It’s time for another round of The Fit Five! This time we are going to learn about the chest muscle group, which you may refer to as your “pecs” or maybe even your “pectoralis major” and “pectoralis minor”. Whatever you want to call this muscle group, we are going to learn about it.
First, let’s clear up a myth for the ladies: Strength training that targets chest muscles will not make your boobs bigger. Also, it will not make your boobs smaller. However, building chest muscles (underneath your boobs) could add a natural lift. So that’s a bonus.
Now, here are some non-myths, also known as facts:
It’s good to learn this type of stuff, don’t you think?
Experiment time: Stand up with your arms extended straight out from your sides so that you look like a human “t”. Now move your arms forward so that they are extended straight out in front of you. Clap your hands together. That movement was horizontal adduction of the shoulder and contracting your chest muscles helped make that happen.
The clap was just for fun, because learning is fun.
The next time you do a push up or bench press, think about that movement and contracting those pectoral muscles.
Speaking of push ups and bench presses, below are 5 chest exercises.
These are all basic exercises that can be adapted to your needs. Here are some examples:
- Stagger your hands for the push ups.
- Place your feet on a stability ball or a bench while doing push ups.
- Perform the bench press, pullover, and fly while lying on a stability ball rather than a bench.
- Use a barbell or a smith machine rather than dumbbells for the bench press.
- Put the bench at an incline while performing the bench press or the flies.
- Utilize a cable machine and do standing flies.
Those are just a few of the many ways you could adapt these exercises. You can also adjust the acute variables (resistance, tempo, rest, etc) in order to work the muscles differently.
Don’t forget to add in some shoulder, biceps, and triceps exercises for a great upper body workout!
I hope you are enjoying these Fit Five posts and are learning some new things. I personally gain a lot from writing them.