Powerful pecs: thickness in phase I of our plan, you pack the front of your upper torso with muscle - Personal Trainer

Men's Fitness, May, 2002 by Michael Berg

The world can be a cruel, twisted place. How else can you explain a college football system that rewards a season-ending 62-36 loss with a trip to sunny Pasadena for a chance at the national championship? Or that France--yes, France--is the No. 1 tourist destination in the world? And how about the hordes of little munchkins waiting in ridiculously long lines to watch a nerdy kid fly around on a broomstick in search of some stones? (Good luck on that one, Potter.)

In the face of these cold realities, those of us who train with weights at least have a sanctuary, a trusted friend who is right when everything else seems wrong: chest day. Hitting the good old bench press for some manly tests of strength, popping off some big reps with the dumbbells on the incline bench--hell, even the sweet, familiar feel of the pec deck: All are welcome shelter from the storms of injustice. Sure, it won't change the ills of the world, but on chest day, nothing else matters. It's just you and the weights, baby. Man vs. Iron.

So what could possibly be better than chest day? How about a chest day with a set of brand-new exercises that'll slam your pecs from all angles and prod some new growth, one whose goal is to help create the illusion that you've got a better V-shaped torso than you really do?

Sure, doing the same old routine may be comforting, but that's not what you want when you're trying to improve your physique. To keep your muscles responding to your new direction, you need to keep 'em off balance--these unique yet effective exercises are guaranteed to do just that. And best of all, they come without any unwanted extras: no undeserving Cornhuskers, no overrated flicks, and, perhaps best of all, no namby-pamby Frenchies. See you on the beach.

PAY ATTENTION TO DETAIL

Of course, there should be no need to convince you of the importance of chest training, or more accurately, the pectoralis major. Next to arms, chest is the glory body part, the one that draws heaps of attention in the weight room. A strong, powerful chest is a manifest badge of honor, and one that leads to a massive-looking upper body in balance with a narrow waistline, or it makes a thicker waist look narrower. Indeed, your overall strength is often judged solely on how much you can bench-press, or how wide and thick you look up top. Fair or not, if you want your physique to be taken seriously, you need great pecs.

Effective chest training can be boiled down to two relatively simple movements: presses and flyes. "In order to properly execute chest exercises, you should understand [the chest's] major actions," explains Jason D. Vescovi, M.S., C.S.C.S., a sports-performance professional in northern Virginia and co-founder of The Essential Element, a company specializing in sports-specific training. "When contracted, the chest acts to both adduct and medially rotate the humerus [the major bone of your upper arm]. In other words, the chest pulls the upper arm toward the midline of the body. This is one key I explain to all of my clients in order for them to properly feel the action of the muscle."

In a lying or seated machine press, the upper arm is moving toward the body's midline, and because the arm is bent, the triceps gets involved, permitting the use of heavier weights and, thus, stimulating muscle fibers devoted to strength. In a flye, the arm stays relatively straight while moving from the side to the midline, allowing the use of less weight but forcing the pecs to do the bulk of the work.

THE WORKOUT

This routine is front-loaded with pressing moves, taking advantage of your greater strength at the start of a workout. As these exercises are unique, pay careful attention to form.

The workout begins with one-and-a-halfs: basically, regular incline presses with an added half-rep between each flail rep. They may sound easy on paper, but you are essentially adding 50 percent more reps to each set, so start with a lower weight than usual.

Next is the one-arm flat-bench dumbbell press. Vescovi suggests using some type of unilateral move for all chest workouts, as this not only helps to keep one pectoral from lagging behind the other developmentally, but also increases your body's overall execution, as many muscles, from your legs to your traps, are called on to work together.

The third exercise, the decline press and flye, combines both types of chest moves while introducing another angle to the workout. Lastly, the lying barbell pull-over, an oft-misunderstood exercise that has found a home in both back and chest workouts because it works the lats and pecs, serves to finish your chest off with a top-to-bottom contraction.

1. ONE-AND-A-HALFS BARBELL INCLINE PRESS (pecs, anterior deltoid, triceps) Perform like a barbell incline press, except with a variation on the rep: You do a full rep followed by a half--together that equals one rep. Lie back on an incline bench set to an angle no higher than 45 degrees. Grasp the barbell with a grip that's slightly wider than shoulder width and lift it from the supports (1a). Breathe in as you lower the barbell slowly toward your upper chest (1b). Right before the bar touches your chest, forcefully contract your pecs to lift the weight, breathing out on the ascent. Stop just short of elbow lockout (1c), then lower the weight halfway (1d) and press back up to the top before lowering the bar to your chest to begin the next full repetition.