Chest Exercises

Why should I train my chest?

Your chest is made up of two muscles, the pectoralis major, and pectoralis minor. Together, these two muscles play an important part in many essential movements, including moving your arms across the body, sideways, up, and down. 

Training your chest improves your functional fitness so that you are able to carry out everyday activities like hoovering and pushing heavy objects much easier, and with a reduced risk of injury. A strong chest also plays a key role in supporting good posture, although you will need to ensure you also train your back to prevent any muscle imbalances. 

 

• How many chest exercises should I do per workout?

  How many chest exercises you need to do per workout depends on how often you are training, and what your workout split is. 

  For example, if you are doing three full body workouts a week, you should aim for 2-3 chest exercises per workout. If your workout split only has one chest-focused workout per week, you will need to do 4-5 exercises.

• What is the best exercise for building chest muscle?

  If you want to build your chest muscles, you need to ensure you are working out these muscles 2-3x a week, increasing the reps or weight each week, and eating enough protein to fuel recovery. 

  Combining compound exercises like the bench press with isolation exercises like dumbbell flyes is a great way to build up your chest. 

• Are push ups the best chest exercise?

  Push ups are a great exercise for building upper body strength, including the chest, but they are limited as you are unable to increase the weight each week. 

  If you want to include push ups in your workout, combining them with weighted chest exercises like the bench press will help you to grow your chest. 

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