint, isolation exercises from at least four different angles and keep the reps high, at 25-30. Do about 16 total sets this day, without going to failure on any of them. The next day, after consuming an abundance of protein and carbs, go heavier (6-12 reps) and train to failure on all compound exercises (flat, incline, decline dumbbell and/or barbell presses). Perform a total of 16-20 sets on these moves, then take a full week off from training your pecs.

Expose – How rest-pause finally got its due

• Why do it: The whole point of performing rest-pauses is to do more reps than you’d normally be able to with a given weight in a given set. For example, say your six-rep max (6RM) on the bench press is 250 pounds. You can do more than six reps in a set by doing 2-3 reps, resting for a short period, doing 2-3 more and repeating this until you’ve reached a desired number of reps (10, 20 or even more). That’s one rest-pause set. The benefit of this technique is obvious: to perform more work (albeit over a slightly longer period) and thus overload the muscles in an attempt to stimulate more growth than can be achieved by straight sets alone.
• What to do: On either flat-bench or incline dumbbell presses, choose a weight that’s approximately your 5-6RM. Do two reps at a time, resting 15-20 seconds between each pair, and go as high as 40 total reps. Due to the immense intensity and volume of work this entails, don’t perform more than one rest-pause set per exercise.

Reps gone crazy! – Why sets of 10 are so 90′s

• Why do it: It’s easy to get stuck in a rut by working in the same rep range week after week, month after month and–dare we say–year after year. Most common are individuals who are married to sets of 6-10 reps. If that’s your situation, take a brief hiatus by dropping the weight and using higher reps, which will help bust through any plateau you find yourself in.

“While I’m a proponent of low-volume training, I do think it’s important to take a couple of weeks every few months and do high reps–around 20 reps per set,” says IFBB pro body-builder Mark Dugdale. “Often, we fail [in a given set] due to a lack of muscle endurance rather than actual muscle failure. Building up this endurance with a couple of weeks of high reps helps overcome this problem.”

• What to do: For the next two weeks, don’t worry about changing the exercises you do, or even the total number of sets per chest workout. Perform 3-4 sets of each exercise with no fewer than 20 reps. If you underestimate the amount of weight you should use, no problem–do 25-30 reps (or more) for that set and add some resistance in the next.

Hookups: chest & bands??? – Lifting’s newest power couple

• Why do it: Including various types of resistances in your pec training is great for shocking the muscles into getting bigger and stronger. You accomplish this by training with free weights, cables and machines, each of which applies a slightly different form of resistance. But another way to work the muscles entails using elastic bands. Mark finds bands especially beneficial on the Smith machine bench press. “Using bands increases the total workload placed on the muscle while unloading some of the weight at the bottom of each rep [where you're weaker] and increasing it at the top [where you're at a mechanical advantage],” he says.
• What to do: The next time you do the Smith machine bench press, secure a band from the bar (just outside the weight plates) to the bottom of the rack on each side. You’ll have to load the machine with less weight than usual to account for the added resistance of the bands. Your technique won’t change, but you’ll notice the resistance increases as you press the bar up. Do 2-3 sets in this manner, then either move on to your next exercise or do a set or two more without the bands.

Running it for gains-made-easy

• Why do it: With rest-pauses, you extend a set by giving yourself more rest between reps, but sometimes doing some good hardcore drop sets, where you essentially don’t rest at all, is just what your pecs need to start growing. In this case, we’re dealing with dumbbell presses (either flat or incline bench), which means you’ll be running the rack. “This overload of continuous sets will really shock those stubborn pecs,” says Jim Ryno, owner of LIFT, a private personal-training facility in Ramsey, New Jersey (inside lift. com). “This technique works best with virtually no rest between sets, so be sure to move quickly when changing weights.”
• What to do: On flat or incline dumbbell presses, select weights that you would normally lift for a set of eight reps. Complete the set as usual, but instead of stopping, immediately go back to the rack, take a pair of dumbbells that are 20 pounds lighter and rep those out to failure. Proceed down the rack in 20 pound increments, going to failure with each weight until you’re literally using 15-20-pound dumbbells. Do this 2-3 times total as your last sets for compound exercises that day.

Partial presses

• Why do it: “If you stop a set due to your inability to complete a full rep, you’re not taking the muscle to its true limit,” says Jim Stoppani, PhD, M&F senior science editor. “If instead you continue with partial reps until you can no longer budge the weight, you’ll know you’ve taxed the muscle to its absolute limit.”

For chest, partial reps are great on Smith machine presses, other chestpress machines and the dumbbell press. Since the triceps play a major role in the top half of the range of motion (ROM) when pressing, you often have to end the set when the triceps fail, not the chest. By doing reps in the lower half or three-quarters of your bench press ROM (after reaching full-ROM failure), your triceps are no longer the limiting factor and you can take your pecs to full fatigue.

• What to do: On the last set or two of any or all of the aforementioned exercises, go to full-ROM failure, then continue doing reps in the lower half to three-quarters of the ROM (all the way down, but stopping well short of full extension) until you can no longer push the weight to the halfway point.

Rehab! – Pecs admitted for fatigue

• Why do it: The pre-exhaustion technique, in which you do single-joint exercises before compound movements in a given workout (the opposite of what most people typically do), is especially useful for chest training. Reason being, the triceps often tire before the pecs on pressing exercises. By doing your isolation work first, you all but guarantee that the pecs will fatigue first, which, after all, is the whole point of training chest. Besides, anything different is a good bet for sparking new gains. “With this reverse order of exercises, you’ll hit the pecs in a unique way, giving your chest muscles a stimulus they’re not used to,” Ryno says.
• What to do: The next time you train chest, do all isolation exercises (cable crossovers, flyes, pullovers) first in your workout, making sure to exhaust your pecs by any means necessary–training to failure using such techniques as drop sets, rest-pauses, etc. Follow that with your pressing moves (flat, incline or decline dumbbell and/or barbell presses). Exercise selection should go something like this: 2-3 isolation exercises followed by 2-3 compound moves.

Lookin’ flye – The dirt on flye-press combos

• Why do it: This technique is great when you’re short on time, have only a few dumbbells available or just want to blast your pecs a little differently. It’s also a great way to use a heavier-than-normal weight when doing flyes, which can be a welcome break from using light dumbbells. What this chest-shocker ends up being is something of an extended set, in which flyes steadily morph into presses as the pecs get more and more fatigued.
• What to do: Choose a set of dumbbells that will allow you to complete only 5-6 reps for flyes (on an incline, flat or decline bench). Perform as many reps of strict-form flyes as you can, then, after reaching failure, immediately change your form so you’re doing a cross between a flye and a neutral-grip press–at the bottom of each rep, your elbows will be somewhere between full extension and 90 degrees. Perform these to failure, then immediately change your hand position and perform standard presses to failure. Do a total of three sets in this manner, resting two minutes between each.

The dip

• Why do it: What better way to bust through a plateau than with a combination of intensity-boosting techniques, not to mention one of the most tried-and-true chest exercises out there–the dip. As you’ll see, this pecshocker includes not only training to failure multiple times over the course of one laborious set but also negatives and drop sets (bodyweight dips). “This is one of my all-time favorite chest-shockers,” says M&F Fitness Director Jimmy Pena, MS, CSCS. “When you do it, just make sure it’s near the end of your workout–it’s that tough!”
• What to do: Select an additional amount of weight for weighted dips that’ll have you fail at 12-15 reps. After reaching failure, immediately switch gears and do as many negatives as possible with the same weight (for the positive portion of these reps, step up to the top). When you can no longer lower yourself under control for negatives, immediately strip the additional weight and rep out to failure with your bodyweight. That’s one set. Do this 1-2 more times.

Welcome additions
Shocking a bodypart into growing can be as easy as adding new exercises to the mix. Here are four chest moves you probably haven’t done in a while, if ever.

• One-Arm Dumbbell Flye This is done with the same basic form that is used in two-arm flyes, only with a nonworking hand grasping a bench or stable object for balance. Cable flyes and crossovers can also be done one arm at a time.
• One-Arm Machine Press Whether on a Cybex or Hammer Strength machine, performing unilateral presses will help minimize chest imbalances.
• Barbell Pullover Most people prefer to perform pullovers with a dumbbell, which is fine. But incorporating a barbell into the move on occasion (with a shoulder-width grip) will hit the pecs from a slightly different angle.
• Clap Push-Up Power moves are great to include in your routine (in moderation) to help you bust through plateaus. After reaching the bottom position of the push-up, explode up as fast as you can so your hands literally leave the floor, then clap them togeter before coming back down.

Scandal! – Push-ups for mass???

• Why do it: Few bodybuilders seem to take advantage of the one chest exercise we all started out performing–push-ups–mainly because once you get some decent chest strength, you can bust out 20-50 reps without breaking a sweat. But that won’t be the case at the end of a grueling chest workout. By finishing things off with the following push-up tri-set, you’ll fry all areas of your chest by pushing fatigue to the limit.
• What to do: As soon as you complete the last set of your last exercise for chest, find a flat bench. Get into push-up position with your feet on the bench and your hands on the floor. Pump out as many reps as you can to blast your upper pecs, then immediately drop your feet to the floor and go to failure on standard push-ups to torch the middle pecs. After that, put your hands on the bench and your feet on the floor. Crank out as many reps as you can to finish off your lower pecs, then call it a day.

Regardless of the exercise, bodybuilders strive to perform moderate rep ranges (8-12 reps per set is standard, although abs, calves and sometimes even legs respond well to high reps); strict technique (keeping the weight under full control in every rep); and a full range of motion (not stopping halfway).

Yet when it comes to benching, powerlifters have different concerns. Because they use so much weight (the world’s top bench-pressers lift about 1,000 pounds), they need to keep their feet planted during the lift. This is fine for bodybuilders, but it’s less critical. In fact, lifting your feet off the floor when benching (assuming you’re not going too heavy) is a good way to train your torso’s stabilizing muscles.

Powerlifters also increase stability by pulling their shoulders down and in during the movement and locking out the elbows at the top of the lift. This isn’t the ideal way for bodybuilders to bench press. As you lift the bar, think about pushing your shoulders forward and squeezing your pecs together at the top of each rep. This increase in range of motion is fairly small, but it’s nonetheless significant: It prevents you from using your triceps too much at the top and keeps maximum tension on the pecs. Locking out your elbows will do little for you as a bodybuilder.

Powerlifters also adjust their grip width on the bar (wider or narrower) according to what allows them to lift the most weight. The grip width used by bodybuilders will vary depending on individual proportions, but you need to make sure the pecs do more of the work. With too narrow a grip, you end up working the triceps rather than the pecs. I suggest keeping your bench-press grip outside shoulder width for maximum pec development.

Another key benching technique for powerlifters is keeping the elbows in tight to their sides to increase power output. For bodybuilding, keep your elbows out to your sides, to the point where your upper arms are about perpendicular to your torso. Again, this will maintain tension on the pecs and minimize triceps involvement.

It’s not about being able to answer the question How much do you bench? with some inflated number. If you’re after bigger pecs, leave the 1,000-pound benches to the powerlifters.

Due to the volume of mail he receives, Arnold cannot respond to individual reader’s questions. The information presented here is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace the advice or attention of health-care professionals. Consult your physician before beginning or making changes in your diet, supplements or exercise program, for diagnosis and treatment of illness and injuries, and for advice regarding medications.

Some moves you just have to do
We hate to break it to you, but if you want to carve out the lower ridge of your pecs, you’ll need to perform decline movements. (You can do other exercises for the lower pecs, too; more on those in a minute.) You really should include decline barbell and dumbbell presses in your chest workouts, but you don’t need to use a steep decline; one or two clicks down from flat is sufficient for targeting the lower pecs. As for reps, stay mostly in the hypertrophy range (8-12 per set), mixing in some heavy sets of six reps.

The Dip
Another great chest move that hits the lower pecs is the dip. If you think about it, the dipping motion is similar to a decline press, except you press toward your legs more than straight up over your chest. If you really want to attack this area, try the weighted dip so you’re not always performing high-rep sets. Whether you’re doing declines or dips, make sure you always train as intensely as possible, taking every set to failure and incorporating intensity techniques such as drop sets, negatives and rest-pauses.

Cable Crossovers
Cable crossovers are great for the lower pecs, too, provided you modify your body position to specifically target the area. Many people step forward and bend at the waist when they do crossovers, but if you stay between the weight stacks and keep your torso upright, you can zero in on that lower ridge. Keep the pulleys high, and pull the cables down in front of your navel or waist, not directly out in front of your chest. Try this pimped-out pec routine and see if it doesn’t bring up those pesky lower pecs.

COPYRIGHT 2008 Weider Publications
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning

Yep, concentration is a powerful training tool–many pros say that simply focusing on your upper pecs when flat-benching activates them to a greater degree. Jedi mind tricks aside, adjusting your grip produces the same effect. Choose the one below that you think accomplishes this feat.

Barbell bench press (wide grip)
You’ve probably been doing this version all along, and as you suspected, it really does place more emphasis on the meatier middle portion of your pecs. That’s good, so don’t abandon this standard grip. However, when upper chest is your No. 1 priority, put this one on the back burner. MISS

Barbell bench press (narrow grip)
Researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia found the pecs’ upper portions were stimulated to a greater degree when participants used a narrow grip. The scientists recommend selecting a grip that doesn’t allow your elbows to bend more than 90 degrees during any part of the lift. BULLSEYE

Author JIM STOPPANI, PHD
COPYRIGHT 2005 Weider Publications
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group

With this in mind, here is a good basic volume routine for chest made up of six exercises:

• 5 mins low intensity cardio to warm up
• Dumbbell press (flat) – 4 sets of 12-15 reps
• Stretch the pecs, tris, lats and delts
• Seated machine press – 3 sets of 12 reps + 1 x 25 reps
• Lying dumbbell flyes – 4 sets of 12-15 reps
• Seated machine flyes (or pec-dec) – 4 sets of 15 reps
• Dumbbell pull-overs – 4 sets of 10-12 reps
• Cable cross-overs – 7 sets of 15 reps with just 30 secs rest in between each set. Vary the sets with two movements: slightly bet over downward movement and upright outward in front movement
• 10 mins low intensity cardio to warm down
• Stretching

The whole workout of 27 sets should be done quickly with minimal rest, and, can be performed within one hour including the cardio and stretching. Make sure you are getting plenty of rest between workouts and, of course, a suitable diet, as this workout is very intense and tiring. However, as it’s done quickly, there is a cardiovascular element to it, so it will help fitness. Why not try it for 6 weeks?

Start with a couple of basic upper body stretches, and then move onto the bench press. I’d recommend 2-3 warm up sets to really make sure the chest is supple and ready for heavier weights. Follow this with a set with a weight you can comfortably perform 8-10 reps, then a maximum weight set of 5-8 reps. For your final set you may wish to attempt this weight again, or drop it slightly for more reps.

Next is dumbbell flyes. For your first set, choose a weight where you can comfortably perform 10-12 reps; then for your second and third sets, use a weight aiming for 6-8 reps. (However, don’t stop at 8 if you can do more – keep going until exhaustion).

The final exercise is weighted dips. Remember to lean forward slightly to feel it more on the chest than on the triceps. The first set should be with bodyweight only and do slow and controlled reps, as many as possible. For the second and third set add 10 – 30kg around a dipping belt (as much as you feel comfortable with) and try to do at least 8 reps, again nice and slowly. Don’t worry if you can’t do dips with additional weight though, just use your bodyweight and go from there.

And that’s that! Your chest should feel completely worked and pumped.

To summarise:

• Stretch

• Bench press

3 x warm up
1 x 8-10 reps
2 x 5-8 reps

• Dumbbell flyes

1 x 10-12 reps
2 x 6-8 reps

• Dips (weighted)

1 x body-weight as many as possible

2 x 8+ reps (weighted)

By James Collier BSc (Hons) RNutr, Nutrition Consultant