Effective exercises for the pectoral muscles at home

A little about anatomy

Inflated male breasts evoke the admiration of surrounding ladies and visually increase the relief of the body. Knowledge of the anatomical features of this muscle group is necessary to increase the efficiency and quality of chest training at home.

The pectorals are one of the largest muscle groups in humans. They occupy 3rd place in size and volume. They play a huge role in moving the arms, as well as in raising them up and down.

There are several bundles of pectoral muscles:

1. The pectoralis major muscle is fan-shaped and occupies the largest area. Its function includes raising, lowering and turning the arm inward.
2. The small muscle is located under the large muscle, has a triangular shape and performs the function of traction forward, down and back. Partially involved in dumbbell or barbell rows (exercises for back development).
3. The serratus anterior muscle is located on the side, attached to the shoulder blades. Performs external thrusts and is involved in bringing the arm to a vertical position.

The anatomical structure suggests starting work with the large muscle, since its response to loads is immediate. However, by adjusting the angle at which the exercises are performed, using a set of effective exercises for the chest muscles at home, you can change the degree of load, as well as connect additional muscle groups.

Push-ups with jumping from side to side

“5 sets of 20 reps. This is a great exercise to stretch your chest muscles further. At the same time, each half of the upper body is worked independently of each other.”

How to do it:

1. Get into a plank position. Place an inverted bowl on the floor to the left of either shoulder. Place your left or right palm on the bottom of the bowl.
2. Bend your elbows, keep your back straight. One palm rests on the bottom of the bowl. Return to the starting position by “jumping” over the bowl to the opposite side.
3. When switching sides, make sure your opposite hand lands on the bowl. Continue bending your elbows and perform a full push-up—then repeat.
4. Perform a total of 5 sets of 20 reps (10 reps on each side).

What you need to grow your pectoral muscles

Effective muscle growth depends on several factors:

1. A well-designed set of exercises that takes into account the initial physical data.
2. Balanced fractional nutrition, which contains all the nutrients the body needs.
3. Quality rest, because muscles grow during the recovery period after training.

But the most important factor, without which a qualitative increase in muscle mass is impossible, is the athlete’s brain. Only a competent approach to training and exercise technique will give an acceptable result and protect you from injury.

For example, a chest push-up training program has many advantages. But a technically unprepared athlete will negate all the advantages of the program, since the load, instead of the chest, will be distributed to the triceps and back with the abdominal muscles. The same principle works in nutrition and the use of sports supplements.

Narrow push-ups

Narrow push-ups can be used to develop strength and work the inner chest. The starting position in this case is the same as for regular push-ups, but you need to place your hands in such a way that the fingers of one hand slightly touch the fingers of the other. When performing, you need to lower yourself until your chest touches your hands, and before moving up, take a second pause.

Advice! If push-ups are too easy, do not increase the number of repetitions; it is better to use additional weights. For this you can use, for example, a backpack with books.

Main rules

Before you start talking about how to properly pump up your pectoral muscles at home, you need to learn some rules that you need to follow during the training process.

Systematic training

There is a system in absolutely all areas of life. This is what happens with sports. You can't exercise once a month and expect any results.

Proper and balanced nutrition

Once a beginner decides to take up exercise, he needs to take one simple step to get started - look in his refrigerator and understand what he eats.

Without the required amount of proteins, fats and carbohydrates, muscle growth is doomed to failure. Without a balanced diet, the pectoral muscles will not grow.

Progression of loads

You can achieve muscle hypertrophy by constantly increasing the load. The fact is that the human body has the ability to adapt. Once this happens, muscle growth stops.

Sport equipment

Unfortunately, without certain sports equipment it will be difficult to achieve impressive results in working out the chest. Of course, you can start training with push-ups, but over time you will have to increase the load, and without additional weights this is impossible.

For example, parallel bars are an effective exercise that can significantly speed up the process of developing the volume of the pectoral muscles.

It is clear that the size of modern apartments does not allow a full-fledged gym with all the necessary equipment to be located at home. But with a few simple devices, you can significantly improve the quality of your training.

For this you will need:

• dumbbells;
• bars;
• horizontal bar;
• a rubber band that can be used as an expander;
• belt - in order to hang additional weight on it;
• bench that can be adjusted in height.

Setting goals

Bodybuilding is an activity that requires special patience and systematization. If a beginner decides to pump up a massive torso in the shortest possible time, after a month he will be disappointed. After all, it happens quickly and easily only in fairy tales. There are no secret schemes like “the best chest exercises at home - get pumped up in three days.” Since they all work well in their own way, but will not bring visible results in an unrealistically short time.

Also, a lot depends on your body type, genetic predisposition, metabolic rate and the production of your own hormones. Lifestyle also affects the rate of muscle development. But by following simple rules of progression, you can achieve good results.

How to make progress

Here are simple rules that will help you achieve good results in an acceptable time frame:

1. Beginners should pay more attention to the technical aspects of exercises and complexes.
2. In order for muscles to grow continuously, you need to increase the load in accordance with the established progression threshold.
3. Avoid overtraining - muscles need time to recover. You can train your chest no more than 2 times a week.
4. Systematization is required not only in training, but also in nutrition and rest. You should spend at least 8 hours a day sleeping. It is highly advisable to adhere to the regime.
5. There is no need to neglect your breathing technique. Oxygenated blood allows muscles to grow faster.

In addition to these points, you should follow a training regimen - both during the week and during each lesson.

Training mode

An important aspect in bodybuilding is adherence to the regime. It concerns not only the number of classes per week, but also the training of certain muscle groups during one local workout. Regarding the total number of training days per week, there are many opinions.

Professionals recommend not to get hung up on fixed patterns (Monday - Wednesday - Friday). This way the body will quickly get used to the stress, and a “plateau” effect will occur.

To avoid these moments, you need to alternate training days by month. For example, 12 training sessions according to the classical scheme for a month. Then move on to 16 classes per month. That is, not 3, but 4 workouts (Monday - Tuesday - Thursday - Friday). This will increase the number of training days, and, consequently, the intensity of the load. When finished, return to the original diagram.

If we talk about local training, then you shouldn’t pump your chest at every lesson. Muscles should be allowed to recover.

Accordingly, a beginner’s training looks something like this:

• Monday – chest, triceps, legs;
• Wednesday – back, biceps, crunches;
• Friday – chest, legs, deltoids.

As you can see from the example above, the chest is worked out 2 times a week. This amount of exercise is enough for a man to pump up his sternum muscles.

The best exercises for chest development

Strengthening the upper pectoral muscles

Bench press at a 45 degree angle

In addition to the pectoralis major, especially the upper part, the exercise trains the triceps, anterior deltoids, and serratus anterior muscles.

1. We sit on an inclined bench, take the bar with a wide grip, raise the barbell above the level of the shoulder joints;
2. Inhale: lower the bar to the collarbone without touching, elbows look at the floor, the chest is rounded, the ribs rise;
3. Exhale: keeping the chest rounded, press the barbell up using the chest muscles. The chest is constantly in a “wheel” and does not fall in. Perform 8 – 12 times in 3-4 approaches.

Incline Dumbbell Press

Work includes: upper pectorals, triceps brachii, anterior deltoids, serratus anterior muscles.

1. We sit on a bench at an angle of 45 degrees, rounding our chest, maintaining this state constantly. Raise the dumbbells above the shoulder joints;
2. Inhale: lower the dumbbells, spreading your elbows to the sides to shoulder level, stretching the pectoral muscles;
3. Exhale: using chest pressure, press the dumbbells over your shoulders, straightening your elbows. Perform 8 – 12 times in 3 – 4 approaches.

Army press

Despite the fact that the exercise is designed to develop the anterior deltoids, the upper pectoral muscles are also included in the work.

1. When performing the exercise while standing, it is important to watch your body, without leaning back or arching your lower back;
2. We determine the grip, palms slightly wider than the shoulder joints, forearms perpendicular to the floor. We place the bar on the collarbones, but do not touch it;
3. Exhale: press the barbell above your head, straightening your elbows;
4. Inhale: slowly lower the barbell onto your collarbones to the starting position. Perform 8 – 12 times in 3 – 4 approaches.

How to pump up your lower chest

Bench press with incline

This type of press develops the lower part of the pectoralis major muscle, as well as the triceps brachii (long and medial head).

1. We sit on a bench with our head down, the barbell above eye level, and grab the bar with a wide grip so that our forearms are perpendicular to the floor;
2. Inhale: lower the bar to the bottom of the ribs, rounding the sternum;
3. Exhale: using the chest, squeezes the barbell to the starting position. Repeat the press 8 – 12 times for 3 – 4 approaches.

Dips

This exercise develops the lower pectoralis major muscle, as well as the triceps and anterior deltoid muscles.

1. We place our palms on the bars under the shoulder joints, the distance between the bars is slightly wider than the shoulders.
2. Inhale: bending your elbows, lower yourself down, forming a 90-degree angle at your elbows;
3. Exhale: using chest and triceps strength, push up on your hands, straighten your arms and return to the starting position. Repeat 8 – 12 push-ups in 3 – 4 sets.

Is it possible to pump up your chest with push-ups?

You don't have to go to the gym to pump up massive breasts. To do this, you can use an exercise such as push-ups. The beauty of it is that the man’s own weight is used, and if you select the correct push-up pattern for chest muscle growth, progress will not be long in coming.

Push-ups are a great way to remove fat from the chest muscles of a man, as performing this exercise at high intensity leads to an increase in lean muscle mass. Under the load of his own weight, the athlete receives the most optimal weight, due to which fat burns vigorously and quickly.

Push-ups are quite versatile: by adjusting the angle and height of the leg lift, you can work on different parts of the muscle bundles. If you want to pump up the upper and middle of the pectoral muscles, the exercise is also suitable. The higher the legs and the narrower the position of the arms, the greater the load on the upper bundle and the middle section of the pectoral muscle.

Exercises for pumping up the lower part of the pectoral muscles are distinguished by the fact that the angle of inclination shifts and the body rises upward. As a rule, push-ups for this part of the muscle are performed from an elevation or additional support.

For those who seriously want to pump up the middle of the pectoral muscles, like Iron Arnie, push-ups with extremely narrow hand placement will be useful. The main thing in this exercise is not to press your elbows to your torso, since the load from the middle of your chest will shift to the triceps.

Since push-ups are a compound compound exercise, they involve many different muscle groups. But to complete the main task, namely working out the chest, you need to take into account the technical aspects of the training.

The starting position in classic push-ups does not require detailed analysis. The process of doing the exercises is familiar to everyone. But many do not know that the elbows should not be pressed to the body, but placed as wide as possible to the sides. Otherwise, the load will be distributed between the back muscles and triceps. The chest will account for about 15% of the total load.

If we take into account all the technical features of the training, then push-ups can easily be called the best exercises for the pectoral muscles for men at home.

An important fact is that push-ups will not provide the opportunity to build up huge layers of pectoral muscles, since the human body gets used to absolutely any type of load. To progress, you need to constantly increase the load, which is almost impossible to do with push-ups. But they can prepare a beginner for higher levels of weight, and the result will be, although not as pronounced as with training with iron.

Chest exercises for men at home

Beautifully defined, well-developed chest muscles in men attract a lot of attention and play a big role in a holistic body image. In addition, the chest muscles help us perform biceps, triceps and upper back exercises, and lift more weight in strength training.

You can pump up this muscle group not only in a specially equipped gym, but also at home. Let's take a closer look at what chest exercises you can do at home.

Types of chest push-ups

Push-ups are a basic exercise that effectively works not only the chest, but the entire upper body. There are several types of push-ups, each of which is aimed at working a specific part of the muscle group.

Classic

1. To perform standard push-ups, lie on your stomach on a gymnastics mat, arms straight, shoulder-width apart, palms parallel to your shoulders, toes resting on the mat, feet slightly apart.
2. As you inhale, bend your elbows, while your entire torso forms a straight line. As you exhale, return to the starting position.

Classic push-ups work the pectoralis major, anterior deltoids, triceps, trapezius, and serratus anterior.

Important: do not bend in the lower back and do not help yourself with your stomach and pelvis! Work only with the upper part of the body.

With a narrow hand position

1. Take the same position as in the previous exercise, but with your hands directly under your chest.
2. Place your palms so that your thumbs touch each other.
3. As you inhale, bend your arms, while they should go parallel to your body, when your elbows are almost pressed to your body, straighten them as you exhale.

Performing the exercise with narrow palms helps shift the load to the mid-chest and triceps. At the same time, the trapezius and deltoids do not work as actively as with the classic version.

Leaning forward

1. Take a lying position with your hands shoulder-width apart. Place your feet on a slight elevation.
2. Bend your arms and lower your chest toward the floor, keeping your body upright and keeping your back straight.

With inclined push-ups, the main part of the work is taken on by the upper chest, front deltoids, and triceps.

We recommend reading: A set of exercises with dumbbells at home for men

Perform push-ups with a narrow arm position or a forward bend of the body only if you have already mastered the classic technique.

Types of exercises with dumbbells

If push-ups are aimed at developing the relief and strength of the upper body, then strength exercises with dumbbells will help build muscle mass.

Lying arm raises

1. Lie down on a horizontal bench, with your shoulder blades, head and tailbone pressed tightly to the surface.
2. Take 2 dumbbells in your hands and lift them above you, palms facing each other.
3. As you inhale, spread the dumbbells as far as possible to the side, but do not fully extend your arms to avoid the risk of injury.
4. As you exhale, bring your hands together and hold them up for a couple of seconds.

The exercise is mainly aimed at working the pectoralis major, but also indirectly involves the deltoids and biceps brachii muscles, the abs.

The best chest exercises for home

When it comes to training at home, the thought immediately comes to mind that there are not so many exercises for a certain muscle group. Don’t despair, if you have a few simple devices you can significantly diversify your home workout, and even a beginner will have no problems pumping up his chest at home.

Pushups

Push-ups are one of the most popular exercises for pumping up the pectoral muscle.

Starting position – lying down, the body from head to heels should form a straight line. As you inhale, you need to lower your body to the floor, bending your arms at the elbow joints, and as you exhale, return to the starting position. There is no need to press your elbows to your body.

Dips

Pumping up your chest at home on the uneven bars is quite possible.

The athlete's body should be suspended, with the arms acting as a support. For maximum load on the pectoral muscles, you need to move your body forward.

On inhalation - descent, on exhalation - return to the starting position. Elbows bend to the sides. It is important to prevent swinging, as in a pendulum mechanism.

Pull-up on the horizontal bar

Exercises on the horizontal bar are also good for pumping up your torso and pectoral muscles. The horizontal bar engages the lower part of the chest, giving it relief.

The technique is quite simple. The athlete is hanging, the grip of the hands is slightly wider than shoulder width. As you exhale, you need to pull your body towards the bar so that your chest touches it. While inhaling, return to the starting position.

Dumbbell Bench Press

How to pump up your chest with dumbbells at home? Very simple - you will need a bench for this. Starting position – lying on a bench. The arms, bent at the elbow joints, form a right angle and are placed to the side. As you exhale, you need to squeeze the dumbbells up, and as you inhale, return to the starting position.

It is better to take dumbbells to the starting position from a sitting position. The dumbbells are placed with their ends on the top of the thigh, then, without leaving the sitting position, you should lean back with your whole body. The lying position should resemble the position in which the person is sitting. This is done in order to remove the arch in the back and give maximum load to the chest.

Dumbbell flyes in a lying position

When reaching the starting position, it resembles a dumbbell bench press. Except that you don’t need to press them, but spread your arms to the sides. Slightly bent elbow joints are lowered to the line of the body, then the arms are brought together.

Women who are looking for an answer to the question of how to quickly pump up their pectoral muscles at home should know that exercises with dumbbells will help tone their breasts. Of course, the weight of the shells will differ significantly from the loads for men.

What equipment do you need to have for training?

But sports equipment will never be superfluous in this difficult task. Therefore, if you have such an opportunity, then why not take advantage of it?

To make your breasts larger than your girlfriend’s, you may need dumbbells, discs, a weighted vest or a backpack where you will put all sorts of heavy things to make it harder for you to do push-ups, and people will come up who will be ready to sit on you.

We recommend reading: How to pump up your butt

Now I’ll explain what you need:

1. Using dumbbells, you can do fly-ups while lying on the floor. You can also do a dumbbell bench press if you are an engineer with your mother and can make yourself a surface on which it will be comfortable for you to lie and lower your elbows so that nothing bothers you.
2. You will need discs for push-ups if you are already a machine and it’s already easy for you to do push-ups with your own weight. If there are no discs, but there are small people (children), then you can ask them to sit on your back.
3. The vest is suitable for push-ups on parallel bars or the same push-ups from the floor. This is perhaps the most convenient option to complicate your task.
4. If you have a backpack and you have something heavy that fits in it, then you can throw it on your back and go do push-ups.

So I will never believe that someone doesn't have the opportunity to train at home because they don't have anything to train with. You have arms, legs and a bunch of objects that can be used in training. Even if there’s sawdust in your head, it’s not a problem, it doesn’t take much intelligence to throw a few books into your backpack, lie down on the floor and start doing push-ups.

Now let's take a closer look at how to pump up your chest at home by looking at specific training programs.

Chest training program for home

Such training requires a lot of strength and discipline. For example, there is a task - to pump up the inner part of the pectoral muscles at home - not all exercises are suitable for this. First of all, you will need push-ups from the floor with a narrow position of your hands.

It is very important to understand which tasks to apply this or that exercise to.

Reheating options

An important part of any workout is warming up. Prepared muscles respond better to stress and reduce the risk of injury.

• Squat jumps. You need to squat down and jump up from this position. As soon as the return to the starting position occurs, change the position to a lying position and perform a push-up. The repetition ends with a return to a squat.
• Plank. An indispensable exercise for toning muscles, and also as a warm-up before training. To perform it, take a lying position and stand there for 30 seconds to 2-3 minutes.

Set of exercises

To fully work out the chest muscles, you will need several workouts per week.

The first workout looks something like this:

1. Push-ups – 3 sets of 10 repetitions.
2. Wide grip pull-ups – 10 reps in 3 sets.
3. Push-ups on parallel bars – 3-4 sets to failure.

For the maximum pumping effect, you can perform a superset of effective exercises on the top of the pectoral muscles and, accordingly, on the bottom.

Complex No. 2 includes working with weights, and it is this that will help pump up the lower pectoral muscles with dumbbells:

1. Dumbbell bench press – 3 x 10.
2. Dips with additional weight – 3-4 x 10 reps.
3. Pullover with a barbell or dumbbells – 3 sets of 10 reps.
4. Lying arm raises with dumbbells – 10 times in 3 sets.

Training program without simulators

To complete this program, do three sets a day of the following eight exercises. Don't forget about the importance of technique, keep it up even if you're tired. Technique is more important than speed.

Uplifting the upper chest

Of course, pumping up the upper pectoral muscles using a machine in the gym is easier and more convenient. But there are also other exercises to develop this area, and they can be used at home. Using different weights and the angle of the bench or leg elevation in push-ups, you can increase the effectiveness of training at home.

Exercises for pumping the upper pectoral muscles at home are simple and effective. For example, in a dumbbell bench press, it is enough to change the position of the body by raising the bench 30-46 degrees upward.

To pump up the upper muscles of the sternum for a man, you can perform various exercises, focusing purely on your sensations. It is important to try to get a feel for the group being worked on and a certain part of it. Only in this case will any exercise give quick results.

Home workouts

How to pump up a man's chest at home? In the initial stages, push-ups and its variations will be enough. In the future, we will not be able to do without using free weights. Basically these are dumbbells and a barbell. Dumbbells are a one-arm barbell, so they can be used up to a certain weight. When a large load is applied, you cannot do without a barbell. Theoretically, you can make dumbbells weighing 50 kg each, but in practice they will be extremely inconvenient to use. Therefore, if a man wants to have pumped up chest muscles, then sooner or later he will have to use a barbell.

At first, they start with push-ups from the floor. In the starting position, your hands rest on the floor at a distance slightly greater than shoulder width, your torso is straightened, your feet are on your toes. You need to lower yourself so that your arms are bent at an angle of 90°, and then rise smoothly. If we are pumping volume, then we need to perform 4 approaches, and each should have approximately the same number of repetitions. Everything must be done without haste. When an exercise is done for speed, endurance is trained as frequent contraction and relaxation occurs.

Push-ups

At first, you can increase the number of repetitions. However, when you can freely do 30 push-ups in one approach, the exercise needs to be complicated. To do this, you can do the exercise on one palm, rest your hands on the ball, and clap in front or behind you while raising your torso. You can also stretch your arms forward.

The easiest way to increase the load is to raise your legs higher than your head. Thus, the weight lifted will be greater. When this is not enough, you can put on a backpack in which to put weights. You can use water bottles. To make them heavier, it is recommended to fill them with sand.

You can also pump up your chest on the uneven bars. At home, it is permissible to replace them with two chairs with a high back. Since the height is low, you need to bend your legs when lowering. As with push-ups, your arms should lower to a 90° angle, and then you should smoothly rise. To prevent chairs from tipping over, you can put something heavy on them. When your own weight is not enough to pump up the sternum girdle, use weights. This again could be a backpack with something heavy inside or a belt to which, for example, dumbbells are attached.

Thanks to this exercise, a pumped up broad chest muscle will appear, especially closer to the shoulders. To give it volume in the center of the chest, you need to make the width of the bars larger. The wider the chairs are, the more the chest is loaded. Also, to do this, you should spread your arms to the sides while lowering, and not behind your back.

Working on the lower pectoral muscles

The training program on the horizontal bar to properly pump up the chest muscles of a man is quite simple, but at the same time effective. It is enough to do pull-ups 2-3 times a week in different positions.

There are “Australian pull-ups” that perfectly develop not only the back, but also the lower chest. To perform this exercise, you need a horizontal bar no more than 1 meter high. Pull-ups are performed reclining. The body forms one straight line with the legs; grips can be different.

The “pullover” exercise will help pump up the lower pectoral muscles with dumbbells. It is mainly done on a lying bench, with dumbbells or a barbell. Starting position – hands with dumbbells in front of your head in a vertical position. As you inhale, you need to bring your arms to a horizontal position behind your head, without bending them at the elbows. Then bring them to their starting position.

Many people ask the question of how to pump up the lower chest in a week with a barbell. In practice, it is impossible to achieve any results in a week. Bodybuilding is an activity for patient and persistent people. He is in no hurry.

Push-ups 21 times

How to do it:

“5 sets, 21 reps. A great technique for performing a classic movement that targets the chest, shoulders and triceps.”

1. Get into plank pose. Place your palms along the line of your shoulders.
2. Bend your elbows and lower your chest down. At the same time, lower yourself only half of the full range of motion that you would perform with regular push-ups. The back is straight.
3. After you complete seven half movements in the top position, proceed to perform seven reps in the bottom position. At the bottom of the movement, your chest should be slightly above the floor.
4. After completing seven repetitions in the bottom position, return to the starting position.
5. Now perform seven “full” repetitions—starting in the starting position, lowering to the floor, and returning back. Seven repetitions performed three times form one complete set of 21 movements.

Advice from professionals

Do not grab large weights of dumbbells or barbells at the very beginning. Also, you don't need to tear your muscles with a huge number of repetitions. During the first month of training, a beginner only begins to learn the basics of working out various muscle groups. The neuromuscular connection is not yet properly adjusted, which means there is a high risk of injury.

Instead, it is better to try to pay maximum attention to the technical aspects of the exercises, since technique plays a vital role in bodybuilding. And then the result will not be long in coming.

Another point is nutrition. Only a balanced diet will allow you to saturate your body with the necessary nutrients that promote muscle growth.