Introduction
Push day often revolves around many of your upper body muscle groups like the chest, triceps, and shoulders. It’s an incredible opportunity to work out these muscle groups together. A push day is significant in a fitness routine because it contributes to muscle balance, strength development, muscle growth, and functional fitness. Including push exercises in your workout program ensures a holistic approach to fitness and can help you achieve your fitness goals more effectively. In this blog, I will provide you with the 3 best chest exercises you can do on your push day.
The Role of Chest Exercises in Developing Upper Body Strength
Chest exercises, without a doubt, are integral to enhancing the overall upper body strength. They not only contribute to those seriously impressive pecs but also play a pivotal role while performing everyday tasks, lifting objects, or even maintaining your posture.
How many Chest Exercises per Push Day?
Push day also involves shoulders and triceps exercises so keeping that in mind, 2-3 exercises of the chest is more than enough.
Now that we have covered all the basics, it’s time to dive into the 3 best chest exercises.
Incline Dumbbell Press
The incline dumbbell press primarily targets the upper chest muscles, helping to create a well-rounded and aesthetically pleasing chest shape. The incline dumbbell press also hits the front part of the shoulders— specifically, the anterior delts.
Benefits
- The dumbbell version of the incline press is especially beneficial for correcting strength imbalances between each side of your arm as each arm works independently.
- The incline dumbbell press allows for a greater range of motion. This can be gentler on the shoulder joints and reduce the risk of impingement.
- While it’s a compound exercise, the incline dumbbell press can also be used to isolate the upper chest more effectively than flat bench presses, which primarily engage the entire chest.
Barbell bench press is also a great option as it also does the same job but if you are a beginner then doing this exercise with a dumbbell would be a relatively easier option as you can start with lighter weights and also dumbbells evoke more of a neuromuscular demand than a barbell. This will help beginners learn how to control weight through full ranges of motion quickly.
Science Tip – Fix your bench at a 30-degree angle for more upper chest activation and less shoulder involvement
Incline Dumbbell Press: How to Do
Pec Deck Flys
Pec deck flys – as the name suggests target the “pecs.”This exercise is a great way to isolate and target the middle chest muscles for hypertrophy and strength gains. You’ll typically need access to a pec deck machine for this exercise, which is very easy to find in almost every gym.
Benefits
- Using a pec deck machine provides stability and support, reducing the risk of injury that can occur with free-weight exercises. It can be a good option for individuals with joint issues or those who are new to strength training.
- Pec deck flys minimize the involvement of other muscle groups, allowing you to isolate and concentrate on the chest muscles.
- The machine guides your arms through a controlled range of motion, helping to maintain proper form.
To maximise growth your workout should challenge your chest throughout the whole range of motion and pec deck fly does that better than any other fly exercise.
Science Tip – Adjust the seats in a way that when you are grabbing the handles your arms are parallel to your shoulders
After isolating the upper and middle chest muscles you have to work on your lower chest so that it can enhance the aesthetic appearance of your chest and also helps to prevent imbalances.
Cable Crossovers(High to Low)
Cable crossovers are the perfect exercise to target the lower chest muscles. This exercise requires a cable station. It is a classic exercise and one that is very easy to perform once you know the basics. The key is to use a weight that challenges your muscles but still allows you to perform the exercise with proper form.
Benefits
- The fundamental advantage of cable crossovers is that they provide constant tension on your chest muscles throughout the activity, as opposed to dumbbell or barbell exercises, which only produce tension for a portion of the movement.
- Using cables instead of free weights or machines requires more stabilization and balance, engaging your core and smaller stabiliser muscles for a more comprehensive workout.
- Due to the nature of this exercise, squeezing your chest is straightforward, which helps activate the mind-muscle connection.
Science Tip – Make sure you alternate what arm you are crossing over with each time.
The Bottom Line
Incorporating these 3 best chest exercises into your gym routine can lead to impressive results, from a chiselled chest to overall upper body strength. Remember to use proper form and progressively overload.
Fitness is not a sprint, but a marathon. Take satisfaction in gradual progress and remember that the journey to strength is as important as the destination.
Note: All the information provided in this blog is well-researched and also incorporated by me in my training sessions.
FAQs
1. What’s a simple and effective warm-up routine before starting my chest workouts?
Perform dynamic stretches to loosen up your chest and shoulder muscles for example –
Arm Circles: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and extend your arms out to the sides. Make small circles with your arms for 30 seconds, then reverse the direction.
Arm Swings: Swing your arms forward and backward, gradually increasing the range of motion.
Do a few sets of push-ups with gradually increasing intensity to activate your chest muscles. Before you begin your main chest exercises, start with one or two light sets of the exercise you plan to do, using lighter weights.
2. How many reps per set should I do?
Always aim for 8-12 reps when you are hitting your chest and try to go for failure in this rep range or as close to failure as you can get
3. What signs should I look out for to avoid overworking my chest muscles?
Look out for prolonged soreness, weakness, or reduced mobility. You’ll know when it’s there!
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